You Deserve Nothing - Alexander Maksik [39]
When I’d finished handing out the article I sat on the edge of my desk and looked directly at Ariel.
“You’re all free to do as you like.”
She smiled at me as if I’d invited her for a drink.
I looked away. “Well, that’s what I believe. What you have in front of you is an article from today’s Libération. Hala, will you translate?”
“Sure.” She took a breath and read the headline, “Man Killed: Pushed onto the Tracks of the métro.” She looked up at me.
“Go on.”
“Thirty-two-year-old Christophe Jolivet died Monday morning at the Odéon métro station after he was pushed in front of an arriving train. The attacker, twenty-nine years old, was psychologically . . . I don’t know, I guess it would be, unstable. He’s being held at the Sainte-Anne psychiatric hospital. He didn’t seem to know the victim. The police say that he wasn’t under the influence of drugs or alcohol but that he was in an excited state when he was arrested. According to the Police, he’d acted on a ‘sudden impulse.’ The attacker had a long history of violence. He was stopped and held by several morning commuters. Anne-Marie Idrac, speaking for the RATP, complimented the commuters for their courage and their composure. That’s it. More or less.”
“Thanks, Hala. Does anyone know why I’ve given this to you?”
“Because it sort of proves the point.”
“What do you mean Cara?”
She was looking down at her desk making a wide circle with her finger around the article.
“It’s just another example of how random the world is, how nothing makes sense, how you can’t make sense of anything. Everything’s just, I don’t know, a mess.”
“How do you get that from this one story?” Ariel asked. “I mean, maybe the guy deserved it, maybe he was a horrible guy. I don’t know maybe he was a drug addict or something.”
Jane, who had barely spoken since the beginning of the year, jerked her head up and glared at Ariel, “That’s just, that’s, I’m sorry, but that’s just the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard. You can’t be serious.”
“Excuse me?” Ariel snapped.
“Jane, perhaps there’s a better way to disagree? Try to explain yourself.”
“Sorry,” she said to the desk, tapping her finger on her notebook.
“Go on, Jane.”
“Well, I just, I don’t know. It’s hard to explain.”
“Try anyway,” I said.
She sat there looking at the whiteboard behind me. Her round face was bright red and a rash was descending from her chin down her neck. She took a long breath, “I just think the idea that this guy somehow deserved to die like that because he might have been a . . . a . . . what? What did you say? A drug addict? That’s just, it’s just like something, it just makes no sense to me. I just don’t believe that everything that happens can be, I don’t know. Like you can explain it.”
“But wasn’t that the point of what you read for class? That you can’t explain it but God has his reasons and that we must simply trust in God?” I asked.
“I’m sorry but that’s just . . . ”
“Bullshit, man.” This was Lily.
Aldo laughed and Lily turned to him, “Dude, do you ever say anything intelligent or do you just grunt and follow Ariel around like a puppy?”
“O.K., O.K., O.K. Enough. Everyone calm down.”
The door opened and Gilad walked in. He handed me a note. I read it, gestured for him to sit down and gave him a copy of the article.
“We were just discussing this.”
He glanced at the headline and looked up at me and nodded. “I saw it.”
Abdul raised his hand.
“You don’t need to raise your hand, Abdul.”
“O.K., the thing I wanted to say is that we don’t, it’s that, I agree. I agree with her.”
He said this looking at his hands.
“With whom?”
“With her,” he said shooting a glance over at Ariel who was glaring at him.
“O.K.,” I said. “Go on.”
“Well, God does everything for a reason. Everything that happens on earth happens because, because God has