Check out this great read from Lizzie Russell!
It was the smell of skittles that scared me the most.
Not the fact that I was time traveling to Paris in 1918. Or the fact that I couldn’t speak French. Nope. It was the crazy smell of skittles wafting from the tiny bit of light that was growing bigger and bigger in front of me.
When I landed, I was in an alley between two buildings with an aroma of freshly baked bread. Somehow, I was wearing a simple skirt and blouse with a velvet overcoat. I guessed that this was the fashion now. I was admiring the blue color of the skirt when a loud boom sounded from a distance and made me jump. Bombs? I had no idea, but I intended to find out. As I walked onto the Paris road, the first thing that surprised me was the lack of cars. I saw maybe three or four Model-T’s zooming past me while I stared dumbfounded on the sidewalk. Another roar in the distance made me remember that in 1918, World War I was still raging in France. I was only staring for a couple of seconds, though it felt like an eternity. The couple I had seen at the corner had made their way to where I was standing. As they knocked into me, all I could think was, “I like her coat.” It was a bright pink color and looked brand new. The boy helped me up, and I noticed he was wearing a grey army uniform. He looked about nineteen with close-cropped hair and had a soldier’s stiff stance.
“I’m so sorry,” I said, embarrassed, “I shouldn’t have stopped in the middle of the sidewalks.”
“No, no, we should have been looking where we were going, ”replied the girl. She was British, but I had thought she would be French. She looked a little younger than him, maybe seventeen, with dark hair pulled back into a bun.
“Do y’all know what that booming sound is? It sounds like bombs or something.” I asked curiously. The girl replied in a perplexed voice, “‘Y’all’?” she paused but continued, “Those are bombs, but they are a couple of miles away at the front. How could you not know about the bombs?" I looked at her sheepishly.
"You don’t seem like you are from around here.”
I thought for a second.
“No, not from around here, or from this time.”
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