I’ve rewritten these same paragraphs multiple times already. Hopefully this time I have them right!
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Something was wrong. Very wrong.
The Rossi family was still the Rossi family, sure enough, but…different. Everything was different.
It was as if the world was a giant snow globe that had been given it a good shake, then left on a tilted shelf to settle. Same snow globe, but when the flakes settled they landed all wonky. Nothing looked quite right.
Take for example the Rossi living room, where the Rossi family had gathered. Instead of being the twenty-first century living room of a normal family, it looked oddly appropriate to be used for a movie set in the 1920s. No television, no vacuum, no central heating. Just an oversized radio, a broom, and a woodstove for cold days.
Most odd of all—for a family of students at least—was the complete and utter lack of computers and cell phones. It was as if those gadgets had never been invented.
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Who am I kidding? I’m sure I’ll rewrite these paragraphs several more times before I’m satisfied enough to leave them alone.
But not today! Today I need to move on to the rest of the story.