When Luck Knocks On Your Door
Thanks to Kenji Sato for the edit.
New Year's Eve 1999 humanity is entering the millennium era the whole world is excited and everyone is hopeful about the future. The police officer hands over the two-month-old baby whose father went crazy and killed his mother to the social services worker. The officer caressed his cheeks with his fingers for the last time and set off towards his dreams sounding the police siren.
Twenty-four whole years have passed. I remember little of my childhood. In the memories I have of myself, there are windows with iron bars and children playing ball with me in a small yard. Then someone would come and take children like us by the hand and rescue them from that gray building. The lucky ones would go to places they would later call home. No one had adopted me.
My name is Fırat the name that they had given me later. I never learned what my family had named me. I am twenty-four years old now. I am tall and dark. The only thing I have learned in my life between school and the orphanage has been to never to show myself as weak.
When I turned eighteen and left there I started to question the things I had forbidden myself to ask. Was there no one from my family? Why hadn't they searched for me? The orphanage director Mrs. Berna had given me an envelope with an address and had arranged the job she had referred me to.
I was working in a bakery until last year. The owner of the bakery Uncle Erkan had helped me a lot. He would not distinguish me from his son Atakan who was the same age. When Uncle Erkan passed away the bakery closed.
I researched my past as much as I could. Who was I? Where did I come from? I didn't remember the number of petitions I had sent to social services. After I begged a few times Mrs. Berna the orphanage manager opened my file. She said it was something she would never do normally but she wanted to do me a favor because she would be retiring soon.
My father was an auto mechanic. My mother was a housewife. Until my father killed my mother we had been a happy family a father and mother with two children. Who was the other child? I had an older brother or sister? If he or she was alive where was my sibling?
I asked a lot of questions but I couldn't get an answer. I learned that my father had been in prison for a long time. Mrs. Berna did not give me any further information for privacy reasons. She led me out of her office and called me back in after making a few phone calls.
"I'm sorry. This is the best I can do." she said. She gave me an envelope with an address inside. She had found me a job again. When my financial situation got better I would hire a lawyer to find out who and where my brother or sister was. I didn't care about my father.
On the way to the address in the envelope in my hand the bus went a fair distance from the city. I got off somewhere that felt more like a forest of tall trees than among the large detached houses on vast estate lots. It was a neighborhood where rich people lived. I approached the big iron door and rang the bell. Two minutes later an old man opened the door. I introduced myself and gave him the envelope. When we entered the foyer the sheer size of the house struck me. Mr. Kemal the butler of the house took me to the coach house where the servants were staying and told me to get settled in.
There were maids in the kitchen who were responsible for cooking and cleaning the house. One of them Leyla who was fat put a bowl of soup in front of me. After I had eaten my fill Mr. Kemal took me to see the owner of the house. They said I would serve them as a driver. The salary was good. Meals were free. They would even give me a place to sleep if I wanted. Mrs. Berna had done me another great favor.
The owners of the house were the owners of a large holding company. Mr. Tacettin and Mrs. Ayşe were very elite-looking people in their sixties. Their only son Sadi and their daughter-in-law İlke also lived in this house. Mr. Sadi was managing the company. Since I was Mrs. Ayşe's driver my workload was not very heavy. I would occasionally take her to shopping malls and to meetings with her friends.
While talking about the family the cook Leyla said that İlke Hanım was a miracle in the simplest terms God had been generous to her she was a very beautiful woman with dark skin and black hair. She had married her husband Mr. Sadi three years ago and they had not had a child yet. They had been fighting a lot because of her husband's womanizing. I had not had the chance to see her yet.
Two days later while I was preparing the shopping list in the kitchen someone in sportswear had entered through the service door. I was so engrossed in the list that I didn't pay attention to who it was. When I looked up those beautiful eyes were looking at me with disdain.
"Are you the new driver?" she asked.
I said from the chair I was sitting in "Yes. Who are you?"
When she realized I didn't know her she got angry. "You can only be the driver anyway. Wait at the door. I'll be coming downstairs in ten minutes." she said.
At that moment my anger got the best of me. "Spoiled." came out of my mouth.
She gave me a dirty look and left.
I was angry with myself for not being able to keep my mouth shut. I did as she said and got the car ready in the yard. Half an hour had passed. No one came or went. Just as I was about to return the car back into the garage she came through the front door. As she was going down the stairs her red mini-dress and her shapely legs like two pillars caught my attention. She was as beautiful as Leyla had said.
I would occasionally look at her in the rearview mirror. She rolled her eyes when she caught me looking at her once. I took her to a restaurant. She returned after I had waited outside for three hours hungry.
On the way home I gave very short and witty answers to her questions.
"Oh you are a know it all. Cocky."
"I'm a bit of a jerk sometimes." I said and laughed. When I looked in the mirror I thought I saw a small smile.
Three days later when I couldn't sleep at night I started wandering around the garden smoking a cigarette. I saw her go out to her bedroom balcony with a wine glass in her hand. She was swaying on the balcony with classical music coming from her room. I didn't think she saw me. The light hitting her white nightgown made the contours of her body stand out. She had a sad expression on her face. She went back inside.
The weekend had finally come and I could finally have a day off. I wanted to wander around the city center Friday evening and have a little fun. Just as I was getting ready to go out Mr. Kemal called me. Since Mr. Sadi was out of town he asked me to take Mrs. İlke to wherever she wanted to be dropped off at. She had found me as if there was no other driver. I was both angry with this woman and also deep down I was going crazy to see her.
She was wearing a white-satin dress. The sleeves of the dress were held up by thin straps which left more than half of her breasts exposed her shoulders and a significant part of her back were also left bare her belly and hips were tightly wrapped in the satin and the dress's hem ended just below her hips. Since she wasn't wearing a bra her nipples were visible. How did these rich people allow their wives to dress so revealingly?
She got in the car and told me the address. Ten minutes later we arrived at a club with live music.
"Wait outside." she said.
While she was getting out of the car I also got out. I locked the doors. I threw the car key towards her. She caught it in the air. She was surprised.
"My shift is over. Have fun." I said and walked towards the bar grinning.
"Brash." I heard her say but I didn't answer.
The club's interior was nicely decorated with dim lights. I sat at the bar and ordered a beer for myself. Mrs. İlke who entered the venue after me, looked at me a little nervously and went to the table where her two female friends were. People were singing along to the live music and drinking. Since I didn't have much money in my pocket I was drinking my beer slowly.
I didn't know if it was luck that day or what but a nice blonde middle-aged woman came to me and started talking to me. She was flirting with me. After a while we started dancing.
Maybe the night which had started tense could end happily. When the woman was in her element I turned my eyes towards Mrs. İlke. She was watching us. I smiled at her with the pleasure I got from the situation and continued to busy myself with my gift for tonight. The woman named Aysun was letting me caress her. I was thinking that tonight would end in bed and I would be fucking her.
Before long Mrs. İlke appeared right in front of me. "I'm bored. Take me home." she said and left the bar.
The woman next to me was also surprised. She didn't understand what was going on. I explained the situation and got her phone number.
I was swearing as I went to Mrs. İlke and asked for the key. She looked at me with disdain again. I thought to myself if I fucked you once you would never look at me like that again. I turned the car around and headed home. It was ten o'clock.
"My fun isn't over yet. Take me somewhere else but no familiar faces. Somewhere slummy. You know those places." she said.
God did you send this woman to torture me? I turned the wheel and headed towards a club I had been to before in the city center. She got out of the car while I parked. I followed her inside five minutes later. It was very crowded because it was the last day of the week. There were all kinds of people. She was sitting on a barstool with a drink in her hand. I approached and sat next to her.
"Do you like this place?"
"Well it will do." She didn't even look at me when she answered.
People were dancing and we were watching them. She downed her drink.
I mustered up all my courage. "Would you like to dance?" I asked.
She smiled.