Displaced (20 page)

“Yes, nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you. What can I do for you?” he
asked getting out of the car and standing to face him. Mahesh was a
thin small Indian, who seemed eager to help.

“Your boss said that you might be able to
help me.”

“Yes, yes, if I can do it, I will.”

“I need travel papers for a woman from the
Congo, I was wondering what would be the best way.”

“Where does she want to go?”

“The United States or France.”

“She is going to need a passport.”

“She might have a DRC passport.”

“A Ugandan passport would be better.”

“Can you get one?”

“I can get a passport through the immigration
office, but getting a visa is harder. You have to go through the
embassy, you need to know someone in the embassy.”

“Can you arrange it?”

“I can get the passport, but I have to go
through someone else to get the visa.”

“So if you can do that, how much are we
talking about?”

“For the passport, five hundred, the visa, I
don’t know maybe five hundred, maybe more, I’ll have to see.”

“Okay, how can I get in touch with you?”

“I’m usually here in the evening, when Mr.
Patel is in town, otherwise you can call the office in town and get
in touch with me that way.”

“I’m gonna need to talk to some people, but
here are some pictures of the woman.”

“I might not use the pictures, maybe I’ll
just get someone else’s passport, another woman that looks like
her.”

“Well I’ll need to see the passport before I
agree. What I can do is pay you two fifty the next time I see you
and get you the rest when I see the passport.”

“Two fifty for the passport?”

“Right, a down payment.”

“The passport is five hundred,” Mahesh
said.

“I know,” Jonathan said. “I’ll pay you two
fifty the next time we meet and then two fifty when you get the
passport, that’s five hundred.”

“I need five hundred for the passport.”

“And, you’ll get five hundred, but I’m not
going to give it to you all up front,” he said starting to question
his landlord’s confidence in Mahesh’s ability and becoming
impatient with the who’s on first quality of the conversation.

“Up front?”

“Yeah, up front, in advance. I’m not going to
give you all the money without seeing the passport first.”

“I can maybe bring the passport next
time.”

“Oh, okay, well in that case, if it looks
okay, then I’ll give you the whole amount, five hundred dollars and
then we can make arrangements for the visa.”

“Okay.”

“Okay, but we’ll meet later this week, I
still need to talk with some people about the money.” He was going
to suggest that Mahesh not get a passport before he was able to get
the money but didn’t want to confuse matters further. Instead he
agreed to meet Mahesh later in the week not knowing if he’d have
the money and if Mahesh would bring a passport with him.

“Nice to meet you Mahesh, thanks for your
help and I’ll see you later this week.”

“I’ll be here all week.”

“See you later.”

“Bye Mr. Jonathan.”

****

An insect, a bee perhaps, was flying around
the light fixture in the ceiling of Jonathan’s office, making
elliptical circles then flying into the fixture and then restarting
again attracted by the light. Jonathan turned off the light, opened
the window wide and stepped out of the way. Attracted to the sun
light, the insect flew out the window allowing Jonathan to sit at
his desk. According to policy, Jonathan was required to catalogue
all bills of ladings and transfer documents and he kept a single
set of books where his bills of ladings should correspond to
outgoing cargo plane manifests, thus accounting for all cargo that
transited through Entebbe. While the books were sound on paper and
showed no variance, in reality there were significant discrepancies
between the cargo manifests and actual cargo being transported to
the Congo. Planes that were light or underloaded took on additional
material that did not make the records. Of course that only
accounted for WFP flights. Other fights on unregistered planes with
unfiled flight plans had no record and no manifest to account
for.

Looking worried with a hand in his hair, Mr.
Singh stepped into the office unannounced and uninvited. Jonathan
stopped what he was doing and looked at the man without saying
anything, waiting for his visitor to speak. His demeanor seemed
apologetic in contrast to the man who had threatened him
earlier.

“You know Jonathan,” he began, “I’ve been
under pressure, under stress as you say. I was up all night the
other night before I saw you, I had meant to apologize,’ said Singh
with hat in hand. “It’s always foolish to act in anger,” Singh the
erudite, “and I apologize if I raised my voice.”

“Well forget it, I may have said a few
regrettable things myself so forget it.”

“Thankyou,” he said. “I wish that were all it
took to resolve things between us.”

Jonathan looked at him with skepticism not
wishing to take the bait he didn’t say anything and made the other
man force the issue.

“No I’m afraid not,” Singh continued
unsolicited. “You and I are linked through the last couple of
years. We have become connected, there has been a reliance, if you
know what I’m speaking about. We have become partners or at least
were, but this partnership does not end with you and me.”

Jonathan stood looking at him with his arms
crossed in a display of impatience for the false show of
sentimentality. “It doesn’t?” he finally contributed not out of any
need to know but in an effort to help the narrative on to its
inevitable conclusion.

“No it doesn’t, it goes beyond you and me,
there are others involved in our partnership, others who have an
interest, who have come to rely on flexibility in the flights, the
cargo carriers.”

“Others huh, the unseen others,” Jonathan
said unimpressed.

“Yes, the unseen others. The thing is, if
there is no benefit in having you in now, well then they might as
well just get rid of you.”

“That would mean the unseen others would have
to talk to my boss,” Jonathan said with disdain.

“Your joke is good, but I would take this
seriously.”

“I do take it seriously,” he said. “I thought
you came by to apologize but you’re making threats.”

“I’m sorry it has to be like this, some
things are out of my control.”

“Un huh, well whatever the problem is its
between you and me, there is no reason to involve Ronald.”

“It is between you and me and others, it is
your own stubbornness that is to blame.”

“Yeah well, I guess all good things must come
to an end.”

“Yes as you say,” Singh looked down at his
hands then back at Jonathan with an expression of regret. “I won’t
take up any more of time, goodbye then.”

“Yeah, goodbye thanks for coming by.”

Singh looked up at him frowning at the
sarcasm and then turned and walked out of the doorway.

Jennifer called Bill with the Committee staff
as she had promised and the mining association’s language was
included in the draft committee report. Buried among hundreds of
pages of text, no one would know the language existed, nor thought
to object. Bill expressed his reservations but had little choice in
the matter. The message she left on Edward Talbot’s voice mail was
curt and to the point, you have prevailed she informed him. Over
principle and good sense, your side has carried the day. She had
not heard back from him right away with an expression of gratitude
making her suspect that he’d already known the outcome.

Jennifer made a half hearted attempt to
sabotage her own work. She thought to contact the press but either
lacked the capacity for that sort of betrayal or wasn’t
sufficiently angered or courageous. What she did do was arrange to
meet with an old friend for drinks after work. Stephanie Brown,
whom she had met during her summer internship in law school,
previously worked for the Senator and now served as chief of staff
for Congressman Greene, a bleeding heart republican with a soft
spot for the third world. As the chairman of the hunger caucus, he
could be counted on to take up any quixotic effort on behalf of
underdeveloped countries.

“Don’t include mine or the Senator’s name in
this,” she said to Stephanie, “but word is the committee report
contains language undermining the International Criminal Court on
behalf of the mining industry. The suspicion is that the mining
industry has done business with some pretty bad guys and they’re
looking for a way to cover their ass.” After all Stephanie was a
former colleague, she could be trusted to be discreet. And the
conversation had the desired effect. Two days later the
Congressman’s office issued a “dear colleague” letter informing all
members, “Don’t Let the American Service Members’ Protection Act be
Hijacked by Big Business.” She found a copy on her desk with a note
from David facetiously scrawled across the bottom, “know anything
about this??!!” She knew all about it but it made no difference.
The issue didn’t gain traction. No one was willing to gum up the
works over the ICC at the very end of the session. The emphasis was
on finishing work and getting home as soon as possible, and this
emphasis created a momentum all its own.

In the elevator, on the way to her office,
she listened as two young staffers made fun of the constituents who
called to complain that the government was bugging their homes or
that black helicopters were flying over their neighborhood. One
staffer suggested as a joke that a constituent use tin foil to
block the radio waves from the government. She was struck by their
certainty and reminded of her own jokes at the expense of the
borderline personalities who contacted the office. She felt
uncomfortable in the elevator and glad when it opened onto her
floor.

Jay wasn’t sitting at her desk when she
walked into her office. The interns changed with the seasons and
Jay was already moving on, dedicating less of his time to the
office and more time to his next opportunity. The phone rang as she
sat at her desk and she picked up the receiver and said, “hello,
this is Jennifer.”

“Hello Jennifer, this is Edward Talbot,” said
the cheery voice. “I’m glad to get a hold of you.” The phone call
she had been expecting, an expression of gratitude. “I’m sorry, I
didn’t call earlier,” he apologized.

“Hi Edward, that’s okay,” she said, already
wishing to conclude the conversation as soon as possible, ready to
move on. “How are you?” she asked.

‘Fine, fine,” he said. “I wanted to thank you
for all your work, we really appreciate it.”

“Oh, that’s okay,” she said cringing at the
unwanted compliment, “just doing my job.”

“I was just talking it over with some of the
folks in the office and we really think you struck a blow for the
rule of law,” he said.

The rule of law, she thought, are you
serious. “Are you sure they didn’t mean I struck a blow at the rule
of law,” she said not caring.

“No, no, don’t joke like that,” he said, “you
did good work. We were even thinking this could set the foundation
for a new standard, maybe a bill in the next session.” If she had
thought they would be satisfied with this success, she would have
been wrong. This was just the first step, the foot in the door.

“Somebody would have to take ownership of a
bill,” she said, “that’s different from having language anonymously
included in a committee report. I don’t think that’s realistic,”
she said, hoping to distance her boss.

“Maybe so, but we think this language really
gives us some momentum,” he said. “We’re confident we can build on
this. I really enjoyed working with you. We look forward to working
with you in the future.” Who is we, she thought. Was this some sort
of cruel joke? She would never be able to free herself now that
their appetite had been whetted..

“We’ll see,” she said resenting the
connection.

But Edward either ignored her or didn’t
understand her.

“Well we certainly couldn’t have done it
without you,” he said fatuously. He had to know she was opposed to
the idea. “We’re planning a seminar in Arizona in February, and
I’ll definitely keep you in the loop. An opportunity to meet with
some of our members, a real nice occasion with golf and tennis.
I’ll be sure and let you know and get you an invitation,” he
said.

“Terrific,” she said drolly, “I look forward
to it.”

“Thanks again.”

“Okay, bye.” She put the receiver down as
soon as she heard him say goodbye. She blamed herself, the industry
representatives were expected to be unctuous, but she had caved,
her office had given in without having to. The invitation to the
industry seminar burned. Salt in her wound and reward for her
complicity.

It was 4PM and already the offices around her
were emptying in anticipation of the end of the legislative
session. Jay made a brief appearance in her office.

“Hey,” he said, “big plans for the
recess?”

“No, no real big plans, maybe just catch up
on my sleep.” She already knew Jay’s plans and didn’t return the
question.

“Okay,” he said, “well, see you later.”

“Okay, see you later,” she responded without
looking at him.

She picked up her phone and began to dial
Bill in the Committee office and then put the receiver down again
before she finished dialing. A mistake, she thought, it didn’t
matter, it wasn’t worth it.

The knock from the door frame caused her to
turn in her seat so her head faced the doorway. “Hey,” she said to
David standing in the door way.

“How are ya?” he asked. “I didn’t see you
this morning.”

“Good,” she said, “how about yourself?”

“Good, just finishing up, looking forward to
getting out of here.”