TE16 Turkish Delight

Karin Karakaşlı towards Sırhupi. “It was a store packed with piles of stuff, but there was only one of this carved box. I opened it and what did I see? Something’s in it. You may not believe it, but there was also a poem. I snapped it up and brought it home. I read the poem, it was handwritten on a small piece of note paper. Clearly someone put that poem there with her own hands, along with the necklaces and the little figurines. Honestly, I was touched. I thought it was a sign from God. It was meant for Sırhupi, I said. So I brought it to you,” said Mukaddes. For a second Sırhupi peered at the bag Mukaddes had pushed into her hand. Then she gently set the bag down next to her chair. “Thank you, you shouldn’t have,” she said simply. She resumed staring at the floor. It felt like a knife running through Mukaddes’ heart. The nagging voice within her said, she didn’t even bother to open it. Look, she still won’t say your name. Why have you come here after all this time? What’s done is done, don’t you see? It was not courage she felt but desperation. The desperation to silence the voice inside her, to embrace this beloved person once again as she used to…she heard her own whisper. A whisper that grew like an avalanche inside the room until it was a scream. “I’m quite ill. Rather old now, too. I came to make things right with you, Sırhupi.”

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