HILL VALLEY ¹, back to the future

xii. red letter date

➩ 𝕤𝕠𝕟𝕘 𝕤𝕖𝕝𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟: 𝕞𝕣. 𝕤𝕒𝕟𝕕𝕞𝕒𝕟 𝕓𝕪 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕔𝕙𝕠𝕣𝕕𝕖𝕥𝕥𝕖𝕤

ENTERING INTO TOWN that morning seemed to be a part of some city-wide costume party to the eyes of the teenagers. The town never looked more retro than it did now. And, for that matter, consisting of barely any of the same shops that were open when Marty and Amanda were last in courthouse square. Ir was as if they cleaned up the place in a matter of one night, which Amanda knew by then that— they weren't in 1985 anymore.

"Remember, fellas, the future is in your hands. If you believe in progress, re-elect Mayor Red Thomas, progress is his middle-name. Mayor Red-Thomas's progress platform means more jobs, better education, bigger civic improvements, and lower taxes. On election day, cast your vote for a proven leader..." The campaign went around by them to say, having both recall the campaign occurring when they just left to re-elect Mayor Goldie Wilson.

Looking around more confused, seeing the sign reading that the town they were in was indeed Hill Valley, Amanda looked for anything to disprove where we actually were. "This has gotta be a dream?" She mentioned to Marty, seeing someone toss aside a newspaper into the waste bin. The two of them exchanged a look to one another, heading over to grab it quickly to read the times at the front. The date at the front of the paper read:

November 5th, 1955

Marty put down the paper to turn back over to her with his eyes wide in shock. Their attempted efforts to disprove that Doc's invention had actually work and none of this was a joint-dream failed in this instance. Yet he was still keen on telling his friend otherwise. "Maybe something happened with the experiment, y'know? There's gotta-"

"Marty, I don't think we can keep trying to think this is all fake," Amanda told him, having him hold onto the newspaper tightly.

He motioned over to the cafe shop ahead of them out of an idea he had nudging her along. "In that case, we're gonna need some help. I mean, a lot of help." Following along behind him into the empty shop, Amanda looked around for a moment at anything they could use to get in contact with a past version of someone they knew. A person who also would believe their story at all.

Noticing the phone booth on the other side, Amanda nudged Marty gently to have him nod in agreement without her having to say anything and headed over. "Stay here, I'll look for the Doc. in the phone books." Before she could get a word in edgewise, he was already delved deep into the catalogue of numbers to have her groan in disapproval.

Sitting at the counter, she frowned momentarily to have the man on the other end shoot her a disapproving look. "Your friend jump ship or something?"

"What?"

He motioned to his outfit to have her turn back at the vest he still had over his jean jacket. "He's got a life preserver."

Amanda only nodded, not knowing the right words to say over the state of fashion trends 20 years or so from now. "He's just a strange kid?" The man rolled his eyes at this, pushing a menu over to her to have her skim through it uninterested. Eyeing the way she was now dressed, despite the fact that all she was still wearing a white Bowie sweatshirt and jeans didn't seem to fit with the man's standard dress code for her.

Turning over to see Marty ripping himself a page in the phone book had her assume that he must've found some version of the Doc living around here in this decade. Barely looking over to her direction, he kept himself focused on the task at hand. "Do you know where 1640 Riverside—"

"Look you two, are you going to order something or not?"

Marty suddenly grew nervous at the sudden change of tone and sat himself beside Amanda. "Yeah, gimme a Tab."