My Name Is Not Jacob Ramsay (22 page)

Both were pleased that it was Friday.

Michael entered his open plan living room and kitchen. He flicked on the TV then the kettle and made his way into the bathroom. Staring at himself in the bathroom mirror, Michael began to work his electric shaver around his stubbled cheeks.

The showerhead spurted water onto Michael's face. He stared, blankly, at the white tiles ahead of him and sighed.

Back in the bedroom, Michael grabbed a maroon dressing gown from the back of the door and tossed it onto the bed where Rebecca was still very much in a cozy, half-sleeping state.

She opened her eyes and slowly sat up, twisting herself out of the duvet as she put on the gown.

Rebecca slotted her size three feet into her slippers and shuffled along toward Michael, wrapping her arms around him, placing her head upon his chest, with her eyes closed.

"I need to get ready. I've got a meeting at Gatwick at ten," said Rebecca, opening her eyes and straightening.

"Do you want any lunch?" Michael asked her.

"Just some fruit," she replied, stepping out of the room.

Michael made two cups of tea. He placed one of the mugs on the dining table and the other on the coffee table, in front of the TV. He cut a length of a baguette and began to make himself a ham roll. He smelt the ham, closing his eyes as he did so. He loved the smell of its smokiness. Taking three slices, he placed them inside his roll, and then poured some pineapple juice into two glass tumblers, placing one, once again, upon the dining table, next to the mug of tea, and the other upon the coffee table, again next to the second mug of tea. It was very much a daily routine, even the making of the ham roll. Michael was, without a doubt, a creature of habit. He wrapped his roll in tin foil, placing it into a Sainsbury's carrier bag. From the fridge, he removed an apple and two clementines. He rummaged around in a cupboard and pulled out a bag of McCoys crinkle cut Thai Chicken flavoured crisps.

He knew they were bad for him and no doubt high in fat, but they were certainly one of his favourite types of crisp, though his taste salty snacks would sometimes vary: Walkers' Worcester Sauce flavour as well as Wheat Crunchies. Michael came across quite childlike when shopping in the supermarket with Rebecca.

She encouraged the behaviour by asking if he'd like a chocolate biscuit of some sort to take to work for his lunch, which he often agreed to.

He rummaged deeper inside the cupboard and retrieved a KitKat, which he added, together with the crisps, to the Sainsbury's bag.

The bathroom door opened and Rebecca stepped out, looking cleaner, refreshed and more awake as she entered the open plan living room and kitchen where Michael was spreading strawberry jam onto two slices of toast. She gulped her pineapple juice down, taking an Akai berry and a couple of other vitamins.

"I'm running out of these," she admitted, shaking a practically empty plastic container of Akai berries.

"They're well expensive though. Do they work?"

"Mm, I think so. Andy swears by them."

"Well if they taste like the bottle smells, then I'd swear by them too," quipped Michael, smirking at Rebecca, who grinned back at him, downing some water and an Akai berry.

It was seven thirty-when Michael began to eat his toast while he sat on the sofa, watching Daybreak on ITV and checking his email on his MacBook. The news was on and depicted the Foreign Secretary in crisis talks with the UN about a possible threat from Iran due to the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria.

On 17th December 2010, a report alleged that a policewoman, in the town of Sidi Bouzid, approximately 190 miles south of Tunis, in Tunisia, had confiscated a vegetable cart.

The cart belonged to a twenty-six-year-old man called Mohamed Bouazizi. His vegetable cart was unlicenced, and had been for several years. Having been caught before, Bouazizi knew he could pay his fine and move on. The fine before was ten dinar. Ten Tunisian dinar was equivalent to around four pounds fifty pence. When he tried to pay his fine, the policewoman spat in Bouazizi's face and then slapped him. He was naturally insulted, stunned by the officer's behaviour and then received verbal abuse from her too as she mocked his dead father. Bouazizi set out to complain to the officer's superiors, but was ignored, so he left. However, within the hour he returned to the headquarters, drenched himself in petrol, from head to toe, soaking his clothes right through, before setting himself on fire. It wasn't long until people heard about the incident and they began to protest in the town, leading to a demonstration in some of the streets of Sidi Bouzid.

Police used tear gas on the many protestors. Public outrage quickly grew over the incident, leading to protests, and on the nineteenth of December even more police were called in.

Three days later, a protestor electrocuted himself by scaling a pylon. Another protestor soon followed suit, claiming financial difficulties and that the country's solidarity scheme was to blame.

It was another two days later, on the 24th December, when police shot dead a man named Mohamed Ammari, also injuring many other demonstrators.

The demonstrations escalated in scale and people protested against high unemployment and the rise in food costs as well as the political corruption and lack of freedom, especially in speech. There hadn't been such protests by the people in more than thirty years and many, many people were dying because of what they believed.

The people wanted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to go and on the 14th January 2011, twenty-eight days later, he resigned. He had been in power in Tunisia for twenty-three years.

It was just eleven days after that, on the 25th January, when an uprising in Cairo unfolded. Protestors, millions of them, demanded an end to Hosni Mubarak's Presidency. They wanted justice. They wanted a non-military government. They wanted freedom.

The city of Suez was witness to most of the violence.

Mubarak and his loyal Central Security Force imposed a curfew, yet it was widely ignored. There were thousands of supporters on both sides, for and against Mubarak. Even the military, who were ordered to use live ammunition on the demonstrators, refused to do so.

Despite hundreds of dead and thousands injured, on the 11th February, Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman announced the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak. Two days later, the Supreme Council dissolved Egypt's parliament and suspended the Constitution, taking up power. On the 23rd March, the Egyptian Cabinet introduced a law that criminalized protests and strikes. That new law stated that anyone who organized or called for a protest would be fined or sentenced to jail.

During that time in March, protesting against governments spread across to Bahrain. On the 14th March, military troops from the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia were sent into Bahrain, ordered by the Gulf Cooperation Council to protect the oil.

Similar revolutions were threatened in Jordan, Yemen and Syria, with some protestors calling for a 'Day of Rage' in Damascus. A 'Friday of Glory' was called for amongst the online community in March, followed by a 'Friday of Martyrs' in April, where once again thousands took to the streets.

April 8th, known as the 'Friday of Resistance', became the largest protest yet on the streets of Daraa, as well as at the port of Latakia and the cities of Edlib and Qamishli.

It was on the 25th April 2011 that the Syrian government sent in tanks to Daraa. Around thirty or so protestors were reportedly killed as the tanks rolled in, assisted by snipers upon rooftops. Phone lines were cut. Water supplies and power, too.

The border to Jordan was closed.

The President of the United States, Barack Obama, accused Iran of secretly assisting Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad in cracking down on the protestors, condemning the use of violence as "outrageous".

Inspired by the protests in Tunisia and Egypt, a much more large-scale revolution was fast developing. In Libya.

In February 2011 civil war practically engulfed Tripoli. The Libyan leader was Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi, a man who implemented Sharia law as well as putting in place surveillance cameras in schools, government buildings and offices and also factories. Not as a safety measure, but to monitor the people more closely out of distrust. He had public executions broadcast on television and with the majority of the country's wealth, brought in by its huge oil reserves, arms were bought and terrorist groups were formed. He announced to the world that there was no problem in Tripoli or the rest of his country, stating the West and Israel had engineered a rebellion. On 17th March 2011, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1973. That created a no-fly zone and allowed the use of "all means necessary" to assure all civilians within Libya were safe. In late March, French jets destroyed five enemy tanks. The enemy, in that instance, was the Gaddafi regime.

The operations were called Ellamy and Odyssey Dawn,

The United Kingdom and the United States launched over a hundred Tomahawk cruise missiles, targeting Libyan air defense systems. The country had now escalated into civil war.

China, India, Russia and Turkey condemned the strikes by international forces.

Revolutions throughout the Arab World spread fast and furious. Were they engineered by Western and Israeli agents? Who had armed the rebels and was it true that the intended target all along was none other than Iran? Was there a plan to overthrow the sixth President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? There was certainly mention of it on the news channel that Michael was watching. It spread across the internet and social media websites, such as Twitter and Facebook, but Iran was a far cry from Michael's world.

In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a speech, calling for the West to act against Iran. "If the international community was applying special pressure on Libya and warning its leader and soldiers against violating civil rights, the same warning must be aimed at Iran's leaders and their henchmen. At the same time as Gadaffi is massacring his opponents in Libya, the regime of the ayatollahs in Iran is systematically executing its opponents, I believe that a firm reaction will send a very clear message of encouragement and hope to the Iranian people, that no one has forgotten their struggle for freedom and liberty."

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair contributed to the situation that occurred in Iran, saying, "I think it's very important that we stand up now for those people who want to protest for freedom and proper democratic elections in Iran. I think a change in Iran's government would be possibly the single most dramatic change in the whole of the region because you would then have Iran playing a constructive part. You would have Iran not trying to destabilize other countries in the region, and arming militia-type groups."

President Obama also stated, "My hope and expectation is that we're going to continue to see the people of Iran have the courage to be able to express their yearning for greater freedoms and a more representative government, understanding that America cannot ultimately dictate what happens inside of Iran any more than it could inside of Egypt."

The Middle East was changing fast and dramatically. The media reporting of the many uprisings was just as fast and furious. Propaganda was clearly evident and it was difficult to know what was real or not.

At seven forty-five, Michael placed his plate, complete with toasted crumbs, into the beige plastic washing up bowl and stepped to the bathroom to brush his teeth. As he exited, Rebecca quickly entered and carefully she inserted her contact lenses.

She turned to Michael and smiled at him. "You ready to go?"

"Yep." Michael turned back to the living room to retrieve the two plastic carrier bags containing their lunches for the day.

"Oh, I got you a present!" she gasped.

"A present! Really? What?"

"Stay there and close your eyes." Rebecca excitedly ran to the bedroom and in seconds returned to find Michael doing exactly as she had asked.

"Open your hands out," she said.

He did so.

She placed something onto the palms of his hands. She leaned in and kissed his lips. "Open." She stepped back as Michael opened his eyes, looking down to see a roll of silver gaffer tape in the palms of his hands.

He beamed a smile. "Gaffer tape! Yay!" he said, like an overjoyed child.

"Now you can fix your glove box," she smiled, referring to Michael's car glove box that had recently broken.

"I'll get some scissors!" He turned, leaving his loved one smiling with love and bemusement.

"Oh, it's so easy making you happy, my love," she laughed as he opened a kitchen drawer and located a pair of orange-handled scissors.

Rebecca stepped outside, into the crisp day with glorious sunshine.

Michael made his way to the passenger side of his car and unlocked it, opening the door for her.

"I'm not coming to work with you today," she reminded him with a smile.

"Huh? Oh, for some reason I thought it was Saturday and we were going shopping," Michael replied, closing the car door.

"I'll call on my way home," Rebecca promised, kissing him on the lips as she gently held his fingers.

"Okey doke. I love you," Michael said.

"I love you, too." Rebecca looked deep into his eyes. Her own sparkled and her skin caught the sunlight as she let go of his fingers and turned away to walk to Loughborough Station, just a minute around the corner from their home in Luxor Street.