Judith Teich

“How I (Unexpectedly) Became a Solo Traveler ” by Judith Teich

The trouble began with the airline tickets. It was 1967, the heyday of student travel; student charter flights, sponsored by many colleges, were very popular and amazingly cheap. I was eager to embark on my first trip to Europe, but I was not a particularly adventurous 20-year-old, and the thought of traveling by myself gave me goosebumps. I had just returned home to my parent’s apartment in New York, following my graduation from college in Boston. None of my friends were available to travel that summer, so my older broth...

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“The Infinite Wisdom of the Government” by Judith Teich

Submitted to Contest #136

In the winter of 2018, the job that Sarah had held for the previous 21 years, as a social science researcher in a small federal agency, was eliminated for no apparent reason and with no plan for what was to replace it. Sarah had joined the staff in 1997, and she was committed to the agency’s important mission of overseeing and improving the delivery of services for individuals who suffer from behavioral health disorders. Her years of experience as a clinical social worker in hospital settings had provided a solid foundation for her...

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“The Endless Year” by Judith Teich

Submitted to Contest #135

It seemed like an ordinary Thursday afternoon. The wind was cold, which was normal for the beginning of March, but there was a faint hint of new leaves and buds as Justine walked the few blocks from the subway to her parents’ apartment in Queens.  She wasn’t thinking about anything in particular; her graduate program was going well, although the three days a week of required field work, at a geographically isolated, dilapidated public hospital, were stressful.  The fact that her father had recently undergone a serious operatio...

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“A Real-Life Murphy Brown” by Judith Teich

I could feel my hands trembling as I gripped the steering wheel of my MR-2, dodging traffic on Route 50 on that afternoon in April 1990. Driving alone from my apartment in DC to the fertility clinic in Fairfax, Virginia, I wondered for the hundredth time whether I should have asked someone to come with me for this daunting appointment, someone to be there for moral support.  Yet I knew it was right for me to go alone, since whatever the future held for me at that moment, I was going to have to face it by myself.   &n...

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“Lola the Tank Mechanic” by Judith Teich

Submitted to Contest #97

Lola the Tank Mechanic: A Volunteer in Israel That first morning, Lola found herself standing at the barracks window, watching the sun come up and listening to the local dogs barking a canine reveille to awaken the sleeping army base. She watched the mist rising from the distant hills and the leaves on the trees below her rustling in the soft breeze. It was May, 1987, and Lola had arrived in Israel the previous afternoon, after a tedious 12-hour flight from New York. She had come to volunteer on an Israeli army base for two wee...

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