Chapter Two: Hearing the News

Marty McFly skateboarded back to Doc’s house. Since his birthday, he’d been trying to find ways to earn money for a sweet guitar he’d seen in the music shop and Doc had shown up on his doorstep a week ago and offered him a job sweeping out his garage and doing other odd jobs around the place. He could kind of see why the general population of Hill Valley thought he was nuts; hell, Marty himself thought so until he’d gotten to know the scientist.

Doc Brown wasn’t crazy. He just had an…offbeat way of looking at life. He had an eccentric way of dressing, his hair was kind of wild, his eyes always sparkled with energy and he really enjoyed science. Other than that, he seemed perfectly normal. Plus he had a dog and very rarely was a guy with a dog crazy.

The 15-year-old had just come from lunch with his girlfriend, Jennifer. He’d invited her over to Doc’s for the 4^th of July; unfortunately, she already had to go to her grandmother’s for the holiday and wouldn’t be back until the next day. He was disappointed, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it. He was just glad that his parents weren’t making him go anywhere. When Doc had told him that all he did for the 4^th was watch the fireworks on TV and try to keep the punks from shooting firecrackers outside his door, he’d felt sorry for the scientist and decided to change his holiday traditions. That’s what friends were for, right?

With a sigh he kicked his skateboard up and entered Doc’s garage. Einstein heard him and padded up to the teen, barking a greeting. It amazed Marty how smart the canine was. But look who he had for an owner.

Marty scratched the mutt behind the ears and looked around for Doc. He spotted a pair of khaki-ed legs poking out from underneath that DeLorean he’d been working on since before they met.

“Hey, Doc,” he said.

Clang! “Great Scott!” Doc scooted out from underneath the car, rubbing his head.

Marty winced. “Sorry, Doc. I didn’t mean to scare ya.”

The older man stood up. “No, it’s all right, Marty. I’ve been…distracted since you left. I had a rather unusual encounter.”

“Really? What happened?”

“Well, Einstein and I were outdoors playing Frisbee when the toy flew over the fence and caught by a young woman named Lisa. She returned it to me…and she wasn’t frightened of me. And Einstein took to her like he’d known her forever, which is unusual for him.”

“Huh,” said Marty. “Well, everyone can’t be scared of you, can they?”

Doc shrugged. “I’m sure it was simply because she was new to the area and hadn’t heard of my reputation yet.”

“C’mon, Doc.” He reached out to give his back a pat. “Don’t get yourself down. You’re a great guy and it’s not your fault that the people in this town are too stupid to understand that. And this just means that there’re some people out there who are smarter than that.”

Doc had to smile. “Thank you, Marty. That truly means a lot.”

“No problem. So, uh…you think you’ll see her again?”

He shrugged again. “Who knows? It would be pleasant if I did, but if I don’t, then so be it. In the meantime, would you give me a hand with the DeLorean?”

End chapter two.

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