The Lady in the Park by David Reynolds

Author:David Reynolds
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Muswell Press
Published: 2025-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

25

The Merc hums on the tarmac. We pass the Watlington exit and sweep on towards Oxford. I’m happy for them – happy that they have their Emilie. After everything. After rape. Why do men do that? I look at Clayton. He wouldn’t do that. What would I have done if I’d been Kamal? Jumped on them, kicking, punching, screaming …? And made it worse.

Kylie coughs and says, ‘When did you leave Dijon?’

‘The United Nations woman, Patrice, said we could maybe get asylum in France. And we thought about that.’ Kamal pauses. ‘But James is here and we don’t speak French. We speak English. Most people in South Sudan speak English. So, when Emilie was one month, we went to Calais to try to go to England. We didn’t know how hard that would be.’ Again, he pauses. I keep my eyes on the road and wait. ‘Actually, from then till now, was all bad. Patrice told us it would be horrible, and that we should stay in Dijon. I wished we’d stayed in Dijon – when we were in Calais and then in that horrible box. But now: you found us, got us out of that box, driving us across England which we can see through the windows. Is incredible. I’m so happy.’

‘So am I.’

I feel a hand on my arm. Ruth’s hand. And I see Kamal’s hand on Clayton’s shoulder.

‘What happened in Calais?’ Kylie says.

* * *

We cruise past a line of trucks on a long hill and pass the exit to Banbury. Ruth has been telling us about their time in the refugee camp: four weeks of squalor, privation, hassle and hustle softened by small kindnesses from strangers from, it seemed to them, all over the world. Ruth and Kamal were often without food and often had to move home – a tiny tent – at the whim of brutish gendarmes. Meanwhile, Emilie thrived on breast milk and gathered presents and cuddles from children and adults.

Kamal is explaining how they got out of Calais. A people smuggler tried to befriend them. Ruth interrupts to tell us that he was creepy and had a droopy moustache. ‘It was the only way out,’ Kamal says.

The man wanted £5,000, but they had only €1,200. When he offered to let them pay the rest by working for his friend in England, who would meet them when they arrived, they were pleased at first. ‘But we didn’t know where we were going, only that we would get in a truck one night. He said something about Buckingham, like Buckingham Palace, but we knew we weren’t going there.’ He laughs. ‘And his friend? He just said he was a businessman who would have work for us. So we gave him our euros and hoped it would be OK.’

‘You are so brave,’ Kylie says.

‘We had to get away from there. It was wet, smelly … dangerous. At any moment the camp might be destroyed by police. So, two days later, the man took us to this big truck and we were pushed in at a side door.

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