Empêchement

Gut feelings

We exited the wooden room on a set of wooden stairs.

The wooden stairs led down to yet another wooden room, this one appearing to be a dining/living area.

We left this wooden room on more wooden stairs that led to another, final, wooden room with stone flooring.

This final room looked like a shop. There was merchandise everywhere. Lining the walls, on tables or under little viewing cases with dirty glass.

Several people came in and out of the shop. Small children in desperate need of baths ran through the building and adults in tattered or really expensive clothing looked at the items without concern.

"Season," I said, pulling her off to the side.

She whirled around "Yes?"

I pointed above us. "How do they not know?"

"Who's they?"

"Them!" I gestured to the people around us.

"Oh, well, MDP owns this shop. We have three others throughout Paris. It brings in a steady income, and a safe place to come and go."

"You can choose where you come in at?" I asked in awe.

"Yeah. Makes it super convenient. Anyway, we should go and start speaking French or people are going to start looking at us weirdly.

I nodded and switched over to French. "Sounds good."

Season led me out of the shop and onto the streets of France.

I gasped. As the smell of manure got stronger, the number of people got larger too. On the streets, which were more like unfinished muddy dirt roads with cobblestone surfacing occasionally, were crowds of people. Whether they were standing in the street chatting, sitting at a Café table eating, or walking to a destination, you couldn't look anywhere but up to not see them.

Speaking of up, every building that lined these dirty streets were at least three stories tall, and all of them were mostly made of stone with exposed wooden beams.

Nothing in this place seemed to have any uniform at all. The buildings had different heights, different colored shingles, different window structures, and door frames. The people going one way didn't stick to the right side of the road. They just swarmed everywhere. Literally like a sea of people.

It was confusing, disorienting and dirty.

"So, Season—" I stopped, reminding myself to speak French "Why are we here exactly?"

"Just to look around. But, lucky for you, I have more money for this century than I do than the money back home, so we can go shopping. I also have something to show you, but if I show you this, you can't tell anyone."

I nodded, suddenly excited for our new purpose of being here. "So, which first? Shopping or whatever you have to show me?"

"Shopping. We're not allowed to bring knick-knacks back home, so I've hidden them somewhere else."

I internally shrugged What could possibly go wrong? "Okay. I'll follow you then."

Season led me through the streets, one muddy step at a time.

At first, I tried walking carefully. I didn't want mud everywhere, but as I walked through the streets, it became apparent that trying to keep mud off my clothing was futile.

Season turned around a sudden corner into a small tunnel that separated the courtyard from the streets. The courtyard had a giant, beautiful tree growing in the middle which provided shade for everyone in it, and the buildings that loomed over the muddy landscape. Around the tree and lining the walls of the buildings were little stands with merchandise and produce stacked high on display tables.