The Best Is Yet To Come

The Pitch

CeyCey looks at the clock on the wall. 7:30 am. He automatically looks towards the corridor. At any moment, his large frame will dominate the hallway, with the confidence CeyCey himself can only dream of possessing. Except he now walks like the weight of the world is on his shoulders. Maybe it is. Everything has changed.

CeyCey walks towards the snack bar and starts to prepare his coffee. Coffee, not tea. Tea is now banned from Fikri Harika, just like her name. Anything which relates to her is gone per Deren's instructions. Everything but a picture where she looked like an ethereal wood nymph. CeyCey found it on the floor one day wrinkled, as if someone had folded it and unfolded it numerous times.

CeyCey couldn't bear to throw it away. He left it on his desk instead. The next day, it's on a delicate picture frame. Delicate like her. CeyCey dusts and cleans everything in his office but never the frame because he cleans it with reverence every day. CeyCey watches him clean it sometimes as if wiping the dust from the glass will magically bring her back to him. It's enough to break anyone's heart. Even Deren's eyes watered when she noticed him do it discreetly.

CeyCey can't help but wonder where it all went wrong. Was he so consumed with his relationship with Ayhan and his phobias that he missed the warning signs? Ayhan. His poor wife sometimes still weeps for her lost sister. When Ayhan goes to sleep, CeyCey cries for his best friend. He hopes and prays that she has found the peace she rightly deserves.

Heavy footsteps reverberated through the walls. He's here. CeyCey looks up to see the same dull look in his eyes. The eyes of someone who lost their way. CeyCey had seen that look once on a lion in the zoo as a child. He remembered his mother's words: "It's just waiting for tomorrow to come because it has nothing to live for today." He recognizes the eyes of someone resigned to their fate.

As CeyCey tells him about his meeting with Metin, something miraculous happens right before his very eyes. The light in his eyes is slowly burning brighter. Not as luminous as it used to be when she was around but to CeyCey, it's like witnessing the sunrise after the longest night. Dumbfounded, he recalls the conversation:

"Can Bey.."

"CeyCey, how many times do I have to tell you it's just Can? You've been my assistant long enough. More importantly, we're friends."

"Sorry, Can."

"What's on the agenda for today?"

"Metin will be here in about 20 minutes. He wants to discuss a new humanitarian project".

"Anything for a cause. What is it about?"

"I don't know the specifics except he wants you to photograph children from an orphanage. Osman is doing it too."

"How is Osman nowadays?"

"He signed up as the spokesperson. Ayhan's very proud of him. It's very dear to his heart. To him and Ayhan, of course."

"Please give him my regards"

"You can tell him yourself. He'll be at the meeting with Metin and Leyla".