"What happened?" I said.
"Harry and I dated another month before he came to me with the news. He said that he was in love with my sister. I was shocked, hurt, angry. I asked if he had been seeing her behind my back and he said no. He told me he had no idea if she liked him. But he wanted my permission to find out."
"Wow." I was stunned. "What did you say?"
"What could I say? I had seen the chemistry they had. But when I told her Harry wanted to date her, she refused. She said the usual things people say. She was my sister. She couldn"t stab me in the back. She would feel too awkward. But all the time I could tell she wanted to go out with him. When I insisted that she have coffee with him, she said okay, coffee couldn"t hurt." my mother sighed. "that was the end of that."
"Did they get married?"
"They got engaged; they never married. The whole thing shook me up pretty badly. I was a mess."
"When did you meet Dad?"
"Two years later, and no, I didn"t marry him on the rebound."
"But you were still in love with Harry?" silence. My mother didn"t answer.
" I"m sorry," I whispered. She spoke in a soft voice. " I"m surprised you don"t remember. Tracy and Harry were together a long time after you were born." that caught me off-guard. I had visited tracy often. After all, she was one of my most favorite people in the world.
"How long after I was born?" I asked.
"He was with her up until the accident. That"s when he left." I almost fell out of my seat. Her remark made no sense.
"Hold on a second. That"s impossible. I spent summers with Aunt tracy. Every time I was able to get free, you let me go to her house. And I never once met a Harry."
"He was real, Sara. What can I say? But they were never married. He was like your father. He traveled a lot with his work."
"But when tracy had her accident and went into that coma, he was never at the hospital. I would know; I was there all the time."
"That was a painful time," my mother said, as if that explained it.
"So he vanished as soon as she got hurt? that doesn"t make sense. You don"t leave someone you love."
"You don"t know, Sara. Harry did love her. When she got hurt, he couldn"t bear it. He said it was like a part of him died.
He just left and we never heard from him again. To this day I have no idea where he is."
"Why can"t I remember him?"
"You were awfully young, Sara."
"I was nine. No, I was ten. And I was eleven when you guys suddenly pulled the plug."
"We did not suddenly pull the plug. Her condition was deteriorating. There was no hope she would wake up again. Her doctors told us they had done all they could. Also, we were worried about you. She was lying in a hospital bed five hundred miles away and she was all you could think about. You don"t remember, but you started having trouble at school. Half the time I couldn"t get you to go. She was my sister and I loved her dearly, but the nightmare had to stop. We had to let her go so we could all start to heal." my eyes burned. "You never told me you were going to kill her."
"We didn"t kill her. The drunk driver who hit her killed her."
"But you could have warned me. Did you know I had bought a bus ticket to visit her? I bought it with the money I earned babysitting. I was about to leave when you suddenly showed me this urn of ashes and said, "Hey, guess what, this is Aunt tracy. Sorry to shock you like this but the hospital bills keep coming and she wasn"t getting any better and . . ." "
"No one said a word to you about the hospital bills."
"I heard you and Dad fight about them at night. Look, I understand about Aunt tracy. I think you could have handled her death better, but I believe you when you say the doctors felt it was hopeless. What I have trouble believing in is this Harry guy." my mother sounded far off, lost in her own memories. "I understand. He was like a dream to me."
"Sounds more like a ghost. What was his last name?"
"O"malley. Harold O"malley. I"m not making him up. You can ask your father about him. Only . . ."
"I won"t tell him you loved him, mom. I"m not that dumb."
"Thank you, Sara." I could hear her crying, "Please, tell me about Amesh. I"m sure he"s a wonderful person. I would love to hear about him." I closed my eyes and strove to see how I truly felt in that moment. I was relieved to feel love for my mother.
"I"ll tell you about him tomorrow," I promised.
For once my mother had nothing to say, except goodbye.
Goodbye Sara, take care. It was painful to break the connection this time, since it had taken fifteen years to establish.
Chapter Eighteen.
WHen mr. Demir APPeAreD, I could tell he was uncomfortable being in such fancy surroundings. He reminded me of his son that first afternoon at the Hilton. But I coaxed him into ordering a drink-he had mango juice-and we sat in overstuffed chairs in the corner, where we could talk.
"That b.u.mp on your head looks bad," he said, concerned. I smiled. "You should see the rest of me."
"Why men attack you?"
He was a good man and I was tired of lying to him. So I told him an abbreviated version of what had really happened to Amesh and me; leaving out the island, of course, and the fact we had been gone for days. That part of our tale was too far out; he would never accept it. unfortunately, pretty much all of our story was bizarre. It was like choosing between daydreams, trying to figure out what to say. In the end I had to lie a little. I told him about the magic carpet, but I said it had led us to a trea sure in the desert. I even let him peek at the carpet in my bag.
"I understand it"s hard to believe," I said. "You won"t really believe me until you see me fly away on it."
He thought to humor me. "You cannot show flying?"
"When I leave here from the roof of this hotel, you can watch if you want. Then you"ll know for sure this carpet can fly."
He saw I was serious. His face filled with doubt.
"Why not talk of carpet before?" he asked.
"I thought it would be too much to absorb. Look at you now. You want to believe me but you can"t."
He sighed. "It is strange story. And you keep changing."
"I"m sorry. The carpet really did lead us to the trea sure."
"Talk about people who attacked you," he said.
"I have pictures of them on my cell." I called up the best set of photos and handed them over to mr. Demir. He got a shock. He recognized two of them.
"I know them!" he said, excited. "Jemal Lomal and Omer sahim. Two of the boys who hurt Amesh."
Finally! Proof that what had happened last summer was connected to what was going on right now. Like the carpet had said, some of the players overlapped.
"There were four total, right?" I asked, also excited.
"Yes."
"Are the names Bora and Hasad familiar to you?"
He got another shock. "Bora Lomal and Hasad sahim. The other two who hurt Amesh. Amesh told you their names?"
"No. The leader of the gang told me. He acted like your son had kidnapped Bora and Hasad. That"s why they beat me. I wouldn"t tell him where they were, or where Amesh was." mr. Demir was looking at me with fresh confidence. He saw I had been beat up and he saw I had pictures of the guys who had beat up Amesh. Even if he didn"t believe in flying carpets, he had to believe that his grandson was out there with money and bad people were after him. Mr. Demir also helped me by supplying me with the two pictures I had lacked-of Bora Lomal and Hasad sahim. They shared last names with the others. I a.s.sumed I was looking at two sets of brothers.
Yet mr. Demir refused to believe that Amesh had kidnapped anyone.
"He cripple. He has one hand," he said.
"Amesh has lots of money." I tried again. "He can hire help. When I saw him this afternoon, he spoke about finally getting revenge on these guys."
mr. Demir kept shaking his head. "Amesh gentle soul."
"You"re a gentle soul and this morning you said you wished these guys would burn. You never seriously thought of taking revenge on them because you didn"t have the resources. Well, now Amesh does. I"m almost positive he"s taken Bora and Hasad captive. I"m just not sure where he"s put them." mr. Demir remained firm. "No. It is not true." I saw I was not going to convince him. I asked if I could see the transcript of the trial. Mr. Demir handed over a cardboard box.
"Do you mind waiting while I study it?" I asked.
"Take time." He added sadly, "nowhere to go with Amesh gone." I was grateful the transcript was in two formats, turkish and en glish. Since Becktar was an American company, and was in a sense liable for what happened to Amesh, it made sense that there was an en glish version.
Like in America, the transcript contained every word spoken during the trial. There were only a few people involved.
Amesh. The four young men accused of cutting off his hand. The defendants" lawyers. Amesh"s lawyer. The judge. Spielo.
And mrs. Steward and mr. Toval. I was relieved to see that my father was not listed. The trial had been brief and to the point. The four young men swore they had been working at mr. Toval"s house the night Amesh was attacked-forty miles away from the job site, where Amesh was injured. They had witnesses who testified to this fact. Their main witness was mr. Toval himself. under oath, he supported their story. It was mr. Toval"s testimony that swayed the court against Amesh. He was the president of the middle eastern division of Becktar. He was a rich and powerful employer. Why should he lie to hide such a ruthless act? the guys" lawyer asked this question repeatedly. The irony was that in America, being called a rich and powerful employer would have made a jury suspicious of the man or woman. But in turkey, wealth equaled credibility. By the time Amesh could reach the stand, he had already been thoroughly discredited. Mrs. Steward also spoke against Amesh. She sabotaged his character. She said he was not a hard worker. That he had lied about his age to get the job. And that he had snuck into the shar Cave on the job site, a place that was off-limits to all but highlevel executives. I stopped reading. I was in shock. Mr. Toval and mrs. Steward were family friends. They were my father"s friends. How could they tell such lies? Were they pressured by the company? that was the only excuse that made sense. Had Amesh won the criminal part of the trial, his lawyer could have sued Becktar for millions. I spoke to mr. Demir. "the shar Cave. My father took me to that spot when he was giving me a tour."
"Did father take you inside cave?" mr. Demir asked.
"No. A team of archaeologists was studying it. Their leader wouldn"t let me inside. I know my father"s been inside. He"s an archaeological buff."
"Buff ?"
"It"s a hobby of his."
"Did he say there was temple inside?" mr. Demir asked. My heart began to pound. Now there was an amazing coincidence. "He said nothing about a temple. Is that why Amesh kept going to see it?"
"Amesh saw temple only once, with spielo," mr.
Demir said.
"Spielo fell in the cement the other day. Do you think someone was trying to kill him?" mr. Demir shrugged. "Amesh and spielo saw temple inside cave. My grandson lost arm. Spielo almost lost his life."
"You said this morning that he"s still in the hospital?"
"Yes."
"What"s the name of the hospital?" I asked. Mr. Demir told me and I wrote it down, as well as the address.
"I"m confused," I said. "I know mrs. Steward and mr. Toval. They"re friends of my father, and they"re nice people. But they testified against Amesh in court." mr. Demir nodded. "It make no sense. Mrs. Steward say Amesh bad worker. But Amesh hard worker. And mr. Toval lie. Those boys not at his house that night. They were at job site." I flipped through the transcript. I wanted to get this next fact right.
"Is that where Amesh was attacked?" I asked.
"He attacked in shar Cave. Near temple."
"I can"t believe he never told me this." mr. Demir raised his hand. "Many strange things. The four boys lost jobs after trial. But Amesh got job back."
"They gave him his job back instead of millions of lira."
"I not understand," mr. Demir said.
"Amesh should have sued them."
"Amesh cannot sue. He lost trial." mr. Demir added, "Your father help Amesh keep job. Others want to fire him." I hesitated. "You speak of my father like a friend."
"When Amesh in hospital, he visit every day. He get best doctors. Pay all the bills." mr. Demir paused. "But sometimes I feel his guilt. Like he know bosses lied. Like trying to help Amesh to make things right."
"My father was not called to testify?"
"No."
"I can"t believe he"d bury something like this." mr. Demir smiled. "You want me believe carpet is magic."
"That"s different. My father has honor. If he knew a crime had been committed, he wouldn"t let it get swept under the rug."
"He work with bad people many years. Who know pressure they put on him?" there was not much more I could learn from mr. Demir. It was time to say goodbye. He surprised me when I went to leave. He did not want to accompany me to the roof.
"You not really flying away," he said. I took his hand. "Some things have to be seen to be believed."
But he shook free. "Part of me believe you." I studied him. He seemed almost scared. "You"re worried about what I said earlier. That the trea sure we found was cursed."
He hesitated. "I do believe in such things."
"So do i. But this carpet is the opposite of curses. It"s sacred."