Nazım

As Time Passes

a s

t i m e

p a s s e s

[epilogue]

T H R E E

Y E A R S

L A T E R

☏-☏-☏-☏-

shall we sail paper boats
in a lightning storm?
and conquer the seas
with the words they carry?
and shall we triumph
against the wrath the water unleashes?
yes; we shall.

-☏-☏-☏-☏

I remember Anne had always told us about the "therapy" of cleaning.

Whatever therapy meant.

Even though I didn't see her as much as Nazım and Nesrin did, I did remember that. Sometimes I helped Teyze Fatma and Deniz and Riya clean around the house. I'd even help Büyükanne clean, too, before she had died. Teyze said it was a heart attack, but I didn't think she'd give up that easily against it.

I'm really surprised at how things changed in three years. Like how Nazım married the girl with the pretty name, or how Deniz started to kill spiders without screaming.

I had turned nine yesterday, and I almost forgot, too. If Deniz didn't remind me, I probably would have thought I was still a little kid. But instead of asking for things, I remembered what Anne used to do, and I cleaned in Teyze Fatma's front and back yard. She said this season always made her do more work, but I thought the leaves looked pretty and I didn't want her to get rid of them.

So I organized the leaves into different color piles. One was orange, the other one was a different kind of orange, and I think two were red. I can't remember, but that's how I did it! I brought everyone out to show them, but they laughed at me. Teyze Fatma liked it--she said that "organized leaves organized her thoughts", but I didn't know what she meant.

Sometimes if it didn't get too cold, I went outside with a toy boat Nazım had gotten me to play with because he was always at school, and I played with it in the puddles in the sidewalk after it rained. I saw Nesrin more often than him, but even then she was still caught up with work.

The lake was too far away for me to go alone, because Teyze Fatma didn't want for me to get hurt. So instead, Riya and I would play with the boat whenever Deniz was busy. If he wasn't busy, we always played games he or Riya suggested because he really didn't like boats. Teyze Fatma said he almost got thrown off a boat he was on once, and he was just being scared of it.

But then Riya had to leave us, and she told me to always write to her or else she'd find me.

And since Deniz was busy too, I decided to have my own fun. I couldn't go outside because it was raining, so I played with the boat inside by the window. I imagined it sailing through a storm, and that I was the captain.

The boat crashed on its side but I was able to get it back to normal, and the crew was proud of me. Then I saw the rain was slowing down, and I looked outside and saw it stopped. So I made the boat come back to the dock at lightning speed.

Then we heard knocking at the door.

That's when I saw Nazım standing at the door, and I was really happy. Even though he just came from school, he wanted to take us all somewhere, but I didn't know where we would go. Nazım was serious, so he even got Deniz and Nesrin to stop focusing, and then he took us and even Teyze Fatma. Nazım's friend Mehmet and his wife were also there, too. I didn't meet her before, but she told me her name was Nihal.