Back to the Future Part II (21 page)

He stuffed Doc’s letter in his pocket and headed back for town.

‘Hey!’ the Western Union guy yelled behind him. 

‘Can’t you even tell me what this is all about?’

Marty kept on running.

‘No?’ The Western Union guy called in the most disappointed voice Marty had ever heard.

Marty didn’t even look back.

There was no time to lose!

Marty could see it all before him.

The clock tower read 10:04.

The DeLorean, with its special super-conducting electrical pole added for the occasion, raced toward the electrical line.

And lightning struck the clock tower!

At the last possible second, after almost falling from a considerable height. Doc Brown connected the cables.

The hook on the pole above the DeLorean hit the electrical line - and 1.21 jigowatts of electricity flooded into the flux capacitor -

And the DeLorean vanished into the future, leaving only twin trails of fire where its wheels had been!

Doc Brown - the 1955 version - went running down the street between the twin trails of fire, yelling at the top of his lungs.

‘Ya-Haaaaa!’

Marty guessed this was as good a time as any.

He stepped out of the shadow of the courthouse. He tapped Doc on the shoulder.

Doc turned around, the smile on his face changing to a look of abject horror.

‘YAAAAAAAH!’Doc shrieked.

‘Calm, down. Doc!’ Marty urged. ‘It’s me, Marty!

Somehow, Marty had to explain all of this to the scientist.

‘Right!’ Marty replied, trying to be as logical as possible. ‘You 
did
 send me back to the future. But I came back - back 
from
 the future!’

‘Great Scott!’ Doc replied. He staggered back, clutching his chest. He seemed to be having trouble breathing.

‘Doc!’ Marty called. What was going on?

Doc’s eyes rolled up, and he fainted dead away.

‘Doc?’ Marty asked, but the scientist was out cold. The shock had been too much for him - one of those paradoxes that Doc Brown himself had told Marty about.

But how could Doc help him, if even the scientist couldn’t face the truth about the future? And what if it was worse than Marty thought, and he couldn’t revive Doc? Then the scientist could never build the time machine, and Marty would never end up back in 1955 in the first place.

That would be one of those real paradoxes, wouldn’t it - the kind that might put an end to the cosmos and all life as we know it?

‘Doc?’ Marty called, bending over his fallen friend. ‘Doc?’

But Doc didn’t answer.