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Chapter Thirteen
Brown Mansion
Doc’s mind reeled. Marty had arrived. It was
going to be a long seventeen-year wait to finally talk to him about events that
happened thirteen years ago. It was a lot to think about, but unfortunately he
had other headaches today.
Gary came in. Doc immediately jumped up. He’d
sent the young Dawsons out with Christine to keep them occupied after a weird
day delivering Mrs. McFly to the hospital, and Doc himself tried to prepare
things for their departure.
"Is everyone else back yet?" Doc
jumped up.
"No, Chris took them to a movie."
Gary sighed. He’d been in a weird mood that day…nothing too strange, just…sad.
"A movie?"
"Yeah, a movie."
"A movie?"
"Yes! What’s so criminal?"
"What kind of movie was it? Information
in a film could potentially expose them to knowledge of the future!"
"Christine’s movie picks aren’t
generally filled with useful information."
"Just—" Christine busted in and cut
Doc off.
"Hey, kids!" Doc grabbed her by the
arms. "Whoa! Hey, I don’t have any drugs. Calm down. In fact, look at what
excellent youth I am, all day with my grandparents."
"What kind of movie did you take your
grandparents to? Did it have any information pertaining to the past fifty-six
years?"
"…are you talking serious
information?
"What do you mean?" Doc asked
warily. Christine didn’t answer, but Jack and Rose did when they paraded in a
moment later—singing.
"Springtime for Hitler and Germany!
Winter for Poland and France! Deutschland is happy and gay! We’re marching to a
faster pace! Look out…here comes the master race! Springtime for Hitler and
Germany! Winter for Poland and France! Springtime for Hitler and Germany! Come
on Germans, go into your dance!"
Doc screamed. Gary smacked his head.
"You should see it. It’s great…you’ve
never seen anything like it." Christine couldn’t look Doc or Gary in the
eye.
"I’m sure those two to haven’t
either." Doc gestured to Rose and Jack.
"No, we haven’t!" Rose said
enthusiastically.
"You know," said Jack. "I knew
a kid named Adolf back in Paris…now there was a sore, sour son of a bitch if I
ever met one. He was an artist, too…wasn’t bad either, but he couldn’t draw
people. They’d always come out funny."
"I’m sure there’s a Freudian explanation
for that."
"Anyway, what did he do?"
Doc, Gary, and Christine stared blankly at
Jack.
"Pop, you did not know Adolf
Hitler," Christine said, in the hopes of proving him wrong.
"Yes, I did. Lived in a garret near
mine. Got into a fistfight with him. Got him pretty good."
"And why, pray tell, didn’t you kill him?"
Christine demanded. Jack took a step back.
"Okay. We can’t talk about this. There’s
no use. We just can’t…ever again…any of you," Gary declared.
There was a long, very uncomfortable silence
for about four minutes.
"And what’s been so wrong with you
today?" Christine suddenly demanded of her brother, trying, in her way at
least, to break the silence.
"Remember Bobby Pickett…kid on the
soccer team…graduated last year?"
"Yeah." Christine nodded.
"He was killed…Khe Sanh."
"Wow." Christine sat down.
"Bobby Pickett’s dead."
Jack and Rose exchanged quizzical looks. Khe
Sanh? What was that? Doc looked at them and then the twins. They were obviously
bent on talking about poor Bobby Pickett, but their grandparents couldn’t hear
it. To Doc, it was like obscenities in front of the children.
"It’s not fair to guys like Bobby,"
sighed Gary. Doc moved his hand in front of his neck, giving him the signal to
stop talking. Gary continued, "I was talking to him once. He was thinking
of going to community college, but he just wasn’t good at school. You know, if
he just went to school, he’d be alive right now. I’m never going to over there.
I’m a good student, so I’ll be in college, and I’m the only son of an only son.
It’s not fair. If he did come back, people would call him a baby killer. What
makes me so much more deserving than guys like Bobby Pickett?"
"Nothing. If you feel so bad, go sign up
for the war," Christine challenged him. Gary sat down; no, he couldn’t do
that.
Doc sat flopped down on the couch. Beautiful.
Just beautiful. He was really sorry about young Bobby, but where was that boy’s
head? His grandparents were right there!
Doc was ready to pull Gary aside and give him
one of his fanatical lectures. Your sister showed them a movie about World
War II…sort of…not really, but it was about a musical about Hitler! You openly
talked about Bobby Pickett down in Vietnam now! Why don’t you tell them about
the next war! Tell Lt. Jack about his hysterical blindness that he had for two months!
I’m sure he’d love to hear that! Gary, are you out of your mind? All right.
Good speech: calm, logical, and concise…well, concise, at least. That’s all he
needed to give Gary what he need to shut up.
He got and walked over to Gary. "We need
to have a verbal exchange."
"Hey, there’s a ’46 Ford parked
outside…" Christine interrupted. Doc ran to the window…and screamed.
"What?" everyone shouted.
Gary leaned out the window.
"Uh…guys…"
"Oh, no. Tannens and friends."
Christine sneered.
"Hey…" Rose pointed. Jack furrowed
his brow.
"It’s not him," said the other
three in unison, and they looked back to the window.
"Anybody wanna go investigate?"
Christine asked, looking for volunteers. "Jesus, they have the frigging
almanac…well…had." Christine smiled, thinking of her accomplishment
in retrieving the almanac. "What else do they want?"
"Answers," Gary said.
"That’s deep, Gary," said his
sister.
"This smells like trouble," Jack
thought aloud.
"Thank you for that brilliant
observation, Captain Obvious."
Rose was on the verge of telling Christine
not to talk to her grandfather like that, but she held her tongue for fear of
sounding like her mother.
Doc pulled out a pair of binoculars from his
jacket. Yup, both Tannens…all their friends.
"Great Scott!"
The Tannens and their respective goons went
into the garage.
"Great Scott! The time machine!"
"Hey, that guy looks like—" Rose
began again…or so she tried.
"We’ve got to get them out of here and
make sure they don’t get their hands on anything!" Doc proclaimed.
"Right-o. Doc, you’re the brains. What’s
the plan?"
"I’m formulating one at this moment…just
give me a moment or so." Doc began frantically pacing.
Jack knew this was time for some serious
messy business. Fabri would be perfect for this; they’d gotten into all sorts
of stuff like this before…he thought that for a moment, but no. He’d seen him a
few times over the past few days in 1968. Things were a little weird, even if
they were amusingly novel, Jack being fifty-six years younger and all. Better
leave Fabrizio home for this one.
"I think I’ve got a plan! I’ve got a
plan!" Doc jumped up. He ran into his study to get something, motioning
everyone to come with him.
"Well, boys, I reckon this is it—nuclear
combat toe to toe with the Rooskies." Christine smiled and followed the
others.