A story by Holly Lawrence

Day 1 – The Beginning

Today I was walking down the street like any other day when it started raining; which was lame, because I ended up slipping in a puddle and hit my head. It was so random because I woke up who knows how much time later and everything was covered in snow in a town I had never been to before. Everything was so old-looking, as if history was staring me in the face. I walked around a little bit more through the streets when all of a sudden someone riding a horse came up to me and looked at me funny. I thought HE looked funny because he was dressed up like he was from the old days, just like this town. I thought for sure I was hallucinating.

I walked around a little more and saw a street sign. Turns out, I’m in New Jersey. It didn’t take long for me to realize that this wasn’t modern-day Jersey; this was the winter that General Washington led his troops across the Delaware River in 1776! I stopped at a post office window and saw a calendar – it was a few days before the battle of Trenton. Thinking I could have a lot of fun with this, I wandered in the direction of the battles.

A few hours later, I spot the tents with General Washington and his troops camped out on the river waiting to cross to attack the Hessians. I suddenly had an epiphany! They didn’t know that there will be a giant storm that would hinder their crossing. I started eavesdropping and heard that they were planning on crossing the day of the storm. All of a sudden, I feel myself being forced into the tent by many arms. Oh my gosh. There was Washington, right there! In front of me! I didn’t know what to do, I was so nervous.

“Who are you and why have you come to this camp?” He asked me.

“I’m Holly Lawrence, I’m from Nevada!”

“Nevada? Where is this located?”

“It’s just east of Calif---“ Oh wait. Nevada and California wouldn’t be well known to him, would they? Sigh. What do I do?

“Nevada is a state in the western United States, at the other end of the country. But enough of this talk, there is a huge snowstorm coming in tomorrow night, you can’t go out and attack the Hessians, you’ll freeze to death!”

“What in the--- Are you from the future or something? How do you know all this? Are you working for the Hessians? Explain to me!”

I told him all about how I just randomly ended up in the 1700’s and he didn’t believe me! Well I guess I wouldn’t either, haha. So you know what I did? I pulled out a dollar and his eyes got all wide and suddenly he was just ecstatic!

“Do you know what this means? We win! Gentlemen, we win the war! But how?”

“By waiting to attack on Christmas Eve, that’s how. Surprise them! It will work, I promise. But you can’t go now or else you’ll be an icicle” I told them. I couldn’t believe they knew I was telling the truth! As I was walking back to town, I thought about how I would get back home to 2009. Uh oh.

Day 2 – Another Jump through Time

You won’t believe this, but I’m on the Titanic. Don’t ask me about the fine details, because all I can remember is me trying to set up a makeshift tent just outside of the town I was in over in New Jersey. I was making a snow fort of sorts and it collapsed! I thought for sure I was done for. When I finally couldn’t breathe, it went all dark and I woke up here in the 2nd class section of the Titanic in 1912! I should’ve died… What’s going on here?

Anyways, so here I am trying to find the captain to tell him that the ship is going to sink and that it will be one of the greatest maritime disasters ever. I was thinking I can use these little time-jumps to make sure history goes according to how it should, and that maybe I can also use it to make bad events like this turn into good events. Following me?

Later, as I’m running down the hallways trying to get someone, anyone to listen to me, a crew member finally stops me and tells me I’m disrupting guests with my dirty street clothes and unfamiliar slang. He takes me down to the holding cell where I tell him I really want to talk to the captain. About time someone listens to me. He goes to get him, and a half hour later he shows up.

“Captain! Oh goodness I’m so glad you finally came to see me! This ship is going to sink if you don’t slow down! Please listen to me!” I plead.

“I assure you we’re doing just fine. The water is calm and it’s getting warmer. I have had much experience in the Navy”.

He left, and I was all alone to await my fate in a little over 24 hours. I thought I was going to have to sit there for forever until the crewman who brought me down here said I could go. I can’t believe I had to sit in the holding cell the whole day! I immediately found my way to the bow of the ship to look out and warn the people in the crow’s nest. I looked at my watch – I have a few hours left to sit here.

It’s finally time to yell out to them. I do… and they ignore me. It’s once I ask about their missing binoculars when they finally start to listen to me. They thought I was possessed and they called the security people saying I was some modern-day witch. SO not true. This is where it gets bad – they decide to throw me overboard!

Day 3 – Not Going To Fail Again

So… They threw me overboard. Once I blacked out, I woke up where I am now. I think I’m starting to notice a pattern with how I get to go from place to place. I don’t like it. I’m here in sunny Macedonia now… Yes that’s right. I don’t know exactly what time period this is, but I’m sitting in this town where everyone is waiting for Alexander. Yup, that’s Alexander the Great who will be arriving. Everyone’s looking at me funny for being all pale and not speaking their language. From what I can tell, we are all waiting for him to cross the gates into Persia.

Things started getting all hectic so I assumed he was almost there. I didn’t want to cause a scene so I ran around the corner of a building and watched from there. That’s when I saw the procession – Alexander at the front of the line. Some random old lady who was getting all excited accidentally pushed me from around the corner and subsequently into the road where they were coming. Alexander stops, gets out and says something I couldn’t understand, and escorts me into one of the empty guest carriage thing. It was super fancy and nice! We ride on for a few hours when we stop at a post and sleep for the night.

Later that night, our group is sitting around together (me pretending I know what they’re talking about of course), when I see Alexander trying to undo a knot on the peg of a chariot wheel. That knot looked quite familiar. He struggled with it for a long time, when I suddenly realized that it was the knot that declares you king of Persia if you can undo it. I go over to where he is sitting and I show him that the best way to get it undone is to take apart the peg from the chariot, causing the rope to fall loose. He looks at me with amazement that I solved this puzzle – the Gordian knot – which enables him to easily take Persia by becoming their king.

The next day, we’re riding along to the gates of Persia. When we arrive, he looks at me and smiles a little bit, knowing that our cheap solution would totally work. He is presented with the rope; it is attached to the peg of the chariot wheel, and left to stand there for a second. He walks over to it, a grin on his face, and pulls the peg out. The crowd laughed hysterically while the Persian king presents him with the crown.

We were successful! I couldn’t believe it had worked. I thought for sure they would be pissed that he didn’t actually take apart the knot, but hey I’m not complaining! I was successful again!

Day 4 – Unexpected Events

Okay, so last night when I was sleeping, I must have gotten hit over the head or something, because I’m not in the Middle East anymore, nor am I in the ancient times. Here I sit on a subway in New York City, reading a newspaper that says the date is September 11, 2001. Uh oh… I’m going to have my work cut out for me on this one. Obviously I have to save the World Trade Centers. And from the way things are going, I can tell I’m going to fail at this just like the Titanic, because the events that end in disaster still end in disaster no matter what I do; For the good events, it seems that I’m the one that makes them happen the way everyone in 2009 recalls them. Am I the one that made these events happen, or is there a fate for the bad events only?

Anyways, I must get off this subway and into the World Trade Centers fast so I can at least try. You never know – I might just have had bad luck with the Titanic one. Maybe with this one I could truly rewrite history as we all know it! The stop is coming up; I’ll have to hurry in and try to get people out of the buildings.

When I get there, I run in and go through security quickly. I hesitated for a moment, thinking if I should tell them what is going to happen, but I decide not to so that they don’t think I’m some sort of possessed person like they did on the Titanic. In the offices, I yell out “Hey everyone, free hot dogs outside, hurry!”

People actually got up and went down there! It was working! Hmm… maybe I should’ve convinced the hot dog stand guy to actually give them out for free. Oops. It doesn’t matter; the clock says I have ten minutes until showtime. I scramble out to the other offices saying things like “A beer truck and its trailer crashed and is now handing out the shaken beer for free!” (I got a lot of responses for that one). I couldn’t believe it was working. I was saving people. In the middle of this reverie, I hear an explosion from somewhere above. Uh oh, it’s starting.

People were running and screaming, I didn’t know what to do! Within minutes the whole building was in a panic. I try running downstairs with everyone else, but we’re not moving fast enough…


Day 5 – The End?

Oh thank goodness, I found myself lying in my bed back home. I can’t believe that was only a dream, it seemed so real. The last thing I remember was helping a woman with a broken ankle down the stairs of the World Trade Centers because the elevators were obviously not working. We must not have made it out.

I go downstairs to where my dad keeps his old newspapers, and found the one dedicated to 9/11. I skim the article, looking for anything that will tell me something I didn’t notice before. I wanted to make sure I only had a dream. I come upon a survivor’s story.

“It was so random; there was this teenager who came into the offices saying something about free hot dogs outside…”