HILL VALLEY ¹, back to the future

xiii. learnin' the game

➩ 𝕤𝕠𝕟𝕘 𝕤𝕖𝕝𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟: 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕘𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥 𝕡𝕣𝕖𝕥𝕖𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕣 𝕓𝕪 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕡𝕝𝕒𝕥𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕤

THE TWO FRIENDS continued up the lengthy driveway to what was supposed to be Doc's house on Riverside Drive, exchanging a glance towards one another before Amanda went ahead and knocked on the door. Standing outside patiently, hoping that he was home, the sound of the door opening slightly caused for them to turn around to see it shut quickly.

Marty shook his head impatiently, going ahead to knock again before being stopped by Doc opening the door before them with a strange circular dome across his head, almost looking exactly the same to his '85 counterpart. "Doc?"

"Don't say a word," He cut them off to say to pulling them into the house and shut the door. He frantically moved towards a large, wired-steel machine in the middle of what was the living room of the house and ignored any of their attempts to get his attention. Seeing a version of Einstein in 1955 being scooted away by Doc, Amanda couldn't help to laugh under her breath at the dog's attempts to wrap around her feet for support. "I don't want to know your name. I don't wanna know anything about you."

"Listen, Doc."

"Quiet." Amanda shut her mouth slowly from continuing to speak anymore and noticed the now exasperated look on Marty's face.

Deciding to take a shot at it, he raised a hand out to his friend to gain his attention. "Doc, Doc, it's me, Marty."

"Don't tell me anything."

"But Doc, you've gotta help?"

Doc raised a finger to us, hovering his hands over the contraption now on his head. "Quiet, quiet." He then stuck a plunger onto Marty's forehead, having Amanda now grow confused on what was exactly was supposed to be happening here. "I'm gonna read your thoughts. Let's see now, you've come here from. . . a great distance?"

Going along with this assuming this was the only way Doc would pay any attention and listen to why they showed up in the first place, Amanda went along with the test-run of the experiment. "Yeah, exactly."

"No, don't tell me," He told her frustrated, now clutching onto the bars of the contraption on his head looking to focus on a particular thought. "You want me to buy a subscription to the Saturday Evening Post!"

"...NO!"

"Not a word, not a word now. Quiet!" Doc then stood there silent again for a moment. "Uh- donations! You want me to make a donation to the Coast Guard Youth Auxiliary?"

"Doc." Growing aggravated over having to listen to anymore guesses, Marty already growing took the sucker off from his forehead. "I'm from the future. We came here in a time machine that you invented. Now, we need your help to get back to the year 1985."

"Way to ease him into that one, baby blue," Amanda thought while patiently waiting for Doc's reply to follow.

"My god-" Marty and her continued to stare at Doc silently, waiting for his input over their situation as he clasped a tight hand over Marty's vest. "Do you know what this means?" Neither of responded to his question as he clasped the strap of the contraption on his head suddenly. "That this damn thing doesn't work at all!"

He stormed off to place the device onto his desk and slammed it out of his own frustration. "Doc. you've really gotta help us with this. You were the only one who knows how your time machine works," Amanda mentioned with Marty now growing uncomfortable over her stressing the death that was fated for him in their time.

Looking surprised over this, he turned away from them to press his hand against the small band-aid on his forehead that had been previously covered by the device. "Time machine? I haven't built any time machine."