A Middle East Story
Thanks to Kenji Sato for the edit.
On a day when I felt hopeful for the future I was sitting on the grass in the park talking to Canan my only friend in this city. Finally I received the job offer that I had been waiting for. I could say that it was the happiest day of my life here. I spent three years in hell since I had found out that the man I had married with love and whom I brought into my family in front of me was a drug addict.
I was surprised to see that it was my uncle calling on my phone he didn't call me very often. After all I was the disgrace of the family. When I received the bad news I couldn't move for the first few minutes. My family had been in a traffic accident. My father had died at the scene my mother was still in the operating room.
I hurriedly went to my hostel where the rooms were filthy to pack my things. I took my suitcase and headed for the airport. When I arrived at the hospital my mother was in intensive care. My relationship with my mother had always been difficult but deep down I was thinking what would I do if I lost her too? I watched her from behind the glass in that cold white hospital room for three days and prayed for her to get better.
Doctors said that she had a clot in her brain and that she would not live for a very long time. I wanted to be with my mother in her remaining time. My father's death had hurt enough. I didn't want to believe that the person I trusted the most was gone. It had to be a bad dream. My father was also my confidant. Even though I broke all of his rules he always thought of me. I felt a huge void. I couldn't help but cry when I remembered the good times I spent with him in my childhood.
On the first day of June we bid farewell to my father. It was time to take my mother who was crying in a wheelchair at my father's grave home. She had to say goodbye to him. I walked to her with shaky steps trying to act stoic. I held her hand. My brother Dora and I hugged each other and left the cemetery with tears in our eyes. The cornerstone of our happy home was gone. Our world had fallen apart but life went on. That's what my father would have wanted. I couldn't even imagine how much our lives would change after that day.
My name is Paye. I am thirty years old. As I said at the beginning I did not listen to my mother at the time I married Halil whom I met during my university years and settled in another city. We can say that I escaped from my mother's pressure a little. Of course I have been excluded from the family because of this choice.
My mother is a sixty-year-old housewife who has never worked in her life. When her landowner father passed away she inherited everything so she had no need to work. She is an authoritarian woman who puts her culture and traditions above all else. Since the money inherited from her family was real estate and fields she has always been the head of the house. She always has the last word. In other words my late father had been a bit more naive than my mother.
Dora has graduated from university this year. He has become an agricultural engineer at my mother's insistence. I had studied accounting. Although I haven't seen my family for some years my brother has a special place in my heart. We text each other on the phone whenever we have the chance.
My family is involved in agriculture. My father had doubled the hectares of gardens fields and farm animals he had inherited from his father-in-law over the years. We have a company with nearly five hundred employees. He had been a very successful person. There had been wealth from his family but when my mother's wealth is taken into account his assets are small. I had lived a very comfortable life financially until I married Halil.
We usually lived in our garden house in the city. My mother and father would sometimes go to the village and inspect the work. The company building was close to our house. A week after the funeral my mother sent the servants to the farmhouse in the village. I didn't understand why she did this. There were only three of us in the big house. I didn't have the chance to talk about these things because she was cold to me. After dinner she said she wanted to talk to us about something important. Dora and I went to the living room and chatted for a while waiting for my mother to arrive. You could see that she was still a strong woman even though she was in a wheelchair.
My mother turned towards Dora. "Your father is gone. This brings you a great responsibility. From now on you are the head of this family. You will take over the business and continue your father's business." she said.
"Of course I will protect his legacy. I will do my best. Don't worry mother." Dora replied.
"My smart son. Your father would be proud of you. Focus on your work great days are waiting for you." she said.
My mother turned to me. "I'll talk to you alone. Come to my room in ten minutes." she said with a grumpy expression on her face as if I were a burden she had to bear and not the child she gave birth to.
My mother could be very hurtful. I was stupid to think she had forgiven me. She would interfere in my life again. I didn't have much of a chance because I had missed the job offer. I didn't want to go back to that miserable life. I had to follow her rules in her house.
Dora and I had always been on good terms. There were times when we took refuge in each other from my mother's cruelty. We were two siblings who liked to do the same things and laughed at the same things we were close in character. Of course we would fight. One time I caught him secretly watching me while I was changing my clothes and beat him. My younger brother was the first man to see me naked. Of course all of this was in the past.
I went upstairs to my mother's room. I knocked on the door and went in. My mother was sitting in her wheelchair. I went across to her and asked what she wanted to talk to me about. She asked me to sit on the bed. She started talking in a condescending tone.
"It is obvious where your previous choices and mistakes have brought you. You are a thirty-year-old loser who has nothing. Your youth and beauty have been wasted. I talked to the lawyer the case will be finalized in a week and you will be free from that evil husband. Thank God you did not have a child."
It was as if she had summoned me to stab me in the soul. I waited for her to continue.
"I am trying to do the best for you and Dora. That is why I have made a decision. I am telling you for the first time. In this disabled state of mine I cannot cope with the housework or your problems. I do not know how long I will live. I will move into the farmhouse. I want to die peacefully in the house where I was born and raised. From now on you have a big task. You will be the lady of this house. You will deal with everything that comes to your mind. The most important thing is that Dora will be at the center of your life. You will make him happy. Remember the female bird makes the nest. This house and Dora are now your nest."
"Mom do you hear what you're saying?" I replied getting up from the bed.
She motioned me to sit down with her hand.
"Okay. I made a mistake in my youth. I paid the price with the sadness and tears I experienced. Now you want me to devote my life to Dora. I'm your child too. You interfere in my life and make decisions for me. Can't I have plans for the future?"
"If you don't want to fulfill my last wish you can go back to that addicted husband of yours. Despite everything you did to our family we sent you money every month so that you wouldn't starve to death. Because your useless husband couldn't take care of you. Didn't he ask you to sell your body to buy drugs? How quickly you forget that you wanted a divorce because of this." she said.
The atmosphere in the room had become tense. Tears were streaming down my face.
