Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: CONFUSED (07/29/21)
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TITLE: Close Encounters | Previous Challenge Entry
By Tammy Ortung
08/04/21 -
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“$%#@(*)(%&*^%&^%$,” an angry voice shouted in a language I didn’t understand. In addition to the Ugandan security guards, Victory Base Complex also housed Iraqi soldiers and other coalition forces. I couldn’t begin to guess which one of these foreigners was knocking on my door.
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand. Do you speak English?” I shouted.
The door rattled as if he’d tried to turn the knob to gain access inside.
“HU(*%$ JO)(_+> M%$#@ !!&^$$#* &^%#% $#@@!,” he rambled on. I worried about the security of my door. Would it withstand the strength of someone trying to forcibly enter?
“You have the wrong room,” I shouted, determined to never open my door again.
He yelled for several more minutes, then went silent.
I waited for an hour after the shouting stopped, afraid he would come back, or worse yet, that he’d never left. I still had to make the hundred-yard trek to the bathroom for my nightly ritual. I was tempted to forego brushing my teeth and washing my face, skipping one night wouldn’t hurt, but I could already feel the pressure of my bladder.
I turned on the outside light, tentatively opened the door, and stuck my head outside to survey the area around my trailer. He was not inside the concrete walls. What if he was waiting in the shadows ready to pounce the minute he heard my footsteps crunching on the gravel surrounding the housing area? I raced around the corner like a football linebacker, hoping to catch him off guard. No one was there. I jogged to the bathroom and back, frantically waving my flashlight left and right. My breathing didn’t return to normal until I was safely ensconced back inside my room.
Around ten thirty the following evening, I heard a group of guys laughing outside my trailer just before someone knocked on my door.
“Who’s there?” I asked through the closed door.
“Is Mia there?” one asked.
“Mia doesn’t live here,” I said. “You have the wrong room.”
“Oh, come on, Mia, don’t be like that. Let us in.”
“Seriously, Mia doesn’t live here, please leave.”
I’m not sure, but I thought they dawdled outside long after that short conversation. After experiencing two consecutive late-night visitors, I started to wonder if someone had given out my trailer number, like those people who give out the wrong phone number to get unwanted pursuers off their backs. I was worried and afraid I’d get another uninvited caller.
The next morning I knocked on my new neighbor’s door and asked if he’d heard either altercation. He had not. Though we had not previously met, I asked if he would be extra-attentive for a few nights in case anyone else stopped by my room. I found it ironic that I was asking a complete stranger to come to my rescue if any strange men came to my trailer again.
Later that week, a warning message came out about several assaults on base. Leadership encouraged everyone (aka all women) to use the buddy system “even to the bathrooms.” Impossible when I didn’t have a roommate.
Why would God allow me to be exposed to such dangers? Before deploying, I had begged Him to cancel my orders—to no avail. I didn’t understand how He could let me, a female, deploy when predators lurked everywhere. One minute I was seething about it and the other I just felt confused and guilty—a failure Christian. I’d been taught that fear showed a lack of faith. And while I’d always considered my faith unflappable, I couldn’t ignore the terror that had become my nightly companion.
Sometime later, I lounged on my bed and read: “Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.” (Psalm 9:10 NIV) Though I had spent time in God’s Word daily and tried to earnestly seek Him, I realized I hadn’t trusted Him. He used this verse to remind me that even if His reasons for sending me to Iraq were yet to be revealed, I could be confident that He would be with me every scary step of the way.
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I can see your confusion during the two encounters.
Then the next morning questioning why am I going to my neighbor who I don’t know for help?
It has a satisfying conclusion. It is well crafted and flowed smoothly.
Thank you