Trafika Europe 12 - French Bon-Bons

TWO STORIES By ŞSeyma Koç Translated from Turkish By 1. Melike Sarıçam & 2. Sugğra Öncü

1. GILLYFLOWER SMELLING SONGS “Now time is a worker sweeping away the leaves on the ground.” The best friend of mine at nine years old was Aunt Şehriban. Actually she was my only friend. When she wasn’t with me, in the class or in the neighbourhood, my childhood was lonely. We were living in a grey- plastered house which was compressed to a corner by a downhill road. And she was, on the other side, living in a house; the earth-sheltered house was covered with grass and with a blue door. I was walking from here to there. Next to the door, the first step was the kitchen; a hole without countertop and door… There was one room on each side. That was her house. There were old mats lined up on the floor and there were wall cushions. A cupboard was on a side. There were topped thin, white breads on the tray right aside of it. There, she put the filo pastries which she swallows to give life, to give me life near the copper lunch boxes. She was living in the left room. The small tubule of the teapot, which had steam on it, was always in this room. There was a blue ewer near the water bowl in the corner. The restroom was under the stairs; but she

113