TE16 Turkish Delight

Let Me Out Here, Please mountain that is Sırhupi. The room feels cramped to Mukaddes’ son, he is clearly affected. Hewants to be alone to think. Hewants to weigh what this kid is saying against what he has been taught, but being confused makes him furious. His instinct tells him to deal afinal blow. Because he toohas been hurt. “Comeon, mother, we have no business being in this heretic’s house,” he spits. And his mother, Mukaddes, is so ashamed to witness the annihilation of that mountain that she grabs her purse and hurries outside even before her son. She only stops briefly to caress the beautiful iron of the outer gate. Then she walks, hurriedly. “Mother, wait for me,” says the boy, but Mukaddes runs. She runs down the cobblestone pavement to the bottom of the world. Her hand ever pressed to her chest… “I waited,” says Sırhupi in a barely audible voice. “I was the host, you my sister. I had no right to silence your son. I could only call out to my own. And I waited. I waited for you to pounce with your usual cutthroat manner and bring truce. You didn’t. You didn’t say a single word, Mukaddes. That was the moment I knew my friend was gone from me.” “No,” Mukaddes cried in anguish. “A thousand times no, don’t you say so. Don’t speak ill of our friendship. I was too ashamed, don’t you see, I didn’t have the courage to look you in the face. I couldn’t think of a single thing to say to you then. I fled.” Sırhupi says no more. She is far away, lost in thought. What she does not say and things a thousand times worse, Mukaddes is telling herself. She fails miserably at silencing that awful inner

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