Part One (633 KB) - Whoa is (Not)

She shook her head. “I don’t think so, Marty. I know there’s something bothering you. I can tell. Ever
since Doc Brown gave you that computer, you’ve been acting weird. That day Nick asked me if I knew
where you were, because apparently you just ran off…”
“It’s nothing, Jen.”
They paused at a traffic light and waited for the lights to turn. A thought suddenly occurred to Jennifer,
and she looked her boyfriend squarely in the eye.
“Is it about the future, Marty Did you find out something”
“It’s nothing to do with that,” he replied.
“So there is something.”
“It’s just…” Marty hesitated. It would be so much of a relief to tell her everything, to share the burden of
what he’d discovered with someone other than Doc… but somehow he couldn’t bring himself to tell her
the truth: that in some other universe, at least, they were fictional and all the events of two months
before were just part of a movie. He couldn’t tell her all that; already he himself was feeling the effects
of knowing what he did.
Marty knew he was getting paranoid. Everywhere he went nowadays, he couldn’t shake the feeling that
he was being watched. He thought a lot more before dong or saying anything, in case They were
watching, somewhere out there, and he didn’t want Them to see things he wouldn’t want Them to see.
And it wasn’t just the physical things. Even his thoughts were more wary than before. It freaked him out
to realise that he had the thoughts he did because someone in another universe had written them out for
him, controlling his mind, in that effect, and everything he thought or said or did. He was the person he
was because someone had written him that way. Just the night before had seen him staring intently at
his hand, wondering if it was really his, or just a copy of some actors’.
The same queasy feeling crept up at him even regarding things such as the arrangement of furniture in
his bedroom: were they arranged that way because he had made it so, or had it been the work of the
prop people in another reality The location of his desk, his guitar, his bed, his underwear...
He didn’t want to burden Jennifer with all that too, and yet she apparently already suspected something
was up. Sooner or later, he supposed he’d have to tell her. He only hoped it would be later, but he
didn’t seem to have much of a choice…
“Marty” Jennifer asked, concern in her voice.
Marty took a deep breath. “Are you free tomorrow morning”
“Huh Yeah, sure… why”
“Just… uh, meet me at Doc’s garage tomorrow,” he said resignedly. “Eight o’clock. I’ve got to show you
something.”
“What’ve you got to show me”
“I… I can’t explain it. Just... meet me there tomorrow.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Onboard the Nebuchadnezzar
Once again he was here: lying in his bed, unable to fall asleep. Only this time it wasn’t the coffee’s fault;
Neo had, in a sudden unexplainable British mood, spent most of the evening drinking tea. Nice, hot,
cups of true British Earl Grey tea, made with fresh tea leaves and boiling – not boiled – water, with the
milk added before the tea such that it wouldn’t be scalded, and unfortunately also filled with caffeine.
Not as much as coffee, but still enough to keep him uncomfortably awake.
He had thought he would be able to control it this time, what with the experience he had gained since
then. The truth, however, was a totally different thing altogether.