Orphaned at a young age and sent to live with her abusive aunt and uncle, Maggie befriends the town’s odd duck, Oral, whose magic loop of wire protects the young girl. Oh, wait! I forgot to mention: Oral believes he’s from outer space and his ship bounces him through time.
Got the ship clear out of the atmosphere and hit this time warp or something. Nearly got eat by Vikings. Worse than the Mormons. Fixed up the ship and flipped it out again. Ended up in Medival Europe. Medicis and monks, all kinds of shit. Joined someone’s army in Naples. Got caught and picked olives for a duke. Lok at my face. They got diseases you never heard of there.

Variants

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  1. “Perpetuity Blues” by Neal Barrett, Jr., in Asimov’s Science Fiction, May 1987.
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