Later that day, I had to change into a purple leotard and leggings for my gymnastics practice. I've been on a gymnastics team for about a month now, and it's one of the few things in life that's just mine. That's why I love it so much. At least I'm not compared to my brother as much as I am at school. The only problem for me is making sure I don't injure my wrists even more than they already are due to my 'late night activity' The good news is that gymnasts do what's called a 'pre-wrap' which basically is a tape that covers up your wrist and ankles to prevent injury. No one in my family really cares too much about gymnastics though and really doesn't even try to understand it; which is fine with me and helps keep my secret.
Just as practice was ending and I grabbed my bag about to head out, my older sister Linda walked in the gymnasium. Linda was a year out of high school and wore these bulky glasses, always had too many hair curlers in her hair, and tons and tons of her favorite eye shadow. There wasn't a day that passed without Linda walking out of her bedroom without the stuff on or some in her purse.
"You ready to go or what?" she asked.
"Uh….I guess. What are you doing here Linda?" I asked.
"As soon as Mom found out the car was wrecked and that you biked to practice all by yourself, she made me come and get you so you wouldn't be a 'poor, defenseless little girl' on a bike in the middle of the night,'" she said and I rolled my eyes.
"It's not like this is my first time in town by myself. Besides, the house is like ten minutes from here," I said.
"That's what I said but mom wouldn't listen. Anyway can we go now?" she said.
"Why? Is Greg gonna call you tonight or something?" I said laughing.
"Haha very funny. He'll notice me one day though; I know it," she said and we walked out of the gymnasium where our bikes were parked/thrown on the ground. We picked up our bikes and rode the ten minutes back to the house.
After putting our bikes in the garage, we walked into the kitchen where everyone had just sat down at the table. Dad and my other brother Dave were watching some show on T.V and laughing hysterically at something that wasn't even funny. Linda sat down and started taking some of her curlers out of her hair.
"Oh hi, girls! I'm so glad you two are back," Mom said and came over to kiss me and Linda on the cheek. Immediately I smelled the alcohol from her breath and almost gagged. "Now come make your plate and sit at the table with your family," she said and I grabbed a paper plate and filled it with food. Then, I sat down next to Marty and Dad and started to eat slowly without saying a word.
"I know you're still mad about the audition Marty, but believe me, you're better off not having to worry about all the aggravation and headaches of playing at that dance," Dad told Marty.
"He's absolutely right Marty. The last thing you need is headaches," Dave said wearing his bust boy uniform. I shot a confused look at Marty who just slightly shrugged his shoulders. That's when Mom walked in carrying a cake pan.
"Kids, we're gonna have to eat this cake by ourselves. Your Uncle Joey didn't make parole again," she said tossing the cake on the table. Then she sat down next to Linda. "I think it would be nice if you all dropped him a line."
"Uncle Jailbird Joey?" Marty said.
"He's your brother Mom," Dave said.
"Yeah, I think it's a major embarrassment having an uncle in prison," Linda said taking out some of her curlers and setting them on the table.
"We all make mistakes in life children," Mom said. Then Dave looked at his watch.
"Dammit, I'm late," he said and got up from the table.
"David! Watch your mouth!" Mom said.
"Sorry mom, I gotta go. See you later pop," he said and left the house to run to the bus station.
"Hey, why are you wearing bandages on your wrists kid?" Marty asked.
"What bandages?!" Mom asked about to go hysterical. My eyes widened and looked at my wrists where some of the bandages on my left arm had started to peel off. "I told you signing up for that gymnastics class was a horrible idea!"
"Oh, these? This is just for practice. I'm starting to do more handstands and cartwheels or moves with my wrists. They say they help your wrists from getting all shaky after doing all those moves to prevent injury. All the professionals are starting to wear them," I said. Ignoring how fast my heart was beating inside my chest.
"Oh, well if they prevent you from injuring yourself then you wear them every time you go into that class," Mom said and I nodded. Holy crap that was close!
"Hey Marty, I'm not your answering service but while you were outside pouting over the car, Jennifer Parker called you twice," Linda said.
"I don't like her Marty. Any girl calling a boy is just asking for trouble," Mom stated.
"Oh Mother, there's nothing wrong with calling a boy," Linda said while looking at me and I had to scrunch up my face to avoid laughing; especially when Linda secretly did that all the time. Surprised she hasn't got caught yet.
"I think it's terrible! Girls chasing boys! When I was your age I never called a boy or chased a boy, or sat in a parked car with a boy," mom said.
"Then how am I supposed to meet anybody?" Linda asked.
"It'll just happen; like the way I met your father," Mom said putting her hand on Linda's.
"That was so stupid! Grandpa hit him with the car!"
"It was meant to be," she continued smiling at the memory with her eyes closed picturing every detail. My head tilted back as I let out a small sigh. Here we go again. "And just think, if Grandpa hadn't hit him, then none of you would have been born."
"I know mom you've told us this story a hundred times. Grandpa hit him with the car and you felt sorry for him, so you decided to take him to the 'Fish Under the Sea' dance," Linda said rolling her eyes at me.
"No no, it was the Enchantment Under the Sea dance," Mom said as I mouthed the dace name at Linda with her. "…our first date. It was the night of that terrible thunderstorm, remember George?" she asked but Dad was too focused on the T.V to answer. "Your father kissed me for the very first time on that dance floor. It was then that I realized that I was going to spend the rest of my life with him. We started going out more together and found out that we had so much in common and were almost as inseparable as Marty and Abby," she continued and I swallowed the lump in my throat.
"Yeah uh, I think I'm finished and I just remembered that I have a lot of homework I want to get started on," I said getting up and taking my plate to the kitchen.
"Okay dear," Mom said and I set my plate in the sink and went into my room closing the door. I turned around and rested my hands on the door taking in some deep breaths.
'Relax. It's okay. Just calm down and don't get sick whatever you do,' I told myself
I'm not sure how long it took me to calm down, but when I was calm enough, I turned back around and looked in the mirror. My hair was in a bun, but if you looked closely at my facial features, I looked exactly like my mom; like Marty. Quickly, I yanked out the bun, and let my hair fall down. Then I decided to put on my favorite outfit again with the blue cheetah leggings, a zebra skirt, neon green tank-top, and a grey off-the-shoulder shirt.
And there I stood; Abigail Lorraine Mcfly and not Marty Jr. Maybe one day I won't think those horrible thoughts and have to punish myself for them.
Break*Break*Break*Break*Break
"Abs! Wake up!" someone said and I shot up with wide eyes almost screaming my head off.
"Hey! Hey it's me it's Marty," he said and I looked straight at my brother taking a few deep breaths to calm down and come back to reality. Somehow I had fallen asleep with my clothes on after I lay in bed while playing with one of those Tiger Electronic games. "It's 12:45, we gotta start heading out. And Doc needs us to pick up his video camera at the house too."
"Alright," I said as I got out of bed. Quickly, I grabbed a brush and quickly ran in through my messy hair.
"You slept with the tape on your wrists?" Marty asked and once again, I felt a tickling feeling travel from my head down to my spine and saw that he was right.
"Yeah, I guess I did. Can you give a girl a little privacy please?" I asked.
"Sorry. I'll be outside waiting and don't take too long. We gotta be there by 1:15," Marty said.
"I won't," I said and Marty tip-toed out of my room.
'Dang it Abby! That's the second time today…well in two days that you nearly got caught. Either stop being so careless or become the world's greatest liar,' I told myself. After putting my hair up in a side ponytail, I clipped on my large bow, took off the tape and put on my netted gloves. Thankfully, the little holes weren't big enough to really see the cuts clearly. I gave myself a smile while putting on a long neon green necklace and left the room.
It was around 1:16 A.M when we finally got to Twin Pines Mall. The parking lot was completely empty except for a large trailer truck and a dog sitting in front of it. Marty and I quickly gave a glance at each other before heading down to the parking lot to meet Einstein.
"Einstein, hey boy. Where's the Doc?" Marty asked petting the dog. Einstein started to whine and then came over to me.
"Hi boy," I said and he started to lick my wrists despite my gloves. "Does that even taste good?" I asked dropping to my knees and trying to keep my wrists away from the dog's mouth. "You can lick my face if you want instead of some weird netting." Suddenly the truck in front of us started up and the ramp door started to go down. Smoke completely surrounded the inside of the truck and some kind of DeLorean backed out of it. It had all kinds of tubes and wires attached to it. The car stopped right in front of us and the driver's door opened up and out walked a man wearing some kind of white jumpsuit with silver hair.
"Marty! Abby, you both made it!" Doc said grabbing some of Marty's red jacket and gently patted my shoulder. "Welcome to my latest experiment; the one I've been waiting for my entire life!"
"Great Doc. Is that a DeLorean?"
"Bare with me you two, all your questions will be answered momentarily now roll tape!" Doc said and dragged Marty over to the corner of the car. "Abby, hold this remote for me and my clipboard for one second please," he said handing me a remote from inside the car and the clipboard.
"Alright I'm ready," Marty said and started to record Doc standing in front of the car.
"Good evening, I'm Dr. Emmett Brown. I'm standing on the parking lot at Twin Pines Mall," he started and then looked at his watch. "It's Saturday morning, October 26th, 1985, 1:18 am; and this is temporal experiment number one. Hey Einy! Come on boy! Yeah, that's right! In you go," he continued and somehow got Einy to sit in the driver's seat and started buckling the seatbelt.
"That a boy! Got your seatbelt on nice and tight and you're ready to go," Doc said and held up a watch from Einy's neck and one from his own. "Please note that Einstein's watch is in precise synchronization with my control watch. Got it?"
"Right, check Doc," Marty said.
"Good! Have a good trip, Einstein! Watch your head," he said closing the door. "Give me the remote," he whispered to me.
"Oh! Right," I said and did as I was told and just took the remote and clipboard as well. Then Doc turned it on which somehow also turned on the DeLorean.
"You got that thing hooked up to the…car?" Marty asked.
"Watch this!" Doc said.
"Okay, got it," Marty said and Doc 'drove the car' to the other end of the parking lot with it making a few sharp turns.
"Uh…is Einy alright in there?" I asked and Marty moved the camera to face Doc.
"Not me, the car the car!" he yelled and Marty jerked it back to the crazy car. "He shouldbe fine Abby; if my theory is right," Doc whispered and finally stopped the car ignoring the look I gave him with my high eyebrows. Then he patted my shoulder again and dragged Marty to a certain spot directly in front of the faraway car. "And if my calculations are also correct, when this baby hits 88 miles per hour, you're gonna see some serious shi*!" Doc pressed a button that caused a red light to appear on his remote and then started up the gas, but the car didn't move. All we heard was the sound of tires against the concrete getting faster and faster just as my heart did every second Doc didn't press that button again. I snuck a peek at the remote and as soon as it hit 60 miles an hour, Doc released the brake and the car came towards us at full speed. My heart skipped a beat and my breathing started to get heavy. I took a few steps back and Marty did the same thing. Doc quickly looked at us with a huge grin.
"Watch this! Watch this!" he shouted pulling Marty back. Then he pulled me back as well but kept an arm around my shoulders. Suddenly, a bunch of neon lights appeared in front of the car and around it and then disappeared into thin air leaving nothing behind but some tire tracks currently on fire where the car would have gone. We followed the fire tracks as they continued under Marty's legs and immediately to the left of me and Doc. My jaw flew open as my mind processed exactly what I just saw, and the fact that Einy and the car were nowhere in sight.
"Ha! WHAT DID I TELL YOU?! 88 MILES PER HOUR!" Doc cheered jumping up and down. Marty and I were still trying to process as we stared at the license plate that had come off the car that said OUTTATIME. "THE TEMPORAL DISPLACEMENT OCCURRED AT EXACTLY 1:20 AM AND ZERO SECONDS!" Doc continued to shout.
'Ho…ly….shi*' I mouthed to Marty who looked at me with a pale face. He didn't say anything to me; not even to scold me for cussing in front of him even though he did it all the time. Marty then slowly walked over to the license plate while Doc was writing in his notebook still with that wide smile of his. Marty picked up the plate and immediately dropped it causing it to sizzle when it hit the concrete again.
"HOT! Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ Doc, YOU DISINIGRATED EINSTEIN!" Marty shouted and that's when I think I got my bearings back together.
"Calm down Marty! I didn't disintegrate anything! The molecular structure of both Einstein and the car are completely intact!" Doc explained running back over to where Marty was.
"THEN WHERE THE HELL ARE THEY?!" I demanded now running up to the two. I'm not sure why, but something inside me was really ticked for some weird reason. I don't think I've ever yelled at Doc like this before.
"The appropriate question is when the hell are they, Abby. You see, Einstein has become the world's first time-traveler. I sent him into the future," Doc said running back over to where we stood before. "One minute into the future to be exact. And at exactly 1:21 am and zero seconds, we shall catch up with him and the time machine," he continued now running back to the license plate. Marty and I tried to keep up with him, but he would move every time Marty got there.
"Wait a minute. Wait a minute Doc," Marty said running back over to Doc with me right in the middle behind them. "Are you telling me you built a time machine…..out of a DeLorean?!"
"The way I see it, if you're gonna build a time machine, why not do it with some style? Besides, the stainless steel made the flux dispersal-." Suddenly, Doc's watch started to beep and he gave a quick look at it before he gasped. "LOOK OUT!" he shouted and pushed us back just before a loud noise was heard and the car reappeared. It made a sharp turn and then stopped a few yards in front of us. The car was now completely covered in ice and a lot of smoke was let out from behind him. All three of us stared at the car for a moment before Doc started to jog over to it. I took a few steps forward hoping to see something moving inside the car, but the glass was all iced up. That's when Marty came behind me and put a hand on my shoulder. Doc went over to the car and attempted to open it, but immediately jerked it back and started waving it around the air.
"Ow!" Doc gasped and I did as well causing Marty to throw his arms around me and pulling me back.
"What?! What?! Is it hot?" Marty asked.
"It's cold! Damn cold!" Doc said and opened the driver's door with his foot. There in the front seat was Einstein still buckled up with his watch on. "Einstein, you little devil!" Doc cheered petting him behind his ears and unbuckling his seatbelt. I released the breath I was unconsciously holding and Marty let me go as I smiled. "Einstein's watch is exactly one minute behind mine and still ticking!" Doc cheered and then let Einstein jump out of the car. "Good boy! Good, good boy!" Einy then ran inside the truck barking.
"He's alright," Marty said.
"Of course he's fine! And he's completely unaware that anything happened. As far as he's concerned the trip was instantaneous. That's why his watch is one minute behind mine. He skipped over that minute to arrive precisely at this moment in time. Come on, I'll show you how it works!" Doc said running back over to the car. I gave a quick glance back at the truck where Einy disappeared before walking to the car myself.
"Okay, so the first thing you do is turn the time circuits on," Doc said and moved some kind of handle in the middle to the right which turned on a bunch of lights in the car. "Then you enter in whatever date you want to travel to on this keypad which will appear up here on the readout here. So say you want to see the signing of the Declaration of Independence," Doc continued as Marty continued to record. He entered in a few numbers and then on the panel under 'destination time,' in know read July 4th, 1776. "Or witness the birth of Christ." Doc did the same thing as before, except now the 'destination time' read December 25th, 0000.
"And here's a red-lighted day in the history of science, November 5th, 1955," he said and then hesitated for a moment. "Yes, November 5th, 1955."
"I don't get it," Marty said.
"That's the day I invented time travel. I remember it vividly. I was standing on the edge of my toilet seat hanging a clock when I slipped, hit my head on the edge of the sink, and when I came to I had a revelation; a vision, of this!" Doc was pointing to something in the middle near the top of the car. It looked like a letter Y that lit up. "The Flux Capacitor; this is what makes time travel possible. It's taken me thirty years and my entire family fortune to realize the vision of that day; God, has it really been that long?" Doc said now getting out of the car while Marty continued to film inside. "I remember when all this was just farmland. Old Man Peabody owned all of this. He had this crazy idea about breeding pine trees."
"Pine trees?" I asked really confused. Who the hell would try to breed pine trees?
"This is heavy Doc; just great! So does it run on plain old gasoline?" Marty asked.
"Unfortunately no, it needs something with a little more kick; plutonium!"
"Plu-what?" I asked. Science really wasn't my thing like it was with Doc.
"Plutonium," Marty corrected. "Hang on, are you saying that this sucker is nuclear?!"
"Keep rolling! Keep rolling!" Doc said and Marty turned the camera back on. "No this sucker's electrical. But I need a nuclear reaction to generate the 1.21 gigawatts of electricity I need."
"Doc, you don't just walk into a store and buy plutonium!" Marty said and Doc started walking back to his truck. "Did you rip that off?!" Doc froze and then came back waving his arms around telling Marty to stop. Then he came back over to us.
"Of course; from a group of Libyan nationalists. They wanted me to build them a bomb and gave me plutonium and in return, I gave them a shiny bomb case full of used pinball machines!" Marty and I just looked at each other speechless. "Come on you two! Let's get the both of you a radiation suit and prepare to reload!" he said running off. Only the Doc could get away with something like that. We followed Doc into the truck where he had some yellow radiation suits for us waiting. "I'm sorry Abby but this might be a little big on you," Doc said handing me mine.
"I think I can live with that," I said walking over to where Einy was lying down and petting him before putting the suit on.
"Wow, this is a hair big on me," I said with the sleeves going past my hands. Doc gave a chuckle and then came over to me.
"It's not as bad as I predicted but this belt should help out. You'll need these radioactive gloves too," Doc said yellow belt around my waist. Then he reached into his pocket and helped me put on the radioactive gloves. Then once everything was on, Doc gave me a breathing helmet that I put on and made a funny noise every time I breathed.
"Martin Mcfly, come join the dark side; for I am your father!" I said trying to hold back a laugh but failing.
"No, that's not true! THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!" Marty said falling to his knees dramatically and slamming his fist gently to the ground. Then I lost it.
"Alright alright, you two. Let's go!" Doc said after putting on his helmet and gloves.
"See you Einy," I said and we all went back outside. After Doc triple checked that everything on us was ready, he went over to a yellow suitcase looking thing and carefully opened it. Inside were a few glass can-looking things with a tube of red liquid inside. Carefully, Doc took out one and took it over to the back of the DeLorean while Marty was still taping. He opened up a hatch and placed the Plutonium inside. Then something sucked the Plutonium down and made all of us jump. Afterward, Doc took the glass can out and put the lid back on.
"It's should be safe now; everything's lead-lined," Doc said after he took off his helmet and we all did too. "Don't you lose those tapes now; we need to keep a record," he said going over and grabbing a suitcase after putting the plutonium away. "Whoops, can't forget my bag. Who knows if they have cotton underwear in the future?"
"The future? So you're going…" Marty said.
"That's right. Twenty-five years into the future. I've always dreamed of seeing the future beyond my years, and seeing the progress of mankind," Doc said as he put his suitcase in the car. "I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five World Series.
"Hey, Doc? Uh look us up when you get there," Marty said putting an arm around my shoulder.
"Indeed I will. Roll it," Doc said nodding. Marty then held up the camera and started recording. "I, Doctor Emmett Brown, am about to embark on a most historic journey," he continued opening up the driver's door and then started laughing. "What am I doing? I almost forgot to bring extra plutonium! How would I ever expect to get back?! One pellet, one trip! I must be out of my mind!" Suddenly Einy started barking at us. "What is it Einy?" Doc asked and then went wide-eyed.
"Oh my God. They found me, I don't know how but they found me," Doc said. I took a step forward and then saw terror in his eyes.
"What's…"
"RUN FOR IT YOU TWO!" Doc shouted.
"WHO?!" Marty asked.
"Who do you think?! THE LIBYANS!" Doc screamed pointing behind us. Marty and I turned around and saw a blue van coming right for us with its high beams on. Suddenly, someone stood up and aimed a gun at us from the sunroof. I froze unable to move away from looking at the man holding the gun at us.
"HOLY SHI*!" Marty shouted and tackled me to the ground as the shooting began. Most of the bullets were aimed at Doc who just ducked barely missing them.
"Unroll their fire!" he shouted and then grabbed a pistol from his toolbox that I didn't even know he had. He took the safety off and tried firing at the van but the gun jammed. Doc then started to run on the other side of the truck.
"Doc, wait!" Marty shouted That's when the speeding van came to a screeching halt right in front of Doc. Marty and I watched as Doc held up his hands and threw the jammed gun in the air. Suddenly, the Libyan started firing at Doc and he fell to the ground unmoving. I suddenly went cold. This has to be some kind of crazy dream. Doc can't be…no.
"NOOOOOOO! BASTARD!" Marty shouted standing up. Now the Libyan aimed the gun at us. I screamed.
"WAIT!" I shouted standing up next to Marty. Suddenly, Marty grabbed me and held me with his back facing the Libyan. He squeezed me so hard that I could hardly breathe; even if I was hardly breathing, to begin with after what we'd just seen.
"I love you kid. I love you kid," Marty whimpered. All of a sudden I heard a click of the gun. Marty must have too as he turned around to look at the Libyan hitting the now jammed gun. "Come on!" Marty whispered and yanked me as we ran and dived into the DeLorean.
I guess I'll stop it right there for now. I'm really liking this a lot better than before. Don't worry, they'll be more coming as long as you like it. Thanks to all who have returned or any newcomers who are sticking with us. I really appreciate it.
Don't forget to leave a review and I will see you all soon.
LaurenHardy13.