"Hey, stand closer you two if you want to be in the picture," yelled Edie. Motioning with her hand, her three friends, Molly, Katie, and Joanie stood side by side with their arms wrapped around each other. Edie ran over to join her friends just in time. The results was a great picture of four college friends in Nuenen, Holland. It was September and they were on the early legs of their European tour.

"Vincent Van Gogh was born here," announced Molly. She majored in art. Thanks to her, they had been through practically every art museum in Amsterdam. They howled their way through the red light district. The open display of prostitutes sitting in windows blew their minds. Edie summed it up best when she said the whole scene gave new meaning to the term window dressing.

"Remarkable," said Edie. They all met in an Art History Class at the University of Virginia. Edie was an American History Major, Joanie specialized in European History, and Katie started out in nursing before switching to Psychology. The plan was to spend a year in Europe. Then they would go their separate ways to start graduate school across the country. For Edie, a Rhodes scholarship awaited her in Oxford. Hostel living made their money stretch further. Sometimes just for fun they buskered in the streets by singing old folk slngs. They added this to their kitty when they wanted to splurge on a three or four star restaurant, which was rare, but it gave them the excuse to dress up.

"Hey, what's with the wind," said Joanie as she spat out some dirt.

"I have no idea, but let's play it safe and go down to that drain. They hopped down into a ditch and made their way deep inside the bricked drain. I have never heard of tornadoes in Holland," said Edie.

"Me neither, but they did have one in England not too long ago," said Joanie.

"I tell you hanging with history majors is liking being with a walking trivia pursuit game," said Molly.

"Ah, you love it," said Joanie. "Jesus, this is some storm. It makes my ears ring." She stuck her fingers in her ears and grimaced in pain.

"Mine too," said Edie. "Ow, God Almighty." Soon all the girls were moaning. "There must be a drop in the barometric pressure."

"You think? Move further inside you guys," said Joanie." They all slid over until they were about in the middle of the drain. "I think it's passing directly overhead. My God, look at it outside. Edie leaned forward and could see the area directly outside of the drain. The dark sky seem to blur in front of her. Bolts of purplish lightening hit directly in front of them. They all screamed out loud. Soon the pain in their heads became too much, and the four friends passed out.

When Edie came too, she immediately checked her friends, who woke up just as dazed as she was. "I wonder what time it is," said Joanie. "Shit, my watch died."

"Mine too," said, Molly.

Edie pulled out her grandfather's pocket watch. It was still working. "This is weird. It's obviously light outside, but my watch says 3:00. It was almost 7:00 in the evening when we took the picture."

"Yeah, said, Katie. She stuck her head out of the drain. "This part of town doesn't look the same either."

Edie scrambled past her. It was the same area, but the buildings looked older and damaged. Then she saw something that almost made her wet her pants. "Get back in and stay quiet."

"What is it," whispered Joanie?

Edie hand signaled for her to come and look. Joanie traded places with Katie and followed Edie's finger. "Holy shit! Those dudes look like German soldiers from World War II."

Edie nodded. She didn't scare easily, but this was terrifying. Her thoughts raced. Maybe they stumbled onto some sort of neoNazi campground, but wait the Dutch people would never allow anything like this. Pulling herself together, she shifted her weight and made her way to the other side of the tunnel. Pulling her binoculars from her backpack, she looked out the other side of the drain and saw what looked like a well-hidden Panzer. Whatever is going on, we are so fucked, she thought. Looking up she saw a machine gun unit in the top of one of the windows. Dear God, help us. Edie motioned for Joanie to look in the direction of the Panzer. The astonished look on Joanie's face verfied that it was indeed a German tank.

Joanie whispered, "What are we going to tell those two?" She nodded back to Molly and Katie, who realized that something was up. The latter looked at Edie with eyes that asked what gives. Before Edie could reply, they heard shelling overhead, which was followed by the sound of men moving around them and soon the shooting started.

Molly screamed and Joanie and Edie crawled back to her and Katie. "I'm not sure what is going on, but to be perfectly honest with you if I didn't know better, I would swear we are in World War II," said Edie.

"Let me smell your breath Edie because you are either drunk or stoned from eating one of those hashish brownies," said Katie.

"She's not kidding. I saw them too," said Joanie. Suddenly a soldier in an American uniform fell dead right in front of them.

"Grab his weapons," shouted Edie. The girls took his helmet too. "What the hell, are going to we do," screamed Joanie?

"Figure out how to get out of here without getting killed, sounds like a really good idea to me," yelled back Edie. She stuck her head and saw a German sniper putting the bead on an American soldier. Having been through a weapons museum, Edie tried to recall how to use the M1 in hands. Suddenly it came back to her, she checked the magazine, it was fully loaded, and she was a good skeet shooter so she hoped her aim was true. The rifle had a helluva of recoil, but she got the sniper. Some Sergeant saw what happened and ran over and yelled at her to get out of the hole. Molly and Katie screamed when he approached. "Get the fuck outta, what the hell."

"Don't shoot. We are Americans," said Edie.

"What the hell are you doing here," he yelled?

"Like we know," said Joanie. "We took shelter from a storm and woke up to find all hell breaking loose."

"Christ, stay here. I will come back for you." He made his way back to where Edie was, but she stopped him and motioned two over the hedge. "Thanks sweetie." The Sergeant tossed a grenade in that direction. They heard the two Germans scream. Edie provided covering fire, and and the Sergeant headed straight for his men. Meanwhile Joanie went to the other end and dragged in two helmets and a Tommy gun that she pulled off of two dead GIs.

"Edie, how do you fire this thing?" Crawling down the other end, she gave Joanie some instructions and headed back down the other side. True to his word, the Sergeant came back and told them to follow him that they were retreating.

Picking up one of the helmets, Edie gave it to Molly and Joanie put the extra one she got on Katie's head. They made their way down some ditch with hedgerows and tried not to trip over the dead soldiers.

"Jesus, Bill this is no time to pick up dames," yelled some Lieutenant.

"They are Americans and that one," pointing at Edie, "saved my ass. "We gotta get them outta here."

"All right go ladies, go." The four friends didn't need to be told twice and took off. They ran past the big Lieutenant, a Corporal and a medic.

"What the hell," said the Corporal? Looking back, he saw his friend the Lieutenant had been hit. Realizing no one was behind them anymore; Edie turned around and saw the medic bent over the Lieutenant. She ran back to see what she could do and her three friends soon followed her.

"Malarkey get these women out of here," he yelled. "Leave me for the Germans."

"We'll carry you," said the Medic.

"I weigh more than all of you put together."

"Go find something to use as a stretcher," said Edie. The Corporal and his buddy went off and soon came back not only with a barn door but also with the Sergeant who had first discovered them.

"What the hell are you ladies still doing here?"

"Providing covering fire," said Joanie as she picked off two Kraut soldiers.

"Everyone is a wise ass today. What's your name kid?"

"She is not a kid or a sweetie. We are twenty-two year old women and graduates of the University of Virginia. Now let's get the hell out of here," yelled Edie.

The Sergeant was struck dumb for a moment, but realized that it was more important to help the Lieutenant.

"Ready, Buck?"

"Move out."

Edie pushed, dragged and bullied Molly and Katie while Joanie turned around to provide covering fire. They soon found themselves running along the side of a main road. Some tall officer was yelling at everyone to hurry it up. When they ran past him, he looked rather surprised to see four women in blue jeans carrying unusual backpacks. Suddenly a ricochet hit his friend Nix. This caused the woman carrying an M-1 to fire back in the direction of the enemy. "Get back," he screamed.

"Your mama," she yelled back over her shoulder.

"My what?"

Edie had no idea why she said that, but she was running on pure adrenaline now. "I am so sorry. I am just really pumped up." She took off running before he could respond.

Molly and Katie were crying and asking what was happening, and what were they going to do. This centered Edie and she tried to calm her friends. "I don't know, but the only thing we can do is get out of here. Come on." They started running past the trucks, when the Sergeant from the ditch stopped them and made them get on the truck with him.

"Where the hell do you think you were running too if you don't mind my asking?" He opened a pack of cigarettes and offerred one to Edie, and her friends, but they all shook their heads.

"As far from here as we can get," said Joanie. She had her arm around Molly who shook uncontrolably.

Katie wept openly in Edie's arms. "This can't be happening. It can't be real."

Edie rocked her as if she was a baby. "It is as real as real can be honey."

Joanie turned to Edie. "You are the American history expert, Edie. Where exactly are we in time?"

The Sergeant was asking another Sergeant about someone named Bull. This rang familiar to Edie. She turned to the first Sergeant and asked if this was Easy Company. When he said yes. Edie turned to Joanie and said, "Shit, shitty, shit, shit, shit."

"What is it?"

Edie was overwhelmed. "I don't know how to tell you this but my guess, we are still in Holland, and we are in the middle of Operation Market Garden."

"Fuck me," said Joanie. "Montgomery's holy fiasco?"

"Yes, but how I do not know."

"How do you two know about Operation Market Garden and Montgomery?" Their friendly Sergeant now eyed them with suspicion.

"Trust me Sergeant you would not believe me if I told you," said Edie. She wished she smoked or drank because she could really use something right now. One of the troopers offered them some water, which they accepted gratefully.

"Try me, but start with your name and where are you from."

"I'm Edie Witherspoon from Raleigh, North Carolina. What's yours?"

"Guarnere."

"Sergeant Bill Guarnere from South Philly?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Now both Sergeants eyed them with suspicion.

Edie slumped down and started shaking her head. Her friend Joanie grabbed her and said, "Edie, Edie, Edwina, this is no time to loose it."

"Are you fucking kidding me," yelled Katie? "One minute we are tourists in 2006 caught in some freak storm and the next we are in the middle of World War II. I think this is very good time to loose it. Jesus Christ Almighty! Look around us even some of these men have lost their shit."

"But not for long," said Edie. "They are frickin paratroopers. They will bounce back. Remember we win the war."

"Yeah, but not until 1945," screamed Katie. "How are we going to get back to our time? Christ our parents aren't even born yet!"

Guarnere and his friend looked at each other then at the girls and thought they had lost their minds or at the very least were hysterical.

Edie yelled back, "How the devil do I know? You think I travel through time on a frickin daily basis. Like before lunch, I jump back, swap howdies with Abraham Lincoln, and ask him how his family is doing? You're the Psychology major, go ahead, and feel free to explain it to us."

Katie started sobbing again. "I can't and you know it."

Sighing, Edie said, "Listen, I'm sorry I yelled at you, but Joanie is right. We have to keep our heads together."

"Sergeant Guarnere is Captain Winters your CO?"

This was too much for the Sergeant. She knew too much for a civilian. "Yeah and as soon as we stop, I am taking all of you to see him. Grab their weapons guys." The next thing the girls knew they were prisoners of Easy Company.