Chapter 9

7:00 AM

Oct 29 1895

Outside Rocky Flat, California

"What do we do now?" asked Jules after things had died down."

"We find a good place to land, and sleep for an hour. Then you can walk into town."

"And do what?"

"Today is a school day, so you should pretend to be going to school and get in a fight with Stewart. Do you know where the school is?"

"Yes, Annabelle pointed it out to me. And she said there's a sweet shop where most of the kids meet up prior to school, to keep out of the cold without having to be in the school."

"That sounds like a good place to go. And this looks like a good place to land," she added, spying some large boulders.

Together, Jules and Clara guided the train safely behind the boulders. Clara set the alarm for 8 o'clock, and everyone quickly fell back asleep.

"Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr"

Clara reached up and shut off the alarm. Jules yawned and rubbed his eyes. He stood and pulled on his coat. "Here goes everything."

Clara handed him a small pack. "This isn't a school bag, but it will do well enough. Try not to swing it at anyone."

"Certainly. See you in an hour, I hope."

"And your father too, I hope."

"Goodbye Verne. Try not to break anything while I'm gone."

"Bye Jules. Don't get any bones broken fighting."

"I'm not fighting; I'm just acting and running away."

"You hope."

Jules ignored Verne and opened the door to head into town.

8:20 AM

Oct 29 1895

Rocky Flat, Hill Valley

Jules stood outside the sweetshop, swallowing nervously. He steeled his nerves and opened the door. A small bell jingled with a happy tone.

Several heads turned. "Hello Jules," said Annabelle chirped.

"Uh, hi. Uh..." Jules stuttered. He wasn't sure quite what to say. He stepped backward, and bumped into someone.

"Hey!" called the person from behind him.

Jules whirled around. He gulped when he saw whom he bumped.

So did Stewart.

Jules recovered quickly, and said in a fake snarl, "What do you think you're doing here?"

"Uh..." there was fear in Stewart' eyes. "I guess I'll leave."

"Good guess. Now go!"

As Stewart picked up his school things, several stunned children looked on. Annabelle had a big smile on her face, as if she was glad to see Stewart pushed around for a change.

Stewart sidled slowly out of the shop. Then he looked around the room, wondering why he was letting all his classmates see him pushed around by someone smaller than himself. He hesitated.

That was what Jules was waiting for. "I said, leave!" he growled, giving Stewart a shove.

Stewart's temper surpassed his fear: he instantly turned and swung at Jules. Jules stepped back, dodging Stewart's balled fist. Stewart lunged at Jules' chest, and Jules sidestepped, crashing into a table. Stewart strode towards him, and he responded by faking a swing.

Stewart edged backward, and Jules vaulted over an empty chair on his way to the exit. He ran out at top speed with Stewart charging after him. He fled down the icy street, getting a good lead on the bully.

Jules was satisfied that his plan was working. Just one more block to sprint and... "Uh oh. This is a negative development."

A trio of tough looking boys appeared from around the corner of the leather smith's shop, in front of Jules. "Warren! Crunch! Maxie!" called Stewart. "Get him!"

The three spread out and came at Jules from different directions. Jules immediately began to dash toward the most dangerous looking one, Crunch. Crunch looked surprised at the kid running towards him, and toppled to the ground as Jules threw himself at the boy' ankles.

Jules jumped back up again, hotly pursued by another boy. He was startled when he heard a loud cry of, "War!" from right behind him: his pursuer was likely Warren. Jules changed tactics and ran into a china shop.

"Is there a back door to this place?" he asked the startled man behind the counter.

"Yeah, it's in the back. But..."'

Jules didn't stop to listen, but barrelled out of the back of the shop. He ran down the empty street, only to see Stewart appear and start running towards him.

He skidded to a stop and headed the other way. For a while, he thought he was escaping, but after running a little distance, he felt strange. He stumbled a few and sat down heavily. He tried to struggle up again, but had trouble moving. He managed to grab the side of a wagon, and raised himself to his feet.

Wham! Stewart shoved him against the wagon. He collapsed to the ground. "Hold him up," commanded Stewart. Jules felt himself being grabbed by Maxie and being held steady. He dropped and twisted free, forcing himself to rise and face his attacker. He aimed a punch at Maxie. It didn't land: his hand and arm passed right through Maxie's chest. Before he had a chance to think about what was happening, Stewart's fist connected with his skull and he collapsed onto the frosty ground, his shoulder passing through the wagon.

Stewart didn't give Jules another thought. If he had, he might have noticed that several parts of the boy's body had turned transparent. Instead, he jogged back to the sweetshop, flanked by Maxie and soon joined by Crunch and Warren. The other children were already filing out of the sweetshop, chattering among themselves. Stewart made a beeline toward Annabelle.

"Hand over the homework," he said abruptly.

Annabelle's face was downcast as she removed several sheets of paper from her school bag and handed them to the bully.

"And if anyone dares speak about this..." Stewart left the threat hanging. Warren balled a fist, and several of the other children nodded in resignation.

Ten minutes later, Jules stirred slightly. He felt a strong pain in his head. He gingerly opened his eyes to see wooden beams above him. He rolled over until he could see the empty sky. Slowly, he sat up and brought his hand to his forehead. He felt a sizable bruise, but no blood.

What had happened? He thought about what had just occurred. He remembered having difficulty running and moving. He also remembered how his arm had gone right through the bully's body as if it wasn't there.

He suddenly realised: it was his arm that hadn't been there, because it was being erased. He breathed out heavily. He had come so close to being completely erased, but here he was. That could only mean one thing: Stewart's knocking him out had repaired the timeline.

He sighed with relief. His task was complete and his family was safe. He reached into his pocket where he had earlier put the photograph of Peabody Mall. The sign in the photograph no longer read "Peabody Mall", and it fortunately did not read "Twin Pines Mall" either. No, it was properly restored to their altered state of reading "Lone Pine Mall". Jules was sorry that he wasn't awake to see the change occur.

Pleased that his job was done, Jules started to walk tenderly back to the train.

9:06 am

Oct 29 1895

Rocky Flat California

Jules finally finished his slow trek to the train. He knew his parents would be worried, and wished he had thought to take a radio with him. As he wandered behind the concealing boulders, the door of the train opened in welcome. A figure stepped out.

"Dad!"

"Hi Jules. You did it."

"Yeah, I did. I believe everything has returned to its previous state, judging by the photograph I took with me," Jules answered. Then he asked, "How would you describe the experience of being completely erased?"

"It was somewhat... Jules! Your forehead!"

Clara was out of the train in an instant. "What's wrong?"

"Uh, merely a bruise," stammered Jules.

Ten minutes later, Jules had endured having every bone in his body counted by his mother and was lying down with a cold-pack out of the box of future medical supplies stored in the tender. He had managed to get out bits of his story in between being mothered and smothered. When Clara declared him to be in a stable condition, he quickly joined Verne in catching up on missed sleep.

When Clara was sure Jules was fast asleep, she joined her husband, who was sitting on the stairs in the warm sun. "I'm proud of Jules," she began.

"Yes, he did well today, despite the opposition. Stewart and his cronies don't sound like the sort of company I want Jules to keep."

"Verne neither. I'm relieved that Verne had fallen back to sleep before I got erased. That would have been a bad experience for him."

Emmett nodded. "I'm glad no one had to see me being erased. But there's something even better than that."

"Which is?" wondered Clara, shivering slightly as the cold wind picked up.

"We are all here now, and I do not intend to let anything take that away from us. That is, er, I won't let anything take us away."

Clara smiled. "How do you intend to make that happen?"

"By moving back to the future."

"Really? To your time when people have been to the moon and medicine is advanced and..."

"And some people call me a crackpot, or worse. Yes, we're going then."

"When?"

Emmett rubbed his hands together. "In about ninety years."

"No, I mean when are leaving?" Clara asked with excitement in her voice.

Emmett gave a good-humoured grin. "I knew perfectly well what you meant. We will leave as soon as the boys have had some sleep."

"What about us?"

"Being erased makes me feel rather rested. What about you?"

"I certainly agree with that. What to you have in mind while we wait?"

"We can just keep doing what we are doing now: talk. We have a lot of things to consider. Does dropping in on Marty again and then going house shopping sound like a good game plan?"

"Game plan?"

"Sorry, that's a bit of future sports slang. A rather unnecessary one at that. We'll visit Marty the day after last time."

"Why the next day, dear? And why did we go to the date we did last time?"

"I went forward two weeks just to give Marty a bit of a break and let him settle back into normal life in his own time. I could have gone back to the Sunday on which we had picked up Einstein and given Marty the picture, but there's little point in doing everything in the same day. The same goes for this trip: while Marty shouldn't remember our last visit, there is no point in confusing matters by revisiting the same point in time."

"I think I begin to understand. But why house shopping?"

"You don't expect to bring up two boys in that tiny garage of mine, do you?"

"Certainly not. I'm surprised you managed to..."

"Not that conversation again. At least, not yet. There's something important I need to do first"

"Something important? Whatever is that?"

Emmett leaned in close and gave Clara a big, long kiss.