TE23 Double Feature

Selim Özdo ğan

52 Factory Lane

‘No one could have seen this coming, could they? I’ll get you the money, just give me a bit of time.’ Gesine and Ceren are sitting in the kitchen, reading books in which girls not much older than them own ponies, or at least get to look after them and ride them too. They sit on the horses’ backs and feel like life can’t get any bigger. This world is strange to the two friends. Unlike Ceren, Gesine doesn’t know anyone who’s ridden a horse, and when she sat on a pony at the circus, she forgot to breathe. She feels close to the heroines in her books; it’s just the horses that seem a world away. Ceren is familiar with horses from her holidays, even if she’s only ever ridden a donkey herself. Her grandfather was a carriage driver, and she doesn’t share Gesine’s enthusiasm for horses. The warnings from her grandmother still echo in her ear: ‘Never stand behind a horse – it could kick out.’ There are still a few carriages in her parents’ home town, and though she likes riding along on a horse and cart, she’d be scared to sit on a horse. She’s not sure if Gesine realises how big they are. 224

Ceren knows horses close-up, but it’s the lives of the heroines in her books she finds strange. They never have to help out around the house, they don’t usually have any siblings, they don’t have to learn how to knit and crochet, and their freedom doesn’t seem to have anything to do with riding horses. It’s much bigger than that. But the two friends like sitting together on the couch by the stove in the Yolcus’ kitchen, each with a book in hand, dreaming themselves away to places they don’t know their way around, while Gül makes the dinner. Now and then Gül glances at the girls, and each time it’s as if her heart grows a little wider until it no longer fits inside her, until it fills the whole kitchen, until she thinks the warmth of it could heat a whole house. How peaceful and happy they look, and how the happiness washes over her and grows bigger. What could be lovelier than a happy daughter? If joy can’t be reflected, it can’t multiply. Though your heart might beat in fine fettle, if it beats just for you, you’ll be alone in this life that God has granted you. When Fuat comes in, Gül turns to look at her husband with a blissful smile on her lips. 225