top of page
Rechercher
  • Ulysse Cheneau

The Box

Dernière mise à jour : 29 avr. 2021

This story takes place during the covid pandemic, we learn about John's strange story with a Uyghur.

 

John is 15. He has decided to do an internship at Nike’s during his vacations in February 2020.

Today is his second day as an intern. He is in charge of transporting boxes containing clothes and sneakers all day long.

He is doing his job with boredom when he sees one of the boxes slightly moving. At first, he is afraid. But it might just be an illusion. The box is very still currently. He starts to leave the room and shut the light off, when he hears a noise again. He stops, turns the light on again, and walks towards the noise. The box moves again. Maybe it’s a mouse ? He opens the box gently and discovers with stupefaction two brown eyes looking at him with fear. John screams. The face with the two brown eyes screams too. They scream together and stop at the same time, looking at each other. John realizes that the stranger is about his age and looks sick, he was probably sleeping in this box.

Shocked, John still manages to ask him who he is and how he got here, but no answer comes out of that boy’s mouth. John brings him something to eat and drink, and the boy nods his head to thank him. John doesn’t know what to do since no conversation is possible. So he decides to get back home without saying anything to anyone managing to bring food every day to the boy.

At the end of the week, the internship is over : John can’t leave the boy (whose name is Neil) alone and decides to convince him to come with him. The boy accepts and follows him to his home.

John’s family is very surprised to meet the young Neil. They are unable to communicate together so Neil manages to express himself through drawing : he draws and draws and draws again; little by little his drawings tell à story : à factory, workers, people crying, bleeding, armed watchmen, and then a map of China. Neil is actually trying to explain he is a Uyghur.

Shocked by the situation, John and his parents spend a week trying to call every news media they know to spread the word about Neil. Not a single one answers or believes their story.

Desperate, John decides to take care of this situation himself. He records a video showing Neil and his drawings explaining his story, and calling for help. He then posts it on his own social medias, without much expectation.

The next day he asks his friends to repost his video to share it to as many people as possible.

In the evening, on his way home, he discovers with surprise that his video has been shared 20 thousand times.

The next morning, he wakes up with a lot of missed calls, and realizes that his video has reached one million views : several media contacted him during the night for his scoop.

The biggest French newspapers end up publishing articles on Neil's unbelievable story, and even the New York Times came out with a piece of news !

The video really goes viral: Neil's story is revealed to the general public.

Neil is taken care of by the French state. Two months later, after a petition launched by Neil, Nike finally stops having its products manufactured by the Uyghurs: mission accomplished.

7 vues0 commentaire

Posts récents

Voir tout

Bulwark

bottom of page