FATAL JOURNEY
By: Jercy Yang
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Words Checked: 2333
Words in Oxford 3000: 95%
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Contents:
About the Author………………………4 Preface..............................5 Chapter 1- The Beginning…………7 Chapter 2- Kurdish Surprise…….10 Chapter 3- The Encounter………21 Chapter 4- Still a stranger……..24 Chapter 5- Time to leave………..32 Chapter 6- It ended in Ankara..33
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About The Author
Jercy Yang, who’s going to be 19 years in June, is a girl who daydreams much. She dreams to have a German husband and a house by the lake. She dreams to be a global traveler with her mates.
But she doesn’t
dream to be a writer.
Here it is a
novel written with her kinky imagination.
Hope you’ll enjoy it.
Peace.
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Preface Her name is Sue Preece, a 37-year-old woman happily married with Chris Preece.
She has just quit
her job as a journalist because she’s tired of all those competing colleagues and she wants to experience the life while she’s still alive.
By traveling.
There are five members in the family. The husband, Chris Preece, 40 years old, and two sons, Steven,
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who is going to the junior school and Joel, who’s in an elementary school. The last member is their dog, JuJu. JuJu has been part of the family for three years since Steven found her on the street. Her journey starts ‌
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Chapter 1- The beginning
One evening after dinner, while we were taking a walk, I told Chris about my idea of traveling alone. “How are we going to do this separately?” asked Chris. “Hey come on… it’s going to be really interesting. Think about this, we are in different countries missing each other.
How romantic!” I said.
“That’s rather cliché for me.” We burst out laughing. 7
You know,
he’s just too realistic sometimes. For him, I dream too much. I knew Chris was furious about my decision of traveling without him. But at last I won, I convinced him and it took me only five hours!
There’s no
denying that family is important to me, but Chris knows me well. what I want.
He knows
He decided to stay
home and take care of our sons so that I can travel without any worries. I really appreciated that.
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“Thanks for always supporting me...� I kissed my family goodbye in the airport and started off for my journey.
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Chapter 2- Kurdish Surprise
My first destination is Diyarbakir, Turkey.
It is situated in southeastern
Turkey, on the banks of the Tigris River. Two languages are spoken here, Turkish and Kurdish. I’ve always wanted to visit there because of the Kurdish people and the famous Tigris River. It took me three hours to get there from Urfa.
The bus stopped at
several check points, soldiers armed
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with guns got on the bus from the front and rear doors checking our passports or IDs.
The atmosphere
was quite tense. It was the daily routine, because there were rallies going on here everyday. Finally, I arrived in Diyarbakir at six in the morning. It was a cold day for June.
I left my bags in the hotel
and started to wander in the town with my camera. the downtown.
It was crowded in Women together
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with children and friends. I guess there are barely foreigners or tourists in Diyarbakir because they were all glancing at me as if I were from Mars. I was looking for post cards to send Chris and let him know where and how I am. In the end, I gave up searching for post cards. People were nervous when they see me and they were not willing to talk to me. It wasn’t until another visitor told me about the rally that I
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understood why.
There was a rally
of PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party). Anyone who was found talking with foreigners would be considered suspicious and get caught.
I
supposed I would be experiencing it again as I planned to stay in Diyarbakir for a few months. A man approached me when I stopped at a fruit shop. “Where are you from?” he asked. “Wales, why?”
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“Are you here for tourism?” He spoke with a tone of doubt and unfriendliness. “What else could I do here?” I tried not to seem weak. The conversation kept going like this until he said… “Sorry, it was my fault. I thought you were my ex-girlfriend. You look just like her! I’m really sorry.” Oh my, I am already 37 years old! This young man is less than 25 years
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old. An apology he offered was to be my guide. I thought for a minute, but since I know almost nothing about Diyarbakir and Kurdish, I agreed happily. He introduced himself as a 28-year interior designer, his name is Ahmed. He just got back from England a few months ago where he worked there as an apprentice of a famous interior designer. That was why he spoke great English.
Then he told me about
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this Irish girl he dated who left him for another rich guy.
I could see the
hate in his eyes so I tried not to talk about that any more.
Then Ahmed
asked questions about me. “I’m 37 years old and I’m married.
I
have two sons, Steven and Joel. Oh, and our dog, JuJu. I was a journalist but I just quit three months ago.
I
want to travel, to experience the life when I’m still alive.” I answered. “That’s good.
How long do you plan
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to stay here?”
Ahmed asked.
“I don’t know, maybe for a few months.
It depends on me, I don’t
really have a schedule.
But I know
what I’m going to do right now… Hunt for food!”
I laughed.
Ahmed took me to a Kurdish restaurant and we ordered Lahmacun and raw meat. Lahmacun is made with dough, bestial oil and with meat on it.
It’s something like really thin
pizza and it is quite tasty.
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As for raw
meat, it’s another popular Kurdish dish.
It was served with green salad
and lemon, and it was also delicious. I loved Kurdish dishes ever since then. Ahmed was Kurdish and he told me it was forbidden to have anything published in Kurdish.
Officially,
there is nobody identified as Kurdish in Turkey. Somehow, they do exist in Iran, Syria, and Armenia.
There are
lots of immigrants from Syria since DiyarbakÄąr has a border with Syria and
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most of them stay in Diyarbakir.
His
parents were also immigrants from Syria. I was glad that Ahmed was willing to tell me about the Kurdish people. Some of my Turkish friends refused to talk about it with me. The clock reminded me of time, and I realized we had been talking for four hours.
Ahmed had to leave. We
said goodbye in front of the restaurant and he promised to meet me at my hotel tomorrow morning to show me
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around. Ahmed left his phone number in case I had to reach him. Right when I was happy to have the luck of a free guide, I bumped into an old woman. She was a very old lady and I thought she was blind because her eyes weren’t looking at me when she talked to me.
I said sorry and
with my very limited Turkish, I tried to communicate with her.
I guess she
said something like she lived nearby and she had to go home because her
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grandchildren were waiting for her.
I
accompanied her to her home and found the grandchildren thin and dirty. I said goodbye and I called Ahmed to postpone our date to 2pm.
I had
decided to do something the next morning for the kids and this old lady.
Chapter 3- The encounter
I bought fruits, vegetables, and sweets this morning. People seemed friendlier
and
less
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nervous
now.
Well… at least they talked to me and some even smiled at me. my day.
They made
I then rushed to the old lady
that I bumped in on the streets last night.
I knocked on her door but no
one answered, so I opened the door. “Hello?
Is there anybody home?”
“Who’s that?”
Someone answered
me in English. “Sorry, I’m here looking for an old lady.” From the kitchen emerged a man
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with a glass of water in his hand.
I
told him about the encounter last night.
He was the old lady’s son,
Bera.
He used to work in Istanbul but
no one would hire him because he spoke Turkish with a Kurdish accent. Bera now works as a tour guide who draws customers at random on the streets.
Bera’s family was often
starved because there weren’t many tourists.
I explained my purpose of
coming and showed him what I’d
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bought in the market.
And I could
tell from the tears in his eyes that he was really touched.
I turned my
head away, I didn’t mean to make others cry. But I was happy to give them a hand.
Chapter 4- Still a stranger
I went back to downtown. I noticed some kids were approaching me.
At
first, it was a small group, but then the number soon grew.
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They were
getting close and I was standing here nervously.
Luckily,
I
saw
Ahmed
passing by, so I waved and yelled his name. Those kids escaped right away. “Good timing, you saved me.” I said. “Those kids are violent attackers. They would do everything just to get your money.”
Ahmed told me.
“Thank God you were there!
I was
scared.” “Don’t worry, I’ll always be there for you, Sherry.”
He said the name
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Sherry small but I could still hear that. “Thanks.” I felt a bit odd hearing this. But I said nothing, I didn’t want to talk about his sad past.
I simply told
him that I was looking for postcards for my husband. I didn’t talk much on the way to shops.
Ahmed was
keeping the one-way conversation going for more than 20 minutes. We stopped for the postcards, I missed Chris so much and started to have the idea of going back to Wales. I told
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Ahmed about that and he got mad! didn’t see why.
I
He was so mad that
he didn’t talk when we were walking. I began to feel afraid of this man that I had met only one day ago, and who was actually still a stranger to me. I did not know him, I didn’t even know what he had told me was true.
He
could be dangerous. I guess I showed my fears because he told me not to be worried, he just thought about the past with Sherry, his ex-girlfriend.
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I
tried to comfort him like a sister, also to remind him that the girl and I were totally different. “You gotta seize the day, one cannot always live in the past.”
I said,
trying to sound like an expert. “I know, but I just can’t help myself.” “Did you go to a psychologist for this?” “No, I don’t need it at all.” That was loud. “Alright, calm down.
Why don’t we
go have dinner? It’s on me.”
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“Fine, if you want.” So we went to another restaurant in downtown.
I had Kebab today, I’d
had Kebab in France and it was delicious.
Ahmed didn’t eat, he
drank the beer instead. I dared not to talk to him… After dinner, he was better and I started to talk. He suggested going to the River Tigris at night because the view is very different from what you see during the day. I agreed, I didn’t
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have any plans for that night.
We spent forty minutes walking from the restaurant to the River Tigris.
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It was just amazing at night!
You
can’t imagine how great it was.
I
stood there, imagining the past, Mesopotamia past.
Yeah, the past
that I learnt from history class.
I
never thought I would stand here someday. The Turkish government had made it to a dam.
I was wondering
when I should leave Diyarbakir.
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Chapter 5- Time to leave
Therefore, I decided to leave two weeks after. I spent these two weeks with Ahmed.
All was going good until
I told him about my plan of leaving Diyarbakir. He went crazy and shouting at me saying that I would never leave. scared.
I was completely
I didn’t go back to my hotel,
I went to Bera’s home and he kindly asked me to stay that night. I called
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Chris to tell him about this.
Chris
asked me to leave right away but it was eleven o’clock at night, there was no way I could get leave.
So I
decided to leave the next morning without informing Ahmed.
Chapter 6- It ended in Ankara
I spent twelve hours taking the bus to Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey. Then I went to the hamam, a place where people scrub your back and.
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After having a great shower in hamam, I decided to walk around the city and take notes about where I could visit the next day. I wanted to visit St. Sophia church, the Blue Mosque and the Topkapi Palace. The next morning, I got up early and had a big breakfast in the hotel restaurant. I was full of energy and ready for my adventure. Somehow, it felt like wherever I went, there was someone following me. I was eager to find out
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who that was but I couldn’t. Every time I turned around my head, the person was already gone.
For the
very first time of my life, I feared for something unknown.
On 25th June on
the street of Istanbul, I heard steps approaching me.
Fast steps
reminded me of terrible scenes in movies.
I knew someone was walking
towards me and all of a sudden, the person got my neck and held it so tightly that I couldn’t breathe.
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I was
struggling to breathe, and I wanted to know who that was. I tried hard to get rid of the person but I couldn’t, he was far stronger than I was.
Then I
fell on the ground, I saw it was a man with a hat covered.
He took it off
and said “I can’t bear to see your face anymore, Sherry.” It was Ahmed! It was how I ended my life.
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