Traveller in Time

Part One: The Shapes of Things to Come

Chapter Two

"Jesus." Marty ran a hand through his hair. "I didn't know the Doc had a brother."

"He does. Or did." David Brown looked him evenly in the eye. "Now, I'm passing along this information for a good reason."

"What reason?"

"I would like to talk to you about it...but not here in front of everybody. Is there somewhere we can go?"
"Uh. Yeah, sure. Hold on." Marty turned around to Jennifer. "You going to be okay for a second."

She nodded. "Go see what he wants."

Marty turned to leave. She grabbed his sleeve.

"Be careful."

Marty half-smiled. "You know me."

"That's why I said be careful." She let go of him.

---

"Okay, what's this all about?"

They were standing in the empty foyer, just on the other side of the banquet hall. Muffled chatter drifted occasionally down the corridor, like the ghosts of parties past. David Brown stood under one of the overhead flourescents, which turned his pale skin sallow and unhealthy looking. Marty was reminded of how George McFly had looked back in 1955, pale and tired and somehow raw, like the top three layers of skin had been scraped right off.

"When I asked you earlier, you told me you hadn't heard anything from Doctor Emmett Brown since 1985. Do you still say so?"

"Yeah. Why?"

David Brown fixed him with his unblinking stare. "What about a DeLorean? Do you know anything about a DeLorean that Doctor Brown may have owned or had something to do with."

Marty shrugged. "Not really."

"Meaning 'no'?"

"Meaning no."

"I see." David said nothing, but kept looking at him. There was something profoundly unsettling in his gaze. Marty forced himself not to look away.

"So what?" he said at last. "You still haven't told me what this is all about?"

David Brown seemed to prepare himself for something. "Well..." He looked away. Looked back. "I should first tell you that I have done a bit of research. As you may or may not know, a DeLorean was destroyed on the train tracks in Hill Valley around 1985. Terrible car accident. No casualties."

"Okay..."

"Police reports indicated bystanders saw you in the general area around the time of the accident."

Marty blinked. "Oh, I think I remember that. I went for a walk with Jennifer that day. There was a bunch of rubble on the track."

"The remains of a DeLorean," David said. "Apparently, one with more than a few modifications. Of an odd and unrecognizable type. According to reports, police found the remains of some unknown electric-powered mechanism amidst the wreckage, as well as...as well as a device which bore the name of...um...Mister Fusion."

"Mr. Fusion? Like Mr. Coffee?"

"I suppose so."

Marty looked around. They were alone in the corridor. "Okay. What does this have to do with me?"

"Did you know that some of the bystanders claimed to have seen someone by your description IN the car- actually DRIVING the car- before it was hit by the train?"

"Uh, no..."

"How about Biff Tannen?"

Marty started as if shot. "What?"

"Your father's mechanic friend, Biff. Did you know he filed a police report, too?"

"No. Did something happen to him?"

"You could say that. After Doctor Brown was reported missing, he claimed to have seen him- and you- climb into...well...a DeLorean...which then- these are HIS words- flew into the sky and disappeared in a flash of light."

Cold sweat broke out on Marty's forehead. "Heh. Well, Biff's always been a bit of a drinker, and-"

"Of course, he was laughed out of the station. But that's what he said. So I went and asked him myself. He told me the whole story, and something even stranger..."

"Stranger than a flying DeLorean?"

"Yes." Brown stepped in close. "Okay, listen. This doesn't make any sense to me, but...my father always believed in strange occurrences, and I can't bring myself to think this doesn't have something to do with everything that's happened. You see, when I spoke to Mr. Tannen, he told me...he told me he had seen a DeLorean before, when he was a teenager. He told me a young man named Calvin Klein- like the clothes- had assaulted him and stolen something valuable to him. He didn't say what. He ALSO said he man was using some kind of skateboard without wheels, and that he looked- upon reflection- almost exactly like you."

There was a long, drawn-out silence in the corridor.

"So," David said. "You want to tell me about any of that?"

Marty shrugged. "Like I said, Biff's a drunk, and he likes to tell stories, and, well..." He twirled a finger around his ear. "He's always been a little off, if you know what I mean."

"Sure. Right."

"Right..."

They looked at each other.

"Mr. McFly," David said at last. "I'm not an idiot. You're lying, probably, or at least not telling me everything. Either way, I want to know, and as Doctor Brown is my uncle, I think I deserve to know if he is still alive- and he deserves to know his brother has died. Or don't you think so."

Marty looked back down the corridor. He ran a hand through his hair. He looked back at David Brown.

"This," Marty said. "THIS...is heavy."