"30 years ago today, the day my life changed forever, when a young man from the future came to me and said he'd arrived in a time machine that I'd invented! We had a week to get his parents together and send him back to the future, and for the next 30 years I always thought about that one week in November 1955."

Verne Brown sat listening to his father. He'd heard the story before of course, his father loved telling it. Sometimes it had been in a lecture mode. Once, back in 1895 before the Brown family had moved to 1985, Jules and Verne had wanted to "borrow" the train time machine. Doc had told them they weren't ready yet, and had told the story as a warning of what could happen of they messed up.

The doorbell rang and Verne, eager to get away from hearing the story again, went to answer it. It was Marty.

"Hi," the young boy said. He and Marty smiled awkwardly at each other. In the week since the Browns had moved back to 1985, Marty hadn't got to know the kids that well yet.

Verne led Marty in.

"Hi Doc," said Marty. Doc smiled.

"Marty, you made it! Our 30th anniversary!"

Marty chuckled. "Yep, here I am. Hey, what's the time?" He looked at his watch. "6.26. I wonder what I was doing 30 years ago? Ah yes, I was looking for your house."

"In fact, in about 20 minutes it will be exactly 30 years since you knocked on my door," Doc told him, "and changed my life forever."

"We know, we've heard the story before," said Verne.

"Verne, don't be rude!" Clara told her son as Jules came in.

"How was your astronomy club?" Clara asked.

"It was fine until some older pupils came in and called us all dorks," sighed Jules. "I've only been at that school a week and already I'm being bullied. Maybe my first impression wasn't good enough. Maybe I should change to keep them happy..."

"No!" said Doc. "Why should you? Be yourself, if they don't like it, then tough. Actually, the events of 30 years ago tie in with that. I remember it vividly....."

Copernicus barked again. Dr Emmett L Brown slowly opened his eyes.

"What is it?" he asked the dog. Copernicus whined and headed for the door. Dr Brown was puzzled. Usually Copernicus only did this when something very important was happening, such as the mailman or a visitor arriving.

Dr Brown wasn't expecting anything important to happen today. As his alarm clock struck 6, he petted the dog and snuggled back into his bed, and as Marty McFly, unknown to anyone, entered 1955, Dr Brown went back to sleep.

Dr Brown next opened his eyes some time later when a large smash was heard coming from the sound of his bathroom. He could hear Copernicus yelp.

Getting out of bed as fast as he could, Dr Brown ran to his bathroom. Copernicus was in there, whining with pain. There were lots of bits of glass and a rock in the room. And in the window was a large hole.

"Great Scott!" Dr Brown's first thoughts were for his pet. He quickly examined Copernicus' paws, and found a small segment of glass in his right back paw.

"Don't worry Copernicus," he said to the dog as he rushed him downstairs. He got some tweezers and managed to get the small bit of glass out of his dog's paw. After checking Copernicus was all right, Dr Brown put the dog in his basket and went back upstairs to check the damage.

The rock had come through the window and flown across the room, crashing into the clock that hung above the toilet and smashing the clock face. It had then landed next to the toilet.

"Those damn kids again," he said to himself. Some kids had decided it would be really funny to play practical jokes on Dr Brown for the past few weeks. On Halloween, 5 days ago, someone had arrived at the Brown mansion with a jukebox. The mailman said it was an order for a Dr Emmett L Brown, and Dr Brown guessed they had ordered it for him as a "joke." A joke so funny, Dr Brown had forgotten to laugh. Other so called "jokes" included a letter from the University saying his services were no longer required. Dr Brown had phoned up and checked to discover it had been a trick. The "jokers" had somehow discovered he had taken the semester off to concentrate on his inventions and used this to their advantage.

Sighing, Dr Brown started clearing up the mess. The clock had been one of many that his father had collected. He had collected so many clocks that each room in the house had one in it. Dr Brown picked up the clock.

"I can fix this," he muttered to himself. He took the clock out to his garage and got out his tools.

When the clock was fixed, Dr Brown set it to the right time and walked back to his house. He picked up his telephone and was about to dial the number for the police when there was a knock on the door.

If it's those kids again! he thought as he ran to answer it. Opening the door, he saw no-one.

"I don't know how they run down my drive so fast," he said to himself. He was about to go back inside when he heard one of his trashcans fall over. Immediately suspicious, he went over to the cans.

"Let's get out of here!" a voice whispered. It sounded like a 17 or 18 year old boy. Dr Brown ran around the side of his house to catch the boy.

"Aha! Caught you!" he said as he saw the boy. The kid was wearing 3-D glasses and stood there staring at Dr Brown. He then noticed the boy's 3 friends.

"What on earth do you think you're doing?" Dr Brown asked angrily. "Your telephone's ringing," the kid said. As Dr Brown turned, he could hear it ringing, but then he noticed the gang running off down the drive.

"Come back here!" Dr Brown yelled.

"Where to, Biff?" the guy with the 3-D glasses asked. The tall one, the one named Biff, replied with "My car!"

The 17 year olds were a lot faster than Dr Brown, and they were in their car driving off by the time he reached the end of his driveway.

"Where shall we go now?" 3-D asked Biff as they drove down Riverside Drive.

"The cafe," Biff answered. "I want to see if that Irish bug McFly has finished my homework yet."

Dr Brown watched them drive off. At least he now knew who they were. Biff. There weren't many kids around here named Biff. Actually, he could only think of one - Biff Tannen.

Doc Brown went back into his house. The telephone wasn't ringing any more. Deciding to pay a trip to the Tannen household and speak to Biff's father, Dr Brown grabbed his car keys and went out, locking the door behind him.

Unknown to him, the person trying to call him had been a man from the future. In Lou's Cafe, Marty put down the phone and deciding to find Doc's house himself, went to ask the owner where 1640 Riverside Drive was.

"Why didn't I look up the address before I left?" Dr Brown muttered to Copernicus, who was sitting in the other seat. Copernicus looked at his owner as if to say, "Why would I know?"

Dr Brown stopped off in Lou's Cafe. He looked down the street, just in case Biff Tannen was there. Tannen had been seen in this cafe quite often. A boy in a bike was riding off down the street, and another kid, about the same age, was yelling something.

"Hey Dad, George, hey, you on the bike!"

The kid must be a sailor or something. Why else would he be wearing that life preserver? Shrugging his shoulders, Dr Brown entered the Cafe.

"Morning Dr Brown." The owner, Lou Carruthers, was at the counter. "Your usual?"

"Not today Lou, I just need to use the phone." Dr Brown walked to the back of the cafe where the phone was. The phonebook was already open, at the B section. Absently, Dr Brown looked for his own name. He found to his surprise that someone had torn out the page with his name and address on.

"Probably to play some more jokes on me," Dr Brown muttered to himself. He turned to the T section and looked for Tannen. Luckily for him, there was only one Tannen in the book.

Putting the phone book back, Dr Brown said his thanks to Lou and drove off to Mason Street.

Number 1809, Mason Street looked like a little old lady lived there. Dr Brown couldn't imagine a sweet little old lady like Mrs Tannen must be having a bullying son like Biff.

Leaving Copernicus in the car, with the window slightly open, Dr Brown walked to the front door. He knocked and waited, until a little old lady came to the door.

This will be easy, Dr Brown thought. However, Mrs Tannen glared at Dr Brown.

"Yes?" she asked snappily. Dr Brown was slightly taken back.

"Hello, Mrs Tannen is it?"

"Yep." She was still staring at him. He continued.

"It's about your son."

"Buck? He's in jail!"

"Uh, no. Biff."

"My grandson? What's your business?"

"He's been throwing rocks at my windows, and injuring my dog. And, knocking on my door and then running off and hiding."

"Who is it, Gert?" a male voice asked from another room.

"Crazy old Doc Brown," Gertrude Tannen shouted back. "He says Biff's been bothering him." A man, Biff's grandfather, came to the door.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Bud Tannen inquired.

Dr Brown began telling him about what Biff had been up to. "The damage comes to $30," Dr Brown told Bud. It had actually come to less but Dr Brown felt he had more than enough money to spend, so he had decided only to take $30 from Biff. It wasn't as if he had anything important to spend his money on, anyway. "I'm sure that you..."

He was going to say "...will make Biff pay for it with his money," but Bud had jumped to conclusions.

"I'm not going to pay you!" he snarled. "It's your window. You pay for it!"

"I didn't say..." Dr Brown began, but Bud Tannen was not to be interrupted. Gertrude disappeared during her husband's shouts at Dr Brown.

"If you were normal, kids wouldn't be that way to you. But no. You have to invent these crazy things which no-one will ever buy! As far as I'm concerned, you brought this on yourself, so I ain't paying!"

"Dr Brown," Gertrude Tannen came back to the door. She had some papers in his hands. "Biff could not have done those things. He has been doing his homework. He really studies hard." She showed him the papers. It was a page of maths equations. Each question was written neatly and Dr Brown checked them in his head to realise Biff had gotten them all right! Of course, neither he nor Gertrude were aware that the next page was the exact same questions completed by George McFly, whom Biff had once again copied from.

"Mr Tannen, Biff should pay me the money!" Dr Brown said loudly before Bud could say anything else. "Not you. Biff."

Bud's tone changed. "Oh, Right then. I'll make him pay for this."

That little matter had been sorted, so Dr Brown had driven home - with the $30. Biff had happened to arrive home just as he was leaving, and Bud had forced the young man to hand over his money. Dr Brown now sat on his chair in his house, thinking.

He sighed. Were Bud Tannen's words true? Did he waste his time making things that never worked? He looked at some of his failed inventions. All of them had not worked. Not a single success story. Apart from one, which he had not tested. His mind reader.

He had worked long and hard on this one, and was ready to test it. However there was not exactly a long line of volunteers. Dr Brown had virtually no friends to try it on.

He looked around the room. Aha! His clock. The one he had fixed this morning. At least that worked, even if he hadn't invented it himself. Deciding to put it back in the bathroom, he picked up the clock and walked upstairs.

He stood on the toilet trying to find the nail that held the clock up on the wall. After said nail had been located, Doc got off the toilet to pick up the clock. As he did so, he accidentally knocked over the cup of water on top of the toilet. He kept it there to put his toothbrush in, as there was no room on the sink. Dr Brown didn't notice the water spreading itself around the porcelain toilet lid. He stood back on the lid with the clock on his hand, put the clock back on the wall, and then - he slipped.

"Great Scott!" he cried as he fell backwards. He banged his head against the sink and was knocked out by the impact.

The letter Y formed an image in Dr Brown's head. It stayed there as the word why swirled around in his thoughts. Then suddenly, all other thoughts disappeared. Only the letter Y was still in Dr Brown's head. It stayed there, and then suddenly started glowing. Two new words entered Dr Brown's head. Flux. Capacitor.

When he came to, Dr Brown rubbed his head. It was still bleeding slightly so he went to get a bandage. He thought about a vision he had had when he had when he'd been knocked out. A letter Y. Something called a "flux capacitor". Something about travelling through time.

Dr Brown suddenly punched the air.

"Eureka!" he yelled excitedly. "I've got it!" He quickly ran to get a piece of paper and sketched down his vision. He did a few calculations and stared at his results.

"Great Scott," he muttered. "This might just work!"

Dr Brown spent the rest of the day thinking about his flux capacitor and how it would travel through time. He had always wanted to travel through time, especially to the Old West. He'd read about a namesake of his who'd lived in Hill Valley from 1885 to 1895, much to his amusement. No picture though. He wondered what the other Emmett Brown had been like.

His vision had removed all thoughts in his head that he should give up science. He knew he had something, something that could change the world as we knew it. This invention he would build could help gain a clear perception of humanity. Where we've been, where we're going. The pitfalls and the possibilities. The perils and the promise. Perhaps even an answer to that universal question, why?

You know, he thought to yourself. When you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.

His work was interrupted when there was a knock at the door.

"Another one of those damn kids," Dr Brown said to Copernicus. "I'll scare him off by testing my mind reader on him."

Dr Brown opened the door. Standing there was a young man who looked familiar. Of course. He was wearing a life preserver, like the sailor he'd seen that morning outside Lou's Cafe.

"Doc?" the young man, Marty McFly, asked. And at that moment, Emmett Brown's life would never be the same again.

"You didn't know the first part, did you?" Doc told his children.

"What about Biff?" Verne asked.

"When I caused him to crash into the manure, both Doc and I considered that revenge," chuckled Marty.

"He never bothered me again after George punched him," said Doc. "And when I finally did report him to the police, once Marty and I had got the DeLorean into the lab, he was given a talking to by them. It didn't stop him bullying others, but it made him leave me alone. That day also made me realise that I could do something with my science, and it didn't matter what other people though, because I was being myself, and that was all that mattered."

"You're right, Dad," said Jules. "I'm fine just the way I am. Who knows, maybe I'll invent something really good one day."

"You never know..." smiled Doc as he raised a wine glass. "To science."

The others raised their glasses of wine or lemonade to the toast.

Last Revised: June 4th 2004

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