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Back Fairy Chimney Soda Save as PDF
Chapters (38)
  1. Cover
  2. Half Title
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Contents
  6. Preface
  7. 1 Kurban:
  8. 2 I Am an Orphan, Press Me to Your Chest
  9. 3 What Has That Got to Do with It, Dad!
  10. 4 I Am Grown Up, Dad
  11. 5 The Weight of Your Coat
  12. 6 “We’ll Ask Someone for Our Name, and She’ll Tell Us”
  13. 7 The Seal
  14. 8 Whose Blood Is That on the Photo?
  15. 9 The Smell of Bread or Blood?
  16. 10 What’s Left for Us
  17. 11 A Drop of Water
  18. 12 Just Let Go
  19. 13 Turkey at the End of Its Rope
  20. 14 Hearts in the Palms of Our Hands
  21. 15 The Burnt Smell Inside Us
  22. 16 The Quilt
  23. 17 Where Are Our Dead?
  24. 18 Mothers Sniff Out Their Lambs
  25. 19 The Soul of a Word
  26. 20 Three Kinds of Truth and Us
  27. 21 The Country Doctor
  28. 22 The File Under My Arm
  29. 23 The Country of the Forgotten Dead
  30. 24 The Coming of the Fiancée
  31. 25 The Lie
  32. 26 Why These Scars?
  33. 27 The Municipality Man Who Drew a Gun
  34. 28 Tell All Your Friends, I learned How to Die
  35. 29 God Willing, He Is Dead
  36. 30 Come Along, Let’s Start off by Saving Ourselves
  37. 31 A Whistle Out of Chestnut
  38. Glossary

Come along, let’s start off by saving ourselves.

31 A Whistle Out of Chestnut

31

A Whistle Out of Chestnut

Those were days when I looked at all the world with joy and wonder: They are shooting a Yılmaz Güney film in the area and a white car pulls up at the local gas station. We race across the football pitch to see him. The driver is standing outside, speaking with the halfwit pump attendant. In the front of the car sits a fat, stocky man with a James Bond briefcase in his lap. Yılmaz is in the back seat, daydreaming. He looks thoughtful and a little sad. Shoving through the people around me, I get close to the car. Everyone steps aside, impressed by my courage. My hands on the top of the car, I press my face against the glass and smile.

“Yılmaz Abi,” I say slowly, “we love you, brother.”

Staring thoughtfully into space, he looks up and smiles. Just like in the movies. The attendant closes the gas tank and the car moves forward.

“Yılmaz Abi, Yılmaz Abi,” we shout with all our might. Through the back window, he waves as the car pulls out of the station.

A wooden bridge has been built a little beyond the stone bridge. Our mayor calls it, “our second Bosphorus Bridge.” Munching on salted peanuts, I’m crossing this new suspended bridge with my old friend Ertaş.

“Now if they were to ask us on a test, ‘who were the first people to eat salty peanuts while crossing this suspended bridge,’ we’d know the answer right away,” says Ertaş. We were studying for the entrance exams to the Science High School and everything in the world around us seemed like a question on an exam …

Volkan Abi is running the open-air cinema. Every night I go in with a case of soda and I stay for the film. Sometimes I watch the same movie five or six times. Dad has expanded the business: We are now Fairy Soft Drinks Incorporated. When the master of ceremonies, Kara Mustafa, introduces dad, he says: “Straight from one of our own factories in town!” With a smile stretched ear to ear, dad has full confidence in the man. I’m thin, short, pale-faced and weak. I am a failure in physical education. I have to crawl over the horse vault and I can barely hold onto the chin-up bar. Dad takes me to a doctor in Nevşehir for a check up. Turns out I’m anemic and I have a heart murmur. Every morning mom fries a spleen for me on the stovetop and says it’s best if I eat it a little raw.