Tightrope

Prologue

MUCH credit to my co-conspirators...I mean brainstorm buddies, idea generators, editors, "read this and tell me if it's boring" people--louisababs19, LegendOfLisa1, TAS_130, and Laly...whose tag keeps disappearing. 

Istanbul, February 1997

The taxi pulled up in front of a tall wrought iron gate. Behind the gate, there were so many trees, no house could be seen.

"Is this the right place, şoför bey?" Nihat asked the driver.

"This is the address you gave me, abi."

"Okay, girls. Then I guess this is where we get out! Get your bags, hadi gidelim--let's go." Nihat's two little girls gathered their things while Nihat paid the driver. The driver got out to get their suitcases out of the trunk, and Nihat opened the door and got out of the car, holding the door for his daughters. "Leyla, don't let your sister forget anything, tamam mı?"

"Tamam, Baba," Leyla answered, rolling her big blue eyes. Since they didn't have a mother, she always had to take care of Sanem. When they left their family house, the house where both Leyla and Sanem were born, Sanem forgot her favorite stuffed animal, Güneş. Güneş was a plush albatross that had belonged to their mother, and Sanem had it since she was a baby. She wouldn't stop crying when she realized she left it, and Nihat couldn't bear to see his baby girl's heart broken, so he drove back two hours in their borrowed car to get it.

Nihat set their bags down in front of the gate and pushed the button on the callbox. A woman's voice responded, "Yes?"

"Uhh..Merhaba. My name is Nihat Aydin. I'm the new groundskeeper," he said, leaning in close to the camera.

"Ah, yes! Welcome! My name is Melihat and I'm the household manager. You must have luggage. I will send the cart out for you; it's quite a walk to your accommodations and I know you have little ones with you."

"Oh, thank you," Nihat answered, relieved he wouldn't have to juggle the girls and all their luggage.

"You're welcome!" the voice said cheerfully before she clicked off.

"Baba, is this going to be our new house? Is it a treehouse?" Sanem asked.

Leyla answered in her usual know-it-all way, "You're such a dummy, Sanem! We're not going to live in a treehouse!" She folded her arms. "Right, Baba?"

Nihat chuckled and swooped his youngest daughter up into his arms. "We'll see, won't we, my beautiful daughter?" he said, kissing her cheek and making her giggle. He was struck for a moment by how much Sanem's dark eyes looked like her mother's, and he hugged her tightly.

Sanem picked up on the shift in her father's mood, and she wrapped her little arms around his neck and squeezed. "Seni çok, çok, çok seviyorum, Baba!" she said with a loud smack of her little pink lips on her father's cheek.

"I love you very much, too, Sanemim," he said, smiling at her.

All the while, Leyla glared at the two of them. Before Sanem came along, she was the one who got all the kisses and hugs. Before Sanem came along, she still had her mother.

The gate began to slide open, then, and Nihat saw the golf cart approach. The driver was a man about his age with white hair parted to the side, and there was a little boy with a mop of straight brown hair sitting next to him. The man had a jovial smile on his face and he waved as he came closer and was able to see Nihat and the girls on the other side of the gate. Nihat put Sanem down and walked to meet the cart.