"The Layover" by Jamie Odeneal

​Jamie Odeneal is a writer and teacher. Her work has appeared or will appear in The Los Angeles Review of Books, Meetinghouse Magazine, The Moon City Review, and elsewhere in print and online. She lives in Arlington, Virginia with her husband, two daughters, and rescue dog Murphy.

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Ava Stern is a sophomore at American University studying Public Relations and Literature. She is an assistant prose editor for Amlit, American’s literary magazine, and a writer for both Ego Magazine and Revolution AU. Additionally, Ava is the recipient of the Washington Writers’ Publishing House editorial fellowship.  She is a lover of all things fashion, fiction, and fun. Be sure to check her out at bookmarkedblog.net!

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Introduction to "The Layover"
​by Ava Stern

Have you ever felt lost? Struggling to figure out who you are? If you answered no to either of those questions, first, I am jealous of you, and second, you won’t find yourself in Olivia, the main character in Jamie Odeneal’s “The Layover”. As a fellow victim of the freshman 15 and loss of direction in life, I felt myself immediately relating and listening to Olivia, who Odeneal depicts as an unsure, awkward, and shy college freshman. A whirlwind night in Santorini contrasts her experience at college as she prepares to move to the next location in her European backpacking summer: Munich. “The Layover,” tells a story of a lost 19-year-old girl traveling abroad with her brother, as she experiences fun, a fever, and frustration.

This story reminded me of my journey with my identity last year, my freshman year of college. Transitioning from living at home to living in a dorm and discovering who you are feels just as Odeneal describes it, and although I did not have the privilege of backpacking through Europe, I had similar experiences this past summer. The same realizations that Olivia had on a Santorini beach I had in my childhood bedroom. Definitely not as glamorous or cinematic, but the same idea. Odeneal’s strong female voice is translated in this character and her insecurities surrounding sexuality are easily relatable to the college girl. 

Odeneal’s extensive background in teaching can be reflected in her writing. She is inspired by her students that come from diverse linguistic, cultural, and economic backgrounds. Her passion for teaching English to students has followed her throughout her career as both an educator and a writer. Odeneal earned her Master’s in Education from The George Washington University and has lived in the DC area ever since. Living in the DMV, Odeneal is engulfed in the diverse voices that populate the writing community and incorporates the stories of her students in her other works, such as short stories or essays. In “Bloodline”, Odeneal maintains a strong narration with the character Edwin, the son of immigrant parents living in Arlington, VA, which is inspired by her students. She is a writer, reader, and educator, and works to bring the joy of reading and writing to her immigrant students. Odeneal has stories that explore the inner lives of high school teachers that have been published in Meetinghouse Magazine, Moon City Review, and online at Bull Men’s Fiction, and her essays published in The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and Mothering magazine. 

Odeneal writes in third person, letting the reader climb into the character’s head. The reader  is thinking with each and every one of Olivia’s inner thoughts and feels her pain in “The Layover”. This style of writing gives the reader a first-class seat in Olivia’s brain, experiencing her thrill and pain from Santorini to the dreadful 4-hour layover spent seeing the doctor for her “mystery” illness. Odeneal keeps this small narrative distance and third person point of view in her other stories to establish a strong main character that can be easily relatable for readers. With this, we can pick out the specific insecurities or character traits that the characters have, and place the similarities within ourselves. 

The main character of “The Layover,” Olivia, goes through a personal and sexual awakening on the island of Santorini. Olivia maintains an uneasy self-image fueled by social interactions and rude comments by her brother but leaves this mindset behind for a night of fun with a flirty Australian. Odeneal’s flashback-style storytelling took me back and forth between two Olivias, a mousey self-hating little sister, and a flirty teenager living her best life. As the story opens, Olivia battles with a hangover and sickness after being snapped back to reality to travel to Munich, their final destination. Her brother continues to torment her by dismissing her pain and solidifying her insecurities by calling her “helpless.” The story takes us on a ride through Olivia’s newfound confidence that comes and goes as she experiences a city halfway across the world from her boring home. 

Olivia struggles to feel comfortable dancing, talking with others, and even getting help from a doctor. Her insecurity follows her throughout her journey, but her brief hookup with the Australian man puts it on pause. She becomes a new girl, flirting and dancing without a care in the world. Her personality back at school was in the shadow of a roommate and her personality abroad was in the shadow of her outgoing brother. On this one night in the Greek heat after shots of liquor, Olivia breaks out of her shell and finds a boy that dances with her and gives her an unforgettable night filled with giggles, sand, and sex. She momentarily remembers her less-than-perfect life at college and lets this version of herself fade away into the night. In her moment of freedom and confidence, she forgets the worries back home and becomes the girl she wishes to be. Olivia is every college girl trying to find her place in the world while juggling a boatload of insecurities. 

As the story alternates between flashback and present, Olivia is reminded of the fatigue she experienced the day before her wild night. The morning after her night with Ben, the Australian, she finds herself in the airport being seen by a Greek doctor, Dr. Nakos, who says some pretty disrespectful things about her weight and appearance following a streptococcus diagnosis. Plagued by a sore throat and pounding headache, Olivia is berated once again by her brother in the airport terminal and is snapped back to a reality engulfed by sickness, self-doubt, and sibling annoyance. By the time Olivia makes it back to the terminal with medicine, she takes her newfound confidence from Santorini and gets a pastry, because “f*ck Dr. Nakos.” 

Odeneal accurately captures the feelings of not being enough and constantly doubting oneself. Through inner thoughts and vivid imagery, she gives the reader a beautiful scene, whether it be a beautiful Santorini beach or a dull airport terminal. Though the story is set in Greece, we are transported to Olivia’s boring college life, along with the other stops in her backpacking journey. Odeneal accurately explores familial relationships through brief dialogue and dynamics with Olivia and her brother Jordan, who, by the way, fight the same exact way my sister and I bicker. All of these relationships and settings fit into a four-hour layover en route to their last stop on their summer backpacking trip across Europe. As “The Layover” wraps up, Olivia devours a nostimo (ital: delicious) pastry with her new realization: she isn’t as helpless as she thought.

Differing from the typical “good girl lets loose” or “coming of age” story, “The Layover” leaves us feeling satisfied, the same way that Olivia feels at the end of the story. This “good girl gone bad” stays true to her personality and reminisces on her wild night when she is snapped back to reality. In a larger literary conversation, Odeneal avoids the cliche that is usually in this type of characterization. Although she explores the change in mindset following a crazy night, she makes sure to maintain the same character that we are introduced to in the beginning rather than changing her whole mindset and personality. Olivia is half-cliche, half-not, just like a lot of us.

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To learn more about Jamie Odeneal's work, visit her website.