Typical Day
Even on her day off, Agent Jenny Steele's eyes dart open at 5:00AM, ready to begin her day. Jenny sighs. She'd been hoping that her body would allow her to sleep until 10:00AM like normal people do on their days off, but no dice.
Jenny gets up and begins making herself some breakfast. She's mastered the art of cooking a heavy breakfast fast—she relies on the food to give her the brainpower she needs to be vigilant on the job. She whips up her usual breakfast of bacon, eggs, and grits (something that she's learned to love since she began working in the South).
As an extra treat, she decides to make some pancakes, too. It's her day off, and her husband, Ben, works the graveyard shift. He'll appreciate having a hot breakfast with his wife—for once. Usually Jenny's gone before Ben even gets home.
Jenny goes out to get the morning paper just as Ben pulls into the driveway. He's happy to finally enjoy a nice, relaxing breakfast with her. Jenny pours a fresh cup of coffee for each of them. They clink glasses as they both excitedly talk about spending some time together. Until...RINNGGG. It's her boss. Uh-oh.
Jenny sighs and picks up the call. "Hello?"
"Steele, we need you to come in today. Johnson's wife just went into labor so we're short-handed down at the docks."
Jenny rolls her eyes at her husband and mouths, I've got to go. Ben looks moderately disappointed, but he nods. He's used to Jenny having to peel off to work on such short notice, and he understands that being on call all the time is just part of her job.
"I'm on my way." Jenny says, standing to give her husband a kiss. She rushes to change into her work clothes. I guess it's a good thing I got up early.
Jenny arrives to her station: a series of boat docks on the coast of Georgia. Hey, at least there's a great view of the Atlantic.
She nods to her other station inspectors, who all nod back. Some look half-asleep. Heh, it takes a while for rookies to get used to the 6:00AM shift. Jenny was like that once, but she's been on this job for eight years. The 6:00AM shift is nothing anymore.
The first boat is scheduled to arrive at her dock at 7:30AM. Until then, Jenny checks her email and finishes typing up the report on a violation that she hadn't been able to finish the day before.
When the first boat arrives, Jenny immediately notices a problem. The boat scheduled to come in was supposed to be a small boat, one that carries two or three people. This boat has about seven passengers.
When Jenny approaches the boat, the master of the boat (the person responsible for reporting their arrival) tells everyone on board to have their passports and visas ready. Jenny watches the master of the boat carefully, looking for any signs that he's trying to wriggle around the law.
She makes sure that he makes eye contact as he hands his passport and visa over, and she scrutinizes his passport and visa to be extra-sure that they're his.
"Hello. Name? Are you all traveling together? How do you all know each other? Why have you all come to the United States? How long are you here for?" Steele asks each question quickly, not allowing for any hesitation in his answers.
"Hi. I'm Gregory Mills, and yes, we're all traveling together." He has a thick Canadian accent and an easy smile. "We're all family, with the exception of one family friend. We've come to the U.S. for our cousin's wedding. We'll be here for two weeks in total, then we're boating back home. Been floating down the coast, enjoying the scenery and some great crab shacks."
Hmm. Gregory's responses are fast and confident, and he maintains steady eye contact with Jenny while talking. He seems to be on the up-and-up, even if he's taking a super-long boating trip on an overcrowded boat. Maybe it's a Canadian thing.
Jenny relaxes just a little bit, though she still looks over everyone's passport carefully. "Two weeks? That's a long time for a wedding."
"We have a big family. It'll take a couple of days for the wedding, and the rest of the time will be spent visiting everyone to make sure no one feels left out. You know how it is." The smile that accompanies Gregory's response seems genuine enough.
Jenny decides that she believes Gregory's story. She calls to another agent to bring over their sniffer dogs and informs Gregory that they will have to search the boat before he and his family will be allowed through.
"Do you have anything you would like to declare?" Steele asks.
Everyone on the boat shakes their heads and shrugs their shoulders as if to say, "What the heck could we have to declare?"
Jenny and her partner thoroughly check the boat. They search through every crack and crevice imaginable, letting the dog do the same. They then search through the family's luggage, which takes awhile because there are so many people. Nothing that raises any red flags. That's good.
Before the family can go on, Jenny must interrogate the other members of the boat. She asks them rapid-fire questions about where they'll go, what they'll do, and what they think of their cousin's fiancée. They all respond quickly and confidently: They're heading to Savannah, they're going to a wedding and to visit family, and the fiancée is nice but a bit weird about her obsession with butterflies.
The family gets the all-clear. Jenny stamps their passports and sends them on their way. She hopes they were all telling the truth. It's not that she doesn't want to believe them; it's just that it's her job to assume the worst.
The majority of the day is pretty uneventful. Jenny inspects a lot of Americans returning from boating trips and some foreign travelers coming in for visits or vacations. There's a brief gap around 1:30PM when she gets to dash over to the little soup and sandwich place to grab some lunch. She gets two egg salad sandwiches, a jumbo bottle of water, and an oatmeal cookie the size of her head before racing back to her post. She left a rookie in charge, and she doesn't like other people sitting in her chair.
After scarfing down her lunch, Jenny gets a fantastic treat: a small family of immigrants arrives. The search and questioning goes off without a hitch, and both of the parents have work visas. Yesss. Jenny has to stay professional on the outside, but inside, she's glowing. She just loves it when she has a chance to welcome new immigrants. There are other days when she has to turn immigrants away because their paperwork isn't in order; that can be a really rotten feeling.
After Jenny finishes explaining the local laws and handing out informational packets with information that new immigrants should know, the daughter of the family hands her some flowers. The family thanks her for making their process as pleasant as it could be. Jenny gives them a small smile and wishes them luck.
At around 5:00PM, and approaching a twelve-hour work day, Jenny's last boat comes in. It's a nice-looking yacht with two men manning it. Jenny assumes that with such a nice ship and with only two passengers, she'll be able to make it home before her husband has to go to work. Woo-hoo.
The two passengers have American passports and claim to have just returned from a month-long boating trip to Europe. They both treat Jenny with a lot of respect and even make her laugh.
When Jenny waves for her partner to bring the sniffer dog, though, the men stiffen and joke, "We don't really need to go through all that, do we? We're Americans."
The remark registers suspiciously on Jenny's radar.
"Do you have anything you'd like to declare?" she asks with a raised eyebrow. The two men shake their head no.
She plays it cool and continues to search. When the dog gets to one of the men's bags, it begins to bark. Jenny finds some drugs at the bottom of the bag, wrapped tightly in some plastic wrap and hidden under a heap of clothes. Jenny sighs. I almost trusted them.
Jenny removes her handcuffs and places the men under arrest. She calls into the base with her walkie-talkie and reports that two men just attempted to smuggle drugs into the U.S. A federal van drives up to the docks to take the two men and the evidence into custody. Her fellow agents nod to Jenny as the van pulls away.
Jenny begins to type up her report on the incident. She's not going to be able to make it back before her husband leaves, but she knows he'll be so proud of her when she tells him what happened—both with the would-be drug smugglers and with the immigrant family. Jenny glances at the flowers from the family on her desk. That's what makes the job worthwhile. She smiles and continues her report.