Chapter Two

Sunday, November 13, 1955

03:00 AM

Hill Valley, California

"Great Scott!" Doc thought immediately. "I've got to do something! I can't let them find the time machine up here. They could get suspicious – not that they could be able to take it back in time, but…" Working quickly, he began to push the time machine behind a bush.

The wreck was really heavy, of course, and the wheels did their work half, so Doc had it hard pushing the car away. Still, the closer coming sirens of the police car held him up. He had to push through, he had to go through with this. If the police discovered the time vehicle it could be disastrous to the entire space-time continuum. It could even create a paradox. A paradox.

Paradoxes were something Doc truly hated. The life-ending things which could stop the entire universe from existence were horrible. And even if they didn't ended up stopping the universe to cease to exist, they'd stop at least their own galaxy. No matter what, they'd be dead meat. Without even a tombstone to be around.

Given new energy by the possibility of the paradox, Doc pushed further. He'd almost pushed the DeLorean behind the huge bush, and to his relief it was being covered mostly. Finishing it, he grabbed a couple more branches. He tried to keep his thoughts by his work, his really important work, but still they drifted off to the 'what if' of the paradox.

Even if there doesn't come any paradox, Doc realised, there still will be disaster. If a bad guy – like Biff Tannen, for example – would get his hands on a working time machine, the possibilities could be endless. He could end up making himself rich and make the city a living hell. He could even kill Marty's father, even if it was only to marry Marty's mother! He could also commit the inventor, causing him to never complete the time machine so nothing could happen in the very first place…

Finally accomplishing the task, Doc sighed. The time machine was now completely covered – there was no way to recognise it anymore. Just in time, because the police car just pulled up at Courthouse Square. Luck was for once on Doc's side, he realised. If now only the wreck didn't get discovered…

Doc was not exactly surprised to recognise Officer Strickland, the high-school's vice-principal's brother, as the one who first stepped out of the vehicle. Like his twin brother, he considered the inventor to be a nutcase and he had a look on his face in which you could read he wasn't surprised that Doc had gotten in trouble again.

"Good night, Officer Strickland sir" Doc said, being the first one to talk. "How are you doing this evening?" He amused himself by Strickland's angry face.

"I've no time for jokes, Brown" the officer shouted, not thinking about the fact he never had. "What are you doing up at this time of night? And no escapes. We all know that around five hours ago, you made a vehicle crash into the wall. What happened?"

"It's four hours and fifty-six minutes ago, officer" the scientist corrected him, glancing at his watch. "And about the crash… my nephew, Calvin Klein, and I were doing a weather experiment, and when he wanted to go back, he was hit by a branch of a tree which was hit by lightning just seconds earlier, and he began to swerve, hit a trash can, and crashed. I really feel bad about this, officer."

"Good" Strickland nodded. "How's your nephew now? Is he hurt? According to what I heard, it was one hell of a wreck up here. However…" he glanced over to the former place of the time vehicle, "it seems quite empty to me. Where are the remains of the vehicle?"

"At home, sir" lied Doc. This wasn't exactly true, as the remains were in the Packard, but he couldn't have them see it right now – they could also spot the time travel stuff. Having them finding out about it, didn't seem such a good foresight. "You can come see it at 9am in the morning – I've business to do right now. About my nephew – he's hurt pretty badly, and I've had the doctor looking at him about an hour after the crash. Luckily it isn't fatal, and he doesn't seem to have any major injuries, but he's still out of consciousness. You can go look him up when he wakes up."

"Okay" Strickland said, frowning at the tale the scientist told him. "We'll be at your mansion at 9am, Brown. Be prepared for our coming. We won't let any hidden spot behind! I've had enough crazy stunts of you." He departed.

"Here the same" growled Doc as the officer was gone. He hated the guy, because of all Strickland's seemed to dislike him, starting with the officer's father, Principal Strickland I, who was, on his term, son of the former Marshall in 1880s Hill Valley. The Strickland family had a long history, longer than the Browns, who had only moved to the city in 1908. They hated the Browns 'cause of they were smarter… it was a long story. Real long.

Breathing a sigh of relief that Strickland hadn't found the remains of the time machine, Doc drove to his mansion. The unconscious form, also known as Marty McFly, sitting (actually lying) next to him in the passenger's seat was sleeping peacefully, as he had been for hours now. And maybe would also be for hours. The inventor shivered, as he for one moment got the thought Marty might as well do not wake up. Then, he thought it away. No. That wouldn't be happening. Not at any time.

As the scientist drove up the driveway, he smiled. At least, he was home again – and that was better than being out in this weather. And when (he forced himself to do not think "if") Marty would wake up, he'd tell him all what happened and they'd try to make new plans for travelling back to the future. Back to the year 1985. Almost three decades away.

The house was quiet, as the inventor entered, and suddenly he felt the need for sleep grow up on him real hard. It had been almost twenty hours now – the last thing he wanted to was staying awake. So he grabbed a thing that might as well stop him from eventually falling asleep – the video machine that Marty brought back with him from the future. He really loved it, and was looking forward to the day they were invented.

As he putted the machine on the TV as he'd seen Marty do it on the sixth, and had tried himself on the eighth, he sat down and putted the thing on. There were a few strange sounds, and then it worked. Good. Now all he had to do was, to do just sit down, take it easy, and watch his older self.

"Good evening, I'm Dr Emmett Brown" Doc heard his future self start babbling. "I'm standing on the parking lot of Twin Pines Mall. It's Saturday morning, October 26th 1985, 1.18am and this is temporal experiment number one. C'mon, Einie." The Older Doc escorted the dog into the time machine.

It was not really easy to get the dog it's seatbelt on, Doc '55 realised, fighting a battle against the sleep. "Hey, hey boy, get in there, that a boy, in you go, sit down, put your seatbelt on, that's it!" his older self called loudly. The inventor had to grin at that – he couldn't even keep his dog all right in the future. Well, he could in this time. He sure could – Copernicus always listened to him when he'd order something. But, maybe this time this "Einie" felt something was wrong, something was strange, and so decided to do not listen to whatever his boss had to tell.

Doc figured he might as well close his eyes, so he'd listen better. He did indeed hear Marty's reaction: "Whoa, whoa, whoa, OK." Further, the inventor did however not hear anything anymore.

Dr. Brown was gone off in a deep sleep.

"Dr. Brown! Dr. Brown!"

Sleep fully, the 35-year-old stared up at the teenagers who'd waken him. "What?" he asked, groggy. He didn't recognise the teens at first. Who were these guys, and where was he? Why had he fallen asleep?

"Dr. Brown?" The voice repeated. Doc looked up and finally realised who these teenagers were standing in front of him – George McFly and Lorraine Baines. Marty's parents. What were they doing in his mansion? And, what were they doing here at this specific time… whatever time it was?

"Good morning, Dr. Brown" Lorraine greeted him joyfully, smiling like the sun on a bright day. "How are you today? We heard about Calvin's horrible fate and figured we'd might as well come by, to check how bad he's being, but we'll have to leave soon or else we'd be too late for breakfast."

That was one word Doc recognised. "Breakfast?" he repeated. "Breakfast?" He glanced over to the clock and realised at once. It said 7.35 AM. He'd fallen asleep. Fallen asleep, while Marty still had not waken up. Four full hours he'd been gone, four full hours Marty could've woken up without anyone to care for him. Marty…

"How's Marty… I mean Calvin doing?" the scientist asked, suddenly wondering how the teens had gotten in. "And more to the point, how did you get in my house? I was asleep, so I haven't let you in."

"Well, the door was still open" Lorraine said. "We figured we'd might as well go in, 'cause of we really wanted to see Cal." Doc now realised – after the late night he hadn't closed the door when he returned from looking up all the pieces of the DeLorean, having been to much tired to think about it. He could've been robbed.

"And Calvin's okay" George added, stopping Doc with it to force his brains to figure out how he could've been so careless. "We just checked up on him. I'm glad he's okay." The once so nervous teenager paused before adding: "Tell Calvin, when he wakes up, I'm really glad he brought me confidence. Yesterday night after the dance, I've let Lorraine red a couple of my stories and she thought they were really good."

"Stories" repeated Doc, still a bit fuzzy. "Stories." Marty had told him about them, he remembered now. The teen had obviously never known about his father being a writer in his teen years, and George clearly never had done anything with it – in his late forties he was still bullied around by Biff Tannen. Would he be more confident now? Doc really hoped so for Marty. It would be nice to return to a better home when he got back to the future… if he ever would.

"Yup, stories" nodded Lorraine. "They're wonderful! I've never red something like that before. I think George really has to publish them." That created a large blush on the young author's face. Yup, the shy George was still around. "Lorraine" he answered nervously. "I think you're thinking too high of me…"

"Absolutely not!" Marty's mother-to-be interrupted. "You're really good, George, and I think it'd be stupid if you never publish your stories. You say you're afraid other people won't like them, but I do, don't I? I'm sure other people will do as well. You got no, you can get yes."

"Maybe you're right" George nodded. "Maybe I really should publish my stories. But I think that before I will, I really should have a long thought about it, and show more people them. If they all like them, I think I should be publishing my stories."

"Oh George, really?" Lorraine said, happy. "I knew you could do it! I just knew it!" With that, she hugged him and kissed him on the cheek, causing the nervous blush of the teen that was just gone to re-appear again. "Lorraine" he said, smiling, but gave no intention to stop the hug.

Doc grinned, seeing the couple hug in front of him. He was quite sure now that Marty was going to be born; he didn't know, yet, how the teen got them together, but at least it was succeed. Now he and Marty should in the next years avoid to run into them too much and everything would just be going fine. Of course, there would be the fact Marty would want to see his little tiny younger self when he would be born in the late sixties, but he'd manage to hold him off that plan.

He and Marty…

The scientist was already used to the fact that Marty would be staying with them for a couple of years, maybe until 1985, he noticed in himself. It was like the fact about that was going to be normal, but it was not. Having a teenage kid in his house for who knew how long was going to be really hard. Especially a teenage kid which wants to be home more than you ever can imagine and who really wants you to build another time machine to send him out of this place… while you can't. You have to finish the first time machine or else he would not even be back here in the first place. While that was the fact the teenager regretted, so he might as well try to get the time machine to never finish, but that would cause him to do never do that so he couldn't do it but at the same time he really wanted to… It wouldn't be strange if Marty got crazy of it.

How would that be, Doc thought. How would it be, to stay in another time period than yours, to know things in little details that is not going to happen for many, many years – to only be able to get out when you're really careful, 'cause of you could screw history up by every little move you do, like a kid going to walk when it's winter can fall from the ice every little moment… how would that be to live through that for a big part of your life?

"Dr. Brown?" Doc looked up again, realising he'd dozen off in his thoughts. "What's the matter? You're so quiet." Doc looked at Lorraine, who had, of course, asked the question. "I was just thinking" he replied, and that was in fact the truth. "Thinking about the bad effects this accident will have on, uh, Calvin." He felt really uneasy about calling Marty "Calvin Klein", his alias he'd been forced to use when his mom discovered the name on his pants last week. Marty had told him about the fact Calvin Klein was a fashion designer in the future, and Doc had been stunned to find out the people in the future actually wore brand-named underwear. But, still – times change.

"Yeah, you're right" Lorraine nodded. "He'll be out for a while. But afterwards, when he wakes up, and is fully restored, he'll be fine, won't he? I guess he'd be leaving Hill Valley before the end of the year. After all, it's not like he lives up here – so he can easily return to where he came from."

This little thing hadn't occurred yet to Doc – how was he going to cover Marty's staying in his mansion now. Marty had told everyone he would go out of town that night – and everybody assumed that Marty would go after all when he was recovered enough from the accident. Doc, however, knew that couldn't be possible – the only thing that could bring Marty home was crashed and didn't seem to ever be able to do it's work again.

Marty leaving the town was also not an option – in other cities he could do even more damage with Doc not being around to warn him. Every little thing he did, every newspaper he bought, every cake he baked… it could be drastically. If he decided to bake a cake he could interrupt a couple from meeting 'cause of the woman was going to leave the city and the male was going to bake a cake for her so they'd fall in love and because of Marty there was no ingredients so their kid couldn't be born to grow up to have some influence on the world…

It was all terrible, a terrible foresight, and he would cause it. But first of all, he had to reply to Lorraine's comment. "I guess he will" the scientist said. "I don't know for sure, yet, because of Mar-Calvin yesterday told me he really, uh, likes Hill Valley. I'll have a talk with him about it when he wakes up. If he wants to stay, he's free to be at my mansion." Doc already know it would not be a choice for Marty, it would be a must – as he already figured, leaving the mansion could have drastic repercussions on Hill Valley's history… future history. "I think you guys better leave now, you'll be late for breakfast" he advised the teens.

"We will" replied George but Lorraine got a closer look at the scientist's face. "You're tired" she concluded after a few seconds. "You are really tired. I bet you haven't had too much sleep, concerning Calvin and anything that happened, tonight. You really should have a nice long rest, Dr. Brown. You'll need it."

That was clear to be seen and Doc knew he couldn't shook his head to it. "That's right" he replied. "I'm tired. I've been awake since 6.30am yesterday, except a few hours of sleep before you woke me." He hoped they'd go now, he had told the story, they had nothing to search here anymore. But he was proven wrong.

"Then we'll wake instead of you, after we get breakfast" Lorraine decided. "And please don't say no, Dr. Brown. You really need more rest. If you're half-asleep when you wake, you don't really wake after all, do you?" She checked her watch. "It's 7.48 now, we'll be back here at 9.15am. See you then, Dr. Brown." She grabbed her mantle and she and George went out of the house.

Inside, Doc had to chuckle at Marty's future mother. She was really much driving her will through. He wouldn't exactly like to be in younger Marty's place when he would, in the seventies, have to deal with her as a mom.

That made him think about his friend again. How would he be doing now? Doc hoped the best for his condition. The teenager would have a major headache when he would wake up, the doctor had said, and would probably have that a couple of weeks. And there was also the fact Marty would have to get used to the fact he'd probably never return home – in a time machine. He could through the natural course of time, but the teen would be… hell, 47 by 1985! Even the best aging-stopping crèmes couldn't help that, he figured.

At least, not in the present.

Doc shook his head. No. There was no way that, in the future, thirty full years of age would be hidden. Even not by 2055… or by 2155. Thirty years was just too long to cover with crèmes and stuff. Even when they'd have a million dollars they probably would not be able to do it, here neither 1985 neither 2085.

That reminded him of the fact that his dreams to see the future, what his future self had been dreaming of when he was on his way to go off to 2010 in the time machine, would probably not become reality. The time machine was destroyed, total-loss, and building a second time machine was really hard. He wouldn't have time for it, having to finish the first one before October 26, 1985… and he wasn't looking forward to another thirty years of working. He probably would be dead by the time they could go to the future in 2015.

That's not exactly true, he realised then. He would've an assistant the second time around, and he would know everything about how to build a time machine. The work might take a few years, not more. Maybe not even more than a couple of months. Anyway, the date he would be able to speed off to the future would be before the last decade of the century. He was sure of it.

The scientist glanced up to the clock in the room. It was just striking 8. Great – it had been ten hours now. Ten hours since Marty got crashed. Doc hoped the teen would recover soon. Having a 17-year-old in his house was going to be hard anyway, but if that 17-year-old was wounded most of the time…

Pressing down a sigh, the inventor stood up. He would prepare some breakfast for himself, and than wait until Strickland came at 9. He was sure about that part – the officer never putted a business appointment down, even when the other one wasn't too happy with his visit. He was a really hard worker, but he called everyone who didn't work a slacker – causing him to do not exactly have a lot of friends in the city.

After that – or while the officer was still around – Lorraine and George would come, and he'd finally have a few hours sleeping. He was in fact really looking forward to it – the accident had sucked up his energy. He'd love a nice rest. But at first, business would have to be handled.

After a forty minutes, Doc figured he'd everything prepared as it should be. The wreck of the time machine was in the garage, having hidden it's future or time travel concerning parts safely upstairs. And there was no way that officer Strickland it could recognise as a vehicle from the future – a vehicle he'd never seen before, and which was from Dr. Emmett Brown, the guy who he thought of as a nutcase. Doc smiled, realising that for once, his bad reputation in town was positive. They would just scribe it off as some other crazy stunt of "Crazy Doc Brown".

Smiling, Doc took a seat in one of his chairs. He figured it wouldn't be all to bad to have a little rest before Officer Strickland came. He could read his favourite Jules Verne book, 20.000 leagues under the Sea. He sort of red it every year a couple of times – he almost knew the text out of his head. Still, he enjoyed reading it. Captain Nemo's adventures were really fabulous, living in a world filled with water and futuristic technology which was, some of it, even now not yet reality…

The scientist didn't realise that his head began to move down a little. His eyes became heavy, and before he knew it, he fell asleep, resting his head on his left shoulder. He only got woken up when, twenty minutes later, the doorbell rang.

"Great Scott!" the inventor exclaimed. And then: "I must've fallen asleep!" He went out of his chair and raced to the door to open it, on his way up there glancing his eye on one of his various clocks – 9.01am. Strickland really did come on time when he was invited (or, in this case, had invited himself).

The officer was quite grumpy, but that didn't surprise the scientist too much. He always was. The eyes of the brother of the vice-principal swerved around the room. After a few seconds looking around – and not finding anything – he finally asked: "Where's your vehicle?"

"It's in the garage" replied Doc. This was actually the truth – he didn't think it would be really smart to lie against the officer when the guy would look the time machine up anyway, and if he'd search all over the house he could by accident find any signs of the flux capacitor, or any remains of the pieces which made the time machine travel through time.

"Hmm" answered Strickland. He walked over to the garage and let Doc open it for him. After that, he went inside and looked around, to find the DeLorean pretty soon. Doc liked the glance of surprise that came on the mouth of the officer. "Is that a car?"

"Yes" replied Doc. He could've known Strickland would look really strange to it – after all, those farmers had, when Marty arrived in it, thought he was an alien. DeLorean sports cars would not be invented until around the late 1970s, early 1980s, which was still around twenty-five years away.

Not knowing if to do or to do not believe the scientist, Officer Strickland walked closer to the wreck. "How did…how did you open this thing? When it was intact, I mean? This doesn't exactly look like a door."

"You're right" Doc answered. "You open it by pushing the door up. If it was still intact, I would've demonstrated it to you, but the crash into the Courthouse did not exactly keep my invention alive." He sighed at the thought of it.

"I see" Strickland nodded. "So, how did the accident happen originally?" He knew that already from their encounter that night, but had obviously spotted too much times the word "uh" in the lines and had figured out the inventor had not exactly been telling the truth.

Figuring why the officer repeated the same question, he asked around 3AM as well, Doc again went through the entire story – Calvin had been helping him with an experiment, the tree was struck by lightning, had hit the car, Calvin had hit a trash can and crashed into the wall. He also told Strickland he was trying to get some wires connected on the clock tower concerning his weather experiment when his nephew was crashed and that he had ran down the stairs to get by him in time (he thought there was no need to tell the officer about the fact he actually sliced down the wires to the ground). He didn't want to give the Strickland family any more prove that he was really crazy.

"Okay" the officer nodded. "If you figure out more things I'd need to know, tell them than to me." He left the house, leaving Doc behind.

As the scientist re-entered the main room of the house, he took a glance at the newspaper lying up there, dated Sunday, November 13, 1955. The headline read: "Clock Tower Struck By Lightning – Clock Stopped At 10.04." Doc had to smile at this – he already knew. He already experienced. Then, his eye caught a sideline: "Calvin Klein Crashes Into Wall – Visiting Teenager Damages Courthouse." The scientist went off to read it, very curious what the news about Marty might've been. Just then, however, he heard the bell ring. "Shit, not now" the scientist muttered and went off to open the door.

Lorraine and George, who were it of course, were really excited. "Good morning, Dr. Brown" greeted Lorraine with a nice, concerning sound in her voice – showing her still being around love to Marty. "How were the past two hours? And how's Calvin doing right now?"

"I…I guess Calvin's okay" replied Doc, uneasy with the sudden outburst. "I haven't checked in the past three quarter, however, because I had a visitor – Officer Strickland came to check up the wreckage of the, uh, car Calvin was driving in when it happened."

"Oh, I see" Lorraine nodded. "How reacted he, Dr. Brown? Knowing his twin, he might not have been all to fond of you. Vice-principal Strickland always accuses you from being a slacker and a nutcase, and he even slapped Calvin last Friday because of he came one minute too late… but the real reason is he hates him 'cause he's your nephew, I think."

"I think that's true, as well" George nodded. "Strickland must be really hating you, doing something like that to people who're related to you. Speaking of that… why comes it we never heard of Calvin before? My father used to come by your house in the late forties for stuff he needed, and talked with you – but I never heard about any nephew of yours named Calvin."

"That, uh, could as well be right" Doc answered the teenager who one day was supposed to be Marty's father nervously. "I think it is, uh, because of my sister – Calvin's mother – and her husband never really got along, and they divorced in 1940. They both died shortly afterwards and Calvin's paternal grandmother took care of him. It was such a tragedy I never talked about it to anyone."

"Aww, what a shame" sighed Lorraine. "So, who is bringing up Calvin right now, then? Is his grandmother still alive? I imagine she'd have it hard, then. Not as hard as Biff's grandmother, who has to deal with the biggest bully of the town in her house, but still it's not easy for someone in her… how old is she? Late seventies? To bring up a child."

"No, you've got a point" Doc nodded. "Calvin's grandmother is, uh, sixty-nine… she was born in 1886. But she's still really up-to-date, and I guess she'll be around another ten years. Though, I think Calvin rather stays alone. Or else, as my assistant. He's made some references to that in the past week he's spent up here."

"Yup, that might be a nice solution for him" Lorraine nodded, thoughtfully. "I guess he'll be able to have a nice live in Hill Valley… I guess there are enough houses around to buy. He could even go living in that new estate, Lyon Estates, when it's finished next October." She sighed, then added: "I'd like to live there someday, as well. It really looks like a nice estate to live."

Doc had to smile at this comment, as he knew Lorraine and George (with Marty and the rest of their children) actually would be living in Lyon Estates in the year 1985. He wondered when they'd buy it, and when they'd marry. He should ask Marty about it…when he woke up today. If he would wake up today, that was a point.

"I totally agree with you" the inventor heard George say. "Lyon Estates is one really nice place. I think I should feel there like home, however it's two miles away from the centre of the city. But maybe, in a decade or three, it will be just a normal part of the city."

"Oh, George, don't think so much about the future" Lorraine teased. "Three decades away, how do you only figure out the idea? Thirty years… Okay, I wonder what the future might bring for us… I mean me, sometimes… but thirty years is a really long time. Imagine how much happened in the past thirty years, so how would it in any way be possible to imagine what will happen in the next thirty years? Face it Georgie, the only way to foresee that is with a time machine… and they don't exist."

"Yet" whispered Doc, smiling, careful the teens in front of him couldn't hear it. He knew time machines would exist someday, he'd even seen one in real life – he still had the remains of it back in his garage. The thing didn't look like it would ever work again, but it was, and with it the remains of the time circuits, the flux capacitor and other stuff he'd towed upstairs, that time travel really existed.

"You're right, you might as well be right" George nodded on a tone like he'd do that every time to do just keep his wife-to-be 's mouth shut. "Still, I really like dreaming away about the future, and about future technology. If you really want to know, 1985 is not the most far time I've been thinking of – I even have thought about the year 2015." He let out a faint chuckle. "I think…no, I bet you consider that as really mad, don't you?"

"Yeah" nodded Lorraine. "But still, it's right to let everyone have his or her traditions. Since you want to be a science-fiction author someday, it's right to think about the future, and what it will bring. I mean, you might want to write a story about a world that's, for an example, fifty years ahead on us… and than, you'll need future predictions to write your story. As long as you don't predict when I'm around, it's okay."

"I'll keep that in mind" George chuckled. Then, turning to Doc, he added: "I'm sorry we're talking so much. I guess you really want to go to sleep, don't you? Go ahead, don't worry us. We'll sure be fine Dr. Brown."

"Okay" Doc nodded, and stood up. "I just want your promise you'll wake me at lunch time… and I just want to check up on, uh, Calvin one last time." After George and Lorraine nodded, he went off to the room he'd put Marty in.

The teenager was lying on the same way he'd done all the time – not right, breathing slowly, but still out cold, like he'd been for the past eleven and a half hours now. The inventor suddenly realised that only half a day had passed since he'd seen the DeLorean swerve, hit a couple of things, and finally crash into the Courthouse. For what he felt, it could also have been half a week.

Sighing, the scientist checked up Marty's head. It was hot, but the wound was clearly healing. Doc hoped this would mean Marty would be okay in less than a week. He really didn't wanted to have his future friend to be hurt for a real long time – it would also be bad for his plans with constructing the flux capacitor, if he'd have to worry about his friend's sake every time.

Smiling, Doc left the room. "Goodbye, Marty McFly" he thought. "I'm going off now. I hope you'll wake up soon, so we can talk about everything." He paused a second, before adding, this time talking: "See you in the future." With that, he went off.