Refugee Boy

The second Prologue is the same as the first Prologue except it is set in Eritrea instead of Ethiopia, and the soldier addresses Alem’s mother, Mrs. Kelo, instead of his father. The soldier tells Mrs. Kelo that she is a traitor, her husband is the enemy, and her son is a “mongrel.” The soldiers tell the Kelos to leave Eritrea or else they will be killed.

Alem and his father arrive in England for a vacation. As they go through customs, the customs officer asks why they do not have more luggage since they are traveling from Ethiopia. Mr. Kelo tells him that they are only staying in England for a few days.

Alem and his father check in at their hotel. As they settle in, Alem watches television to improve his English. The next day, they take the train to London and explore the city. For dinner, Alem picks Italian food because he loves spaghetti. Later, at the hotel, Mr. Kelo sits on the edge of Alem’s bed and tells him to always remember that he and his mother love him. He tells Alem that there are good and bad people everywhere, and he wants Alem to be one of the good ones. He does not want Alem to be “a brave African warrior, not a powerful man or a rich man or a great hunter”—just a good person (21). Then he kisses Alem, and they go to bed.

When Alem wakes up in the morning, his father is not in the room. Alem watches television while he waits for him until he hears a knock at the door. It is the hotel manager, Mr. Hardwick, who tells Alem that Mr. Kelo left two letters at the front desk: one for him and one for Alem. He gives Alem his letter. Mr. Kelo writes that since Alem is both Ethiopian and Eritrean, the two countries are especially dangerous for him. He tells Alem that he and Alem’s mother decided to leave him in England until it is safe enough to bring him home. He promises to keep in touch and includes a family photograph. Mr. Hardwick tells Alem that Mr. Kelo has paid for the hotel room for the next two nights, but after that, he will need to find other accommodations.

The next day, Mr. Hardwick brings two women from an organization called the Refugee Council to speak with Alem. One is an Ethiopian woman named Mariam, and the other is a woman named Pamela. Mr. Hardwick leaves them alone, and Mariam tells Alem that they are there to help him but that he must apply to the Home Office for political asylum. Once he has asylum status, the Home Office will allow him to stay in England. Mariam asks Alem to tell them everything about his life before he came to England.

Alem tells Mariam and Pamela that he was born in Badme, the area that Ethiopia and Eritrea are fighting over in the war. When Alem was little, his family lived in Eritrea, but they moved to Ethiopia when the war broke out. In Ethiopia, students at Alem’s school harassed him, and his mother lost her job because she was Eritrean. One night, soldiers broke into their house and told the family that they needed to leave. In the morning, the Kelos took a bus to Eritrea and stayed with Alem’s aunt. In Eritrea, people threw rocks at Mr. Kelo because he was Ethiopian, and at school, a group of boys beat Alem up, telling him they were going “to kick all the Ethiopian blood out of [him]” (35). After the incident at school, his parents were worried about Alem. On his birthday, they told him that Mr. Kelo would take him to London as a present but that his mother could not go with them because she was trying to find a new job. Alem tells Mariam and Pamela that he realizes his parents are trying to protect him from the war.

After Alem tells his story, Mariam and Pamela take him to their offices at the Refugee Council. The women help him fill out a form explaining his need for asylum to send to the Home Office. Mariam tells Alem that he can stay at a children’s home. Alem is nervous, but Mariam assures him that the people at the children’s home want to help him.

Mariam takes Alem to the children’s home, which Alem immediately hates. A woman named Sarah shows him around. She explains that the boys spend most of their day in the recreation room, which is filled with boys playing games, watching television, and yelling at each other. Sarah introduces Alem to one of the supervisors named Tom. Alem notices a boy sitting off to the side by himself, and Tom tells him that the boy’s name is Mustafa.

After Alem unpacks in his room, Sarah takes him back to the recreation room, where the boys have their late snack before bed. Alem is too nervous to eat, but a boy named Sweeney comes up to him and tells him to get biscuits anyway and give them to him. When Alem refuses, two other boys join Sweeney and start harassing Alem. Tom comes over to break it up and forces Sweeney to apologize. After Tom walks away, Sweeney threatens Alem.

Alem goes back to his room and meets his roommate, Stanley Burton. Stanley talks incessantly, telling Alem how his father died in the Gulf War. In the bathroom, Mustafa warns Alem to watch out for Sweeney. In the middle of the night, Alem wakes up to Stanley having a nightmare. Stanley begs his mother not to leave him alone in the room and then screams for someone to help him before waking up.

In the morning, Alem sits with Mustafa at breakfast. Mustafa tells Alem that Sweeney will come after Alem unless Alem fights back. He tells Alem that Sweeney beat Stanley up, which is why Stanley gives him all his biscuits now. Mustafa explains that after Stanley’s father died, his mother locked him in his room for hours and left him in the dark while he starved. Eventually, the authorities took Stanley away from his mom and placed her in a psychiatric hospital. Alem feels bad for Stanley and understands why he has such vivid nightmares.

After breakfast, Sweeney tells Alem that at lunch, Alem must give Sweeney his French fries or else he will beat him up. Alem refuses, and Sweeney attacks him. Alem fights back, and the staff members break it up after a few minutes. After the fight, the staff tell Alem that he should report acts of bullying rather than engage in violence, but Alem knows that this will not help him survive in the children’s home.