Across the Sea

She moves along with the throng, keeping her head low, both frightened and ashamed as her tattered feet make contact with foreign soil. Her eyes take a cursory glance up ahead at the skyscrapers littering the skyline, only to cower underneath her heavy eyelids. Her traditional garb is all the protection she has against the callous chill from onlookers rushing to start their day. Her face is smooth, yet blotched with dirt from the ship’s interior. A couple of men give her a second look, temporarily engrossing fantasies of becoming the only pillar of hope for the young woman who traveled across the sea.