Samedi Matin

The Day Before

I remember this morning very well, how could I not? It was the day before one of the most destructive wars in Human history. It was 9 : 20 am on September 20th, 1913. At the time I had been living in Orleans, France. It really was a beautiful morning. I had decided to go to one of the local cafes - 'la Brasserie de Fauchex'.

The streets were very sparsely populated at the time, some of the only other people at the time were three children, one of the wearing a red kepi. It must have been his fathers, he kept shouting "Arrêter alors que vous pouvez, Boche!" The giggling children ran down the opposite road, followed by an exasperated mother. As I began to get closer to the cafe the more people there seemed to be.

The door creaked open as I entered and heard different voices in varying languages, mostly French, English, and German. I walked up to the counter, and I was greeted with "Hello M. St. Amant, the usual?". " Yes." I had responded. The lady nodded, "anything else?". " No thanks." I answered. I sat waiting for my drink as somebody else sat next to me.
"Salut, M. St. Amant.'
" Oh, Salut M. Fauchex."
I had turned to see the owner, Jean Fauchex, the owner of the cafe and a veteran of the Franco-Prussian war. "It has been a while since I have seen you." M. Fauchex. I responded with "Yes, How have you been?" He opened his mouth to speak but then pointed out the window. "Marcel, do you see that?" He asked me, losing any shred of professionality. He had pointed to a crowd gathered at the street corner. I put back on my hat, leaving the building.

I heard clamoring and the occasional shout coming from the crowd. I leaned in to see a poster, a Draft? A sinking feeling went through my stomach. Were we at war with Germany again? There was a German woman weeping to her French husband - "Sosthene! Meine eltern wohnen in Frankfurt! Wir haben , dorthin zu gohen!" 'Sosthene' had a paper in his hands, I leaned in to look.

"Germany almost decimated! Machines conquer half of Germany overnight!"