"Partners in Time?"

Synopsis: When Doc Brown takes advantage of Marty's help one time too many, Marty blows up and the two have a huge argument. After a week passes and with neither speaking to one another, Jennifer Parker contacts Clara and the two hatch up a plan to get the guys together again by spending a week in the past. Clara convinces Doc that the both of them need a vacation in 1692, Salem, Massachusetts. Meanwhile, Jennifer is forced to borrow the sleep inducer to get Marty in the DeLorean and in the past. The women leave their men behind, with the idea that they will make up with each other within the week. Once there, both Doc and Marty end up at "The Goode Inn." To pay for his stay, Marty is hired by the innkeeper to do some odd jobs, wheras Doc has enough money to pay for his room and board. On the second night there, Marty's complaints about Doc are heard and misunderstood by a friend of the innkeeper's daughter. The next thing Doc knows, he's in jail under the accusation of being a witch. Though Marty feels guilty for his unintended involvement in Doc's arrest, he's still mad at him. Will Marty overcome his grudge and help his old friend--or say nothing and allow Doc to be hung as a witch?

Length: Approximately 36,000 words

Written: September 1997 - December 1997

Revised: December 1997

What's New in '99:

Author's Notes: I always wanted to do a "witch trial" BTTF story, ever since we briefly studied the Salem Witch Trials in my 8th grade history class in 1992! But I resisted for a long time, since the BTTF cartoon series had a pretty good episode on the Salem Witch Trials ("Witchcraft," FYI) and I didn't really have an idea how to do things differently that they had. Then, in early July 1997, I was writing to one of my BTTF e-mail pals (you know who you are!) and lamenting on how I wanted to do a witch trial story but had no premise--then, suddenly, I remembered one of my "time travel motivation" ideas that I had written down in my notebook a few weeks before, where Doc and Marty would have a fight and would be forced back together in the past. I thought that the Salem Witch Trials would be the perfect backdrop, and had my outline! After finishing "Where the Future Meets the Past" and revising it in September--while on vacation in California to see the REAL H.V. courthouse square at Universal Studios Hollywood!--I started "Partners in Time?" on the airplane ride home. Even on vacation, I cannot stop writing! I read the play "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller and saw the new film of the play for some of my research. (I had to read the play in my freshman year of high school, and found it a tremendous bore at the time, ironically.) Although "The Crucible" is based on real people who lived during the events in Salem, all my characters--and "The Goode Inn"--are completely fictitious. I prefer to work with made-up people instead of real historical figures. The character of Mara Schaefer has a few interesting things connected to it. First, I noticed that she was my first female antagonist in these stories. Secondly, her first name is from the Bible, where many Puritans selected their names, and has the meaning of "bitter," according to the name book I use. And.... All of the Salem characters are based on friends of mine. Ever since I put a couple of my pals in "The Pair O' Docs," all my other high school friends have wanted cameos in my BTTF stories so they can, in the words of the one, "live out things we can never do in real life!" So I am humoring them with this story and the next one. Amber, Kama, Rachel A., Kimberly, and Marissa--this one is for you! :-) (Interestingly enough, three out of those five friends had ancestors who were tried and convicted of witchcraft in the colonies or Europe!) For those of you curious to know which characters go with which friends, I made sure that their first names started with the same letter. Another joke of mine. And while my friends resemble their characters physically, the parallels in behavior may vary!

CHAPTERS 1 - 6 CHAPTERS 7 - 15