TE16 Turkish Delight

Buket Uzuner Without giving her a chance to ask, her father told Defne, who was looking at the photograph in bafflement:

“They’re your brothers Aydan and Aydoğan.”

“Then they’reGülistan’s children! Youdidn’t have themtogether?”

“It’s so long agonow, butyes that’s right.WhenGülistan’s husband was killed in the army she was left with two young children, one of them so severely autistic he didn’t even know his own name. I thought since I’d been no use to you two I might as well be a father to these other children” said her father, looking down at the floor.

So my father felt useless around us...

Defne swallowed and said “My mother used to say you never called because you had two sons of your own.”

Standing right next to her, her father wanted to hug her when he heard thesewords but instead clasped his hands behind his back.

“Well you know your mother, she loves to exaggerate. She talks without thinking... doesn’t even notice the damage she’s causing to the people around her,” he said.

Loves to exaggerate; but who was it who left home without even taking his things, without ever calling? The rage of her mother

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