Back to the Future by George Gipe Read Free Book Online Page B

dog, peered out the passenger side window at him, his large dark eyes friendly but noninformative.
    “Hiya, Einstein,” Marty said anyway. “Where’s the Doc? Where’s the Doc, boy?”
    A few seconds later, he heard an engine roar to life and rev quietly. It seemed to be coming from inside the van, but it didn’t sound like the truck engine. It was too far back, for one thing, the sound emanating not from beneath the hood but somewhere midway of the vehicle.
    Marty started to walk toward the back of the van.
    Just as he arrived at the rear bumper, he heard a sharp grating sound, a slam, and saw the rear doors dramatically fly open. The drop-down gate lowered into position and a giant shining object swooped down onto the parking lot. It was the stainless steel DeLorean, modified with coils and some wicked-looking units on the rear engine.
    Marty stared at it in amazement.
    The DeLorean moved softly toward him and stopped. The gull-wing driver’s door was raised to reveal the smiling face of Doc Brown.
    Marty barely noticed his friend, however. He continued to stare at the DeLorean, which was unlike anything he had ever seen before. The front of the modernistic vehicle was a smooth slope from windshield to fender—beautiful but hardly startling. From the driver’s compartment rearward, however, the car had been modified so that it resembled something you might see only in an atomic power plant. In place of the rear seat and hatchback door was a huge nuclear reactor, behind which jutted two large venting outlets, each with eight openings. Surrounding the vent and reactor was a six-inch coil which disappeared beneath the rear bumper only to emerge later and wrap itself around the top. A circular projection approximately eighteen inches in diameter, which Marty learned later was radar, hung over the passenger’s compartment. Various heavy cables ran the length of the car from engine to front wheels, adding to its arcane look.
    Doc Brown allowed his protégé to stare at the strange vehicle for a minute before speaking.
    “Good evening, Marty,” he said with smiling formality. “Welcome to my latest experiment. This is the big one—the one I’ve been working and waiting for all my life.”
    Marty was less interested in the experiment than the DeLorean. Walking in a circle around it, he took in every line and hidden seam. “It’s a DeLorean,” he said. “But what did you do to it?”
    “Just a few modifications,” Doc Brown smiled.
    As he spoke, Brown got out of the vehicle, revealing himself in all his sci-fi splendor. He thought he must resemble Michael Rennie stepping onto Earth for the first time in The Day the Earth Stood Still.
    “What’s with the Devo suit?” Marty asked.
    No respect, Doc Brown thought. He had gone to so much trouble preparing an appropriate outfit for the occasion and this young man called it a Devo suit.
    “Bear with me, Marty,” he replied. “All of your questions will be answered in due time. Now if you’ll roll the tape, we’ll proceed.”
    Marty took the video camera from its case, set it on the tripod, and pointed it at Doc Brown. He raised his hand, then dropped it as he pushed the ON switch.
    Rather formally, like the narrator of a documentary film, Brown began to speak. “Good evening,” he intoned. “I’m Dr. Emmett Brown. I’m standing here on the parking lot at Twin Pines Mall. It’s Saturday morning, October 26, 1985. It’s 1:19 A.M. and this is temporal experiment number one.” Glancing down at Einstein, who had jumped out of the step-van and was padding nervously around the base of the DeLorean, Doc added: “Come on, Einstein. Get in, boy.” The dog obediently jumped into the car and sat down regally in the middle of the driver’s seat. Doc Brown reached across and buckled him in with the shoulder harness. Then, turning to Marty, the camera and unseen audience, he continued the narration.
    “Please note that Einstein’s clock here is in precise