Just after 10am the guards led me to an interview room in handcuffs. 

The room was small. A large TV and camera took up one half, while a desk and two chairs took up the other. 

A young woman wearing a blazer and a strained but cheerful smile sat on the chair closest to me. 

She gave me her chair, ‘It’s good to finally meet you, I’m Estelle and I’m acting as an assistant to Ayamin’s lawyer. I’m just here to make sure it all goes smoothly for you, as you won’t actually be in court today. 

I glanced at the camera setup while the guards took my handcuffs off, ‘No one told me that.’

Estelle shrugged, ‘From what I gathered it had something to do with your history of evading people that want to find you.’

She pressed a button and the screen flicked on – we had a full view of the courtroom and all the people in it. 

A Union Jack sat behind the still-empty judge’s desk. The public gallery was so packed with cameras and journalists that they nearly spilled out into the area where the legal teams sat. 

Sitting on a wooden bench in the thick of it all was Ayamin. Her face seemed calm as her lawyer spoke to her, but I could see her eyes darting around the courtroom. 

I don’t know whether it was the screen or the lighting or what but her hair seemed almost grey. 

‘Hello Aya,’ I whispered to her. 

Ayamin raised her hand and waved – but not to me. Donna entered the screen, she hugged Ayamin and spoke to her. Streisand was there too, she pointed to the camera Estelle and I were watching through as she spoke to Ayamin. 

 

Estelle tapped a red button on the desk in front of us. 

‘Just so we’re on the same page, we’ve decided if Ayamin’s case is going well you’ll only have to give a brief statement,’ she said. 

I lifted my left hand. On it sat the wedding ring, ‘You know about this right?’

The lawyer grimaced as she nodded, ‘That’s what we’re worried about. We don’t know how the judge will react – especially because no one told her about it. We’re going to try to push with the refugee angle and only bring up your marriage as a last resort, sound okay?’

I shrugged, ‘You’re the lawyer.’ 

Estelle stared at me, her mouth was open like she wanted to say something more, but then the judge appeared on screen and we turned away from each other.

Estelle glanced at her watch.

‘Exactly ten-thirty.’ 

Even the judge’s footsteps, firm, measured, and deliberate, let you know she was in control. By the time she sat down the entire room was silent. The judge paused. Cleared her throat, and declared court open. 

‘Usually immigration cases only take a few hours for us to settle. But the amount of evidence put forward by both sides, and the overwhelming public interest makes it necessary to stretch our court time to an entire day,’ the judge glanced up at the rows of journalists and photographers. 

‘But the law must come first. In every other way, this hearing will be no different to the hundreds of similar cases this court hears every year.’

I found myself watching a suited man sitting at the bench opposite Ayamin. The man’s face was like a bulldog, his body too. He had a pen in his hand and as the judge spoke the pen tapped a rhythm on the yellow legal pad in front of him.

The pen stopped moving and his head shifted ninety degrees to stare at me. 

I flinched, then felt Estelle’s hand on my arm. 

‘He can’t actually see you,’ she said. 

‘That is one scary dude.’

‘I know,’ she bit her lip, ‘That’s the opposition lawyer.’

The man kept staring right through me until Ayamin’s lawyer began to speak. As the bulldog man’s eyes left us I heard Estelle let out a small sigh of relief. 

Ayamin’s lawyer wasn’t nearly as scary. He was a lanky man wearing a lanky jacket, who spoke quickly and nodded to Ayamin every time he mentioned her name. 

He wrapped up his remarks and called on Ayamin to speak. 

The entire court leaned forwards as she stood up and walked to the stand. Somehow, she managed to look calm and composed. She even managed to smile at the judge as she gave her name. 

‘I’m Ayamin Yacoub.’

Her lawyer was still on his feet, ‘Ayamin’s going to read a short summary of her journey to England.’

I watched her face as she read. I’d lived through a decent portion of her tale, but it was interesting to hear the things that were most important to her – Grandma Teete and the stars, the boat ride to Greece, our stay at the Macedonian border, she talked about Italy and France and how much England meant to her. 

‘Why?’ Her lawyer asked, ‘Why does England mean so much?’

‘Because to me the United Kingdom means safety, it means I can stop being a refugee and start living like a normal person. I can get a job, go to school, sleep in a real bed.’ 

Her lawyer nodded, ‘If Ayamin is allowed to stay she wants to train as a nurse,’ he paused and glanced around the courtroom, ‘She wants to care for people.’ 

With a nod to Ayamin, he took a seat. On the bench opposite him, the bulldog lawyer got to his feet. He cleared his throat before he spoke to Ayamin. 

‘There are many lawyers who’d doubt your story, who’d try to pick at the threads in hopes of unravelling it. But the way you speak makes it clear you’d been through a lot Ms Yacoub. I just want to talk about a few details.’ 

He tapped his pen on the yellow paper in front of him. 

‘Firstly, when you boarded the smuggler’s truck did you know you’d be entering England illegally?’

‘Yes – but we were desperate.’ 

‘Desperate? Can you elaborate on that?’

Ayamin’s face went a little red, ‘We were living on the street under a leaking tent. We were so poor we went with smugglers that were known to be human traffickers and we still could not afford their full fee…’ 

The bulldog nodded, ‘And if you were so desperate why didn’t you consider claiming refugee status in France? Or Italy, Greece, Austria, maybe even Germany? Surely that would’ve been better than dealing with human traffickers?’ 

Ayamin opened her mouth but seemed to freeze halfway. 

Next to me, Estelle shook her head, ‘That man never takes it easy.’ 

‘Is this going to hurt her case?’ I asked. 

‘Depends on what she says – and remember – this guy is only getting warmed up.’

We stared at each other, I felt the ring on my finger and gave it a twist. Will we need it?

Ayamin began to speak again and we turned back to the screen. 

‘I think I just knew more about England… The refugees that talked about it said it was safe – that there were lots of opportunities for the future.’ 

‘And I’m sure many of those other countries offered the same opportunities.’ the lawyer scratched his chin, ‘Are you aware that in England we have a refugee quota?’

‘It’s all they seemed to talk about when I saw myself on the news.’ 

There was a muffled laugh from the media section, even the bulldog seemed to smile, 

‘Our country can only take so many refugees at once, otherwise, our hospitals, schools, and other services would be overburdened. Our quota for this year is full. 

Why should we let you in when there are other refugees – just as needy who have gone through the proper legal processes? Why should they miss out?’

Ayamin’s lawyer shot to his feet, ‘That’s not a fai-’ 

‘No,’ Ayamin shouted over top of him.

Her lawyer stopped talking and looked over at her, but her eyes were focused on the bulldog. Her lawyer took a seat. 

‘I was in the refugee camp for two years. The whole time my Teete and I were trying to do things the ‘proper legal way’ but no one wanted her. She was too old, too frail, too Syrian.’ 

Ayamin narrowed her eyes at the bulldog lawyer.

‘If somewhere had taken her in she’d still be here today. I tried to follow the laws as best I could, but when a bomb has fallen on your home there’s only one law that matters to you and that’s the law of survival.’ 

As Ayamin finished she levelled her stare at the bulldog. He didn’t look away. 

‘Is that all Counsel Draper?’ the judge asked. 

The bulldog lawyer broke his stare-off with Ayamin and forced a smile, ‘That’s all.’

 

‘I don’t have any questions for you,’ the judge said to Ayamin, ‘But I want to acknowledge your bravery both today and in your young life so far… You can return to your seat.’

Ayamin nodded and left the stand. 

 

‘Woah… that is some girl,’ Estelle said, ‘No one stares down old Draper like that.’ 

I grinned, Ayamin’s face was calm, her eyes found the camera and she nodded to us. 

‘That little speech the judge gave about the things Ayamin’s been through…’ Estelle said, ‘That’s good for us as well. As long as the Red Cross woman holds up we should be home free.’ 

Donna was the last person up before lunch. Both lawyers asked about her impression of Ayamin in the refugee camp. 

How would you describe Ms Yacoub? 

• Kind and bright. 

Did she ever cause any trouble?

• No. 

How would you describe the conditions at the camp?

• Well, you’ve seen the pictures… it isn’t exactly Buckingham Palace. 

Draper the bulldog seemed to have lost his bite. He hardly looked at Donna as he asked two questions that led nowhere. 

Lunchbreak was called at quarter past twelve. 

‘We shall resume at exactly quarter to one,’ the judge said and we stood as she left. Ayamin and her lawyer turned and walked out of the court. Estelle’s phone started buzzing. 

‘Time to discuss tactics,’ she said as she put it to her ear, ‘Counsel McCurdy, good stuff out there.’ 

While Ayamin’s lawyer spoke, I stared at Draper on the T.V screen. He sat at his desk reading through the sheets of paper in front of him. 

His shoulders seemed slumped, and his eyes wandered across the pages. 

Estelle moved the phone away from her mouth and waved to me. 

‘We’re going to keep your stand as short as possible okay Danny? – And no mention of the marriage.’

I nodded and she put the phone back to her mouth, ‘Yep, Danny understands… I know… she did so well!’

On screen one of the bulldog’s assistants hurried into view. He mopped at his forehead as he stopped at Draper’s desk and put down a sheet of paper. 

Draper glanced at it, looked back to his notes, then his eyes sprung open and he seized the paper with both hands. 

His arms made quick gestures as he spoke with his assistant. He grinned, picked up his mobile and called someone. 

‘Hey Danny,’ Estelle said, touching my shoulder, ‘Ayamin’s on the phone.’

She held out her mobile. I placed it to my ear and looked away from the screen. 

‘Hey Danny,’ Ayamin said.

‘Hey Aya… Well done out there.’

She laughed, I imagined she shrugged as well, ‘I just told myself it wasn’t as bad as waiting at the Macedonian border – at least this time I had a full stomach.’

‘And I promise, I’m not about to throw you in a creek.’

Ayamin groaned, ‘Thanks a lot,’ there was a slight pause before she spoke again, but when she did her voice was softer, ‘Seriously, thank you Danny… I wouldn’t have got past the border without you. I wouldn’t have kept walking if you weren’t carrying the bag and making lame jokes... I wouldn’t be in England if you hadn’t been with me in Hungary, or Austria, or Italy, or France, or Turkey…’ A sob broke through the phone, and I felt my throat run dry. There was a rustling as Ayamin wiped her eyes, ‘The lawyers think we’re going to win, and when I’m free I know the one thing I want more than anything – and that’s you Danny. I came all this way when the thing I wanted most was right beside me.’

She cried some more, and my voice broke as I spoke, ‘They really think you’re going to win?’

I could hear her nodding on the other end, ‘They do.’

Estelle tapped me on the shoulder, she gestured for her phone. 

I held up a finger, lowered the phone, and mouthed one minute? Estelle shook her head. I put the phone back to my mouth, ‘Aya, I love you so much. Estelle needs her phone back.’ 

Ayamin sighed, ‘Yeah… I know… Good luck out there Danny. I love you.’

I handed the phone back to Estelle, she started speaking to McCurdy again. 

The phone call left me a little dazed. As I stared at the screens in front of me, I couldn’t stop thinking about Ayamin. It took me a while to realise that the courtroom was empty. 

Draper had gone. 

****

Estelle got off the phone just before lunch ended, and moments later Ayamin and her lawyer were in the courtroom.

Draper was already sitting, there were two new men seated at his desk. They wore uniforms almost like a police officer’s, but I couldn’t recognise their faces.

By quarter to one, the entire court was standing as they waited for the judge to appear. 

‘You’re first up Danny,’ Estelle said, ‘It’s pretty simple, you’ll tell the judge your name, swear an oath, answer three questions from our side, and then a few from Draper. You’ll need to be wary of him, don’t go into too much detail unless he asks you to.’

‘Sweet.’ 

We remained standing, as did the rest of the court. 

Estelle glanced down at her phone, ‘Huh?’ 

I looked across, ‘What is it?’ 

She showed me her phone screen, ‘It’s almost one o’clock. The judge is never late’

The longer we stood the more agitated Ayamin’s lawyer got. I could see McCurdy tapping his foot beneath his desk. He kept ruffling his papers, ordering, and then reordering them. 

By contrast, Draper was chatting with the men at his bench. He glanced up at our camera and gave a smile. 

The judge entered. Her footsteps were quicker than before. She reached her desk and stared around the courtroom. Her eyes fell on Draper. He nodded. 

‘Be seated,’ the judge said. 

There was a ruffle of clothes, then silence as she picked up her pen. 

‘Over the lunchbreak I received a request from counsel Draper to have our next witness, Mr Danny Frey, appear in court rather than via video – I am now granting this request.’ 

Ayamin’s lawyer leapt to his feet, ‘I’m sorry, but surely the request could’ve been made in open court?’ 

The judge nodded, ‘I don’t like granting requests made outside of court. It’s not the way justice should work. BUT you have forced my hand counsel McCurdy, why on earth didn’t you tell me they were married?’ 

McCurdy went pale. He dropped one hand to his desk, as if to brace himself. 

‘I – I – I thought it’d be best to focus on the other areas of Mrs Yacoub’s life. They were married without my knowledge – or advice… after the legal process had started. I think they believed it would help Ayamin’s case. I believed otherwise.’ 

The judge gave a bitter laugh, ‘It sounds like one mistake after another. Do you have a copy of the marriage certificate with you?’

McCurdy fumbled through a stack of paper until he came to our marriage certificate. He handed it to one of the judge’s aides. 

Opposite him, the bulldog was grinning. He made a joke to one of the policemen next to him, then stood up. 

‘Your honour, one of my Italian colleagues has offered to speak while we wait for Mr Frey to arrive.’ 

The judge paused, then nodded, ‘Tell him to take the stand,’ then she looked directly at me, ‘See you very soon Mr Frey.’