by
Charles A. Murphy
Synopsis: On the day that Marty
is released from the hospital, Jennifer receives a phone call from Doc who says
he wants her to go over to his place and feed Einstein. Jennifer agrees. Only
after she arrived there to feed the dog when her nerves started to act up.
Realizing it an anxiety attack brought on by the fact that Marty was coming
home. Going into Doc's library to pick up a book to read so she could relax.
However, she comes across a book call The History of Coventry. In
it was the story of it's most famous citizen, Lady Godiva who made a name for
herself by riding naked through Coventry on horseback and Jennifer has been tak
ing
riding lessons in college. The event took place on May 31, 1057. Wanting to meet
this woman and witness the famous ride, Jennifer decides go back in time
arriving there one week earlier just to relax. She readies the DeLorean for time
travel, gets into the proper attire for the era and takes a few necessities
including a hair growing tonic that Doc invented and a sleep inducer.
Arriving in 1057, she enters Coventry and is greeted royally. An old lady is mistakes her for some married woman when she demands that a husband of this married woman lower the taxes that was draining her and her family of their life's savings. Jennifer is confused. Just then she is whisked away by some men and taken by coach to a palace where she runs into a man who looks like Biff. He calls her "my lady" which by now Jennifer has been addressed that way by everyone she had run into while in town. Just then, someone else appears. This woman bore the resemblace of Jennifer and that she was married to the Biff look-a-like causing Jennifer to go into shock and pass out. The thought of her being a descendant of a Tannen was too much for her.
When she comes too, she discovers that her look-a-like was Lady Godiva and the Biff look-a-like was Leofric, the Earl of Mercia. Noticing that the couple were rich folk, Jennifer suggested that they give some of the money to charity only to learn that they had been doing so including financing the construction of Coventry Cathedral. But now the earl only collects taxes and has been doing it for the past year. She also learned that in the past the earl was a good man earning his keep in construction and been giving selflessly to charitable causes. But now he had become this evil man as if he was two different people.
So she plays detective. She starts asking around about the earl starting first with Lady Godiva. She said that they both met when she was very young and that he was a very religious man. When they married. they moved to Coventry and he began to finance the various projects for the churches in the hamlet. And then, a year ago he let things fall into disrepair and he began to collect taxes for himself. She tells Jennifer that she tried to convince her husband to lower the taxes only to have him raise them some more.
After this she started asks the maids and servants about the earl and gets the same answer: He started off as a good guy and turned bad for the last year. She finally comes to a man guarding the door to the dungeon. She questions him only to get the brush off. He also refuses to tell her what is behind the door. Somehow, Jennifer has a feeling that whatever is in there is somehow connected to Leofric's split personality.
The go to mass that day and afterwards Jennifer asks the bishop about the earl. He tells her that Leofric and his wife were the ones that financed the construction and maintenance of the cathedral up to the past year. And now for some reason the financing had stopped.
Then, she starts asking some of the peasants starting with the woman she first encountered when she entered the city. She learns that the earl had been raising taxes to the point where they couldn't afford to pay them in hopes that the earl would confiscate their properties and have the peasants put in jail.. He wasn't like that always that way, however. When earl and his wife first arrived in Coventry, he financed the repairs for the water works and saw that the citizens would have decent homes.
Then the earl and his wife invites Jennifer to Sunday brunch only to encounter a huge crowd of people waiting ahead of them to be seated. However, the earl convinces the innkeeper to have him and his party be seated and served ahead of him much to the chagrin of those waiting for lunch. Jennifer has been told that he had never pulled such a stunt like that until the past year. The innkeeper tells Jennifer that the earl had financed the construction of the inn after the bank refused to fund it. However, the when the earl and his wife arrived for Sunday brunch, it used to be that he would always let the people who were here before he and his wife arrived be served first.
The next day, Jennifer goes to King Harold's castle for an audience and learns that the king has not received a penny from the earl for over a year and wasn't been aware that he was taxing the people of Coventry so hard.
Meanwhile, Leofric becomes suspicious of Jennifer's questioning and has the guestroom searched.
Background: When you look at this
story you say to yourself "Here we go again. Lady Godiva looks like Jennifer
who's taking a horse riding class in 1988 so just like in
"Renaissance of Love"
she's going to be naked." But as you read on, it becomes like a mystery, minus
the murder, complete with misdirect ions, plot twists and deductions. It's sort
of like Sherlock Holmes. (No relation to
Mary Jean Holmes) This
character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had a simple rule to go by: "When
all other contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the
truth." He was a stickler for deductions.
In 1057, Lady Godiva (know as Godgifu) rode naked through the streets of Coventry to protest her husband's increase in taxes. There is a dispute on which was the exact date that she rode. Some say it was May 31. Others say it was sometime late in August of that year which sounds unlikely being that her husband Earl Leofric died at the end of the month.
Now this seems to be a pity knowing that when I first looked up the year of
the famous ride, I came across that year (1057) and realized that some of my
classmates from San Carlos High who graduated in 1975 were born in 1957, nine
hundred years later. So I set the month for Jennifer's arrival for August
knowing that a few of my friends had birthdays during that month, namely Lou
Rodriguez (right) for one
Lou graduated the same year that I did and was born on August 16th. He played
baseball and I've known him for a long time going to the same college as well
(Canada). He still lives in San Carlos and has a wife (Tracy) and kids. Anyway,
I had Jennifer arrive on August 16, 1057 nine hundred years to the day that Lou
was born. And then I set the date for Lady Godiva's famous ride for August 23,
nine hundred years to the day before another friend of mine was born. Her name
was Gini Chandler (pictured left).
Gini was just more than a friend and classmate, I fell in love with her and for
a couple of years I thought of her as a girlfriend until I saw her with
another guy:-( (More pity). Now we're just friends.
Now here's the
kicker: I had Jennifer plan on staying there in 1057 until September 20th-nine
hundred years to the day before the birth of someone else. His name is Kevin
Romero. He used to live down the street from me until moving out to Arizona. We
went to school together (Tierra Linda, San Carlos High School) but unlike me
(who had only three jobs in the last 24 years-19 of them being in the same
place) he had trouble keeping a job. One job he had trouble keeping was where I
work (Geochron). He lasted a month. (Yeah, yeah. Yet some more pity. Grrr..)
That's him over there holding a gun in the spray booth. (Boy do I love my
scanner or do I love my scanner. Have all this fun scanning pictures and putting
them on my webpage.)
Unfortunately, further research told me that the famous ride took place on May 31st like I said before. Sorry you three. Better luck next time.
Now in 957...
Usually, I start my background off by telling you about the characters that our time travelers run into. However, some of history of Lady Godiva and her husband Earl Leofric of Mercia is being mentioned while my story has been written. But if you want to read up on this famous couple or England during the Dark Ages, you could do a Google search on the internet by looking up the name "Domesday Book". The Domesday book tells the history of early England up to 1086 when it was written. The writings were commisioned by William the Conqueror twenty years after the Norman Conquest of 1066. Among it the legend of Lady Godiva.
What it doesn't mentions is the legend of Peeping Tom, however. He is added to the legend during the 18th century. It is believed that before the famous ride took place, Godiva wanted all the citizens to go inside, shut up the windows and not look out on the streets as she was riding. One person named Tom disregarded this and peered out through a hole in the wall. As a result, he was struck blind. Today, there is a statue of him in front of the stores on the Cathedral Lanes Shopping Centre. To this end, I decided to give Peeping Tom a last name, Capps. Tom Capps used to be a staff member of BTTF.COM. At times I used to see him in the chat room when BTTF.COM had a chatroom. One day a fellow chatter had to excuse herself because she was going to take a shower. Tom suggested that she stayed in the chatroom while she took of her clothes but she declined. Tom sounded disappointed as he was expecting "naked chat." :-P.
If you're wondering when's the next time I'm going to write BTTF stories about Doc and Marty again don't fear. Marty will be leaving the hospital during this story and he and Doc will start time traveling again in the next story along with Jennifer. Hey, I like writing about Jennifer's time traveling I think it's fun. After all, when it comes to writing BTTF fan fiction one must always add a new dimension and I'm trying to compete with the other fan fiction writers. Wouldn't you?
