Fighting Back by Helen Orme Page B

his name?’
    ‘Davis, but I don’t know his first name. They live quite close to you.’
    ‘Close to
us
,’ said her uncle. ‘It’s your home now too. Yes, I know Mark Davis quite well. He’s a good businessman.’
    Rajeeb couldn’t wait any longer. He burst out with his own news.
    ‘Uncle’s given me a job too.’
    ‘Driving a delivery van like Dad?’
    ‘No. Much better. I’m going to go round to shops and restaurants and get them to buy from us. I’m going to be the official company rep. And I get to use the car.’
    ‘That’s great, Rajeeb!’
    Amita was really pleased for her brother, but she wondered what her father would think about it, if the job really was better than his. Family life was just so complicated sometimes.
    When they got home her father was already waiting.
    ‘Well? What did you do? Do they make you work hard? What’s the discipline like?’
    ‘Give her a chance, Gayan,’ laughed Javin. ‘You know the school’s got a good reputation. I’m sure she will work just as hard as always. The important thing is for her to make friends, and she seems to bedoing that. Cath Davis is a nice girl, and they live quite close.’
    ‘I don’t want her making friends with white girls. She’d have been better off staying where we were if she’s going to do that. At least there were plenty of our own people there.’
    ‘Dad!’ Rajeeb and Amita spoke together.
    ‘Cath’s really nice – I’m going to be friends with her and you can’t stop me!’
    Javin tried to calm things down.
    ‘Gayan, how ever are you going to settle with that sort of attitude? There are children from all sorts of places in that school; and they’re all working together.’
    ‘You don’t understand! Any of you! I don’t want my daughter mixing with these racists and that’s final. You make friends with our own people or you don’t make friends at all!’

THREE
Louts
    It was a cold night. Freezing fog pooled round the orange street lights, forming giant traffic cones along the street. Amita had been glad to get to bed. Her father had eventually shut up about Cath, but it had been a difficult evening.
    She found it hard to sleep. All the experiences of the day went round andround in her head. Would Southampton work out for all of them? Could her father really settle down after what had happened to the shop?
    She heard voices outside in the street. Loud, drunk voices, laughing and singing. For a moment, Amita felt a rising terror. She started to shake with fear. Plucking up courage, she slipped out of bed and peered out of the window. Two young men were winding their way down the street. She could see their football scarves quite clearly as they passed under the lights.
    She forced herself to calm down. They were harmless. She was being silly. It couldn’t happen here!
    Suddenly she heard doors banging inside the house, and her father yelling.
    ‘Call the police! We need help! Javin! Call the police I say!’
    Amita pulled on her dressing gown and rushed out of her room. Her father’s bedroom was at the front of the house too. He must have been woken by noises outside.
    He was cowering at the top of the stairs. Rajeeb was arriving, with Uncle Javin close behind. Amita pushed forward. Her brother was hopeless in situations like this.
    ‘Dad, Dad. It’s OK. There’s nothing wrong. It was just two men walking past, that’s all.’
    ‘It won’t happen here, Gayan,’ said Javin. ‘This is a respectable neighbourhood. They don’t do things like that.’
    But Gayan wouldn’t be reassured.
    ‘I saw them. I heard them. Football hooligans, louts. Screaming and laughing.’
    Amita tried to take control of the situation.
    ‘Rajeeb, go and make tea for us all. I’ll stay with Dad.’
    She gently pushed her father back into his room and shut the door.
    ‘Dad. Listen to me. It was bad luck before. They built the new football stadium and the shop was on the way to the station. It could have happened to