The picture below changed too. It now showed his fath
er accepting the book award!
They’d done it. They’d changed the future! 1985 had gone back to the way it should be!
‘The newspaper changed. Doc!’ Marty yelled into the walkie-talkie. ‘My father’s alive! Everything’s back to normal!’
Could it be?
Doc Brown ignored the wind rocking the DeLorean long enough to pull out the newspaper article he’d saved from that awful 1985. There it was, his none-too-desirable future:
EMMETT BROWN COMMITTED
But, wait a minute! The last word wasn’t ‘committed’ anymore! No, his article had changed, too! It now read:
EMMETT BROWN COMMENDED
and beneath that, in a sub-heading:
‘Local Inventor Receives College Grant.’
Really? A college grant, hmm? Oh, that’s right! Doc remembered now. There he was, with those two fellows handing him that handsome placard, as recognition for the years he had spent as the professor of physics at the local University.
Doc sighed with relief. Everything had been corrected. The future was now restored to the way it was supposed to be, and the proof was right there in the newspaper. Had he not been sitting in the car, Doc would have jumped for joy! Mission accomplished!
All that remained was a simple matter of logistics. Doc would pick up Marty and they would go back to the future . . . actually their own present, October 26 1985. And this time it would be the same 1985 they had left from on the morning of October 26 1985.
Doc again sighed with relief. Finally, the adventure was over!
Epilogue
A bolt of lightning streaked through the sky. much too close to the DeLorean. It hit a tree across the road from the billboard. A large branch crashed to the ground.
Marty pressed the ‘talk button’ on his walkie-talkie.
‘Doc! You OK?’
Doc’s voice replied through the ever increasing static:
‘That was a close one, Marty!’ Doc laughed ruefully. ‘I ALMOST BOUGHT THE FARM!’
The DeLorean started to move overhead, as Doc turned the flying car around to begin his approach. Marty knew just what Doc was thinking - they had to get out of here before something serious happened!
The DeLorean started towards Marty, swooping down out of the sky.
Then a bolt of lightning, even bigger than the last one, streaked out of the sky to hit the DeLorean.
There was a noise even louder than a sonic boom! Marty threw his hands in front of his face, temporarily blinded by the light.
But when he uncovered his eyes and looked up again, the sky was empty. Oh, there were the heavy clouds and the lightning, but the DeLorean, flying toward him only a second ago, was gone!
The pennant cord fluttered to the ground in front of Marty. The upper end of the cord was still burning, a minute ago, it had been hanging out of the DeLorean’s door. Was that all that was left of the time machine?
No! Marty thought. That was silly. This was a time machine we were talking about here! A time machine didn't just disappear, did it? It had to be around some-place, didn’t it? Even if the car had somehow gotten zapped and pushed into the wrong time, all Doc had to do was reset the destination display and bring the DeLorean back, didn't he?
Well, Marty added to himself, that should make sense. So where was Doc?
He yelled into his walkie-talkie again: