head in disbelief. ‘It doesn’t even sound like music!’
‘Yeah!’ the first girl agreed. ‘Thank god we didn’t have to live in the eighties.’ She rolled her eyes at the video. ‘It must have been terrible!’
Shred that? Terrible? Rock and rail?
Marty wondered what they listened to now, but he was afraid he didn’t want to know. He suddenly felt very old and out-of-place. He looked away from the video screens and the girls who were too bored to bother.
Hey! Now this was more like it. Over in the corner was an old arcade video game called ‘Wild Gunman' that Marty used to play in the Seven-Eleven, in 1985.
A kid of eight or nine stood in front of the game, looking thoroughly confused. The kid glanced up as Marty walked toward him.
‘How do you play this thing?’ the boy asked.
Marty grinned. Now this was something he knew about! ‘I’ll show you, kid. I'm a crack shot at this one.’ He stepped in front of the machine as the kid moved out of the way. But there was something different about this version of ‘Wild Gunman’. For one thing, Marty couldn’t find the coin slot.
‘Where do you put in the quarter?’ he asked. ‘Quarter?’ the kid replied. ‘What’s a quarter?’ Marty had no idea what kind of change they used in 2015. He moved his hand along the side of the game’s console, feeling for something that would take the money. Didn't the coin slot used to be over here?
The game beeped to life as his thumb hit a metal plate. Oh - so that’s what the Reagan robot meant by ‘use your thumb’. The name WILD GUNMAN appeared on the screen, followed by the usual instructions and previous high score. Well, Marty would have to worry about financial questions later. Right now, he had a game to play!
He got into it right away, shooting every outlaw and gunfighter that showed up in the Western town on the screen. He’d give this kid from the future a real demonstration of video talent!
’You mean you have to use your hands?’ the kid whined. ‘That’s like a baby toy!’
Use your hands? Baby toy?
The kid wandered away.
Marty’s hands fell from the controls. He suddenly felt older than old.
He supposed he might as well finish the game. Somehow, it wasn’t the same. His eyes wandered from the video display. He saw himself walking on the other side of the window, right by Biff and Griff's gang, who were all too busy arguing to notice him. He headed straight for the door to the Café 80’s.
Himself? On the other side of the window? Straight for the door? Marty realised he was looking at his future son - Marty Junior!
‘Damn!’ Marty whispered. He couldn't possibly let his future son see him - that could ruin all of Doc’s plans. But his son was coming in the only door that Marty saw in this place.
Where could Marty go?
He jumped behind the counter, dodging the Reagan automatons. He ducked down as his future son walked into the restaurant.
‘Welcome to Café 80 s,’ the Reagan-thing began, ‘'where it’s always -’
‘Pepsi Perfect,’ Marty Junior interrupted before the Reagan image could go into the whole routine.
‘Hey, McFly!’
Marty Senior peeked above the counter long enough to see Griff and his gang walk through the door.
‘Hi. Griff - Junior replied hesitantly, ‘- guys. How’s it going?’
Griff walked right up to him. ‘Hey, McFly. your shoe's untied.'
Junior looked down at his sneakers as Griff flicked the other boy’s nose with his index finger. The gang laughed. Marty couldn’t believe it - his son fell for a joke that had been old back in 1955, when Biff used it on George McFly, Junior's grandfather! And it was worse than that. Even though he was the butt of the joke, Junior had laughed, too, along with the rest of them.
The déjà vu feeling was back, but this time it lurched around in Marty’s stomach. There was something about Junior, something that reminded Marty Senior an awful lot of the teenaged George McFly, back in 1955. Maybe it was