TE16 Turkish Delight

Buket Uzuner Yes, she remembers vaguely. A little. She doesn’t remember until he mentions it. Then when he asks it comes straight to mind. It must be one of those memories she’s tried to suppress. A painful one we shelve in the very back of our minds.

“I still love it! This must be an old edition...”

“It’s not that old, about the same age as you.”

Defne took the book with unconcealed excitement as if she had struck gold: “Or is this the actual one you used to read to me from?” “The very one! When I left home I said farewell to Umay and Korkut. I kissed you and Aysu. This book was the only thing I took with me.” All of a sudden she remembered what she had written in the Book of WATER: “When I was seven, my father went out to get cigarettes and never came back. He left without taking any of his things. He doesn’t even have a single photograph of us!” But she was too scared to ask: But did you take a single picture of me along with the Little Prince? Just one, a single one?

She did not know her father had hundreds of photographs of her through the years… Not yet.

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