TE16 Turkish Delight

Karin Karakaşlı How tears purify one. Tears bathe Sırhupi’s face. Her body racked by sobs. She runs to the phone. Gropes for that piece of paper. There, Mukaddes’ number. She left it there so you could find it, as though as an afterthought, insignificant as if it were of a supermarket that just opened around the corner, before pulling thedoor shut behind her. Sırhupi was still sitting. Herhand shakes now. The piece of paper is the key to a heart. “Hello, Mukaddes. Did you get home all right?” Mukaddes says nothing. “Muko, shall I come over for an evening coffee?” There is a choking sound, a cough, a sob. Then Muko’s voice. Her beloved voice. “But do hurry, come before it loses the froth…” Three People in a Restaurant “We are quite the odd bunch,” said Yunus. He chucked briefly, but then his smile hung, frozen, on his face. They had sit down in a nearby restaurant after leaving the cemetery. They were three people who had first laid eyes on one another in a cemetery and would move on to disperse to various corners of the city. “How did you know her?” Yunus asked the woman sitting next to him. She smiled. “You may not believe me, but this person wasn’t in my life up until a few days ago. My husband had been in a severe traffic accident. He was in the ER on New Year’s day and I couldn’t even stand seeing people I knew, let alone strangers.” She paused. “Then she came up to me. She did something no one else could have thought of to do on New Year’s. It was apparent she’d thought it over and decided that people who most need company would be in the hospital. She was holding a package…

190