The Foreign Service Journal, September 2008

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 8 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 45 inda looked down at the little girl standing patiently beside her, as the two inched up the line toward the cus- toms official at the Tel Aviv airport. The girl’s two braids were coming slightly undone, and she was still clutching the tattered stuffed dog she had barely let out of her sight for the past two weeks. Her lavender backpack hung limply on her back. Linda reached out her hand and put it softly on the blond head; the girl did not react to the touch. Sighing softly, Linda removed her hand and looked up, checking how much farther they had before their turn came at the customs agent’s cubicle. Her eyes burned with the itchy, sandy feeling one has after traveling a long distance in the dry atmosphere of an airplane, without much sleep. She wanted nothing more than a hot shower followed by crawling into her bed with its crisp, clean white sheets in her darkened, quiet bedroom. Linda was jarred from this pleasant thought when she remembered that she probably had nothing in the refriger- ator. Gina would be hungry. Anything left in the fridge would probably be long past ready to be thrown out. Having hurriedly left Tel Aviv for Ohio two weeks ago, she had had little time to do anything but hastily gather clothes and dash to the airport. Food. She’d have to get some food for Gina. And the bed in the guest room — Gina’s room, now — was not only unmade, but buried under a pile of clothes and books. As a single woman with no family left (well, except for Gina) and friends who visit her only once or twice a year, Linda used the guest room as a catch-all for anything and everything. No, her life was no longer only about her wants and desires — now there was Gina. Linda’s tangled thoughts were interrupted by the immi- gration agent motioning her to come forward. Gently putting her hand on Gina’s back, she guided the girl to the window, pushing their two passports — one blue, one black — through the open slot. A SINGLE FS WOMAN , L INDA SUDDENLY FINDS HER LIFE DRAMATICALLY CHANGED BY A TRAGEDY AT HOME . L B Y J OAN B. O DEAN This story is the first-place winner of the Journal ’s 2008 Foreign Service fiction contest. Other winning stories will appear in future issues of the FSJ . Joan Broyles Odean, an office management specialist who joined the Foreign Service in 1985, has served in Geneva, Bonn, Tel Aviv, Oslo, Moscow and Washington, D.C. Her story, “Lucky,” won second place in the 2007 Foreign Service fiction contest. Ms. Odean is currently posted in Ottawa. FS F I CT I ON W HAT TO D O ABOUT G INA