BACK TO THE PAST
Chapter Nine
A car pulled into the Tannens’ driveway.
The group hid under the bushes outside.
"Who’s that?" Rose squinted with
the garage light in her eyes. The figure walked inside and was met by the
yelling of an ancient woman.
"Biff," Christine whispered. Not a
moment later, a body came right up behind them. Christine whipped around,
pulling it to ground.
"Chris!" screeched the voice
muffled under Christine’s hand.
"Shh!" Christine hissed. "Hey,
Shirley. How was your trip?"
Shirley Houlihan moved her friend’s hand.
"Better than being smashed into a sidewalk."
"Sorry."
"Jesus, Chris." Gary shook his
head. "Hey, Shirley."
"I was being alert. I react."
"What the hell are you guys doing
sneaking around here anyway?" asked Shirley.
"Biff Tannen raided Doc Brown’s garage
today. He stole something. We’re getting it back."
"Stole what?"
"Um…Jack? Rose? Oh, this is Jack Taft
and Rose McCoy. They’re new in town. This my friend, Shirley."
"Hi," said Jack and Rose.
"It’s a book…but it’s really
important," Jack finished.
"And you plan on waltzing in there and
getting it back?"
"Oh, no. We have a plan," Gary
assured her.
"We do?" asked the others.
Joey laughed.
"Pipe down, Stoner," Gary snapped.
"I’m just gonna go check out the
car." Jack got up toward the garage.
"You can’t just waltz in there!"
Ricky pleaded.
"Listen, Fab—" Jack cut himself
off. "This is what we came here for. I’m going in." Jack crept off
toward the garage. He’d been in much worse before. Biff Tannen didn’t scare him
in the least.
Okay, he was in. He sneaked around looking
for anything. He searched through the car, even picked the trunk open. No book.
Nothing.
Jack crawled through the open doorway in the
back of the garage and peered into every window of the back of the house. In
the very last window he came to, he saw Biff. He looked much like his younger
brother. Same build, same air of meat-headedness.
He quickly ducked under the window again,
peering in every few seconds. After about two minutes, Biff pulled out a book.
Jack only saw one word on the cover…baseball.
The word itself had never looked so
beautiful. But now how was he going to steal it back? Or get back to his
friends without getting caught?
*****
"He’s been in there a while," said
Gary.
"Baines, go back there and check on
Jack." Christine volunteered Joey.
"No!"
"Be a man, Jailbird." Ricky hit him
on the shoulder.
"Fine, fine! Be that way. I’ll go, but
if I get caught…" Joey leered at the others.
"If?" Christine asked, a
little too loudly.
Someone came up suddenly from around the
house and put his hand on Christine’s shoulder.
"Wah!" she screeched. Everyone one
else followed her.
It was Jack.
"Sorry." He shrugged. "Um…the
book’s in there…Biff’s got it."
"Well, step one’s complete, I guess."
Gary shrugged.
"Well, how badly do you need this book,
anyway?" Christine raised an eyebrow. Something about this was beginning
to look fishy. All this for one lousy book? And even though she liked them,
something was definitely up with this Jack and Rose pair.
Oh, your existence only depends on it, Jack thought, at his granddaughter’s bitter comment.
"Uh...guys...I’d like to get out of here
before someone comes out," Gary warned, already moving down the block. The
others followed.
The door from the Tannen place swung open. It
was the old woman. She saw nothing, as usual, and went back inside.
Unfortunately, Butch pulled into the driveway seconds later.
"Hey!" he called to the group. He
could just see them disappearing. He must have heard them before.
"I’ll handle this." Christine
started back toward the Tannens'.
"You don’t need to go."
Ricky grabbed her arm.
"I can have that horny Neanderthal
wrapped around my little finger. I’ll get him off our tails."
"You won’t do anything, will
you?" Ricky still held a grip on her arm. "Because if he makes a
move, I’ll kill him."
"If he makes a move, I’ll kick his
ass," Chris corrected. She kissed him on the mouth and walked toward
Butch.
"Ew," Joey commented.
"Oh, grow up," said Lizzy.
"I don’t care if she’s athletic or about
her little feminist manifesto. The fact is, he’s bigger than her. He could snap
her head off if he wanted to." Ricky shook his head and followed
Christine.
"It may be by only two minutes, but I’m
her older brother, and it’s my job to watch her rebellious, hippie wanna-be
behind and protect her." Gary marched off with him.
"I can kick anybody’s ass." Shirley
followed.
"I took out that weird Adolf kid when I
was living in Paris. I think I’ll go, too," Jack decided.
"I broke somebody’s nose the other night."
Rose raised her hand.
"When did you break anybody’s
nose?" Jack asked.
"I’ll tell you later…Joey, stay here and
watch Lizzy," ordered Rose.
"No problem." Joey saluted.
"Hey!" Lizzy wanted to go, too…or
at least not be baby-sat by Joey.
*****
Three blocks later, the eight of them were
still shouting, "Run! Run!"
"Jesus," Gary panted, looking at
Rose. "You broke his nose!"
"What the hell was that?"
Shirley squeaked.
"You were all talking about ass kicking!
That’s what I did!" Rose defended. Ass kicking…that sounds so funny.
"Yeah, but nobody’s actually done it
before!" said Ricky. "We didn’t actually expect to get him. We would
try, but…"
"I know you’re new here, but no one,
especially not a girl, talks back to Butch Tannen or punches him in the nose,"
said Gary.
No girl ditches Cal Hockley, either, thought Rose.
"So, how do you feel now?"
Christine asked, thoroughly impressed.
Rose turned to Jack and smiled.
"Groovy."
*****
Later that night, after all the excitement,
everybody went home. Gary Dawson tossed his keys on a coffee table and knocked
over a picture. He paused, making sure he didn’t wake his parents. The only
thing he did hear was Christine moving around in the bathroom, louder than
humanly possible. If they woke up, it would be her fault.
He picked up the picture and looked it over.
It was of his grandparents’ wedding. He hadn’t seen it in years. His mom must
have been moving things around.
Gary turned on the lamp to see it better. He
stared at it for a while, trying to make sense of it.
No. It couldn’t be. It was impossible. Sheer
coincidence. But who else could they be?