YOU'RE FIRED!
Fired?
Marty could hear the soft whir of the fax unit on the other side of the den as it printed out the facsimile copy of the message on the screen.
And Fujitsu was gone. He had broken the connection - the art channel once again filled the screen.
Marty could almost feel the sword in his heart. His future was over.
* * *
Jennifer jumped as a machine whirred by her elbow.
She glanced over at the piece of paper the machine spat out, a piece of paper filled mostly with two very large words:
YOU’RE FIRED!
Jennifer picked up the sheet of paper. This must be the ‘fax' that the muscular Japanese fellow had been talking about on the TV screen. And it printed this paper in the bathroom? Jennifer wondered if there were machines like this in every room of the house.
‘Jennifer!’
She jumped all over again as the voice whispered her name behind her. She crumpled the paper and thrust it in her pocket, whirling around to see who had called her.
There, looking in the bathroom window, was Doc Brown!
Doc Brown? Jennifer had never been so happy to see a scientist in her entire life!
‘Go out the front door!' Doc Brown whispered urgently. ‘I’ll meet you there!’
Jennifer frowned, her happiness once again drowned in a sea of confusion. Out the front door? But, how could she get out the front door?
‘It won’t open!’ she complained. ‘There’s no doorknob!’
Doc nodded as if it was only now that he understood.
Press your thumb to the plate!’ he explained.
Oh. Jennifer remembered that funny looking plate at the side of the front door. So that’s how it worked.
But that meant she could finally get out ot here.
Jennifer nodded to Doc. She stepped across the bathroom and looked out through the door she had entered. There was no one in either of the rooms she could see. She pushed opened the bathroom door and crept as quietly as she could toward the front door.
She heard Grandma Lorraine loudly complaining behind her:
‘Marty, what’s the meaning of this fax?’
‘Believe me. Mom, it wasn’t my fault,' Marty Senior explained, a slight whine to his voice. ‘I just always seem to get a raw deal on everything!’
At least, Jennifer hoped, if the family was busy arguing, they wouldn’t even look her way as she snuck out of the house. Now. all she had to do was find the - what had Doc Brown called it? - oh yeah, the thumb plate.
There, next to the front door, was another fax machine, with another paper saying ‘YOU’RE FIRED!’ Jennifer realised they really did have these machines all over the house. And right beyond the machine was the metal plate she was looking for.
She reached her hand forward, ready to press her thumb to the middle of the plate.
‘Welcome home, Jennifer!’ the computer boomed cheerily.
Wait a moment. Should the computer be welcoming her when she was going out?