I flipped through the pages absentmindedly. Sigh. I hated science homework. It was even worse in Montreal, everything was in French. It got annoying after awhile. I read the following paragraph,
Witlat. This herb has been extinct for many years.
The last one surviving was in 1666. This herb cures
all diseases.
I wondered if maybe I could get that herb. I’d get a good mark in science. But seriously, wasn’t that, like, impossible? A voice interrupted my thoughts, it was my dad. Dad wasn’t a normal dad who would punish you if you did something wrong. He was a dad who understands everything, no matter what problem you have. I liked the way he was.
“Kate, what do you want for dinner?” he said.
“I don’t care,” I answered, not in the mood to talk anymore.
Later that day, the only thing I could think about was the herb. So I did what I always do; talk to my family.
“School was boring as usual,” I said, with a big chunk of mashed potato in my mouth. I loved food, any type.
“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” dad said angrily.
I swallowed the chunk of food and excused myself from the table. I ran upstairs as fast as I could. I didn’t feel like talking, mainly after that conversation. I went to my room to get dressed and I put on my favourite pajamas. I looked into the mirror. The picture of the herb was still in my mind. I looked at myself, maybe I wasn’t the girl who would be a hero and get an herb. I was just a person, who didn’t pay attention. Not a champion or anything. I went to the bathroom to start brushing my teeth. I was tired and it was time to go to bed.
The next day, I was working in my family’s supermarket. As I was putting candy on the shelves, I asked my dad,” Do you know anything about the herb, Witlat? It can cure all diseases. It’s amazing!”
“No, I don’t honey, but it seems that you’re interested. I think I might have a book about it. When we get home, I can give it to you. I think you’ll find it appealing.”
“Or,” I said, not wanting to read anymore, ”I could go and get the herb with Skate.”
“I don’t know if you really want to do that. You’ve hated your brother since you were born. It is your choice. In addition, I don’t even know where you can get it,” he declared.
I remembered the paragraph I read in science and the answer was 1666. Some how I needed to get there. Time travel machine, something.
I heard a voice,” Excuse me, do you sell any salt and vinegar pickles?” asked a customer.
“Oh yes, I do. I’ll go check in the back,” I said. I went to the back of the store and something surprised me. There were boxes everywhere, but no food. I entered the curtains into the next section. There it was. The salt and vinegar pickles! The jar was covered, so I was hesitant about whatever was inside. I shrugged and said to myself,” I guess the customer will just have to find out herself.”
Suddenly, someone barged through the door. I turned around and it was my brother. He stormed in and grabbed the jar right out of my hands.
“ What are you doing? This jar is for a client, not you,” I bellowed.
“ Too bad. I need it. You know that those pickles are the new trend and I really want them,” Skate argued.
I finally stole back the pickles. It was mine forever. Unexpectedly, a hand reached out to grab it. It was Skate’s. He knocked the jar over and it fell right out of my hand. I tried to catch it in mid-air. CRASH! It was too late. The pieces scattered on the floor when all of a sudden, it became dark. I thought it was just a power outage, so I waited there thinking the power would come on. I waited and waited. Nothing happened. Out of nowhere, a spark of lightning filled the room. A burst of bubbles followed.
“ Skate. Where are you?” I was so worried. I thought I lost him in all the commotion. Thankfully, I heard a reply.
“I’m here. When I say here, I mean right under you,” he complained in a screeching voice.
“ Oops. Sorry. That explains the soft landing” I replied. I spotted something in the distance. It was a sign a few meters ahead of us. I walked up to it. It read:
“ Welcome to New France”
“ Umm. I kinda left out something that I was going to tell you, but I never did.”
“ So you mean all this New France thing is your fault,” Skate said in an annoyed voice.
” No, but whatever I say don’t get mad at me please. Soooooo, I read a paragraph in science about an herb called Witlat that could cure all diseases. The last one existing was in 1666.” I expected screaming and yelling, instead, I heard just a plain “sure”. “Let’s turn a left here and hope we find something useful.”
He followed. After 3 exhausting hours, we needed a drink. I saw a circular object made out of stone with a little roof on top. I looked closely, and I was pretty sure I had seen something like it, called a well.
Skate croaked,” I need something to drink.”
I explained to my brother that we had to drink out of this thing called a well. “Also, about how we’re in New France. We time travelled from Montreal, Canada to New France 1666,”I said. I continued,” I found out that we were in 1666 because of all les filles du roi. They’re basically the daughters of the king who would come here to marry. Look there’s one over there.”
As we were walking over to get a better view, he questioned me, “ How do you know so much about this stuff?”
“ That was one of the times I was listening in class.”
Skate looked over. Les filles du roi were beautiful. They wore puffy dresses that went to their heels. The dresses were made out of lace and had many colours. It was their job to marry men here. I saw many eager men waiting. It was silent between my brother and I. We weren’t talking at all because I guess he knew how much getting this herb meant for me. I appreciated it.
Suddenly, a voice broke the peaceful moment; it was Skate, “ Ewwww. Gross. I think I just stepped in poison ivy. I’m itching everywhere. In places, you don’t want to know. Trust me on that one.”
“ FREEZE,” I screamed, “ This is it! Witlat!” I was so happy. He cheered with me. All our hard work paid off. I carefully picked up the root of the herb. I carried the plant in a little container and I put it in my pink bag. I went over to Skate. Surprisingly, we knew what to do, we hugged each other. We were so proud of ourselves for accomplishing the big problem. “ Ummmmm, how are we suppose to go back home? We did get here though,” I wondered. It hit me. A brilliant idea! “We could go and ask one of les filles du roi for some directions.”
Skate said, “ I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but that’s actually not a bad idea. There is only one problem; you aren’t very good at French so you can’t communicate with them well. I’m not good at it either.”
“ Whatever,” I said, “ I’m sure we’ll figure something out. The explorers seem to communicate with the First Nations when they traded, so I think we can handle it.”
We slowly walked over to a fille du roi. I was scared and shy. Maybe they would do something bad to me. I didn’t want to talk to one, but I needed to, for the sake of my brother. He helped me the whole time. “ Bonjour,” I said shyly. That was really the only word I knew.
“ Umm, salut. Comment ça va aujourd’hui?” said a fille du roi.
“ What do I say back?” I whispered to my brother.
“ I don’t know. Just show hand actions to where the market is and hope she understands? The same location, so we can find the jar that broke and put it back together. I hope that will bring us back.”
“ I think people around will just think that we’re dorks doing crazy hand actions, but I’ll guess we’ll have to try it.” I did the actions in front of the fille du roi. I pointed to a fruit stand and drew a big circle with my fingers then I shrugged my shoulders. I guess she understood. I was so thankful I didn’t have to do it again because my brother and I couldn’t think of any more ideas. She waved me over and I followed. Skate was right behind me. In the distance, I saw a little shack and someone was selling food in it.
She declared, “Ça y est! Le marché.”
I had no idea what she meant, but my brother said, “ Merci.”
“ What does that mean?” I said in a faint voice so the fille de roi couldn’t hear me I didn’t want her to hear me. I’ve heard that in other countries if you say something bad they might kill you. I didn’t know if it was true because I did see it in a t.v. show.
“ It means thank you,” replied Skate.
We went over to the man at the food stand and he said, “ Hello, my name is Stéphane Lennox . I see you speak English. I speak French too. How may I help you?”
“ Oh! You are my great great great grandpa, I think. I’m Kate Lennox and this is Skate Lennox,” I said as I was pointing to my brother. “It’s a long story about how I’m here right now even though I was basically born in the future. I’ll try to make it short. I learned about this herb called Witlat and the last one existing was in 1666 so I wanted to get it. By accident, we broke a jar that apparently was the time travel machine that got us here. However, to get back we need the jar pieces we broke so it can bring us back to 2011. Is there anyway you can help us?
“ Sorry, I don’t know any other way to go back. That sounds like a good idea though. The only thing I can say is, you can stay here as long as you need to find the jar pieces.”
“ Thank you so much.” I really meant it. I’d learned a lot from this trip, try hard and you’ll get a reward. I guessed both of us felt like we couldn’t do any better. We worked as hard as we could. After all, Skate and I were both heroes. We basically saved a lot of people from diseases. I could do it even though I never believed in myself. When we got home, I would plant the herb and it would populate. Someone tapped my shoulder. It was Skate.
“ Ready to go home.” He held the jar in his hand.
“ Yah,” I said. I would miss this place a lot. It was where all my adventures started. We knew it was going to be dark soon. I closed my eyes. When I opened them, we were back in my family’s super market.
“ We are back,” Skate blurted happily.