Page 55 of A Life Imagined
They looked at each other, the disappointment palpable yet not unexpected.
“I guess we’ll head back to the drawing board and figure out where to go from here.”Asmarina attempted a smile, but she sounded defeated.They’d put so much into this already.It was starting to feel like a pipe dream.
“In slightly better news, we had dinner with Jules on Sunday,” she went on.Jules Lapointe was Laurent’s lawyer friend from university.Rayan had recently met with the man to submit Farhan’s bid for asylum.“He seemed pretty positive about the Taleb family’s chances.Which is promising.”
“Promising, maybe, but we’ve been let down before,” Rayan said.“I don’t want them to get their hopes up only for it to fall through.”
Asmarina nodded.“Of course.I would hold off on saying anything this early in the game.”
The door to the cabin opened, and there was a rush of noise from outside.Rayan glanced up to see Farhan with Amira and Zahra in tow.
“Something’s happening,” Farhan said, out of breath.There was a frantic look on his face.
The city had started sending surveyors out to the Jungle, and rumors were swirling about a potential forced closure.This only served to heighten the tension in the camp as residents confronted the possibility of losing their temporary home.The place felt increasingly unsafe, and Rayan had overheard Laurent telling Asmarina that he didn’t want her coming anymore.Naturally, Asmarina had brushed off his concerns, so Laurent had asked Rayan privately to keep an eye out for her.
Rayan peered out the window and saw a stream of people moving through the camp with their belongings hoisted on their backs.Police in riot gear walked alongside, systematically pulling down tents and kicking over makeshift structures.Two officers in a motorized vehicle drove up.One of them held a bullhorn to his mouth and was instructing—in a combination of French and English—that everyone stay calm and vacate the southern side of the camp.
Asmarina’s phone rang, and she answered it with a distracted mumble.“It’s Laurent,” she said to Rayan as she clutched the phone to her ear.“He said the government received approval from a court inLillethis morning to start demolishing part of the Jungle.”
“They can’t do that.”
“This is public land.The government can do whatever they want,” Asmarina said.“Laurent’s at the center, but he’s driving over now.”
“He won’t be much help.”
Who could the people here call on to keep them safe?Not the police.They were the ones carrying out the government’s orders.
Through the window, Rayan could see a group of men with sticks advancing from the other end of the camp.“There’s going to be a riot,” he said quietly to Asmarina, glancing at the other occupants gathered in the service office.“We need to get everyone out.”
Asmarina turned and began instructing people to gather their possessions.There were several dull thuds and then a loud crash from outside the cabin, followed by a scream.Inside, unsettled murmurs rippled through the group.One of the girls let out a whimper.People began moving to the back of the office, shrinking against the far wall.Outside, the men with sticks had begun to throw rocks and other debris at the police, who’d raised their shields and arranged themselves into a defensive formation.
“It’s not safe out there,” Asmarina whispered.“How are we supposed to get through?”
They could only watch as more people joined in the violence.It had initially been directed at the police but was quickly becoming more indiscriminate.A group of teenagers were yanking at the poles of a nearby food-distribution tent, sending its occupants scattering.In the middle of the melee, a woman was struggling with the stuck wheel of a cart she was pulling.Her children pressed against her, crying and covering their faces against the onslaught.
“Lock the door when I leave,” Rayan instructed Asmarina.
“Wait, Rayan—”
“I’ll be fine.”
Rayan strode out of the cabin.He heard the swift clank of the deadbolt closing behind him.He pushed through the crowd, and a man jostled him as he passed.
“Hey,Croix-Rouge,” the man mocked, taking in Rayan’s aid-worker vest.“Haven’t you heard?They’re tearing this place down.We’re nothing but roaches to be squashed.”
“Animals in a zoo,” another man chimed in.
“And how does acting like animals prove them wrong?”Rayan countered, shoving past.
He made it to the woman and her cart, only to find a cop had gotten there first.The officer was waving at her to move on while the woman pleaded with him not to leave her things behind.
“Hey!”Rayan called out, startling the cop.“Let her pass.”
The man seemed momentarily taken aback, maybe because Rayan had come out of nowhere or perhaps because he was speaking to him in French.Rayan helped lift the woman’s cart and pull it to one side so she could continue with her children.
“What are you doing?”the cop blustered.“Aid workers aren’t supposed to be here.”
“Must have missed the memo.I thought the whole point was to take us by surprise.”
