Little Bee - Chris Cleave [32]
I shrugged and I lay back on the bed and I watched the nearest chain dangling from the roof. Every link was joined to the one before and the one after. It was too strong for a girl like me to break. The whole chain swayed back and fro and it shone in the sun from the skylights. Like you could pull on the grown-up end and sooner or later you would get to the child, just like pulling a bucket out of a well. Like you would never be left holding a broken end, with nothing attached to it at all.
“It is hard for me to think about the day I met Andrew and Sarah, Yevette. Now I cannot decide if I should go to visit them or not.”
“So tell me all bout it, Bug. Me tell yu if dey sound good fo yu.”
“I do not want to talk about it with you, Yevette.”
Yevette put her fists on her hips and made her big eyes at me.
“Well get yu, lil miss Africa!”
I smiled.
“I am sure there are parts of your life you do not like to talk about, Yevette.”
“Only so yu no get jealous, Bug. Me tell yu some of de tings me done in me life of ease an luxury, yu be gettin yu self so jealous you gonna explode, and den Sari Girl over dere gonna have to mop up de mess, an she looks tired enough, yu ask me.”
“No, I am serious, Yevette. Do you talk about what happened to you, to make you come to the United Kingdom?”
Yevette stopped smiling.
“Nah. Me tell pipple what happen to me, dey ain’t nivver gonna believe it. Pipple tink Jamaica be all sunshine an ganja an Jah Rastafari. But it ain’t. Yu get on de wrong side of de politics, Bug, dey gonna make yu suffah. An dey gonna make yore famly suffah. An me don’t mean suffah, like no ice cream fo a week. Me mean suffah, like you wake up in you chillen’s blood, an suddenly yo house is very very quiet, fo ivver an ivver, amen.”
Yevette sat completely still and she looked down at her flip-flops. I put my hand on her hand. Above our heads the chains swung to and fro, and then Yevette sighed.
“But pipple nivver believe dat about me country.”
“So what did you tell the man from the Home Office?”
“For me asylum interview? You wanna know what I tole him?”
“Yes.”
Yevette shrugged.
“I tole him if he arrange to get me release from dat place, he can do what he want wid me.”
“I don’t understand.”
Yevette rolled her eyes.
“Well thank de lord de Home Office man was a lil bit smarter dan yu, Bug. Yu nivver notice dey interview rooms didn’t have no windows? Me swear to yu, dat man’s ooman mus of kept her legs cross for de las ten year, de way he took me up on me offer. An it wasn’t jus on de one day, mind. It took de man four interviews fore he was certain me papers was in order, yu know what I’m sayin?”
I stroked her hand.
“Oh Yevette.”
“It was nuthin, Bug. Compare to what dey do to me, if I be sent back to Jamaica? Nuthin.”
Yevette smiled at me. The tears flowed from the corners of her eyes and around the curve of her cheek. I started to wipe her tears away and then I started crying as well, so Yevette had to wipe my tears too. It was funny, because we could not stop crying. Yevette started laughing, and then I was laughing too, and the more we laughed the more we could not stop crying, until we made so much noise that the sari girl hissed at us to shush so we would not disturb the woman with no name, who was making crazy talk to herself in some language.
“Oh, look at de state of us, Bug. What we gonna do wid ourselves?”
“I do not know. You really think you were released because of what you did with the Home Office man?”
“Me know it, Bug. De man even tole me de date.”
“But he didn’t give you your papers?”
“Uh-uh. No papers. Him say dere a limit to his powah, yu see what I’m sayin? He be tickin one little box on de computer to tell dem officers to let us free, him can jus say, Me hand slipped. But approvin de asylum application? Dat’s a diffren story.”
“So you’re illegal now?”
Yevette nodded.
“Yu an me both, Bug. Yu an me an dem other two also. All four of us gettin let out cos of what I done fo de Home Office man.”
“Why all four