BACK TO THE PAST
Chapter Two
Jack and Rose found themselves in town
several minutes later. They wandered around aimlessly in the strange new world
for nearly an hour. It wasn’t completely unrecognizable, but yet it was very
different. They sat down a park bench near a building with a broken clock
tower. They were so tired they leaned up against each other fighting to stay
awake.
"It’s probably been years by now."
Rose thought aloud. "And we don’t even know what happened to everybody. If
we had stayed we’d probably still be there now."
"I’ve seen crazy shit before, but
tonight, uh, today rather, or…well, whatever it is, this pretty much blows
everything else right out of the water. No pun intended."
"It’s like all those people are
suffering and dying right now, but it all must have happened years ago. It must
have been a big deal then, but now it’s probably just an old headline. But
there must have been survivors, they said you were a survivor, but something
happened and you didn’t make it, maybe not even the survivors are still alive, but
if people we know, maybe even we are still alive here maybe…"
"How do we know where to find anybody?
Unless by dumb luck someone we know is residing Hill Valley right now."
"But everyone else, Doc, Marty, Jennifer
are all from this town."
"Maybe it’s before 1996, or much
later."
Rose looked around. "Maybe we should
talk about this so loud out in public."
"I hate to think with my stomach at a
time like this, but maybe we should eat something soon. Get our strength back I
mean and then we’ll try to get home."
"Wherever that is." She squeezed
his hand in a sad smile. Jack looked at her for moment. He knew she must have
really cared for him, but she had nothing left for her, but him now. If they
could, no, when they could back home she would not be welcome in hers.
Jack pulled the bills from his pocket and
sifted through them. "This is definitely enough." They started down
the street.
It was a calm, partly cloudy spring day. It
was warm and the air smelled sweet. A drastic contrast to their circumstances
earlier. They walked in a daze just starting to feel their physical injuries.
They had gotten over their chills, but still felt dizzy from the rush of
adrenaline that was, despite the jump in years, only hours old. Jack’s wrists
were bruised and swollen and Rose had somehow jammed her right pinkie finger.
She presumed it was from breaking down the "white star line property"
door.
They came to an adorable little Italian
restaurant on the corner. ‘Di Rossi’s Ristorante.’
Jack looked at hopefully. The name caught him.
Di Rossi. "Fabrizio maybe? He was really good cook, and he said he was
gonna start his own business someday. He always said he’d go to America."
He grabbed Rose for a moment then released her as if in a frenzy. "He
taught himself English through one lousy dictionary. Now there was a kid who
was gonna make it--"
Rose put her hand over his mouth. "Hold
on a second. You don’t think he’s the only De Rossi in the world. Please, don’t
get worked up right now." She put her hands on his shoulders and turned
him to face her. "I know you want him to have survived, I do too, but
please don’t get yourself upset right now. Please. Maybe it is him or maybe he
lived anyway, but let’s not jump to conclusions now." She brushed his hair
out his face.
"All right. But I’m telling ya, he would
have made it."
They went inside and were seated in a booth.
Jack examined the menu. Rose looked at the black and white photographs on the
wall and gave out a sigh of relief.
The fancy wooden finish jukebox in the corner
played an unfamiliar song. Penny Lane is my ears and in my eyes. There beneath
the blue suburban skies and I sit and meanwhile back.
She looked back at Jack and smiled warmly.
"What?"
"Damn you for being right all the
time." She pointed to the picture above their heads.
Jack whipped around and pulled it off the
wall. It was a picture of the restaurant with Fabri with toddler on knee, Helga
Dahl, Jack, and another dark-haired young woman in her teens in the foreground.
"Oh thank Christ."
"One day you’re going to be wrong and
I’ll be there to see it."
"Nice camera work." Jack said. He
pointed to the bottom where it said ‘Taken by Rose, Summer 1917.’
"Who’s the other girl?"
Jack squinted for a moment. "I’ll
damned. I think it’s my cousin, Emily."
"Oh, she’s a cute kid."
"She’d hardly be a little kid when this
was taken, summer 1917, that would make her eighteen. She lives in Manhattan
with my aunt and uncle. She’ll be thirteen this July…July 1912 at least."
The waiter came to the table.
"Ready to order or do you need another
moment?"
Jack showed him the photo. "Is Fabrizio
here?"
"Hmm?"
Jack popped up out of the booth. "Fabri?
Fabrizio?" Rose went after him.
"Fabrizio? Helga?"
The host stopped them. "Calm down kid,
Pop’s in the back." Jack stopped at the word and stared at the man. Pop?
Then he ran towards the kitchen. "Hey he’s busy right now."
"We really need to see Fabri right now.
It’s an emergency. Fabrizio!"
The host looked annoyed. "Tommy? Tommy,
can you handle this?"
No, it couldn’t be. Tommy had survived too.
Here’s hoping. But it wasn’t. A tall woman in her mid-fifties approached them.
"Tommy?" Rose stared at the woman.
"Tomasina De Rossi. How can I help
you?"
Mama De Rossi came in just seconds later. She
stared at the young people aghast and cursed in Norwegian.
Tommy looked over at her speechless mother.
"Mama? What is it?"
"Fabrizio!" Helga De Rossi ran into
the kitchen to find her husband.
Rose grabbed a newspaper off an empty table.
Jack was about to follow Helga when she tugged on his arm. He tried shaking her
off and keeping on towards the kitchen in a daze. That couldn’t be Helga. She
was nearly three times their age. Rose ripped him back towards her and he
nearly fell into her. He underestimated her strength.
She slowly moved her finger across the date.
They turned to each other. They should have expected it, but this was still
bound to shock them. April 4, 1968.
"1968?"
"Mama mia! This is pazzesco!
Helga?"
"Fabri? You’re so…you’re
so…so…old."
"It’s happened. That night. The
DeLorean. They must have been lost." His wife tried to calm him. She
turned to Jack and Rose and put her hands comfortingly on their shoulders.
"We were the others saved."
Jack looked at her. "You speak English
now…and well. You don’t know how glad we are to see you…alive that is."
"Please, do you know where can we find
Doctor Brown?" Rose pleaded.
"Jack, Rose. He doesn’t know about any
of us yet. How did you get here?" Fabrizio asked. So they were the ones in
the boat with Clara and Jules. They knew about the time machine, but they were
right, Doc wouldn’t know about them until 1996.
"Fabri, get the car." Helga pushed
Jack and Rose out of the restaurant. "This is so dangerous." She
shook her head. "What if you run into yourselves. Do you know what happen,
the repercussions? We knew something like this could happen. They should
destroy that damned thing…"
"But it saved our lives." Jack said
as he was ushered into the car.
"If it hadn’t been invented there would
never have been a problem."
Jack and Rose barely knew Helga, but they
were old friends to her.
The car sped off toward Doc Brown’s house.
When the car stopped Helga headed for the
house. Fabrizio stayed in the car with Jack and Rose. The three just stared at
each other in awe.
Jack broke the silence. "We just came
from that night, please, you have to tell us what happened. How bad was it? Who
made it? Please. It’s only been an hour for us. We know it’s been fifty-six
years for you, but we’re still there."
The old man sighed and put his hand to his
heart. He didn’t answer. He just looked down and shook his head. "Just an
hour? Oh Dio, this shouldn’t be. This should not be."
Helga and a much younger Doc heading up to
them.
hey were brought into the house. Doc was at a
loss, he knew about the time machine and had known the di Rossis and the
Dawsons for years and knew about Marty, but he wouldn’t know that he had saved
their lives for another twenty-eight years.
Nevertheless he took them in.
"Great Scott! The Dawsons! This is a
disaster!"
"Apparently it’s not the first by a long
shot." Jack said.
"Where’s the DeLorean?" Doc started
pacing and raving.
"On the side of the road in the woods.
We hid it. It needs gasoline too." Rose answered.
"We have to get it back here."
The five of them headed for the highway and
Jack and Rose led them to the hiding place.
They filled it with gas and drove it through
the back roads. Rose, Jack, and Doc went in the DeLorean. Fabrizio and Helga
followed in their Cadillac.
When they got back to the house they hid the
time machine in the garage. Back in the house everyone tried to work out what
was to be done. Doc ranted and raved and paced. Fabrizio and Helga scolded and
worried like old couples do. Jack and Rose passed out on the couch. The others,
given the wild state of affairs, forgot that the Titanic disaster was only
hours old to their staggeringly younger friends. The panic of the disaster, the
running, the cold, the shock of being flung into 1968. They hadn’t slept or
eaten in hours either.
All of the horror and the confusion slipped
away and they were sound asleep. Peaceful as little children after an afternoon
of romping and playing. They would be safe from the world, be it the world of
1912 or the world of 1968, they would be safe from it at least for a few hours.