Marty Is Hungry

November 5, 1955

Brown Mansion

"Next Saturday night, we're sending you back to the future!" Doc exclaimed excitedly, animatedly pointing into ether to demonstrate his point. Doc's eyes were wide with excitement, knowing that he was going to get to witness one of his experiments actually work.

Marty smiled, slightly jumping for joy. Thank God that he was going to be able to return to 1985 after all. Doc had scared him earlier with the possibility that he would be forever stuck in 1955 because they would not be able to generate 1.21 gigawatts of electricity to power the DeLorean's flux capacitor. However, Marty thankfully remembered the story about how the Hill Valley courthouse clock was struck by lightning. As it turned out, only a bolt of lightning can generate the amount of electricity that's needed. So, making use of the famous lightning bolt that took out the clock tower was their only chance to get Marty home.

"Ok, Saturday's good! Saturday's good!" said Marty, patting Doc's shoulder in relief. "I can spend a week in 1955. I can hang out and you can show me all around..."

However, Doc did not seem to be sharing the same amount of enthusiasm as Marty was.

"Marty..." Doc spoke up, placing his hands firmly on Marty's shoulders. "That is completely out of the question, you must not leave this house. You must not see anybody or talk to anybody. Anything you do could have serious repercussions on future events. Do you understand?"

Marty was silent for a second, feeling a slight pit in his stomach.

"Ye-yeah... Sure... Ok..." Marty said, half-heartedly. Unfortunately for Doc, Marty had already violated those warnings. All day long, he had been out and about in 1955 Hill Valley. He saw various things and had interactions with at least a few people. It was a little too late for Doc to be issuing out this warning.

Doc stared Marty dead in the face. He could see the alarmed and shifty look in Marty's eyes.

"Marty, have you interacted with anybody else today besides me?" Doc asked.

Marty thought to himself for a moment. He went over the events of the day in his head, trying to remember who exactly he had seen and talked to. He had seen a few people and had interacted with at least 3 of them. There was Farmer Peabody (who thank God didn't blow Marty's head off with his shotgun). He had also met the younger version of Mayor Goldie Wilson at Lou's café as well. He even had a brief encounter with Biff Tannen and his goon squad while at the café as well. As far as Marty was concerned, he had only interacted with those 3. However, he didn't think those interactions had any bearing on anything. The most that happened with those interactions is Marty had accidentally knocked out one of Peabody's pine trees and he may have unintentionally inspired Goldie Wilson to run for mayor. He wasn't sure what kind of ripple effects those things would have on the timeline, but he didn't think it was anything too major.

Suddenly, another thought popped into Marty's brain right then. He remembered that he HAD interacted with some significant people today; he had encountered the teenage versions of his parents, George and Lorraine.

In guilt, Marty gritted his teeth and squirmed.

"Yeah, well... I might have... sort of... bumped into my parents..." Marty admitted, sheepishly. His face contorted with shame.

Doc's eyes ballooned to the size of full moons at this statement.

"Great Scott!" Doc exclaimed. "Let me see that photograph again of your brother!" Doc urgently gestured to Marty.

Marty did as Doc asked and pulled out the photo which depicted him and his two siblings, Dave and Linda, posing for a picture. Doc's heart sank when he saw the photo once more.

"Just as I thought! This proves my theory! Look at your brother!"

Doc pointed to an area of the photograph. Marty glanced at where Doc was pointing. Marty's eyes widened when he saw to his surprise that Dave's head was no longer there.

"His head's gone. It's like… it's like it's been erased." said Marty.

"Erased… from existence…." Doc said, ominously.

Marty and Doc's eyes met as they began to realize just what all was happening here.

"Do you know what this means, Marty?" Doc asked.

Marty paused. He was getting a pretty good idea of what Doc was getting at, alright. However, he was too nervous to say it aloud.

"It means that you and your brother and sister are in danger of being erased out of the space time continuum."

Marty swallowed anxiously. He knew that was where Doc was headed with. It was plain obvious, but Marty didn't want to say it.

"I can ascertain that your encounter with your parents today has resulted in their first meeting being interfered with. Is that correct?" Doc asked.

Marty gritted his teeth again and looked downward. He thought back to earlier in the day when he had his encounters with his parents. He recalled hours earlier he had come across the teenage version of George, his father, "birdwatching" in a tree outside of where Lorraine, his mother, lived (really, George was spying on Lorraine getting undressed). George had then fallen out of the tree and landed in the street right in the path of an oncoming car.

Cringing, Marty recalled how he had pushed George out of the way and then took the hit from the car for him, resulting in Marty being unconscious for 9 hours. Thankfully, no real damage was left on Marty from that, except maybe emotionally. The next thing that Marty saw when he woke up was he was face to face with his mother as an attractive teenage girl. That was certainly a shock for Marty, considering that in the future his mother was a rather overweight alcoholic.

Thinking it over, that's when it hit Marty. The moment he saved his father from being struck by the car and took the hit for him was the moment when his parents were supposed to meet for the first time, and he had just prevented it!

"Ye-yeah, Doc... You would be right...," said Marty, rubbing the back of his head and flashing a guilty smile.

"Just as I feared...," said Doc. "Because you interfered with your parents' first meeting, that means that they won't fall in love, get married, and have kids." Doc pointed back to the photo showcasing Dave and his missing head. "That's why your brother is disappearing from the photo. If my calculations are correct, unless the damage is repaired, your sister and then you will follow suit."

Marty was now sweating bullets at this point. Knowing that he was now in danger of being erased out of existence was the last thing that he wanted to hear. However, knowing that it was because of his own impulsive actions just made it much worse.

"We can do something about this, right?" Marty asked, tentatively.

"Of course," Doc responded, reassuringly. "The only way to ensure that you and your siblings exist in the future is to get your parents to meet. Before we can worry about harnessing the bolt of lightning next Saturday, you must first get your parents back together."

Marty nodded his head, feeling his body start to relax a little. "Good, that's good. We have a whole week to fix everything. That should be plenty of time."

"It's not a whole lot, but this should be a substantial amount of time to ensure that your parents meet." Doc said. Doc placed a hand on Marty's shoulder once more. Marty could see the urgency in Doc's eyes as he spoke. "Time is literally of the essence here, Marty. We can't waste any minutes."

"Right right." Marty said.

Before Marty and Doc could talk further on this, a sound that could be best described as a cross between a snarling dog and rolling thunder was heard in the room.

Doc looked around the room in confusion. "What is that horrible noise?" he asked.

Marty's face turned apple red. He looked away as he realized exactly what the sound was. The sound had been none other than Marty's stomach rumbling with hunger.

Doc turned and noticed Marty's blushing face. That's when it dawned on him.

"Was that your stomach growling, Marty?" Doc asked, an eyebrow cocked.

Marty froze, too embarrassed to admit it. He always hated it whenever people heard his bodily noises like that, especially the sound of his growling stomach. The worst times for this to happen to Marty, however, was during school in the middle of class or when he was trying to have a romantic moment with his girlfriend Jennifer (though luckily Jennifer was always so empathetic when it came to Marty's hungry belly).

"Ye-yeah..." Marty said, sheepishly.

"I see," said Doc. "Sounds like you're absolutely starving based on how loud that was."

Doc wasn't wrong; Marty was starved. In fact, now that Marty had thought about it, he had not eaten a thing all day today. To be fair, Marty had been under a lot of stress lately. Before arriving in 1955, Marty had witnessed Doc get shot and killed by Libyan terrorists, who then proceeded to turn their guns on him too. That's when Marty hopped into the DeLorean, inadvertently activating the time circuits. Thus, this led to Marty ending up in 1955. Following that, however, there was yet another attempt on Marty's life when he wound up on the Peabody Farm upon touching down in 1955. The old farmer had mistaken him for an alien invader and fired his gun at him. Thankfully, Marty had the DeLorean to get away in. For the rest of the day, Marty had been in such shock upon realizing that he had in fact traveled back in time. However, seeing the vacant lot that was supposed to be his home one day and meeting the younger versions of his parents as well as being knocked out for 9 hours, those were the cherry on top of the sundae. Between all of these events, Marty's brain simply had no time to think about food; all he was focused on was his situation. Now that things had cooled down, however, it seemed that Marty's stomach could now make its demands known.

"You could say that, Doc." said Marty. He rubbed his stomach as more hunger pangs started to come on. "I haven't had any time to sit down and eat anything at all today. A lot has happened."

Doc looked over Marty for a second. He could tell that the poor kid was clearly weak and fatigued from a lack of sustenance. He even could see on Marty's face that he had obviously gone through a lot of distressing events throughout the day. In that moment, Doc felt sympathy for the boy. Nobody this young needed to go through what he had been going through.

"Sounds like your body was in a state of fight or flight all day long. Sometimes when that happens, it causes the nervous system to shut down the digestive system, thus it makes it easy to miss hunger cues," Doc explained.

Marty cocked an eyebrow.

"Oh really? That's interesting, Doc."

"If you've ever wondered why you tend to lose your appetite when stressed out, this is why. The nervous system overrides the digestive system because the body is more focused on things other than food, such as surviving a life or death situation. It would be unwise to be more concerned about grabbing a snack whenever you're being chased by a bear, for example."

Marty chuckled and flashed a bemused grin. Leave it to Doc to drop a science fact on him. It was an interesting one, nonetheless.

Another loud roar of hunger erupted from Marty's stomach. Marty moaned as he was starting to feel like he was going to faint if he didn't get something to eat soon.

"Great Scott, your stomach is really growling tonight."

Doc gesticulated toward the kitchen.

"Help yourself to whatever's in the kitchen, Marty," said Doc.

Marty's eyes lit up with relief.

"Really? I can?"

"Mm-hmm. You need to refuel ASAP judging by your current state. Plus, we can't formulate a plan to help rectify your dilemma while you're weak with hunger. Only after a little brain food can we do that."

Marty smiled and gave Doc a quick hug.

"Thanks, Doc.," said Marty before taking off for the kitchen. Doc stared in Marty's direction a little bit bewildered. It had been a long time since Doc had experienced that level of human contact as he didn't really have much human interaction. It was hard to get that whenever you were shunned as a crazy crackpot in your local area. The fact that Marty had given him of all people a hug was a very surreal thing to him. None the less, Doc accepted Marty's little hug. After all, according to him, the two of them were destined to become good friends 30 years down the line.

Marty walked into the kitchen toward the refrigerator. A fierce headache was starting to fester within Marty's noggin. That tended to happen whenever his blood sugar levels were low, and they were certainly lower than what Marty usually experienced. He groaned as he felt the side of his head, trying to help ease the pain he was experiencing. If only he had eaten dinner with his mother's family earlier, then he wouldn't be in this position of feeling so weak and starved. He had neglected to eat anything because he had gotten distracted by the TV that the younger version of his grandfather had placed in front of the dinner table. Not to mention, he was very uncomfortable with the teenage version of his mother acting very flirty toward him. That part alone was probably what scared Marty away the most.

Upon opening up the fridge, Marty checked out the assortment of foods that were packed within. He saw quite a lot of things that he didn't particularly care for if he were being honest. However, he suddenly felt like he could use these things. He was famished, and he was growing fainter each minute his stomach was empty. He didn't care what he ate. As long as it filled his empty belly, Marty was happy to have something edible put before him.

Marty reached into the fridge and made a grab for a pickle jar. He then grabbed some beets, radishes, some beef that was wrapped up in tin foil, and as well as many items that he normally would never ever touch with a 10-foot pole. Pretty soon, Marty was sat before a table that was covered in food items. Wasting no time, Marty began to feast.

He first took a bite of the beef that was in the tin foil. Marty slowly savored the salty and greasy taste of the meat like he had never eaten a thing before in his life. As he did that, Marty grabbed a bottle of sauce he had found in the fridge and sprayed it on the beef. Now it felt more complete. He then took a pickle from the pickle jar and crunched into it hard. The acidic taste of the pickle caused Marty to contort his face for a moment, as it usually did whenever he tasted something sour. However, his raging hunger caused him to endure the pickle's acidic flavor much better than usual. He then took some pumpernickel bread that he had dug out of the bread box and placed the beef and some cheese he found in the fridge onto the bread, making himself a little sandwich. The sandwich was absolutely delicious. It was similar to the kind of sandwiches that Marty would find at Little Tony's Sandwiches, a little sandwich joint that he and his buddies would frequent in 1985. Their menu was to die for. It had yet to exist in 1955, but Marty knew that place's menu items enough that he learned how to easily replicate them in his own home.

Marty continued to go through the various food items that were on the table in front of him. He had torn through the sandwich he had made fairly quickly, and now he was in the middle of preparing himself a little salad using the radishes, beets, lettuce, and cucumbers he had found. The only thing he didn't grab for the salad was carrots. Marty couldn't eat those because he was allergic to them. But there were some tomatoes in there; those wouldn't cause Marty's face to swell up like a balloon.

After finishing his salad, Marty grabbed a small container of pig's feet. Now Marty knew just how starved he was; he was actually touching a food that he would never have dreamed of putting his hands on. The last time he had tried to eat pig's feet was when he was around 14 years old. His mother had served it to him and his siblings because she really wanted them to "try something new". Marty, however, couldn't stand the taste of it. Just as quickly had he tasted it, he spat it right back out. Since then, he had avoided pig's feet like the plague. In this moment of weakness, however, his extreme hunger was overriding his usual disdain for pig's feet.

Marty took out a piece of the pig's feet. Slowly (and reluctantly), Marty took a bite out of it. He winced and squirmed as he chewed on the meaty delicacy. Even in his moment of extreme hunger, Marty still couldn't stand the taste of it. Nonetheless, he swallowed the loathsome thing so he could be rid of it without wasting it. Marty cringed and squirmed as the nasty taste danced over his taste buds. In desperation, he reached for a glass of water that was there on the table. He quickly drank the water in an attempt to wash down the taste.

"Geez!" Marty hissed after he gulped down the glass of water. "That was heavy." He shook his head in disappointment before resuming his browse of the "menu" before him. He picked out a bag of pork rinds and opened them up. Marty realized the irony in him disdaining pig's feet but then immediately reaching for pork rinds. But of course, pork rinds weren't actually made from the pig's feet. Plus, it was seasoned up good, so it tasted far superior.

Meanwhile, Doc was in the midst of re-watching the footage that Marty had brought with him. The video camera Marty had with him was just so fascinating to Doc. Never had he thought there would be a way to carry around your own little TV studio anywhere you wanted. It was truly a scientific marvel of Marty's time. Not only that, Doc wanted to see the documentation of his future scientific achievement. After trying and failing to make something that actually worked, it put Doc's mind at ease knowing that some day one of his inventions , in this case a time machine, was going to be successful. Sure, it would be 30 years from now, but better late than never.

Realizing how quiet things were, Doc then decided that he wanted to check up on Marty to see if he was doing ok in the kitchen.

Doc put down the camera and paused the video, turning his way to the kitchen. Upon entering the kitchen, Doc was met with a huge surprise. He saw Marty sat at the table surrounded by tons of food out of the fridge. His jaw nearly hit the ground when he saw just how much food that Marty had taken for himself. He practically cleaned out the refrigerator.

"Great Scott," Doc whispered to himself. "I knew he was hungry, but I didn't realize it was this bad."

For the next 5 minutes or so, Doc just watched in shock as Marty continued to consume everything that was in front of him. The whole time, Doc kept wondering where exactly Marty was putting it all. The human stomach could only hold so much content. How Marty planned on fitting all of that in his stomach was beyond Doc's guess. It was like the kid was a black hole; he just devoured anything in his way.

'This kid better not inflate my grocery bill,' Doc thought worriedly to himself. If Marty was going to be staying with him for a whole week, that meant that Doc was going to have to feed him in addition to his own self. Sure, he had the money to never go hungry, but did he really want to risk his wallet just to keep up with Marty's insatiable appetite? He certainly hoped that would not be the case with this one.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Marty was finally full. He sighed contently and leaned back in the chair, rubbing his now full belly. Now he felt so much better; no more growling stomach and no more headaches.

Marty looked back out at the table and his eyes nearly popped out of his skull when he saw his mess.

"Oh wow, I was way hungrier than I thought," Marty said. He turned and he realized that Doc was now in the room with him. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he noticed the scientist standing there mouth agape.

"Uh... Doc...," Marty said, sheepishly. "I...I was gonna clean that up...I promise," Marty chuckled uncomfortably and rubbed the back of his head.

Marty groaned to himself. 'How long was he standing there?' Marty thought to himself. 'Now Doc probably thinks I'm such a pig.'

Marty covered his face in his hands, embarrassed at the idea of Doc having seen him stuff his face to such an astronomical level. This was not how Marty wanted to come off to his good friend, especially given that this was a version of Doc who had yet to even know Marty.

"It's fine, Marty," Doc said. He approached the table, still marveling at the "buffet" that Marty had for himself on the table. As he examined all the items, Doc took notice of the container of pig's feet that sat at the edge of the table. Conspicuously, there was only one piece that was missing.

'Well, at least he didn't eat all of my pig's feet,' Doc thought to himself in relief. There was at least one item that he didn't have to worry about being out of stock while Marty was here.

"Well Marty, now that you're fed and energized again, I think now it is a good time to continue discussing a plan to help repair the damage to the timeline,"

Marty uncovered his face and looked up at Doc. He relaxed a little bit when he saw that Doc didn't seem to think less of him because of his little "display". Thank God for that.

"Ye-yeah. I agree, Doc," Marty got up from his chair, smiling confidently. "We'll get my parents together somehow. I promise you."

Doc smirked slightly at the young Marty's confidence.

"I like the level of confidence you're displaying," Doc's face quickly shifted to a more serious expression. "However, it's going to take a lot more than mere confidence to make the plan work, you know,"

"I know, Doc," Marty started walking in the direction of the living room. "I guess let's get to talking about what we're gonna do then,"

Right then, Marty let out a belch. He covered his mouth in response.

"Excuse me," Marty said, mortified. His face flushed pink. 'Why?' Marty thought to himself. He hoped that this would be the last of his bodily functions that Doc would have to hear for the night.

Doc smirked a little. "Good to see that you have some manners, kid," Doc replied. Marty smiled shyly. It was good to see that Doc still thought positively of Marty at that point. He hoped that it would continue this way for the rest of the week.