Page 24 of A Life Imagined
Chapter Nine
Rayan was on his way home from his last class at the center when his phone rang.It was Mathias.
“I need you to come down to Bassin Carnot.”He sounded annoyed, the way he did when he expected things to function as they should and then life went and threw a wrench in his plans.“Use the west entrance to the port, and look for berth six.”
Rayan marveled at how little their phone conversations had changed since he’d worked as the man’s second.Is a simple greeting too much to ask for?Hello, how was your day?
“I’m heading over.”
The port wasn’t far from the center, and it didn’t take him long to find his way to the inner harbor and follow the signs to berth six.Mathias was standing with a man in a brown oilskin jacket, both smoking agitatedly.Behind them in the water, a small cargo ship was docked with its lights on.Rayan could hear the distant chatter of crewmen on board.
It was early evening, but the sky was already dark, transforming the ocean beyond into a vast inky blackness.He walked over to Mathias, taking in the surly looking man beside him with a full beard and skin the color of milky coffee.The bearded man scowled as Rayan approached.
“There’s a shipment of mine they’re refusing to unload,” Mathias said tightly, tapping his ash.“The ship’s master is AWOL and Kareem, here, is the only person available with any authority to speak on the matter.But he seems to have difficulty communicating.Perhaps you can translate.”
Before Rayan could introduce himself, Kareem began speaking in rapid-fire Khaleeji, his meaty hands slicing through the air in a series of irate gestures.It wasn’t a dialect Rayan was overly familiar with, common in the Gulf states and different from the Levantine Arabic that he’d grown up with, which more closely resembled that spoken by the Syrians at the camp.There were so many regional variations of the language, some more easily understood than others.Dialects aside, Kareem was certainly making his irritation clear.
“What’s he saying?”Mathias demanded.
“Just insults at the moment.He says he doesn’t like your face.”
“Tell him I don’t like his.”
Rayan clicked his tongue.“I’m not going to do that.”
He asked Kareem about the shipment, and the man launched into another tirade, this one containing a lot more salient information.
“He said your import license has been revoked.”
“Fuck,” Mathias muttered.
“He can’t release the shipment until you’re clean on the department’s register.”
“Tell him I’ll sort it, but I expect him back here as soon as the paperwork clears.”
When Rayan relayed this instruction, his tone remarkably different from the fervent crescendo of Kareem’s, the man looked at him with a glitter of contempt.He sneered before giving his reply.
“He said, why should he listen to some arrogant Frenchman?”
“Tell him if his boss wants to get paid, he’ll do what this arrogant Frenchman says.”
This time Kareem didn’t mince words.He launched a string of profanities at Rayan, flecks of spit gathering at the corners of his mouth.Apparently, Rayan was a half-breed, dog-faced, colonial bootlicker too pale to be a real Arab.But it was his final jab that made Rayan’s stomach curdle.Without thinking, he advanced toward Kareem, his right fist clenched at his side, ready to make impact.
“Hey, hey!”Mathias barked, tossing his cigarette to the ground and stepping between them.He put a hand on Rayan’s chest.“We’re done here.”
Mathias guided him away from Kareem, but not before Rayan let fly some choice insults of his own.They left Kareem leering by the dock and headed back in the direction of the port entrance.
“You’d think I trained you better,” Mathias chided him.
“He called my mother a whore,” Rayan said through clenched teeth.
“Nothing I haven’t heard before.”
Rayan shot him a look.
“What, you think it’s less insulting when it’s a fact?”Mathias’s tone was easy, but there was a hard glint in his eye.
Rayan swallowed his careless reply.
