A ten-year-old boy crept almost invisible around the abandoned house. He was in an exploration mood, and this long-abandoned house was perfect for it. No one knew how old the house exactly was, but it appeared to be hundreds of years old. The house property had a nice young forest growing on it, instead of a once maintained lawn. That young forest provided some nice cover for his exploration.

He crept on the simple front porch and heard the boards creak under his footsteps. He was disappointed to discover that the front door was boarded over. Going to the back door, he discovered it also was boarded over. Taking a moment to flack some peeling paint off, he looked around to discover a different point of entrance.

Running to the window near the back door, still, on the porch, he could see into the dusty house. The room he was looking in was separate from the back door by a wall. Looking across the room, he could see a bricked-up fireplace. The old mantel was still there, just covered with a thick layer of dust. As much as he tried, he couldn’t get that window open, so he brushed his hands off on his jeans. He continued around the house looking at the high first floor windows. The bottom of them had to be six feet off the ground. He went around the corner and discovering a window above a boarded-up basement access point. That window was as reachable as the window on the porch.

Using the plywood board as a ramp, he went to the window and peered into it. It looked like he was looking in the same room as the other window, except this time he was looking at the side of the fireplace. Looking towards where the back door should be, he could barely see his other vantage point.

He tried pushing on the bottom of the window and was happy to see that it slowly but surely went up. It was taking all his concentration to keep his footing on the top of the ramp though. It was also taking all of his strength to push the window up so he could fit in the window.

When the window was up enough, he crawled into the house only to fall on the floor. He was momentarily distracted by that very fall, that he lost track of his surroundings. He heard someone to his left angrily said, “Elizabeth get off the floor; that is not ladylike.”

Coming to his senses, he looked around. He saw that he wasn’t in an abandoned house; it looked well maintained. Sparsely furnished with period furniture. Looking to his left, he saw a lady in what could only be described as a colonial outfit tapping her foot. Jumping to his feet, he was surprised to see he was also wearing a lavender colonial dress. He or she dusted her dress off and tried to figure out how the heck this happened.

Thankfully the lady turned back to whatever she was doing before. Looking out the window, the boy, now girl, who had apparently become Elizabeth, was surprised to discover that outside the window, everything was well maintained. The formerly small forest was a small side garden.

She took stock of herself looking in the window, on top of the dress, she had a white apron which looked like it was pinned to her chest. Her brunette hair, underneath a mop cap, was long and curly.

Her chest felt like she had a corset-like device on it. She wondered if the apron were pinned into that. As she was checking her simple shoes out, the Lady returned.

“Elizabeth if you are done daydreaming looking out the window, your mother wants me to take you to the mantua-maker for a new gown,” the lady told her. After handing the young charge a woven hat, the lady continued, “please put your hat on so you don’t catch your death of sunburn.”

The lady took her hand and led her out the front door. She was shocked that she didn’t convert back to Paul, her former self when they went out the door.

“Ma’am, what is today?” Elizabeth asked, wondering how this question would go. But she just had to know.

The lady looked at her, shocked, “Elizabeth Anne Madison, today is Thursday, May 20, 1773! Quit being silly we have to get to the Mantua Maker.”

As they swiftly walked through the town, Elizabeth did the math. She had been transferred somehow two hundred and forty-five years in the past. It had been … is … Sunday, May 20, 2018, in Paul’s time. It had to be the window, but how, that was what puzzled her.

Lucy directed Elizabeth into a storefront with a dress on a sign in front of it. There were a few ladies in the room, and one of them spoke: “Hi Lucy.”

The lady who must be named Lucy spoke, “Lady Abigail Madison sent her daughter, Lady Elizabeth over for a new silk gown, complete with a stomacher, Grace. She needs it done in four to five days.”

“Lady Madison, If you will go to the back room and strip down to your stays and shift we get started draping you.” The lady who must have been Grace told her.

Elizabeth went to the back room and tried to figure out how to get out of the dress. She started with untying the ribbon on the hat. Since she was inside, she figured that was ok. Untying the sash of the apron, she pulled the pins and set the apron aside. She discovered that her dress was actually a top and a skirt. The skirt appeared to tie both in front of her and behind her. After taking the skirt off, she slipped the top off over her head. She was glancing at herself in something reflected in the room to see what looked like a nightie under a simple version of a corset. She knew that one of these must be called a shift and the other a stay. She also had some pockets which she apparently could access on the side of her skirt. She was getting ready to untie them when Grace said: “Lady Madison, you can leave your pockets on.”

She looked to see Grace, another lady, and Lucy walked in the room. Lucy spoke, “Grace, I am going to leave Elizabeth in your presence for an hour or two.”

“Ok, we should be done with her by then and may be done with the dress. Did Lady Abigail Madison have a preference of color?” Grace said.

Lucy told the group, “Allow Elizabeth pick as long as it looks good.”

As Lucy left, the young girl was led to a stack of silks. “Can I pick two colors, Ma’am?” she asked.

“Yes, you may.”

“The light green and the green please. Ma’am,” She told the gown maker.

After checking her stock, the lady approved the color selections. Elizabeth was told to stand on a box, and both ladies started draping the green underskirt, by pinning the skirt material to the bottom of Elizabeth’s stays. She had been told they were going to do that; that is how she knew which one was her stays. After making some quick stitches to hold the skirt together, they started hanging the light green fabric over each shoulder. They started to pin the fabric in various places, and to her stays in a few places.

Again the quick stitches were done in key locations. They carefully took the gown and skirt off her, leaving her in her shift and stays again. While the gown makers used the big windows in the front of the store, Elizabeth was left in the back. Since she was only in what could be described as a nightie, she didn’t dare join them. She was sitting on crate swinging her feet.

She took stock of how she got here and if she wanted to find her … his … way home again. She did realize she was eventually going to have a problem if she did stay. She knew that we were before indoor plumbing, so she was going to eventually figure out what using an outhouse was like.

She thought forward towards the two thousands, her … his … parents he left in the future falling in the window. True his mom and dad usually left him to find his own way, because they were busy with their own jobs. But they loved him and tried to spoil him when he asked for something. He thought back, scratch that, forward to the bike that dad had just bought him … yesterday? Thinking to himself … herself she thought this time slash gender change stuff gets very complicated.

She was soon brought back to the present … past by Grace calling her name. After answering the head Mantua Maker, she was rewarded with, “Can you stand on the box again so we can test try your dress on, Lady Madison.” Grace asked her.

After standing on a box, the green silk underskirt was dropped over her, and again was tied in front of her and behind her. The gown part was slipped on like what could only be described as like a bathrobe. Grace pinned the front of her gown close, pinning into the stays. She looked down to find a large triangle spot on the front of her showing her stays.

Grace came to her with a piece of the dark green fabric and pinned it in the triangle spot. After marking locations with pins, she took it off her and headed to the front again.

Elizabeth asked, “Do I need to stay in the back again?”

“You may join us in the front if you don’t mind the front of stays showing. Whatever you do be extremely careful sitting down, your gown is only basted together.” Grace told her.

She went to the front and sat carefully down to watch the Mantuas work. She rubbed her hands over the silk. She thought she could get used to this.

The ladies were busy turning the piece of fabric into a thick green silk triangle with three light green silk bows spaced equally on it. Elizabeth found it quite interesting to watch them.

“Lady Madison, your lady servant will be back soon. Let Felicity help you get out of that gown so you can put your pinner outfit back on.” Grace told the young lady.

After standing on the box again in the back, Felicity made quick work of removing the gown. Before Elizabeth knew it, she was ‘naked’ in her shift and stays. After Felicity went in the front to finish the gown, Elizabeth started with the tying the skirt on, starting with the back tie like Grace had done, then the front tie.

After dropping the top over her head, she tied the sash of the apron. She struggled with pinning the apron top on like it was before.

She walked in the front, with the pins and her hat. She told the Mantua ladies, “Ma’am I can’t seem to pin my pinner on,” using the same term Grace had used earlier.

Grace came over and expertly pinned the top to the young girl’s stays. Once she went back to her stitching in the front window, Elizabeth went to put her hat on but was stopped by Grace.

The Mantua lady came to Elizabeth and taking a piece of string, she tied it around the girl’s head to get the size of the head. After marking the size, she told Elizabeth it was ok to put the hat on, which the young girl did.

Elizabeth realized that she suddenly had an issue, and wasn’t sure how to ask for it. She nervously asked, “Ma’am, do you have a necessary house?” She wasn’t sure where that term came from, but it must have been the correct term.

Grace smirked, and escorted her to the back door, pointing to a small building in the backyard. Walking in what can only be described as an outhouse, she scrunched up her skirts to find in surprise that she wasn’t wearing underwear. BUT more surprising was Elizabeth was fully a girl, none of Paul had traveled through time.

After she did her needed duty, Elizabeth was surprised to find a barrel of corn cobs in the room. Since there was no TP, she figured this was her replacement. She thought it felt uncomfortable and was glad they don’t use this in the twenty-first century. She dropped the gross cob in the hole, before walking back in the store to find Lucy waiting for her.

“Feel better Elizabeth?” Lucy asked.

She just nodded at her servant and followed Lucy home. Once back in the house, Elizabeth thought as much as she was enjoying this trip to the past, she better see about getting to her actual house.

She knew that walking out the front door didn’t get her back to the twenty-first century. She tried walking out the back door, and all that did was reward her was the back garden, which was most utilitarian in use.

Looking at the house, like the future house in her memories, it was five windows, to make that a unit of measurement, square. The house had two … maybe three stories. She said maybe on the third because the roof was hip style with dormers. She noticed that the back door was in the middle of the house. She remembered that there was a hall running through the middle of the house, with the back door right behind the front door.

Looking to the left side of the house, she found basement steps tucked against a one window, one story addition. She remembered that addition had hid her entrance in the twenty-first century.

Looking at the basement steps, she decided to go down it, to explore down below. As she peered into what she would describe as a root cellar, she saw it was stacked to the brim with various food stores.

As she stepped under the house, she found herself, scratch that, himself back as Paul in a dark, dusty, empty basement.

He felt around the basement, and besides getting dusty, he found nothing, and no other entrance than the one he came in. Feeling his way back to the way he came in, he couldn’t see a way out since plywood had been nailed to the top of the steps.

He decided to creep up the steps to see if the wood was weak. As he stepped from under the house, he, never mind, she found herself back in the bright sunshine in her lavender outfit.

Looking down at her outfit, she was surprised to find not an ounce of dust on her and feeling her hat, she thought it felt still in pristine condition. She decided that definitely worked, but got her nowhere since she was trapped in the future in the basement. Going back in the house, she looked at the window she fell through earlier. Looking out the window, she saw that if this didn’t work, she would be in serious trouble with no top on the basement stairs.

She decided to explore the house while she worked up her nerves. On the first floor, there was this common room in the back of the house. This common room must have been the room she … he … was peering into in the future. On the other side of the back looked to be some sort of office.

The two front rooms were a dining room, and a fancy common room with a musical instrument, that looked like an ancestor to the piano. The music room was longer than the rest of the rooms. It appeared that the one window addition she had seen outside was connected to this room.

Upstairs looked like four bedrooms, with the front left one definitely hers because of the gowns hanging on pegs on the wall. The one behind her bedroom had an adult-sized simple skirt and top hanging on the pegs. She figured that must be Lucy’s.

Across the hall from her must have been her parents, and some manservant was living in the back one.

She looked at the stairs headed towards the top floor and discovered that the trap door on top of the steps was locked tight. Figuring she wouldn’t be getting up there today, she headed downstairs.

She noticed that the sun was getting lower in the sky; if she was going to try to get home today, she better do it now. Making sure Lucy was busy somewhere else in the house, she stuck her head through the window. Looking around she, never mind, he saw that he was wearing the clothes he wore this morning. He couldn’t see the skirt but definitely felt it around his legs.

As he was going to kick the legs through the window, someone pulled her back into the 18th century. She heard Lucy saying, “Young Lady one that isn’t Ladylike, never mind if you fell out the window, you would break your bloody neck.”

Brushing her outfit off, she waiting for Lucy to return to the outdoor kitchen where she was doing laundry. Once Lucy went out the back yard, Elizabeth took a flying leap out the window. Just as she, sorry, he expected, he was back as Paul, but right now that was the least of his worries. He was still flying through the air, so he decided to tuck in a tight ball to protect him from the impact of the ground.

Back on terra ferma, he brushed himself off and looked around. Seeing the open window, he decided better close it, to protect the 18th-century house in case he decided to become Elizabeth again. After doing his task with all his strength, he ran home in order to beat the setting sun.

Author's Note:Sorry for the day late posting, Katie Ann will hopefully be posted tomorrow, I am too tired to post it today. Comments and questions are always welcomed -- Thanks Becky