TE16 Turkish Delight

Nalan Barbarosoğlu it harder to see, so I guess it’d be natural to feel lost. I walked up to himand introduced myself, explained that I was a friend of the young Jew – though I skipped the part that he had died. It would come up eventually. He said he was here despite everything. Now itwas I whodidn’t knowwhat tomakeof that, but I welcomed him anyway. Because that’s what you say to guests—I heard people saying it to passengers. Welcome, welcome sir, welcome ma’am… He introduced himself as we shook hands, but I couldn’t catch his name in the crowd. That too would come up eventually. He asked if I had a picture of the young Jew, adding that he hadn’t seen him in a long time. Now, we only see pictures in the papers when passengers so politely leave theirs with us, after we asked them even more politely so… Oh, and the chief had one of Ataturk in his post. But of course, I couldn’t tell that to this frail man with the fedora. I couldn’t have. So, I just said I didn’t have one. Then he asked me where the young Jew was. To which I answered that we’d buried him. His face lost all color, and he stared at me for a long while. Was that… inappropriate? He leaned on the handle of his umbrella, as if he’d fallen without a cane. The thought of that scared me, so I reached for the wooden suitcase he was carrying: “Please, let me get that.” I realized only then, he smelled exactly like the young Jew. I thought that all Jewish people probably smelled the same. I realized it was a peculiar thought, but then again, I guess the likes of me are peculiar.

He gave me his suitcase, but as he did his face seemed even more bony. I pointed him towards the bench and suggested he’d feel

102