REAL WORLD: PART THREE Homeward Bound ... - Whoa is (Not)

“Can I stick my finger in it”
“NO!”
Marty cleared his throat. “Ah… I think we’d better get going,” he said. “I want to be home by lunch, and
we’ve still got to send Neo back…”
“Yeah.”
They stood up and exchanged various goodbyes and good luck wishes. Neo shot a look at the clock. It was
past eleven; pity they couldn’t stay for lunch. After this, it would be back to subsisting on gooey white stuff
on the ol’ Nebuchadnezzar… no more pizza, no more ice cream…
“Neo”
He turned. “Yeah”
Ted hugged him, then pulled back and smiled. “Bye, Neo.”
A thought struck Neo, and he reached into his pocket. Taking out the really cool sunglasses case, he
handed it to Ted. “You can have this,” he said. “I won’t need them any more.”
With awe, Ted received the case and opened it. The pair of really cool sunglasses looked up at him, the
really cool sunglasses cloth folded neatly under them.
“Thanks, dude!” he said earnestly.
Neo gave a wan smile. “Goodbye.”
And the travellers left the house and walked out to the time train, one member less.
**
It is perhaps enough to say that things all went well on that second trip to Zion. The time train entered the
underground city at the same time they had previously left it, when the sentinels were gone but the hole still
there. They went back in time to slightly over sixty hours from when Neo was taken, and got hold of
someone who helped them contact the Nebuchadnezzar and inform the ship of Neo’s whereabouts.
Everyone involved was sworn to secrecy. The need for memory-wiping never arose.
Marty, Doc and Verne left Neo at Zion to wait for the Neb to arrive, and they took off in the train for Hill
Valley, 1985, landing outside Marty’s home at 9303 Lyon Estates.
The hiss of depressurised air filled the cabin as Marty stared wistfully out of the windows. Doc slid open the
door of the locomotive, and they got off.
The teen turned to face his house, where it stood beneath the bright afternoon sky. The car was in the
driveway. His family was in the house, waiting for him. Slowly, he walked up the driveway, Doc and Verne
following behind.
He was home. After so long, he was finally home, but for some reason he didn’t feel as happy as he thought
he should have been. Too many things had happened in the last two or three days, and Marty didn’t know if
he would ever be able to continue his life the way he had lived it before everything started.
Maybe out there, somewhere, all this was just some movie and there were people watching him even now
as he made his way to the door and rang the doorbell, watching as Dave McFly answered the door and
yelled for his parents to come.
“Marty!” Lorraine gasped. “Where have you been”
The teenager took a deep breath. “Mom… Dad… there’s something I gotta tell you. Oh, and here’s Doctor
Brown, and that’s his younger son, Verne…”