Gillian Slovo - Ten Days

There was a queue by the till. She wandered through the narrow aisles, giving herself space in which to cool down and Banji time to make good his escape. But when at last she re-emerged, she found that he had waited for her.

‘I’m sorry.’ He was looking down at her, twitching his nose in that other way she had also always found appealing. ‘I was out of line.’

She couldn’t remember him ever apologising. Despite herself, she softened. Said, ‘And I overreacted. The heat’s doing me in.’ She even thought of stretching up to kiss him.

But his attention had already moved off. ‘Trouble,’ he said.

She followed his gaze and saw Ruben, who, six feet three and broad with it, his head covered even in this extreme heat by a hoodie, was cutting a swathe down the middle of the market as only Ruben ever did. He walked as if he was completely alone in an empty space, wind-milling his arms to accompany words that seemed to burst from him. ‘Option,’ Cathy heard. ‘Action. Traction. Mischief.’ To punctuate the last, he slapped open palms against his chest so hard it sounded like a gun going off.

‘He must be off his meds,’ Banji said.

‘He won’t hurt anybody. Not unless he feels threatened.’

‘No, but he might hurt himself. And… Oh shit.’

Banji had already seen what Cathy only now noticed — two uniformed policemen making straight for Ruben. She knew most of Rockham’s bobbies, but she had not seen these two before. And Ruben did not take to strangers.

‘If they try and stop him…’ Banji began.

She didn’t stick around to hear what he was going to say. ‘Come on,’ she called as she began to run.

By the time she reached Ruben, a group of onlookers, mostly young men who, for want of something better to do, hung around the market, had also been drawn to the scene. She could feel the heat coming off them, and she knew this wasn’t just down to the weather.

As a member of the police community liaison committee, she’d clocked the recent rise in confrontations between the police and Rockham’s youth, a result of the Clean-Up-Rockham campaign that the new borough commander had set in motion. It was a grand-sounding initiative that so far seemed to consist primarily of an escalation in stop and searches, with a corresponding rise in allegations of harassment. With the imminent closure of the estate upping the tension, the last thing they needed was another incident, especially one involving Ruben, who was a kind of Lovelace mascot. She pushed her way to the front.

‘I’m asking you nicely, sir,’ the older of the two policeman, a sergeant, was saying to Ruben. ‘Lift your hood away.’

‘Action,’ Ruben said. ‘Mischief.’ He windmilled his arms close to the policeman’s face.

‘Careful,’ the policeman said. ‘Hit me and there’ll be trouble.’

‘Action.’ Ruben sped up the agitation of his arms.

The policeman held his ground. ‘Under Section 60 of the Public Order Act, I am authorised to request that you remove your face covering. All you have to do, sir, is take it down and then, all things being well, we can go on our way.’

‘Mischief,’ Ruben said, and again, ‘mischief.’

‘Let him alone,’ came a shout from inside the crowd, and from someone else, ‘He’s not doing any harm,’ while the crowd moved closer.

‘Do what you’ve been trained to do,’ the sergeant told his junior.

‘Assistance required,’ the constable said into his radio as he turned to face the gathering. He was young, and new, and the hand that held the radio was trembling.

Not so his sergeant. A big man, and sure of his authority, he stepped close enough to Ruben for their noses to be almost touching.

‘Action,’ Ruben said. ‘Traction.’ He flicked both hands at the policeman as if trying to shoo away an insect.

‘No need to take the piss.’ The sergeant moved closer.

‘Don’t touch me.’ Ruben backed off until he ended up jammed against a stall.

‘Leave him alone!’ The cry was taken up by other members of the now growing crowd.

‘Sarge.’ This from the young constable.

But the sergeant was not prepared to listen either to his junior’s appeal or to the rumblings of the crowd. ‘Your choice,’ he said, and might have laid hands on Ruben had not someone darted from the crowd to interpose himself between the two.

‘Hold on, officer.’ It was Reverend Pius Batcher of the local Methodists and a fellow member of the liaison committee. Normally a soft-spoken man, Pius now used a voice built up by years in the pulpit: ‘You’re new to the area, so allow me to introduce you to Ruben, a member of my congregation. Ruben wouldn’t hurt a fly. Not unless you invade his personal space.’

‘I wouldn’t care if he was the Archbishop himself,’ the policeman said, ‘I would still ask him to remove his hood.’

‘Which he will do, officer. In good time.’ Pius smiled as he saw the policeman taking in his dog collar. ‘I’ll stand here,’ he said, ‘while Marcus there,’ he nodded his head at the dreadlocked third member of their small committee, who must have arrived with him, ‘asks these concerned members of our community to back away. Meanwhile, Cathy here,’ he inclined his head in her direction, ‘will help Ruben.’

What the crowd would not do for the rookie they did for Marcus, stepping back when he asked them to. Not far, though. They kept pressure on the policeman, who called out, ‘Sarge.’

The sergeant looked towards his young constable. He frowned and seemed about to turn away when the young policeman said softly, ‘There’s a lot of them.’

In that moment, before the sergeant could do anything worse, Cathy said to Ruben, ‘You know me, Ruben, don’t you?’

Ruben had lowered his head and was looking at his shoes. He did not look up.

‘And you know I’d never do anything to hurt you?’

At least this time he nodded.

‘What they need you to do is pull back your hood. Only for a moment. They want to see your face. Do you understand?’

Another, reluctant, nod.

‘OK, then. I’m going to help you.’ She moved just one step closer. ‘The first thing I’m going to do is to put my hand on your arm.’ She reached out her arm: ‘Here goes.’

He jerked away, his head shaking wildly while his arms, which he’d crossed and folded around himself so that each hand was holding on to the opposite forearm, were likewise shaking. She knew that he was holding on to himself, not so much as protection from her but to stop himself from hurting her. Seeing the effort this was costing him, she took a step back. As she did, she saw, out of the corner of her eye, how the sergeant mirrored her movement by coming closer. If she didn’t manage to get Ruben’s cooperation, and soon, the sergeant would take over, with unpredictable consequences.

She said, ‘Ruben.’ Commanding him but without raising her voice.

He lifted his head.

‘I know you don’t want to hurt me,’ she said. ‘And,’ hoping it was true, ‘I know you won’t. I’m going to try again.’

She reached out, and to her relief this time he let her rest it on his velveteen sleeve. His arm was shaking, and his eyes had filled with tears. He was clearly struggling with himself, but he did, at least, let her hand be.

‘I’m going to leave my hand there and come closer.’ She moved in on him, keeping her voice low, making sure to clearly enunciate her intentions. ‘And now, what I’m going to do, is stand in front of you, and reach up, and move your hood back. Because I’m standing here, only me and the policeman will be able to see your face. Will you let me do that?’

He looked at her. Blankly.

‘Will you?’

His shook himself, as if coming back to himself. And nodded. Almost imperceptibly, but it was consent.