Back to the Future - AR

IV

Chapter 4

I remain pushed up against the headboard as my dad sits beside me, I can't help but stare at him in paralyzing fear, I can't believe this is real.
"Alejandro, is that girl awake?" I hear my grandma call from another area of the house.
"Yeah!" My dad calls back.
"Why don't you invite her to stay for dinner?"
He looks over at me as I control my breathing, he smiles.
"Hey." He says quietly. "You wanna stay for dinner?"

-

My grandpa walks just ahead of us down the stairs, my dad and Mattia keep staring at me the whole way down them.
"So, Cienna, how long have you been in Newark?" He asks as I sit between my dad and Mattia.
"Uhh, since I was born." I say quietly as Uncle Nano comes running from his room, my eyes widen at the sight of him.
"Mommy! She's awake!" He shouts making my grandma come into the room, she smiles an empathetic smile at me.
"Hello." She says softly.
"Hello." I return.
"I am so sorry for hitting you with my car." She says making me giggle a bit.
"It's ok, really, I'm fine." I say reassuringly.
"Let's eat!" My grandpa announces as he brings down bags of McDonald's, I sit slightly uncomfortably between my dad and Mattia, especially while they all talk about... well whatever it is they talk about until they begin speaking to me.

"Ya know." My grandma starts as she rests her chin against her hand. "You look awfully familiar, do we know your parents?"
I side eye my dad as he smiles at me and I swallow the lump that's forming in my throat before speaking.
"Uhh, yeah, one of them at least."
She nods.
"You wanna call them? Let them know you're alright?"
I shake my head.
"Uhh, actually, they're uhh, out." I stutter making everyone nod.

"Umm do you know anybody by the name of Mitchell White?"
My grandpa nods without taking his eyes
off the TV.
"Yeah, he works at NJIT."
"All the way across town?" I question even though I know that was a dumb question.
"Yup." My dad answers making me look over at him for a second.
"But Ma, don't you think it's kinda late for her to be traveling by herself?" He questions as we look over at my grandma.
"Sort of."
Why grandma why?
"Maybe, she should stay here, with me and the boys." He says innocently. "Just for the night."
His hand makes its way to my thigh, giving
it a squeeze which made me jump up from my seat.
"Ya know, this was lovely, but I really need to go."
I smile at everyone before rushing out of the house and toward the center of the city again,
catching the bus on my way there and riding all the way across town.

I get off at the stop and rush into the school, searching every classroom until I find one that keeps glowing bright orange and blue. I peek through the window to see it's completely empty, except for the Professor, I found him. I knock softly on the door and wait for a minute for him to put his equipment down, he opens the door for a split second and slams it as soon as I get close to it.
I look through the window just as he opens the door again, he stares at me confused.
"Professor White?" I question as he pulls me into the room, slamming the door shut and slapping a suction cup to my head.
"Professor you have to listen to me."
"Not another word." He shouts as he flips the switch on a large machine.
"I am going to read your mind." He says while accentuating his words with jazz hands.
"You, you come from a place of great distance, correct?"
I nod.
"I'm here from-"
"SHHT! Now, you're here because you want something? Yes? Are you a Girl Scout?"
"What? No. I'm-"
"DON'T TELL ME! You're a nun?"
I shake my head and pull the suction cup off my forehead.
"Professor, I'm from the future. I came here in a time machine that you built, and you're the only person who can help me get back to the year 2048."

He sits there astonished before angrily pulling the contraption apart and shouting gibberish.
"Please Professor, you're the only one who knows how this time machine works." I plead making him pause for a second.
"I haven't invented any time machine." He says while rubbing his temples. I have to think quickly if I'm gonna convince him that I'm not lying, I quickly pull out my phone which has my provisional in the back of the case.
"Look, this is my provisional, it expires in 2049. Look at my birthdate! I haven't even been thought of yet, let alone born."
He examines it for a second and laughs.
"Ok, future girl, tell me, who's president of the United States in 2048?" He asks as he looks me dead in my face.
"Michelle Obama."
"Oh wow, good for her." He says genuinely before gathering a bunch of blueprints and running out of the building towards the same shed I usually go to every day, except this ones nice and cleaned up, almost like its a miniature house.

"Professor please listen to me! I know how you got that big ass cut on your head, you told me the whole thing. You were standing on the toilet trying to hang a clock but you slipped and hit your head on the sink and when you came to, you had a vision of the Flex Capacitor."
My voice fades out once I reach the words Flex Capacitor, but the door swings open to reveal the Professor's wide eyes.
"Flex Capacitor?" He says, I nod.
"That's what you said makes time travel possible." I reiterate what he told me in the... future.

He shakes me by my shoulders and jumps for joy.
"Well, what are you waiting for?! Take me to it!"
We catch the bus and go across town once again until we see the building i parked the Tesla behind, I open the doors of the car and allow him to just take this all in.
"This was my vision."
He holds out a crumpled up piece of paper with a rough sketch of the Flex Capacitor on it, I point towards the back of the car and watch as his eyes light up at the sight.
"Good God."