IT was almost noon as a huge congregation entered the Cupola of Duomo. Among them was the prince and his bride-to-be Jennifer and Marco Vespucci with his wife Simonetta and Marty. Jennifer looked back of her. There he was. Still hoping to have her back.
Take a hint, McFly. said Jennifer to herself, It’s over! You blew it.
The mass was almost the same as the mass in the 20th century except it was in Latin. Neither Marty or Jennifer could tell because they were wearing their translators and everything that was said was in English.
Then the bishop got up to read the Gospel:
"The reading of the Gospel according to Matthew
"Then Peter came up and asked him, 'Lord, when my brother wrongs me, how often must I forgive him? Seven times?'
"'No,' Jesus replied, 'not seven times; I say, seventy times seven times. That is why the reign of God may be said to be like a king who decided to settle accounts with his officials. When he began his auditing, one was brought in who owed him a huge amount. As he had no way of paying it, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt,
“‘At that prostrated himself in homage and said, “My lord, be patient with mean I will pay you back in full.”
“‘Moved with pity, the master let the official go and wrote off the debt. But when that same official went out he met a fellow servant who owed him a mere fraction of what he himself owed. He seized him and throttled him.
“‘"Pay back what you owe," he demanded.
“‘His fellow servant dropped to his knees and began to plead with him, "Just give me time and I will pay you back in full."
“‘But he would hear none of it. Instead, he had him put in jail until he paid back what he owed. When his fellow servants saw what had happened they were badly shaken, and went to the master to report the who incident.
“‘His master sent for him and said "You worthless wretch! I canceled your entire debt when you pleaded with me. Should you not have dealt mercifully with you fellow servant, as I dealt with you?"
“‘Then in anger the master handed him over to the torturers until he paid back all he owed. My heavenly Father will treat you in exactly the same way unless each of you forgives his brother from the heart'
"This is the Gospel of the Lord"
When he was through with the reading the bishop gave a sermon on forgiveness.
“Jesus was crowned with thorns and crucified.” he said, “Yet He asked His Father to forgive those who did this atrocity to Him. So we must forgive one another. That is what ‘forgive give us of our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us’ in the ‘Our Father’ means: To forgive one another. That is what love is all about.”
Through all of this, Jennifer began to cry as if a sudden burden of guilt consumed her. The prince tried to comfort her but she made a move to indicate that she would be fine.
All during this, memories of a previous time travel was triggered by the gospel reading: It was the time that Marty had his tonsils removed and Jennifer went back to 1966 to buy him a get well gift. And when she returned, she discovered that she no longed existed. Trying to find out what happened she had consulted Doctor Brown who went back in time to the day she went to and videotape what happened.
What he told her made her realize the reason why she couldn’t go back in time to that last Beatle concert that her parents attended:
Doc produced a VCR tape and loaded it onto a VCR machine connected to a TV.
"Last night when I went back in time," he said, "I video taped what you did. This is what happened."
He turned it on. And on the screen was Jennifer's mother standing outside the old record store. Then, there was a shot of Jennifer leaving followed by her father. Then her mother drummed up an angry conversation with her fiancé.
"What is she saying to Dad?" asked Jennifer.
Doc rewound the tape and turned up the volume.
On the screen, her mother was demanding "Who's the girl?"
"What do you mean?" asked her then future father.
"I saw you talking to her." said her future mother, "My God, she even wore the same outfit I'm wearing."
"Prudence." he said, "I've never seen her before in my life."
"Ha." she said, "The engagement's off."
Then, on the screen, Jennifer watched her mother take off her engagement ring and hop onto a bus.
++++++
After mass when the congregation filed out. Marty stayed behind to pray.
When he was done, he saw the bishop and said “Father can I talk to you for a minute?”
“Of course, my son.” said the bishop.
“About that girl who‘s hanging around with the prince.” said Marty, “She’s mine. I mean she’s supposed to be mine but something went wrong and she dumped me.”
“What can I do?” asked the bishop.
“Pray that I have her back.” said Marty.
“Why?” asked the bishop, “She must have a reason for not wanting you anymore. You did say something went wrong. What was it?”
“She saw me talk to another woman and thought I was flirting with her.” said Marty, “I wasn’t doing that. It was just a friendly chat.”
“What made her think of that?” asked the bishop.
“Because a year back, this woman she caught me talking too was married to an abusive man.” said Marty, “One day I confronted him and made off with his girl. He chased the both of us and got into an accident with someone’s property and the owner and his associates beat him up. Before we knew it, the guy’s life changed and was more gentler to his wife. I thought I was did a good thing. I didn’t know it would hurt the relationship with the would hurt the relationship I had with my own girlfriend.”
“And now you want her back.” said the bishop.
“Yes.” said Marty, “And by Thursday.”
“That’s asking for too much.” said the bishop.
“I don’t have a choice.” said Marty, “You see, someone had it in his head to bring the both of us here to fall back in love within a week. If we don’t fall back in love by this Thursday, we’ll have to stay here another week and so on until we fall back in love. The problem is, if we stay here through Thursday, the girl I love will marry the prince this Saturday and any chance of me or her ever seeing home again will be out the window.”
“Can’t you just find a ride back to your home by yourself?” asked the bishop.
Realizing now that he had no choice but to explain the bishop where he really came from he said “Father, you’d better sit down for this one. What I’m gonna say cannot leave this church because even you are going find it hard to believe.”
“And that is.”
“I’m from the future.” explained Marty, “Me and that girl who came here.” The bishop was in shock disbelief. Seeing this, Marty said “I told you were going to find it hard to believe.”
“I sure do.” said the bishop.
“We were brought here in a time machine that someone invented. And if I don’t have that girl back, me and her can’t go back to the year 1987.” said Marty, “And I really want to go back to the year 1987.” The bishop was in stunned silence. But Marty continued. “Do you know what’s goes on here?”
“A lot of sinning.” said the bishop, “That’s why I’m always praying for the Florentines souls every day.”
“I don’t blame you.” said Marty, “With all these commandments breaking all over the joint keeping you awake at night, who would. But anyway, do you know that there’s underage drinking here?”
“What is underage drinking?” asked the bishop.
“Kids under 18 or 21 getting drunk and getting away with it.” said Marty, “Excessive drinking everywhere. Geez, even my girlfriend got in the act last night.”
“And you object to this.” said the bishop.
“Of course I do.” said Marty, “People my age shouldn’t be drinking yet. They’ll regret it for the rest of their lives.”
“My son.” said the bishop, “You seemed to be a man after my heart. I
have been preaching about the evils of drunkenness. But that is no reason why
you should cook up this wild tale about time travel.”
“You mean you don’t believe me?” exclaimed Marty.
“Uh, how should I say this?” asked the bishop, “I think the only answer
is no I don’t.”
“What if I told you that where I came from we don’t ride horses?” asked Marty, “Just horseless things called automobiles. And that we could fly without wings, just in something called an airplane. And that we could reach the moon and come back home. That we could exchange messages from far away places in a blink of an eye.”
“That’s enough.” said the bishop, “You’re talking witchcraft and sorcery. I’ll have to pray that you’ll be forgiven for this.”
“Listen.” said Marty, “I understand what you’re thinking. But it’s
not what you think.”
The bishop didn’t wasn’t listening to what Marty was saying. He was praying “Father, forgive this man for he is only being misled by Satan who is constantly seeking the ruin of souls.”
“No I’m not.” insisted Marty. But it was hopeless. He decided to get up and leave.
++++++
At the dressmakers, the prince had Jennifer try on different kinds of wedding dresses for the upcoming nuptials. But as she was trying to distance herself from Marty, she began to feel as if it was wrong of here to break up with him.
Looking in the mirror at herself in the wedding dress she was trying on, she said to herself What’s wrong with me? That creep betrayed me when he was flirting with Jan. Why is it that right now that I feel like I’m doing the wrong thing in breaking up with him. She was thinking about the day’s gospel and said to herself Somehow, my trip to 1966 is tied into that reading and my break-up with Marty. But what?
After the trip to the bridal shop, they went to the place that the prince had said was the finest cuisines in all of Italy. But even that didn’t help Jennifer as she started to feel guilty about dumping Marty instead of giving him a second chance.
“What is it my love?” asked the prince.
“Nothing.” said Jennifer as she started to eat, “It must’ve been last night. I’ll be alright.”
“We’ll order something that doesn’t have wine.” said the prince, “What will it be?”
Jennifer thought for a minute. Then, she said “A Tab. I’ll have a tab.”
“My love.” said the prince, “I’m paying. You don’t need a tab unless you order something.”
“Okay.” said Jennifer straightening herself out, “A Pepsi Free.”
“My love.” said the prince, “Whatever you have is on me. And what’s a pepsi?”
Oops! said Jennifer to herself, Ordering things before they exist. So she asked “Just any kind of soda will do.”
The prince laughed. “My love.” he said, “Sodas are for baking.”
“Just forget it.” said Jennifer, “I’ll only have soup.”
Turning to the waiter, the prince said “Mr. Minestrone, your finest soups.” Jennifer laughed. The prince turned to her and said “My love, your humor is back. What was it I said.”
Jennifer said “You said ‘Mr. Minestrone, your finest soups.”
“So?” asked the prince.
“Get it?” insisted Jennifer, “Minestrone soup.”
Mr. Minestrone overheard this and said “Yes. That’s what I’ll call my soup. Thank you, Simonetta. I’ll call my soup minestrone soup. Bravisimo! You’re highness, you’re about to wed a very intelligent woman.”
“Well actually,” said Jennifer, “the soup will someday…never mind. How about some crackers.”
“Yes.” said the prince, “Some crackers please.”
Mr. Minestrone jotted this down and said “I’ll be right back.”
++++++
Entering the kitchen, Minestrone instructed the cook “My finest soups please. And this time go easy on the salt and pepper.”
“Yes, maestro.” said the cook.
Minestrone then went over to fetch the soda crackers. Trying to find out where they are, he asked his assistant “Mr. Saltini, where are the crackers.”
“Sorry sir.” said Mr. Saltini, “Here they are.”
He handed some packets to Mr. Minestrone who went back out to the dining room.
++++++
On his way back to the Vespucci’s, Marty went past cuisine called Minestrone’s and looked in. There was Jennifer so happy laughing with the man she was about to marry.
There was only four more days left before Doc returns to Florence. There wasn’t much time left to get her back.