Spiral Bound Journal

Refuge is Relative

Dana strolled out of the bathroom and peeked toward the nearby living room. Her dad had a railroad video from YouTube on the big screen, which held the attention of both her dad and Quinn. Quinn stretched on the smaller of the two couches, his phone resting forgotten in his hand. Dana tapped his shoulder, which provided his cue to sit up. Dana set down and draped her feet across Quinn's lap.

"Where's this?" she asked.

"Somewhere in England at the moment," Quinn replied. "I think they're heading to Glasgow."

"Ah."

"Are you two still planning to take that UK trip you've been talking about for several years?" her dad asked.

"Eventually," Dana told him. "We'll have a better idea of scheduling when the IOC has an update on my medal ceremony."

"What's the hold up?"

"Unfortunately, I'm somewhat of a challenge from a security standpoint, and wanting a private ceremony makes things even trickier."

Her dad nodded. "I suppose that's true. Do you get any say in it?"

"Some. I provided a list of countries I'm open to having the ceremony in. The UK isn't on that list."

"What is?"

Dana scratched her chin. "Argentina, the Netherlands, Morocco, New Zealand, and Namibia. The Netherlands is included for ease of access, but I figured the rest of them were both reasonably neutral and secure for our purposes."

"Why don't you want it here?"

"Dad, if the ceremony is held here, the odds of me being assassinated go up quite a bit. I mean, I did inadvertently bring back the North Korea boogeyman. Even my cousins have made some snide remarks along that line."

At that, Quinn looked away from the screen and faced Dana's dad.

"Dana got called a Chink Sympathizer while we were out today," Quinn added. "Yeah, I know that Ha-Eun is Korean, but I don't exactly expect Floridians to do anything fact checking before throwing out insults."

Dana's dad nodded. "These friggin people. Yeah, I think I get why you don't want to have your medal ceremony here, and certainly not in this state."

"Agreed."

"I feel I shouldn't be surprised that I've gotten crap while on this trip," Dana chimed in. "It's not all the time, thank Christ, but it's honestly kind of disgusting that I can't even go on vacation without being confronted. It makes it harder when I get approached for selfies and shit, too. It's getting more difficult to smile and be happy around these people when I can't really relax around here. I thought getting away from Minnesota for a while would help. Now I need my cortisol in bulk."

"I hope you don't feel that way here," Dana's dad replied with a frown.

"No, not here, but you know me. I tend to enjoy wandering around, and Quinn wants to go on train rides down here. At least on Brightline we can pay a little extra for some level of seclusion. And since Amtrak's schedule makes a bit more sense, we can finally take the train back home. Man, flying down this year kinda sucked even with the first class upgrade."

"I think you'll need to try to board last or as close to last as possible," Quinn remarked.

"That's actually not a bad idea."

Dana glanced over at the TV and saw a different video now playing. A guy in a gray hoodie sat on what appeared to be a converted bed walking talking to the camera. Without subtitles, Dana was unable to tell much about the video, although a cut to the exterior of the train showed that this involved the Caledonia Sleeper.

"How slow does that train go?" Dana asked. "Last I checked most of the trains to Scotland only take a few hours."

"The Caledonia Sleeper," her dad remarked. "I wouldn't mind that trip. Too bad Scotland is so cold."

"Nah, that's the best part. Well, besides the scotch, of course. That actually sounds like a good idea right now."

"Since when do you drink scotch?"

Dana shrugged. "For the last decade, I think? I don't do it much, because it's not cheap."

"No, it ain't."

"But I do drink it on occasion. It's a good cold weather drink, which makes sense, really."

"Well, considering it takes like a house fire I suppose it would make sense to drink it when it's cold."

"It offers contrast," Quinn butted in.

That got a snort out of Dana. "Just don't pair it with barbecue, or you won't taste any other flavors."

"Fair enough."

"Getting back to the train, in spite of it appearing to go all of two miles an hour, since there are private rooms, I would consider this ride. I could at least get a few hours to myself if I ever make it out there."

"Do you think you'll get recognized on the streets by then?" her dad asked

"Maybe," she replied with a shrug. "I did something that made international news, and I ended up in Time magazine for it. I might get less attention out in public after a while, but who knows when that will be? The balance of private and public is tricky. I think it's safe to say that I'll never be truly done with this. I have a legacy for better or worse, and being able to take a break from it? Well, that might be a tall order."