CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Ripples in Time

The church basement is bustling with people, young people full of anxious anticipation, for they know that they are about to brush history. Lily and Alexander walked in unnoticed, so that their clothes covered in fashion made them just like the people involved in the civil rights movements. Lily’s heart fluttered as she met Denzel’s eyes. Fellow marchers looked like familiar faces from history books—Martin Luther King Jr. at a young age, Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, and other movement activists. These two were together, standing and discussing something around a table where others were also present. They were talking about the Children’s Crusade. “It would be better if we stuck together,” Lily murmured in Alexander’s ear. The mandate that the military dictum gave them was very simple: ‘protect them at all costs. ’  He simply looked at me and nodded, keenly observing the room in the hope of spotting the temporal hijackers in the making. They did not have to wait very long.