[Back to the Future: Drabble] "Do Not Open Until 1985" [G]
Title: Do Not Open Until 1985
Prompt: writerverse challenge 28 December table of doom, prompt 11 “the future ain’t what it used to be” (Yogi Berra)
Word Count: 293
Original/Fandom: Back to the Future
Character(s): Emmett “Doc” Brown
Summary: Emmett contemplates the pieces of a letter
Note(s): originally posted to the writerverse wv_library
Do Not Open Until 1985
Emmett wasn’t sure, immediately, why he’d gathered the pieces of the letter he’d ripped up and put them in his pocket. He ran his thumb along the ragged edge of one scrap, thinking.
It was a short letter, he had seen that much. Only long enough to give a brief glimpse of his future, maybe just a single moment in time - maybe his last moment - that Marty wanted him to avoid.
Marty. He was the reason Emmett had kept the letter.
In his future, in Marty’s present, they were friends. Emmett didn’t have that much experience with friends, but Marty seemed to be a good one. Having the young man stay with him while they worked to get him back to his own time had been surprisingly easy, more so than any of Emmett’s other human interactions. While it was clear when their dinner conversations turned to the more technical aspects of time travel that Marty couldn’t always follow him, Marty listened and that was just as important.
Emmett shuffled the letter fragments in his pocket.
Just before he’d left, Marty had hugged him. Hard and long, like maybe he knew he’d never get the chance again. The terrible thing that Marty wanted to warn him about, the moment he’d written in his letter, was very likely Emmett’s own death.
And if he was supposed to die, shouldn’t he let time happen the way it was meant to?
Except, time had already been changed, just by Marty existing in nineteen-fifty-five. The future wasn’t set in stone, it could be changed - maybe it should be changed.
Emmet smiled and tipped a handful of letter pieces onto his desk. One of them landed right-side-up - “Your friend, Marty,” he read aloud, then reached for the tape.
THE END
Current Mood:
mellow
Prompt: writerverse challenge 28 December table of doom, prompt 11 “the future ain’t what it used to be” (Yogi Berra)
Word Count: 293
Original/Fandom: Back to the Future
Character(s): Emmett “Doc” Brown
Summary: Emmett contemplates the pieces of a letter
Note(s): originally posted to the writerverse wv_library
Do Not Open Until 1985
Emmett wasn’t sure, immediately, why he’d gathered the pieces of the letter he’d ripped up and put them in his pocket. He ran his thumb along the ragged edge of one scrap, thinking.
It was a short letter, he had seen that much. Only long enough to give a brief glimpse of his future, maybe just a single moment in time - maybe his last moment - that Marty wanted him to avoid.
Marty. He was the reason Emmett had kept the letter.
In his future, in Marty’s present, they were friends. Emmett didn’t have that much experience with friends, but Marty seemed to be a good one. Having the young man stay with him while they worked to get him back to his own time had been surprisingly easy, more so than any of Emmett’s other human interactions. While it was clear when their dinner conversations turned to the more technical aspects of time travel that Marty couldn’t always follow him, Marty listened and that was just as important.
Emmett shuffled the letter fragments in his pocket.
Just before he’d left, Marty had hugged him. Hard and long, like maybe he knew he’d never get the chance again. The terrible thing that Marty wanted to warn him about, the moment he’d written in his letter, was very likely Emmett’s own death.
And if he was supposed to die, shouldn’t he let time happen the way it was meant to?
Except, time had already been changed, just by Marty existing in nineteen-fifty-five. The future wasn’t set in stone, it could be changed - maybe it should be changed.
Emmet smiled and tipped a handful of letter pieces onto his desk. One of them landed right-side-up - “Your friend, Marty,” he read aloud, then reached for the tape.
THE END
Current Mood:
mellow