River of The Dead
Page 32
‘I’d like to give you some money,’ İkmen said, ‘for the baby. I . . . Just let me know where you are and . . . Look, you can always ask me for money, you know?’
She looked at him levelly, suspicious he could tell, but then she said, ‘I know.’
‘There’s something else too.’
‘Something?’
He handed the baby back to her and then put his hand in his pocket and took out his wallet. He had taken out Fatma’s housekeeping money earlier that day, and now he handed it over. The girl’s eyes grew large at the sight of it.
‘My wife,’ İkmen said. ‘I don’t know whether you know where I live or not, Sophia, but I must urge you to keep who you are and what you are doing to yourself until you leave İstanbul. I don’t want my wife to know about you until after you have gone.’
The girl looked confused. ‘You . . .’
‘Sophia, if my wife found out that you were leaving the country with the baby she would try to take him away from you,’ İkmen said. ‘Our son . . .’
‘Aslan died.’
‘Yes, indeed.’ İkmen wiped a nascent tear from his eye with the back of his hand. ‘Your baby is our grandson, the only connection left with our son,’ he said. ‘But he is your child, Sophia, and if you want to take him back to your country you must be free to do that.’
‘I contact with you all the time!’ Sophia said as she stuffed what was to her a huge amount of money into her pockets.
‘That would be nice,’ İkmen said. ‘That would be very nice.’
Later, when the girl had gone and he had had a chance to think about what had happened, he wondered whether she had just come to him for cash. He wondered if he would ever see her or his grandson again. The thought that maybe he wouldn’t made him feel sick. But then how much worse would it be if he told Fatma and then had to deal with her worry and grief over the baby? Things had changed so much already and she was barely talking to him now. For selfish reasons as well as Fatma’s sanity, he couldn’t put her or himself through any more traumatic scenarios.
His son and many other people’s sons and daughters had died since Yusuf Kaya escaped from Kartal Prison. A lucrative drug route into the country had been uncovered if not, as yet, plugged. Had that been worth what had happened in İstanbul, Birecik and Mardin? He really didn’t know, and as he took his latest bottle of brandy out of his desk drawer and gulped long and hard from its neck, he had no idea what, if anything, was the point of any human act at all.
In fact he would have drunk the whole bottle had it not been for the phone call that came then. He was, he knew, and had been since Bekir’s death, descending into the alcoholism that had characterised his forties. So he answered the phone slowly and without enthusiasm.
‘İkmen.’
‘Çetin!’ said the clearly excited voice of Mehmet Süleyman.
‘Yes.’
‘Çetin, one of Elizabeth Smith’s guards has come across the Iraqi border and given himself up. He was terrified out there. Couldn’t wait to get home even though he knew he’d be punished.’
‘I’m not surprised. Iraq . . .’
‘Yes – and Çetin, listen to this,’ Süleyman said. ‘This man is going to tell us what he knows about the Wormwood Route. We have another piece of the puzzle. And with İzzet Melik and Ayşe Farsakoğlu looking into possible sightings of Murat Lole . . .’
İkmen put his brandy bottle down on his desk and said, ‘There might just be some hope, do you think?’
‘I think that’s more than a possibility,’ Süleyman said triumphantly. ‘Çetin, what was done was not done in vain. It wasn’t.’
‘No.’
Çetin İkmen looked at his brandy bottle, picked it up and put it into his desk drawer, which he shut. Then, as Süleyman began to tell him more details about the man from Iraq, just very slowly, he began to smile.
Acknowledgements
* * *
This book would not have been possible without the help I received from my fellow travellers, both known and unknown, back in March 2007. This is a novel that relies upon myths and folklore and for these I have to thank the people of the east themselves: shopkeepers and officials, priests and singers, artists and those who tell the stories of the past. Teşekkürederim.
Turkish Alphabet
* * *
The Turkish Alphabet is very similar to its English counterpart with the following exceptions:
• The letters q, wy and x do not appear.
• Some letters behave differently in Turkish compared with English:
C, c Not the c in cat and tractor, but the j in jam and Taj or the g in gentle and courageous.
G, g Always the hard g in great or slug, never the soft g of general and outrage.
J, j As the French pronounce the j in bonjour and the g in gendarme.
• The following additional letters appear:
Ç ç The ch in chunk or choke.
ğ, ğ ‘Yumuşak ge’ is used to lengthen the vowel that it follows. It is not usually voiced (except as a vague y sound). For instance, it is used in the name Ayşe Farsakoğlu, which is pronounced Far-sak-erlu, and in öğle (noon, midday), pronounced öy-lay (see below for how to pronounce ö).
Ş, ş The sh in ship and shovel.
I, ı Without a dot, the sound of the a in probable.
İ, i With a dot, the i in thin or tinny.
ö, ö Like the ur sound in further.
Ü, ü Like the u in the French tu.
Full pronunciation guide
A, a Usually short, the a in hah! or the u in but, never the medium or long a in nasty and hateful.
B, b As in English.
C, c Not the c in cat and tractor, but the j in jam and Taj or the g in gentle and courageous.
Ç, ç The ch in chunk or choke.
D, d As in English.
E, e Always short, the e in venerable, never the e in Bede (and never silent).
F, f As in English.
G, g Always the hard g in great or slug, never the soft g of general and outrage.
Ğ, ğ ‘Yumuşak ge’ is used to lengthen the vowel that it follows. It is not usually voiced (except as a vague y sound). For instance, it is used in the name Ayşe Farsakoğlu, which is pronounced Far-sak-erlu, and in öğle (noon, midday), pronounced öy-lay (see below for how to pronounce ö).
H, h As in English (and never silent).
I, ı Without a dot, the sound of the a in probable.
İ, i With a dot, the i in thin or tinny.
J, j As the French pronounce the j in bonjour and the g in gendarme.
K, k As in English (and never silent).
L, l As in English.
M, m As in English.
N, n As in English.
O, o Always short, the o in hot and bothered.
ö, ö Like the ur sound in further.
P, p As in English.
R, r As in English.
S, s As in English.
Ş, ş The sh in ship and shovel.
T, t As in English.
U, u Always medium-length, the u in push and pull, never the u in but.
Ü, ü Like the u in the French tu.
V, v Usually as in English, but sometimes almost a w sound in words such as tavuk (hen).
Y, y As in English. Follows vowels to make diphthongs: ay is the y sound in fly; ey is the ay sound in day; oy is the oy sound in toy; uy is almost the same as the French oui.
Z, z As in English.
* ‘Uncle’ is used by Turkish people as a term of respect for their male elders.
* Hanim. Polite form of address for a woman.
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