Jennifer gazed around at the thick clusters of people surrounding them. "It's awfully crowded here," she said as they pushed themselves past a group of hippy teens smoking something that was definitely not cigarettes. Actually, Jennifer wasn't feeling particularly comfortable here. Everyone here was so different from her and Marty. Even if they weren't from the future, that would have been true. And being in another time just felt weird to her. She couldn't help it. Maybe Marty liked this sort of thing, spending time in different periods than one he naturally lived in, but she didn't, so far.

"And shouldn't we get the tent up soon?" she added as they grew closer to their goal, the food booths. The last meals either of them had had were early dinners in 1986. "There might not be space later."

Marty frowned at her question. In the background, a musician named Richie Havens played over the enormous speaker system set up, which looked almost antique to Jennifer's perspective when she compared with the sound systems she had seen when attending any number of performances the Pinheads had done. From where they were standing now, the artist looked like a little dot on the stage. Marty had wanted to go up for a closer look at the performance, but Jennifer's request for food had persuaded him to wait. Anyway, she had no idea who this guy was. Her knowledge in music was somewhat limited, even if her boyfriend was a musician. She only knew of the famous names, unlike Marty, not the more obscure ones, like this Richie Havens.

After setting down the DeLorean in a nearby field and unloading it of all the camping equipment and supplies that Doc Brown had packed it with, Marty had changed the dates so that it would reappear in the same place on Monday, the eighteenth, at 6 A.M., then sent the vehicle on its merry way into the future. Once the last of the fire trails had dissipated, the two of them had grabbed their supplies and hiked a half mile to the festival before stashing their gear behind a big tree in the nearby forest and then waiting out the time 'til ten A.M., when the festival began. Jennifer had wanted to set things up once they were let in, but Marty was more interested in checking out the musical acts, naturally.

"I don't know," Marty finally said, as they continued to wade through the people, their hands tightly grasped in a effort not to be separated. Marty was the one who was pushing them through the throngs; Jennifer merely followed. "Do you think the stuff'll be safe without either of us to guard it?"

"From what I've seen so far, I think the people here respect each other and each other's property a lot more than where we're from," Jennifer answered. "I don't really think anyone would touch our tent if we set it up now." She paused. "I guess that's one good thing about this place."

They finally reached the food tents. There was already a line that stretched out quite a ways, but it didn't seem to faze Marty in the least. He got behind the two long haired men who had been at the end and pulled Jennifer with him. "Okay, then we'll set it up after lunch," he said. "If we wait any longer to eat, I'm gonna fall over."

Jennifer nodded, satisfied with the agreement. "Yeah, I'm pretty hungry, too." She jumped up and down a couple times, craning her neck and trying to see past the mobs around them. "Do you know what they're serving?"

"I don't know. Probably some barbeque stuff."

"I was up there earlier," a woman's voice said from directly behind. "They have hot dogs, hamburgers, soda, and potato chips. But you have to buy special coupons from the vendors, 'cause they won't accept your cash."

Marty and Jennifer turned around simultaneously. A young woman, about the same age as the teens, stood behind them, with a slightly older man connected to her hand. The woman smiled at them, showing a mouthful of crooked teeth. She had long dark hair that reached to her waist and several earrings in each ear. From the looks of her long, gauzy white dress, multiple beaded necklaces, rings, and bare feet, she appeared to be a hippy. She was also enormously pregnant.

"Really?" Jennifer asked her, though a part of her didn't want to talk to this strange hippy person. "That doesn't sound too bad. How much are the coupons?"

The woman brushed a few stray hairs away from her eyes. "I believe they're a quarter each." She gave them another crooked tooth smile. "I'm Aura." She tilted her head at the man with her. "This is Stormy. Who are you?"

Jennifer looked at Marty and raised an eyebrow, mostly at the fantastic names these two people had. Nobody would name their kids that, she was sure. Marty shrugged, as if reading her mind, and looked at the couple again.

"I'm Marty, and this is Jennifer," he said.

Aura wrinkled her short nub of a nose. "Are those your given names?" she asked.

Marty frowned a little. "Yeah, they are. Why wouldn't they be?"

Aura rolled her eyes. "Using your given name is so mainstream," she explained. "You must focus on your inner self, then choose a name that describes that part of you, that trait. For example, I am Aura because I am in tune with the vibes that we all put out, with the auras that surround a person's soul and body."

"And I'm Stormy," the man with Aura said, speaking up for the first time, "because often I am stormy under the surface, feeling many different and powerful emotions and energies, man. And I'm in tune with electricity!"

"What are your real names?" Jennifer asked, doing her best to keep a straight face at this news.

"Beth," Aura answered with a tone bordering on disgust.

"Mark," Stormy added.

There was a moment of silence, a touch awkward, before Marty broke it. "So why are you guys both here?" He was looking at Aura's very large belly. "Do you want your baby to be born here?"

Aura laughed, amused. "Well, I'm not due for two more weeks, and I don't think Heaven will be born until then. I don't feel it, I should say."

"Heaven?" Jennifer asked, not sure that she had heard right.

Aura nodded, running her hands over her belly. "Yes. We're expecting a girl, according to the stars and signs and my own feelings. We'll name her Heaven, and have her at our home like our women ancestors did." She looked up at Stormy and smiled at him.

"So why are you both here?" Marty asked again. "The music?"

"For the free peace and love, man," Stormy answered. "The warm, loving vibes. The chance to be one with everyone else, with nature. The chance to belong and to be free." Like his girlfriend, Stormy looked like a classic hippy, with small round wire-rimmed glasses, shoulder length blond hair, and a goatee. He reminded Jennifer as one of those hippy, poetic writers -- a beatnik, she thought they were called.

"Oh," Marty replied, casting a quick look at Jennifer. "We just came for the music."

The line was moving slowly, with the food being purchased as soon as it was ready. Plenty of time for conversation with the hippy couple.

"Where are you from?" Aura asked them both. "Did you travel far?"

Jennifer looked at Marty, wondering how he would handle the question. When it came to personal information, she thought it might be best if she kept her mouth shut. "We're from California," Marty said without hesitation.

Aura looked excited. "California? That's the grooviest place in the U.S.! We're from Ohio. You're both lucky to be in a place like that. Ever been to San Francisco?"

Marty actually winced at the name of the city. "Yeah, that's not super far from where we live."

Aura surprised Jennifer by boldly reaching out and touching Marty's face softly. "Something sad happened to you there, didn't it?" she asked, her voice full of sympathy.

Why the hell would she think that? And why is she touching my boyfriend like that? Jennifer looked at Aura in a new light suddenly, her eyes narrowed. But to her even greater surprise, Marty gave a nod in answer to her question.

"Yeah," he said after a moment. "But it was a long time ago." He paused, then added, "A real long time ago."

"You never told me about that," Jennifer said, turning her gaze on Marty. He frowned.

"It was nothing personal," he said softly "It was kind of a painful situation and it was complicated.... I can explain later."

Jennifer wondered if time travel was involved on some level. She had a feeling it might, but offhand she didn't recall Marty mentioning any trips to San Francisco that were to a different time period. "Sure," was all she said, trying to hide her hurt feelings that she had never been told.

Luckily, neither Aura or Stormy decided to pursue the subject any farther. "Are you both camping out here, or staying somewhere nearby?" Aura asked.

"Camping," Marty said for the both of them, clearly relieved by the change of topic. "In that field with everyone else."

"We are, too," Aura said. "After all, the only way to truly experience this festival is to be here all the time. The musicians don't even stop until after midnight each night."

Jennifer glanced up at the sky, where a front of dark gray clouds were slowing rolling in. Despite the approaching front, it was still incredibly hot and humid out. The temperature felt as if it was in the eighties already. But those clouds looked like they held a good rain shower in them, if not a full thunderstorm. "We'd better get that tent up soon," she said to Marty, gesturing to the sky. "It looks like rain."

Marty nodded. "I just wish this line would move faster," he said, looking towards the front. "The concert will probably be over before we reach the food!"

It took a good half hour before they reached the front. During that time, the clouds grew increasingly numerous and darker, the wind picked up, and Aura talked non-stop about various topics, making up for Stormy's relative silence. At one point, Jennifer was shocked when she referred to smoking joints and using LSD that morning in a "peace tent."

"Aren't you afraid that will hurt your baby?" she asked, aghast.

Aura looked at her without comprehension. "How can I harm Heaven? She is still protected from danger. And everyone knows that the expansion of the mind is a good thing, not bad. It should help my baby."

"But they're drugs," Jennifer explained. "Whatever you do goes straight to your child, unborn as it may be, and none of that stuff is good for them -- or you. Haven't you heard about that?"

Aura and Stormy looked at each other with clear confusion, then turned on Jennifer a look that told her they thought she wasn't terribly intelligent. "Nothing can harm Heaven," Aura repeated slowly, as if speaking to a small child. "She is fine."

Jennifer thought about pursing the subject, but decided not to. It was a moot point a few minutes later, when they reached the front of the line. Once they had the chance to purchase the special tickets for the food, the two couples split up. Marty and Jennifer both got hamburgers, potato chips, and some bottles of Pepsi. They took their food to a small patch of grass on a hill where they could look out at the enormous sea of colors that was thousands and thousands of people.

"This is amazing," Marty said in between bites of hamburger. "Look at all those people!"

Jennifer looked. "I guess," she said without much enthusiasm. "It does look a little strange, like an ocean made up of colors."

"What did you think of those people behind us in the line?"

"I think they were a little odd, but I'm sure they're some of the more normal ones here. Scary."

Marty took a swig of his Pepsi. "Your probably right. Check that out." He nodded forward, at something in the crowd, and Jennifer followed his gaze to see a man and woman covered completely in elaborate body paint from head to toe -- and nothing else.

"Oh my," she whispered under her breath, her cheeks flushing automatically at the sight. Jennifer averted her eyes as quickly as she could, scanning the crowd for a new distraction. There was a lot to be distracted by. Off in the distance, Jennifer could see the booths for the art and craft bazaar. She pointed to them.

"Why don't we go over there after we set up the tent?"

* * *

After lunch, the couple headed for the woods to pick up their camping gear. The sky had darkened to a deep, threatening charcoal color, and now Marty was worrying a little that they wouldn't get their tent up in time before the skies opened up.

As Jennifer had predicted, none of their stuff had been disturbed. That was the good news. The bad was that it took a good while to actually find a place to set up camp once they had their loot in hand. They had waited too long, Marty saw at once, but it wasn't his fault, not really. He still couldn't believe the size of the crowd at Woodstock. Sure, he'd seen pictures of the event, but actually being here was something else! Eventually, though, they found a campsite, way out at the edge of the property and a long walk from the stage, food, the portable restrooms that looked more like small school lockers, and the craft fair. But it would have to do.

As they finally started to lay out the tent, Marty noticed a couple of familiar figures several tents away. "Hey, isn't that Aura and Stormy?" he said to Jennifer, gesturing to the couple.

Jennifer looked up from the sheet of assembly instructions she had been studying for the tent's erection. A frown crossed her face as she looked at where Marty was pointing. "Yeah, it's them," she said. "I hope they don't notice us now."

Marty looked at her strangely. "Why not?"

Jennifer shrugged. "I don't know, they're just a little weird. I mean, Aura's about to have a baby and she's smoking pot -- or worse. That's so irresponsible. And she's not even married! She looks like she's our age! I just can't believe that!"

"Didn't one of your friends get pregnant last year?" Marty asked.

"Well, yeah... but Mindy was smart enough to not use drugs during the pregnancy!"

"Uh-huh," Marty said, when Jennifer offered nothing more. Mindy Sebastian had also dropped out of school and was currently working as a waitress at the mall's TGI Friday's to support her six month old son and pay for a small apartment in the more run down area of town. The father was nowhere in sight, and Mindy's parents had all but disowned her when she broke the news of her impending arrival to them. Compared to the hippy they had met today, it was Aura who appeared to have things more together.

"The times were different now, Jen," he reminded his girlfriend. She said nothing, her head bent back over the tent instructions.

Over the loudspeakers, the same singer, Richie Havens, was still playing. Already the crowd had demanded two encores. Marty was enjoying the music, though he wasn't paying as much attention to it as he had planned to. Back in 1986, he hadn't really give much thought to the other things involved with being at Woodstock, such as erecting tents and waiting in long lines for simple things like food and portable toilets. Their tent turned out to be one of the harder ones to put up, with stakes and ropes. Marty wished that Doc had given them one of the simple ones to use, that could be erected in about five minutes with flexible plastic sticks, and wondered if they didn't yet exist in this time. Meanwhile, he struggled to spread out the small two person tent flat on the ground as Jennifer directed him with the instructions.

"You're supposed to put together that metal pole and tie it inside the tent," she told him. "Then you take the ropes and attach them to the wooden stakes and bang those into the ground. If it's done right and looks like the picture in here, it shouldn't fall down on us."

Marty dropped the canvas to the ground and stared at Jennifer, hopelessly confused and more than a little frustrated. "I don't understand anything you're talking about!"

Jennifer picked up the bag of stakes and coiled ropes. "These. Tie these at the places the drawings in these instructions show." Before Marty could answer, she shook her head. "Never mind, I'll do it. You get those three poles assembled."

Marty stepped away from the dead tent and instead picked up the hollow tubes of metal that were supposed to fit together into one six foot long pole, and two three-and-a-half foot poles. It didn't take him long to screw the components together. He set the finished products on the grass and looked over at Aura and Stormy, wondering how they were progressing. The two of them were setting up their own tent, out of a white canvas sheet painted and tie-dyed in multiple colors. It looked very hippy-esqe.

"All right," Jennifer said a moment later, staring down at their plain blue tent with her hands on her hips as she knelt in the dirt. "We have to get the poles in the tent and in the ground, then we can hammer the stakes with the ropes on them and this sucker should be up."

It was easier said than done. Marty had to crawl inside the downed tent to install the six foot long bar, causing the need for the tent to be straightened out along the ground again. Then they realized that Doc had forgotten to include a hammer with their stuff, so Jennifer had to go in search of a rock to pound everything in the ground. Luckily, the ground was soft from recent rains, so that was an easy job.

All told, it took almost twenty minutes before the last stake was pounded into place. Marty and Jennifer were admiring their handiwork when thunder shattered the heavy, humid air. The wind gusted, snapping one of the tent flaps with a harsh, angry sound. Marty drew the back of his hand across his forehead, wiping away some of the sweat gathered there and closed his eyes for a brief moment, enjoying the breeze on his damp skin. Jennifer's voice brought him back to reality.

"Marty, come on," she said. "We have to get this other stuff in the tent before it starts to pour." Jennifer hefted up an armful of sleeping bags, pillows, and a tarp. The words had hardly left her mouth when a drop of rain fell from the sky. Another quickly followed and within seconds it was pouring. Jennifer darted inside the tent as Marty hurried to grab the rest of the stuff they had before it got totally wet. It was a rather fruitless attempt; the small cooler that had their bottled water in it got soaked. Marty hustled it inside as quickly as he could, not realizing until he was in the tent that it wouldn't've mattered, and he drenched himself to the skin for nothing.

"Just how I want to start the weekend," he sighed, setting down the cooler with a heavy thud. Water dripped off his hair, down his skin, off his clothes. Jennifer gave him a sympathetic look. She was damp, at worst.

"At least it's not a cold rain," she said. "Be thankful for that. And we're somewhere dry...." Jennifer's voice trailed off as a corner of the tent started dripping water. "Well, sort of."

Marty sat down on the cooler, ignoring the water pooled on the top of it. He was starting to feel the first signs of fatigue, now that the excitement of being at Woodstock was passing. He took a moment to roughly calculate what time it was to their internal clocks and pegged it around four or five A.M.

"How are you feeling?" Marty asked his girlfriend. "Tired at all?"

Jennifer had started to spread a tarp over the plastic bottom of the tent. She looked up at the question, slightly puzzled. "Actually, now that you mention it, I do feel more tired than usual for the middle of the afternoon. How did you know?"

"We've got our own little cases of jet leg with the time machine," Marty explained. "My body thinks it's close to dawn now, not one in the afternoon."

Jennifer nodded in understanding. "I see now. That would make sense, I guess." She gestured to the cooler and changed the subject. "Are the rain ponchos in there?"

Marty got to his feet again and opened the insulated box. "Yeah," he said, pulling the yellow slickers out. "Along with the water and some other snacks." He knelt on the ground as he inspected the cooler's contents. "Pretzels, chips, cookies, crackers..." Marty chuckled. "I guess we can't eat this stuff outside. It's all from '86. Can you imagine the reaction?"

Jennifer smiled thinly but said nothing. She pointed to the rolled up sleeping bags lying near Marty. "Can you pass me those?"

He closed the cooler and fulfilled his girlfriend's request. She unrolled the bags and a few minutes later had the beds set up. "There," she said, smoothing out one of the pillows. "Now if the tent doesn't leak too much, we should be pretty comfortable."

Marty leaned forward enough to peek outside, through the slightly parted door flaps. "It's really coming down out there," he said, a crack of thunder almost drowning out his words. "Are you sure you want to go to that craft fair now?"

"We can wait out the storm," Jennifer said. "In the East, these storms don't last that long, usually less than half an hour. But while they're here, they can be nasty."

Her prediction rang true. Fifteen minutes later, the wind and rain died down and the clouds parted to let in a little sunlight. Steam was swirling off the ground as Marty and Jennifer finally stepped outside, both wearing their rain ponchos for good measure. The grass and dirt had altered to form a rather sticky mud, which did not mix well with their sandaled feet. Marty made a face at the sensation of the mud oozing between his toes. Well, I never expected to come away clean from this event.

The craft booths were about half a mile away from their campsite, and the hike was slow going, what with the amount of people that were milling about. Marty was starting to get a headache from everything around him. The crowds, the music, the scent of different foods and even drugs passing through the air.... All of it made a rather dizzying mix. Or maybe he was just tired.

"Doc gave us plenty of money, so if you see something you want, you can go ahead and get it," Marty told Jennifer as they approached the first few booths. "Don't worry about it."

Jennifer gave him a skeptical look. "Are you sure?"

He nodded, then looked at his watch. "Do you want to split up? If we stick together, it might take longer to get through this."

Jennifer frowned at the thick crowd. "Won't we get lost if we do that?"

"No, we have the tent to go back to," Marty said. He pulled some of the cash out of his pocket and split the remaining money in half. "Here's $45 dollars. This should give you plenty to spend."

Jennifer accepted the money with some reluctance. "Are you sure this is okay?" she asked again.

Marty shrugged. "Doc gave us the money to spend. If he didn't want us to spend it, he would've told us otherwise."

They split up a few minutes later with the intention to meet back at the tent by 4 P.M., about two hours later. Marty wandered around the booths for a few minutes before ditching them in exchange for the concert stage. He tried to get to the front, but it was like fighting a strong, relentless current of water going the opposite way. He finally gave up midway there, jammed in the middle between bodies as wet and hot as he was and having to stand on tiptoe just to be allowed a glimpse of the stage. He did it for only about half an hour before both thirst and a nasty headache convinced him to give it up, for now, and go back to the tent.

The hike back took even longer than the one there, if that was possible, and Marty thought he was lost more than once in the maze of people and tents. Eventually, he was passing Aura and Stormy's unusual-looking tent -- which actually didn't look too unusual from what Marty had seen in other campsites -- and was feeling rather grateful that it looked so original when Aura came out.

"Why, hello," she said, smiling at him. "I didn't know you were staying over here."

"Yeah," Marty said, gesturing in the vague direction of their plain blue tent a hundred feet away. "There wasn't much anywhere else to go to."

Aura nodded in understanding. "Where's your woman friend?"

"She's probably over at the craft booths," he said. "You know girls...."

Aura smiled. "Perhaps so. Well, I'm sure we'll see each other later." She held up an empty ceramic pitcher that she had been clutching in one hand. "I have to get some water, now."

She waddled off towards where the water supply was, in another tent a ways back. Marty watched her go for a moment then walked the rest of the way to his tent. Even though it was still damp outside, with more gray than blue in the sky, it was terribly hot and muggy. Marty pulled off his poncho before he got into the tent, making a face at the way the plastic wanted to stick to his skin. He didn't think there was a part of him that wasn't wet, either from the earlier downpour or the humid, sticky air.

He sat for a few minutes inside the tent, listening to the music outside. They had finally switched artists, to Joe McDonald. He could hear the crowd almost as well as the artist, despite the fact the artist was the one being broadcast over the speakers. The crowd was currently screaming an obscenity at the top of their lungs after the musician had spelled the word out for them. Marty half wished he was out there with them still, but only if the temperature dropped about twenty degrees and the crowd thinned out a lot more. He settled instead for stretching out on one of the sleeping bags, closing his eyes, and focusing his attention on the music enough to pretend he was out there with the rest of them.

He didn't realized he had fallen asleep until he felt someone shaking him gently. "Marty?" he heard Jennifer called, sounding far off and faint. He opened his eyes, which resisted his effort for a moment, and her face slowly came into focus, hovering above his own. He smiled faintly, a slightly dazed one that matched his state of mind. "What time is it?" Marty asked her, raking the back of his hand across his eyes.

"A little after four," Jennifer answered, leaning back. Marty frowned at the answer, thinking it seemed a little too dark for that time in the middle of the summer. Then he sat up and caught a glimpse of the sky outside, through the tent flaps. The clouds had rolled in completely to block out the sun out again.

"I didn't plan to fall asleep," Marty said, yawning behind his hand. "It's the time difference here, I think."

Jennifer nodded and sighed. "You're not the only one who's feeling that. Maybe if we go to bed early tonight we'll feel better tomorrow."

Marty squinted outside at the clouds. "That's probably what'll happen anyway. Do you think you'll be able to stay up late?"

Jennifer shook her head. "No, not unless I get one amazing burst of energy."

A low rumble of thunder rolled through the air, almost drowning out the ever-present music for a moment. It was enough of a prod to get him moving; Marty leaned over and plucked his poncho off the cooler where he had set it to dry. It wasn't any less damp than it had been when he had stripped it off. "Why don't we pick up an early dinner now, hopefully before the storm hits, then maybe we could get to bed earlier?" he suggested.

Jennifer started moving toward the tent's door without further prodding. "Good idea," she said. "I heard some rumors that there's a big storm heading this way. It'd be nice if we weren't caught in it."

Jennifer opened her eyes in the darkness and tried to figure out what had woken her up. Whatever it had been -- a noise, a touch, a breeze -- it had been sudden and she felt inexplicably wide awake. Outside, the music that had been playing almost without stop all day and evening was finally silent. She could hear rain slamming against the outside of the tent, wind blowing and gusting, and the drip, drip of water in one corner of the tent.