HONORING PARENTS

Story: Don’t Forget the Needle

Safiye saw her mother in her dream every single night and felt great anguish each time she woke up. Her tears in the fiery flame of the night caused her heart to feel cold. Her bed was warm, but her tears were like ice. How she missed her so! It had been a few weeks since her mother had passed away. Everyone referred to her mother as “Güllü.” They called her this because her real name, Gülfikar, was too long for them to pronounce. In her dream, she would speak to her mother while facing her and just as it seemed she was about to hold her hand, she woke up suddenly. She shut her eyes tight, trying to see the same dream once more. But it was impossible to fall back asleep. Nothing save her tears filled with longing came to her eyes. Her pillow used to get wet each night because of the bitter tears she shed pining for her mother. And she was forced to conceal this from her younger brother as her mother had entrusted Selim to Safiye’s care. When taking her mother’s hands into hers during their last meeting, it was as if her mother was about to set off on a pleasant journey. Whenever she looked at the palms of her hands, she felt as though her mother’s warmth was about to slip through her fingers and she would thus clench her fists very tight. Purely because of this promise that she made to her mother did she hide from her brother the pillow drenched with her tears throughout the night. Work did not exhaust Safiye in the least.

While her peers played outside, she was busy with taking the geese to water, washing clothes and preparing food for her brother and father. On top of these tasks was hanging Selim’s bed, who wet his bed in his sleep, on the garden wall.

Safiye treasured everything she had left from her mother. She would use them meticulously and show utmost care to protect them from harm. The rosy apron her mother loved best was once torn as she was milking the sheep. This tore her heart out. It was as though the thorns of the roses on the apron were scraping against her heart and causing her deep anguish. As soon as she heard the tearing sound, she let go of the animal’s teat. She stood aghast. She took the apron gently into her arms, as though fearing that she would hurt it, and smelt it. It was as if it still had her mother’s smell upon it. Due to the evening darkness, the tear was not completely visible.

She considered repairing the apron, but where would she find a needle and thread at this time of night. “The shops in the village wouldn’t have them either,” she thought. But she would tell her father and ask him to buy them from the town center. She continued milking the sheep so as not to leave the task incomplete. When she entered the house will the milk-filled bucket in her hand, her father was also coming through the front door. Seeing Safiye, Zihni Agha said,

“And how is my beautiful daughter today?”

“I’m well, father.”

“What will you be cooking for us tonight?”

“Milk soup, father.” When Selim heard milk soup, his eyes lit up.

“It has been on my mind for quite some time now. And it’s mother’s favorite food.” A silence enveloped the room. By way of evading this situation, Zihni Agha took Selim into his arms and said, “So did you take the geese to pasture nicely today?” Selim raised his blonde eyebrows in excitement and answered, “Yes, dad! And I put them out to graze in the greenest spots.”

“Well done! That’s my boy!”

When Selim spoke like a grown up, the household would cheer up. When the food was cooking, Safiye approached her father and asked, “Dad, is there anyone going to town tomorrow?”

“What is it? I hope everything’s all right.”

“It’s just that my apron got ripped, and I need a needle and thread to mend it.”

“Hmm. Well, let’s just wait until morning and we’ll see what we can do. I’m sure we’ll find someone who’s going.”

Safiye thought about the ripped apron all night long. She fell asleep with this thought. In her dream, she saw her mother. She was again surrounded by roses. This time, she called Safiye and said, “My darling, if you’re looking for needle and thread, there’s a needle and some thread on the stone above the fireplace. Take them from there, but take them to the neighbor, your aunt Zehra, once you’ve finished with them. I had borrowed the needle from her.”

Safiye could only say, “OK, mum,” in her astonishment.

“Whatever you do, don’t forget to give them back to her,” Güllü added.

“I won’t forget, mum,” Safiye said and she was just about to hug her mother one more time when she woke up huddled with the blanket.

She realized all this to be a dream. She closed her eyes for the dream to continue, but to no avail as there was no way she could fall back to sleep.

And with the recitation of the call to the Morning Prayer, she got up and took her ablution. Meanwhile, she noticed that her father had woken up also. He was going to go to the mosque for Prayer. “Let me light the fireplace until the sun rises,” Safiye said after performing her Prayer. She looked at the stone above the fireplace to get a match. She saw a wrapped up piece of paper in the place her mother had mentioned in her dream. She grabbed it quickly. When she opened it, she was lost in amazement. There was a needle and some thread in the paper, just as her mother had told her. She pressed the paper against her chest with the delicacy of a butterfly’s wing. She was allaying the longing she felt for her mother.

At this point, she remembered that her father would come from the mosque soon and she had still not lit the fire. Lighting it in a flash, she placed last night’s soup on top of it. She then meticulously sewed the tear in the apron. Taking a hot coal from the fire, she placed it inside the flat iron. She ironed it carefully and placed it in the cupboard. When Zihni Agha came back home, she told him everything that had happened. Her father made an excuse to leave the room in order to hide his tears. When breakfast was being prepared, he went to the village square to include his sheep among the village’s herd. When Safiye went to Selim’s room to wake him up, she saw Selim awake and waiting in a corner as though he had done something wrong. Apparently he had wet his pants again. Safiye approached her brother and so as not to upset him any further, she said, “Ah my dear brother, why are you so upset! We can hang it out and it’ll dry in no time. And when we put the sheets in the wash it will be as good as ever.” She then grabbed the blanket and left the room.

After breakfast, she took the needle and thread and went to the neighbor’s house. As she did not quite know what to say, she just handed them over and added, “I saw my mother in my dream and she said, ‘These belong to your aunt Zehra, give them back to her.’”

She couldn’t say any more. She gulped and stood stupefied. Zehra could not make any sense of what she heard. Making like she was fixing her scarf with one hand, she wiped her tears with one edge on the other. Shaking her head, she could only manage to say, “The dear departed! A neighbor like you is rare indeed.”

Safiye said that she had work to do at home and left. Zehra called out, “Dear girl, are you going to go so soon after coming all this way? Let me offer you some ayran at least.”

“At another time perhaps,” Safiye replied.

Safiye made her way back in the peace of mind of having fulfilled her mother’s wish. And when she saw Selim joking around with his friends whilst taking the geese to water, she felt her sadness to lessen a little more. She was no longer that sad.