Chapter 42: Today We Strike - My Name Is Samim

Monday, 7 March 2022

9.30.

Ayan and Rita exchanged encouraging nods and stood up. Everyone gaped at them, and Rita’s knees wobbled as they walked to the classroom door.

Just before exiting, Ayan turned to the class and declared: “We strike!”

I could kill him, Rita thought. She fled the room, and Ayan followed her to an empty corridor. A boy walked past them, staring at his phone.

They paused, scanning the corridor, waiting for others to come out of their classes, but nothing happened.

Rita glanced at Ayan in dread.

“It’s okay.” He put his giant hand on her shoulder. “We strike, even if it’s just you and me. For Samim.”

Rita breathed deep, trying to inhale his calm. She knew Ayan was right. They were standing up for what they believed in today. And that was the most important thing.

Some kids were hanging outside, huddled around a phone, laughing. A few glanced at Rita and Ayan but only for a second. They clearly weren’t there for the strike.

The cold air pinched Rita’s skin, and she shivered.

Miss Brown, Lily, Skye and Miss Nadia huddled beside the table in the middle of the playground, a stack of cardboard signs at their feet. They shuffled about, trying to stay warm. Their awkward looks said, We’re sorry no one showed up.

Rita’s cheeks reddened and she dropped her gaze. Then Lily and Skye ran to her, wrapping their arms around her tightly, and their hugs made her chest lighter.

Miss Brown clasped Rita’s shoulders and looked her in the eye. “It will be fine. I’m proud of you.” She nudged her chin towards the school entrance, and Rita looked back.

A bunch of kids were coming out of the building, and Rence was one of them. He darted to Rita and grabbed her arm. “Good luck! You can do this.”

Rita inhaled deeply. “Thank you.”

Ayan climbed onto the table and stretched his arm out for her. Rita grabbed it, and he pulled her up beside him. They gazed at the school doors as a winter gust whipped their hair. Then tiny snowflakes began to flutter in the air.

“Look, snow!” Ayan spread his arms, trying to catch the flakes.

His beaming face made Rita smile, and she exhaled.

More kids walked out of the building. Five, ten, twenty… They continued to pour out and assemble in the yard.

“Okay, everyone, please gather around,” a familiar voice yelled in the crowd. It was Mr Adams, running towards Rita and Ayan, clapping his hands, trying to get everyone’s attention. “Be quiet, please!”

Rita stared at the crowd, her shaky hands squeezing a microphone, as Ayan waved to familiar faces.

“We strike,” he said softly. Rita smiled and raised the microphone.

It was time.

“When people hear the word ‘home’, most think of their safe, warm houses, loving parents and siblings, family dinners and birthday celebrations. Most, but not everyone. To some of us, home was the dragon’s lair, where we burned and blistered every day.”

Rita’s voice echoed across the yard, where hundreds of faces gazed at her through the falling snow.

“My name is Rita, and I’m here to tell you about my friend Samim, who escaped from the dragon’s lair when he was ten. His family was killed, and his house was destroyed. With his uncle and best friend by his side, Samim set out on a journey to the UK. Only, the road he took was one no one takes by choice, and by the time Samim reached this land, he was alone – nobody’s child, nobody’s friend and nobody’s concern. A week ago, Samim’s asylum claim was rejected. Now, once again, he may have to say goodbye to the place he had started to call home, and the people who had become his family.”

Rita looked at Ayan, and he gave her a nod, his eyes full of warmth.

“Six days ago, Samim saved our schoolmate from drowning. Samim is in hospital now, and we don’t know if he’ll ever wake up. But we do know that he doesn’t deserve to be discarded and forgotten. No one deserves that. Every child deserves to be safe.”

Rita swallowed hard.

“Ayan and I know what Samim has been through. You see, we fled a dragon’s lair, too. But we are the lucky ones, because unlike Ayan’s brother and my sisters, we’ve made it to safety, and unlike Samim, we get to stay. And even though we’re still haunted by nightmares about our parents being taken away from us, we still get to wake up when too many refugee children don’t. Some of their names are on these posters, and we ask you to be their voices today. We ask you to stand up for them, for us, for Samim and for every child out there in need of protection.”

Rita paused and took a deep breath, trying to blink away the heat of the tears behind her eyelids. The eyes that watched her looked heavy with thought.

“The last thing Samim told us was, ‘We are nobody’s children, and they won’t hear us even if we scream.’ He was right about us being nobody’s children, but was he right about nobody hearing us scream? Maybe, just maybe, if we scream loud enough, and if you scream with us, if we scream all together, maybe they will hear us?”

Miss Brown passed Rita a sign that read:

and Ayan took one that said:

Rita raised the sign high and shouted, “My name is Rita, and today, I speak for those children who can’t speak for themselves. We deserve to be safe!”

Ayan lifted his sign and shouted after Rita, “We deserve to be safe!”

Rence ran to the signs, picked the one that said:

and shouted with them, “We deserve to be safe!”

The boys and girls from the chess club joined them, grabbing signs that read:

Rita watched the names from my list, the names of children she’d never met but somehow felt she’d known, mix with the crowd before her.

“We deserve to be safe,” she mumbled, her voice choked with tears.

She passed the microphone to Ayan, and he shouted, “Safety for Samim! Safety for Samim!”

Rita smiled, grateful for his roaring voice when hers had gone quiet.

Phones were in every second child’s hand, filming them, and Rita and Ayan were glad.

Let this moment spread, they thought. Let this moment be seen, heard, shared and listened to by as many people as possible.

“Safety for Samim! Safety for Samim!” Ayan shouted, and the crowd chanted with him.

Suddenly, blood drained from Rita’s face as Max and his gang pushed through the crowd to the front. He stood before the table and looked Rita in the eye.

Rita and Ayan swapped panicked glances.

Max dropped his eyes and grabbed the last sign, which read:

Fatima – Samim’s sister, Rita thought.

He raised the sign, waved it at the crowd and yelled, “Safety for Samim!”

Rita grasped Ayan’s hand in disbelief, and he winked at her, grinning.

“Safety for Samim!” the playground thundered. “Safety for Samim!”

Rita cupped her mouth and whimpered in relief.

Max turned to her, and Rita saw a sea of guilt in his grey eyes. His mouth moved, and she read his lips, “I’m sorry.”

Rita gave him a nod and wiped her runny eyes and nose.

“Safety for Samim! Safety for Samim!” the crowd roared, waving their signs.

Rita’s voice was wrecked with tears, and she could only whisper now, but she held my name up high, and she hoped.

She hoped that I’d wake up and get to stay. She hoped that every child could live in safety. She hoped that one day, no one would be forced to go through what we’d been through.

Would that be a miracle? she wondered.

Maybe it would. But that day, she saw her entire school stand up for nobody’s children, so, that day, she believed in miracles.