Living in ancient Rome

Chapter 3 A jump into the past

I get out of bed at the insistent sound of the alarm clock, ready to start another stressful working day full of annoying noises, in the editorial office.
My name is Marta, I am twenty-four years old and I have lived in a modest mini apartment on the outskirts of Rome for years, even though I am a native of the province of Milan;  I graduated in literature and I have a masters in publishing with honors and I currently work for a newspaper even though I dream of becoming a writer.
After having breakfast with milk and biscuits, brushing my teeth and face, putting on a little makeup and getting dressed, I am about to open the curtains and the window of my room.
Looking out from the balcony to get some air, I see everyone dressed up like ancient Romans.
"How nice! They are doing some historical re-enactment, even and honestly I don't remember it was planned ... '', I take my things and go down to see the parade;
just down on the sidewalk I immediately notice that something is wrong.  The building I live in from the modern construction that is, has completely transformed itself.  On the first floor instead of the garages, there are shops of all kinds and the floors are four and no longer six.
"It must be a bad dream for sure;" I am convinced and immediately enter the building.
Returning I see that the whole building is made of wood.  I enter my apartment and without panicking I notice that it is smaller and that there is no bathroom and water.
"Oh no.  NO NO NO!  It can't be that ... '' I think to myself trying to deny the evidence ... "my grandfather's car worked. And to say that I selected the date, thinking it was a toy ... well. Let's be calm. "What do we do now?  Why did I find myself in bed?  Could it be that my car threw me or did I put myself in it?  I don't understand..."
I read in the instruction booklet that I brought with me just in case and that I keep in the pocket in the back of my jeans:
<< until the course of historical events is completed, it will not be possible to go back to the exact time, because only when this happens, the machine appears again in the same place where it was left.  >>
"Fantastic I dare to say..." I say to myself as I peek at that little book.
The machine is very similar to a telephone booth but instead of the handset, there is a touchscreen display where you can select the year.
The structure is in aluminum, (in the complex notes left by my grandfather, it says that it is made that way to be lighter and more effective);  above, the roof has a subspecies of helmet with numerous threads of various colors connected to something inside the cockpit.  I know this because I traced the mental paths of the cables before leaving, seeing the drawings of the projects.
It is very fast and is powered by a glass capsule containing a rather viscous blue phosphorescent substance inside.
Precisely.
Remember: try to analyze it with the help of the microscope once you get home and figure it out.
I go down to the street again and looking up with my nose, I notice that it has become an insula.
The typical ancient Roman residence of the citizens.
On the street everyone looks at me as if I were strange, well in fact they are not completely wrong since more than two thousand years have passed.
I enter a shop near the house and speaking a macaronic Latin learned during my five years of classical high school so as not to feel too inadequate and trying to make myself understood by the shopkeeper, I buy some clothes;  brown leather sandals intertwined up to the knee, white tunic and belt of a fake gold to be able to better adhere the sheet I have for dress on my gaunt body.
Back home to change, I go out.
At a certain point, walking without a real goal to reach, I am attracted by the crowd crowded in a square or forum, as they call it here;  there is a newsboy reading the news of the day and those around him are surely listening.
He also says that Cesare needs a hack and when I hear those words, I go close to him bumping into people.
"Hey, what am I supposed to do for this role?"
Looking at me haughtily, he tells me that I have to go to central Rome, go to Julius Caesar's house and ask some handmaid about him and so I did.