Chapter Twenty: Home At Last

Sunday, August 24, 1986
7:01AM

While Martin had gone home and Lisa-2 and Ed had gone off to find the help needed to send the visiting trio back where they belonged, said trio spent the night at Emmett’s garage on air mattresses that Lisa’s double happened to keep there.

Emmett, Doc, Marty and Lisa were having breakfast when a flash of light and crackle of energy signaled their return. Lisa-2 was grinning.

“Slider said he’ll arrange everything. He’ll give me a signal and we’re to meet him in the forest. In the meantime, pass the bacon.”

So, they spent the time talking. Emmett explained that his DeLorean was in pieces because he was in the process of updating all the circuitry with future components.

“I’m also going to move the switch that activates the time circuits,” he said.

This caused Lisa to burst out laughing and she turned to her double. “Tell me, when he was building the thing in the first place, did you try to talk him out of putting the switch by the gear shift?”

It was Ed who answered. “Hell, yeah,” he said. “Didn’t listen. I told him he should’ve.”

“Hah!” Lisa shouted, triumphant. She clapped her hands and looked at Doc. “I think you should do the same. We all know what could happen…hell, what has happened because of one of you switching gears and activating the circuits. That’s how the whole mess started, after all.”

Doc simply glared at her, which Lisa ignored. “I wonder,” she said, “if there’s a dimension out there where Doc did put it somewhere else originally.”

“There are an infinite number of possibilities,” said Emmett.

“Very true,” agreed Doc.

All conversation was halted when Lisa – both Lisas as a matter of fact – heard a far-off whinny.

“That’s Slider,” said Lisa-2. “That’s your ride, guys. Ed’n I’ll meet you at the forest.” She took her boyfriend’s hand and they both disappeared in a flash of light.

Lisa, Doc and Marty said goodbye and good luck to Emmett, then piled into their DeLorean and left the garage. Once they were out of view of anyone outside, they took off and headed for the forest.

“That Ed guy’s kinda cute,” Lisa admitted on the way. “And my other self seems so…I dunno…not just happy, but relaxed around him. I mean, I’ve been in love before loads of times, but I don’t think I’ve ever been that in love with someone. I wonder if I’ll ever meet someone like him.”

“You will,” said Doc, glancing briefly at her. “There’s someone out there for everyone.”

“Yeah.”

They saw Lisa-2 and Ed from the air and landed beside them. Lisa-2 made a gesture, signaling her double to roll down the window, which she did.

“I’ll need something from your dimension,” Lisa-2 said. “Like a feather or a hair or something, so Slider can open the right Gateway.”

Lisa handed her a feather from one of her wings and her double turned towards the forest. “Okay,” she called. “Come here.”

Out of the forest walked a very tall unicorn stallion, whole body including horn and hooves colored almost like molten metal.

The stallion nickered and turned, raising his head so his horn pointed to the sky. The horn began to glow, as did the feather, and the feather itself was absorbed inside the horn.

Lisa was watching intensely. This stallion was new to her; she’d never met him before.

Slider threw a buck and the light that had made up the feather mixed with the glow of the horn shot out of the tip and into the sky, opening up a dimensional distortion.

Lisa-2 turned to her counterpart and her friends. “That’s your way home. He can only keep it open for a minute or so, so get going. Good luck!”

She and Ed waved as Doc took the DeLorean back into the sky. He once again made the “goodbye” maneuver with the car and flew through the distortion.

Looking at the trees, it certainly looked like home, albeit home in 1986. Since there was no distortion, Doc decided to try out the TDL once more. He input a destination time of August 23^rd, 1993 at 12:30PM and a destination location of, once again, just outside the forest.

He hit the accelerator and Lisa and Marty braced themselves, hoping things would finally work out.

Monday, August 23, 1993
12:30PM

Three sonic booms later and the three of them looked down.

“This looks like the forest we left,” said Lisa.

“You think we made it?” asked Marty.

“There’s only one way to find out.” Doc said, piloting the DeLorean to his house.

The place looked exactly as he’d left it. He set the car down in the driveway and, together with Marty and Lisa, walked to the front door.

They went inside and found Clara in the kitchen, preparing lunch. Einstein padded in, barking happily at the trio. Lisa could easily hear Jules and Verne playing upstairs.

Grinning, Lisa, Doc and Marty hugged each other. They were home.

And there was no place like it.

The End

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