BG Sparrow

mcfly july 2024 || 🌲 || day 13

Weather Experiment

At the town meeting in February 1885, Emmett Brown met Mary Ward, the schoolteacher. She knew a fellow advocate for education when she saw him.

Doc happily taught weekly — soon, twice weekly — science lessons for her twelve students.

They took samples from the lake, dyed daisies to study capillary action, and talked about everything from dinosaurs and geology to the Hydrologic Cycle.

“A good preamble for our weather experiment next week!” Emmett said, showing them the weather vane and rain gauge he was preparing outside.

They were expecting storms.

They were not expecting Mrs. Ward to pass in her sleep.

mcfly july 2024 || 🌲 || day 12 The Easy Way

Biff put his big desk between his bruised lackeys and himself. He thumbed his nose with a dangerously low laugh before pinning Skinhead, 3-D, and Match with an ominous glare.

“What the hell do I pay you for?”

“To be your security detail,” Match said, moving the icepack to his other black eye.

“Yeah, not to babysit,” 3-D said.

“I pay you to do what I say,” Biff said. “If that punk ain’t in the penthouse, you put him there.”

“We don’t get paid enough for this, Biff,” Skinhead said. “Look at us.”

“So just hit him over the head!”

mcfly july 2024 || 🌲🌲 || day 12 All-nighter

Clara was no stranger to the deep hours of the night.

She fell in love with stars at a young age, when her thready breaths and chest pains kept her awake. 

She fell in love with the writings of Jules Verne soon after she recovered, retreating into his fantastic worlds until the sun warmed the horizon. She pretended that if she looked close enough, she might see The Baltimore Gun Club’s projectile streaking against the current of falling stars on its way to the moon.

And when her beloved stars paled around him, she fell in love with Emmett Brown.

mcfly july 2024 || 🌲 || day 11 Reading George's First Draft

“It’s, uh, something.”

George brandishes an exaggerated grin. “You hate it.”

“No!” Lorraine says. “No, no, no! It’s just… Well, it’s a lot! All the storylines and motives! And the world you’ve built, just...wow.”

George steeples his fingers and puts them to his lips. 

“But?”

Lorraine sighs. “But do you have to use our middle names?”

“Lorraine, this is our story.”

“It is –”

“Raylene is such a unique name! It’s perfect.”

“But I hate my middle name, George.”

“Tell you what,” George says. “If it’s not a bestseller, then you can be mad at me. Deal?”

Lorraine laughs. “Deal.”

mcfly july 2024 || 🌲🌲 || day 11 Baking Joey's Cake

After setting off to make a new life in New York, Uncle Joey flew back to Hill Valley at the end of the summer so his big sister could throw him a birthday party.

Lorraine was in her element, delegating tasks to everyone from the kitchen as most good hostesses do.

“Marty, could you and Dave set the chairs out? I’m making the cake.”

“Linda, be a dear and wrap Uncle Joey’s present for me. I’m making the cake.”

“Would someone answer the door! I’m making the cake!”

Uncle Joey’s favorite – yellow with chocolate frosting.

“Thanks, sis. I love it.”

mcfly july 2024 || 🌲 || day 10 Point of No Return

“Marty, we can’t join a pirate crew!” Doc hissed hysterically.

Marty eyed the rowdy, drunken patrons of the tavern they’d happened upon in the stilt town.

“Do you have a better idea?” Marty asked. 

“Yes!” Doc said. “We find the Royal Navy. Any Navy.” He turned Marty away from the seaman eyeballing them and lowered his voice. “It’s not just what they’ll do to you, Marty. It’s what you’ll become!”

“Cool,” Marty deadpanned. “I always wanted a parrot.”

Doc sighed as Marty made his mark on the roster. 

Marty handed him the quill.

“This is a terrible idea.”

“Always is.”

mcfly july 2024 || 🌲🌲 || day 10 Rite of Passage

Marty tilted his new shield in the small sliver of sunlight stretching into the Royal Alchemist’s chamber. His family’s crest adorned it in red, silver, and gold, boastful and proud.

Marty felt ill.

“I thought I’d be excited for my first tourney. And I am, I suppose. But I’m nervous.”

“Putting one’s honor up for scrutiny in sport often is intimidating, my prince,” Doc said, shelving a book. “But I have no doubt you’ll make your people proud.”

Marty slumped against the stone wall. He propped the shield up opposite himself and glowered.

“I’d rather play my hurdy-gurdy for them.”

mcfly july 2024 || 🌲 || day 9 Stolen Idea

“I don’t see how he’s getting away with it!” 

Marty sighed. He shut his bedroom door, but it did little to muffle his dad’s latest rant. 

“He could have had a similar idea, honey,” Lorraine said from the kitchen.

“A similar idea? He named the character Darth Vader, Lorraine! And made him the bad guy! Darth Vader isn’t a bad guy!”

“Maybe this Darth Vader is.”

George growled, fists in the air. 

“It’s not right, Lorraine! I cooked up this character years ago in high school! Now, I’m going to have to change his name just to publish my book!”

mcfly july 2024 || 🌲🌲 || day 9 A New Puppy

After Rocky ran off and made friends with Doc Brown’s sheepdog, it became apparent to Sherman Peabody that his pup might benefit having a permanent playmate.

A sibling.

And now that they had a yard, why not?

Fortuitously, the shelter had another golden retriever. She was shy, but Sherman had no doubt Rocky would provoke her puppy energy.

“Do you wish to rename her?”

“No.”

Rocky’s tail hadn’t stopped wagging yet.

“This is Natasha,” Sherman said, setting the smaller dog at his feet. “You show her around and be friends,” he said to Rocky as they scampered off. “No shoes!”

mcfly july 2024 || 🌲 || day 8 Wrong House

Shoes polished and homework complete, Lester finished his chamomile tea, bid goodnight to his parents, and went upstairs to bed.

His sleep was fitful; he still hadn’t decided on a tie for the dance, but his dreams suggested yellow —

A horrible, horrible, ear-splitting sound filled his ears.

Lester sat up screaming. 

A rubber-gloved hand covered his mouth.

“Silence, earthling!”

Lester jumped up, tore the metal band from his head, grabbed the ball bat mounted next to his bed, and demanded, “What are you doing‽” Marty retreated, hands up. “W-Wait –” “Get out of my house!”

Marty dove for the window. 

mcfly july 2024 || 🌲🌲 || day 8 Manure Truck Driver

After Biff plowed into Old Man Jones’s manure truck for the second time that week, he would be in some serious debt if he wanted his De Luxe cleaned up again.

“I’m not paying for him to haul it away again,” Terry said as the car was towed in. He pointed at Biff. “That’s on you.”

That is how Biff came to have an after-school job at Western Auto.

He paid for his car’s repairs and Jones’s fee after two weeks, but Terry kept him on.

“You’re not the best mechanic,” he said, “but you sure can make ‘em shine.”

mcfly july 2024 || 🌲🌲 || day 7 High School Sweetheart

It's been four months since they’ve spoken. 

After the accident, Jennifer tried. To justify staying excused his recklessness. His ego compromised her safety.

“Grab hold of something” was when she let go.

Now, as Marty walked up to her in his red cap and gown, she returned his tight smile, civilly, if only to keep the memories from marring the day.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

“I, uh, know you probably won’t come,” he says, handing her an invitation to his grad party in July, “but if you're free.” A shrug.

“Uh, yeah.” She swallows, forcing her smile a bit more. “We’ll see.”

mcfly july 2024 || 🌲🌲 || day 7 Back in Town

“You gonna tell him? Or are you gonna tell him?”

Buck and Ceegar glanced at one another, then at Stubble.

“Us? You’re the one that knows how to read.”

Stubble raised an eyebrow. “What the hell’s one got to do with the other? Just tell him.”

“Tell me what?”

The three bandits fell silent as Buford approached the fire circle. 

“Well, we thought you oughta hear it from Jack,” Buck said, “since he can read and all —“

“What?”

Stubble bit his lip. 

“Eastwood’s back.”

And there came the cloud, darkening Buford’s eyes.

“Is he now?”

“Buford —“

“Saddle up.”

mcfly july 2024 || 🌲 || day 6 Biff's Grand Opening

Lorraine winced as Biff barged through the penthouse doors. The chandelier’s light shimmered on the sleek planes of his white-gold suit.

Lorraine looked down at her matching dress. She wanted to spill her Bloody Mary on it.

“Where are those kids of yours? Cameras’re waiting for a big family photo.”

“I sent them to boarding school.”

“What?”

He hadn’t shown his family man side to the press in a while, and she knew that. She knew that!

Biff paused. 

Maybe this wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

“Find out how much it is for ‘em to stay for summer.”

mcfly july 2024 || 🌲🌲 || day 6 Lite Beer

It was a night of firsts for Junior. A night of lessons.

He’d never snuck out before, never gone to a party.

Never drank.

Then again, he’d never been invited before, either, and he didn’t want to blow it, even if it was Griff’s crowd. 

“What’s your poison, McFly?” 

“Uh, Lite’s good. Don’t wanna get too far gone.” He swallowed a nervous laugh. “Math test tomorrow.”

Spike stared at him.

“Lite beer doesn’t have less alcohol.”

“Yeah, it does.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Spike laughed.

“It’s light beer! Light alcohol.”

Spike flashed her eyebrows. She handed him the beer.

“Suit yourself.”

mcfly july 2024 || 🌲 || day 5 "I got to double back, my friend"

Emmett eyed the towering pines. The excited children. The dark wooden signs with rounded yellow letters carved into them instructing visitors around the camp.

“But Father, why must I learn to ride a horse?”

“Every man knows how to ride a horse,” Erhardt said. “He knows how to bait a line, shoot a squirrel, start a fire! How to find his way home when he is lost.”

Emmett nodded, still casting an apprehensive eye upon his fellow campers. He’d never known such rambunctious, feral eight-year-olds.

“You’ll have a wonderful time, son. Be sure to write to your mother.”

“Yes, Father.”