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WHEN THEY ARRIVE BACK in town Larry insists on taking her to a local bar for a few drinks to celebrate her article to come. Not wanting to be rude she agrees, but there is nothing more she would rather be doing than sitting in her hotel room and waiting for sleep to take her. After a few drinks she begins to loosen up a little.
“I’m not sure if I’m going to write the article Larry.” She blurts the words out in a rush.
“What?” He sits his drink down on the table so hard that some of it spills over the edge. “Why in the hell not?”
“I’ve thought about giving my findings to an old college professor and maybe writing a few papers on the daily lives of the Astara and the good that they could bring to the world.”
Larry lets out a sigh. “Jamie that’s a...great idea. You could reach a lot more scientists that way and if the scientists find something beneficial among the Astara. Well...you know this already. You’ve obviously thought about it.”
“I have, but there is something else.”
“What’s that Jamie?”
“I think...” She pauses and shakes her head. “It’s nothing. I just hate to disappoint you like this Larry. You’re the best boss that I’ve ever had.”
“Hey.” He puts a hand on her shoulder. “You set out on this mission to help the Astara people by writing an article, but you and me both know that one measly article in the Gazette isn’t going to change many minds if it changes any at all. A scientific paper though. That has the potential of changing a lot of minds where it really counts. I’m all for it.”
“Thank you Larry.”
She drinks for a while longer with her boss before excusing herself for the night. In her room she strips down and takes a shower. The hot water feels good and so does the fact that she can stay in as long as she likes without having to worry about the water getting cold. Wrapping herself in a robe, she climbs into bed. She tries turning on the television, but none of the shows seem to be anything that she wants to watch. Digging a book out of her bag, she attempts to read, but after reading the same paragraph five times in a row and still not getting the gist of it she decides that reading isn’t going to cut it either.
She sits her laptop on her desk and turns it on. Moments later she is looking through the pictures that she took of the Astara camp. The first few are of the market square. They show different vendors and their wares. Next comes a photograph of a small Astara girl with orange hair holding up a doll of some kind that her mom had just bought for her. Jamie smiles at the memory. The little girl had been fascinated with her camera and wanted to know what it did. When Jamie showed her how it worked and that you could look at the pictures it took, the little girl had begged for her to take her picture. The little girl was so overjoyed with having her picture taken that Jamie had used her portable printer to print out the picture. When she gave it to the little girl she had been beside herself with joy.
Jamie scrolls down on the computer screen. The next picture makes her stop and stare for a full five minutes. It is a picture of Bol standing outside of his home. As she looks over his smiling face and his golden eyes a tear runs down her cheek. Reaching out a hand, she gently strokes his face on the computer screen.
“I shouldn’t have left you.” She whispers. “Why did I leave you?”
In her head she hears his voice telling her to not forget him, but even louder she hears a voice telling her to go back to him. The louder voice is her own, and for the first time in a long time she decides to take its advice. In a few moments she is dressed and ready to go. She gathers up what things are hers and scrawls a hasty note on a piece of paper. Laying the note, her findings, and the equipment that was Larry’s on the table, she takes a final look around the room.
The lobby of the hotel is quiet as she slips out the door and heads up the street. The camp is a couple miles outside of town, but in her mind she can already see the walls.
“I’m coming Bol,” she tells the night as she hitches her bag to a more comfortable position in her hand.
~~~
LARRY TRIES TO CALL Jamie a few times the next morning, but he can’t wake her. He decides that she is probably sleeping in with the phone off the hook, so he goes up to her room and knocks on the door. The door swings open with his first knock. He steps inside and looks around the room, but Jamie is nowhere to be found.
“Jamie? Are you here?” He asks, but then he spots the equipment and stack of papers on the desk. Walking over to the desk he looks at the papers and notices the note on top. A smile breaks across his face as he reads it.
Dear Larry,
You’ve been a great boss and for that I want to thank you so much. I left your equipment on the table. The papers you will find under this note are all of my detailed findings. If you would give them to Professor Charles L. Langston of Boston, Mass. Tell him who they are from and he’ll understand. I hate to leave this way, but during my stay in the Astara camp I met a man. I believe I told you about him. Bol is his name. I fell in love with him Larry. I tried to deny it, but I know in my heart that there is no other for me and I can’t begin to think about living the rest of my life without him. I’m going to live with him, so please don’t try and stop me. Who knows, maybe if Charles writes a few good papers we might see each other again someday.
Jamie Gettner
“I’ll be damned.” Larry puts the note down and rifles through the papers. The words and notations mean little to him, but he is sure that the professor Jamie mentioned in her note will know what how to decipher them. Walking to the window that looks out toward the camp, he smiles. “I hope you’re happy Jamie. I really do.”
~~~
THE GUARD DOESN’T PROTEST when Jamie tells him that she is back for more research. The hundred and eighty dollars, all the money that she has in her wallet, doesn’t hurt in his decision. As the gate closes behind her she breathes a sigh of relief. She looks around the square for anyone, but this late at night everyone is either at home or at one of the few drinking establishments.
As she starts across the square in the direction a Bol’s home a deep voice speaks to her from the shadows. She stops in her tracks and a smile spreads across her face. She would know the sound of that voice anywhere.
“Is it really you?”
“It’s really me.”
Bol steps out of the darkness and wraps her in a hug with his powerful arms. Tears stream from her eyes as she hugs him back as tightly as she can.
“I’m not leaving again.” She whispers into his shoulder. “I shouldn’t have ever left.”
“That doesn’t matter now,” he says. “All that matters is that you are here in my arms. Where you belong.”
THE END