When I was in Paris, some things happened that felt like they could've been taken from the MLB universe, so here's a small series of one-shots based on those.
The five women walked through the streets of Paris. In August of 2021, the city required negative COVID tests in order to experience many things that the city has to offer. They had arrived at 11h00 and they'd been walking around the city until 17h30 when they could check in at the rental apartment.
Knowing that they had plans early the next morning, they decided that it would be easiest to get their tests that day instead of waiting until the next. The oldest in the group was looking at her phone screen, trying to find a local pharmacy where they could be tested.
Three of the other four women were crowded around her, all looking at her screen, trying to figure out in which direction the nearest pharmacy was. They had already been wandering around lost, looking for any pharmacy for 20 minutes. The blonde haired girl in the group was instead looking around at other people on the streets of Paris, seeming to consider everyone who stood near them for any amount of time.
Behind them, the large wooden door to the nearest building opened. An older man seemed to be preparing to leave the building. The blonde walked into the building.
"Désole, Monsieur… Nous cherchons une pharmacie… » It was the first time she'd spoken French since arriving in the country, so it came out awkward and clearly American. The man nodded and came to the door near her.
With a French accent, the man spoke in slightly broken English. "You're going to go straight down this street. The one in front of us, then you turn left. You'll see the pharmacy when you get to the end." She smiled widely at the man.
"Merci beaucoup, Monsieur. Au revoir." She backed out of the building and turned to the rest of the group who were staring at her. As the only one in the group who spoke French, the rest of them were slightly confused when she just walked away. She pointed in the direction the man had told her and the five of them started to walk.
They turned where he told them to and they saw the sign that designated a pharmacy. It wasn't lit up like the open ones that they had seen earlier in the day, but they still finished the walk there in case it was open. As expected, it was closed. The women were back to square one, looking at the oldest woman's phone.
After a minute or two of looking around, they saw the strangest thing. A man dressed in an owl costume rode up to their group on a bicycle. He made eye contact with the girl who had spoken up at the building. He slightly panted as he began to speak to her.
"Sorry. I forgot that this pharmacy is closed today. The next closest one is a short walk away from this street, then turn on the right." He pointed in the correct direction, then gave the group a thumbs up.
The blonde smiled at him again. "Merci, encore." She nodded her head in understanding and waved at him. He waved back then 'The Owl' took off back down the street they had all come from.
"What was that?" One of the younger women asked the blonde.
"Uh… I'm not one hundred percent sure, but he tracked us down because he realized this pharmacy is closed and directed us to another one." She partially shrugged at the experience.
"Oh, I thought he was asking us for directions," one of the other girls mentioned. They laughed and the five women walked off in the correct direction to the next pharmacy.
When we were looking for a pharmacy, I saw on the phone that we were standing next to Francois Dupont and it was surreal.
