Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Facepalm (05/15/14)
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TITLE: At Home in a Foreign Land | Previous Challenge Entry
By Elizabeth Garrett
05/22/14 -
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Julia walked into the dimly lit hallway. “Oh my,” she thought. “This doesn’t look like a vibrant college campus. What am I doing?”
To Julia, being here seemed her only option. After her parents died, she felt like moving overseas with her uncle was where God was leading her. Her uncle was on contract with an engineering firm, and since he was her only family member left, she felt it was the right thing to do. Julia knew this would be a hard transition, especially in a country where her Christian faith was not tolerated.
As feelings of doubt overwhelmed her, she turned around to leave and saw a man stumbling into her. “Oh excuse me,” he said. I am running late for class and guess I wasn’t watching where I was going.”
“That’s okay,” Julia commented. “I’m lost and was about to give up finding this class.”
“I’m Mark,” he said. “Where are you headed?”
“I’m Julia. Science,” she responded.
“Same place I’m going. This way,” said Mark.
She smiled and quietly followed her new classmate as they slid into class right before the teacher arrived.
Julia sat down and was relieved she had met someone regardless of the circumstance. “He wasn’t watching where he was going,” she reflected. “For some reason, he was walking and had his face in his hand. That’s odd, but maybe he was distressed because he was running late.” To Julia, the middle of a hallway seemed to be a strange place to be confused, but then she remembered her own confusion and completely forgot about the incident.
After finishing her classes, Julia walked over to the student center.
“Julia!” a voice exclaimed. She looked over to her right and saw Mark seated at a table with other students.
“Hi Mark,” she said.
“Good memory,” he said.
“Do you think I could forget the name of someone who almost ran over me on the way to class?” she asked and smiled.
“I feel so bad about that. Why don’t you come sit with us?” Mark said.
“Sure. I’ll be right there,” said Julia.
As she headed toward Mark’s table, Julia noticed that a classmate seated with Mark had also placed her face in her palm.
“Interesting,” she thought. “Maybe they are both just distressed.”
After finishing her meal, Julia relaxed and began feeling quite comfortable with this group. They seemed different from the other students. One by one they left, so Julia excused herself. “Mark, thank you for inviting me to sit with you and your friends. I’m going to stop by the library before going home,” said Julia.
“Okay. It was great getting acquainted. It’s time for me to run too,” Mark said.
As she began to leave, Julia noticed that Mark had gone in the same direction as two other students who had been sitting with them. One of them was the woman who appeared distressed.
“Okay, that’s it!” Julia declared to herself. “I’m going to see if they’re up to something. Besides, I really don’t need to go to the library.”
She tried staying far enough behind so Mark wouldn’t notice her. He headed toward the back of campus, opposite the library. She watched as he went into a side door of a building with lots of activity. She was afraid to follow, but she’d come all this way. She could always say she was lost! Julia opened the door, and to her dismay, she didn’t see Mark or any place he could have gone. As she went to leave, a quiet woman stepped from around the corner by a big picture. She, too, placed her face in the palm of her hand. Julia nodded. The woman walked over to the picture and quietly rolled it to one side.
To Julia’s amazement, this was a secret doorway leading to a basement. Without hardly taking a breath, Julia followed the basement hallway to its end where there was a single wooden door. With her hand shaking, she barely opened it and saw Mark and his friends with Bibles in hand.
Julia was so relieved she began to cry. Mark walked over, and put his hand on her arm. “It’s okay,” he said.
“I didn’t think there would be any possibility of my being involved in a Bible study here. I knew you and your friends were different,” she said.
Julia was in a strange, new place, yet she felt quite at home.
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Well done!
God bless~
I really like how your story develops. However, I think you can make it even stronger by re-working the last five paragraphs to make it more credible. In a country where Christians are persecuted, it probably would be (I hope) more difficult to find out about them, whereas Julia simply walks into the meeting. Moreover, Mark and his friends would react with more panic—they had been discovered!
Anyway, overall it’s a good read!
Very realistic as well.
Good beginning and ending. It kept my attention all the way through. Well done.