Important native terms:
Abba: Father
Bhai: Brother / Cousin brother
Phupho: Father's sister
Taya: Father's big brother
Lehenga: traditional fancy long skirt.
..................She lay on her stomach, propped up on her elbows, with a laptop resting on a pillow. Her face was lit by the screen light. She propped up her chin with one hand while gliding a finger from the other one across the laptop's touch pad.
Long, straight, black hairs were scattered across her back. Her eyes were the same as well. Big, black almond eyes with a shine that rivaled the moon, while her face looked like it was carved out of butter. White, soft, and glowing.
She was busy moving her finger across the touch pad while focusing intently on the screen. A page opened after a click and suddenly her finger stopped moving. The eyes fixed on the screen flashed with a bit of surprise then panic. She immediately clicked some buttons.
Loading…..
She pushed back some strands of hair behind in the same anxious manner while waiting for the page to load. The page loaded after a few seconds. She brought her face near the screen anxiously and the strands of hair again slipped past her shoulder.
Her eyes filled with wonder the longer she read. Her lips parted as her whole body froze in disbelief. It took her a long time to convince herself that what she was reading was true, and the moment her brain caught up to the moment, she sat up with a start.
Her cellphone was on the side table. She reached out to grab her phone and started dialing a number rapidly. The sound of her fingers hitting the buttons caused a stir in the quiet night. She put the phone next to her ear. The bell was ringing on the other side.
"Hello, Zara?" The line might have connected because she exclaimed with barely suppressed joy. "How are you? You weren't asleep, right? It's Haya speaking."
On the other side, her friend was saying something. She stopped to listen for a while and then laughed softly.
"Forget all that Zara! Listen to the big news I have!" Now she was speaking while habitually curling a thick strand of hair around her finger. "And you won't believe it, I know that."
"Oh no, it's not about Dawar Bhai's wedding." she refuted quickly when Zara said something on the other side. "But let's do this, you guess what I'm going to tell you."
She pushed the laptop aside with one hand and arranged the pillow against the bed crown, then leaned on it while straightening her legs. Simultaneously, she kept shaking her head in negation on whatever guesses Zara was making.
"No, absolutely not."
"It's nothing like that."
"No, I'm not getting married."
"Nope, Irum is not as well."
"Seriously Zara, you're only capable of thinking this big. Now listen carefully, do you remember that Erasmus Mundus Exchange Program we applied for? Can you believe it Zara ! European union has selected me for the scholarship?"
From the other side, Zara shrieked so loudly that despite the phone's turned off speaker, her voice resonated throughout the whole room.
"I'm really speaking the truth Zara! I just got the University's mail 15 minutes ago." She reached for the discarded laptop and turned it's face towards herself while moving her head forward to look again carefully.
"Yes, 15 minutes ago, the selection email came at nine-thirty exactly. You check it quickly as well, you applied too, you would have gotten an email as well."
She pressed the button to shut-off the laptop with one hand while holding the phone with the other.
"No, not Spain's Deusto but Sabancı University of Istanbul has selected us and now we are going to Istanbul to study a semester for five months."
As the laptop's screen blackened, she pushed down with one hand to shut it off, then unplugged the cable and put it on the table.
"Yeah, I have seen Sabancı on Internet. It's a very beautiful university but…"
She got quiet for a bit. The other side might have enquired because she replied
"There is only a small problem but we won't tell our families about it." she turned her head to glance towards the closed door while speaking in a low voice. "Actually, there is a ban on the head scarf at Sabancı University. Covering the head is forbidden there. Instead of making our families averse by telling them, just beat around the bush. None of us wear scarves anyway."
Something knocked on the other side of the window at that moment. Startled, she looked towards it. There were heavy curtains drawn over life-sized windows, but the screen behind was open. Perhaps it was paranoia. She shook her head and focused on her phone again.
"Abba never forced me to wear a scarf or to cover, Thank God…. yeah, Irum wears a scarf outside the house, her father, Taya Furqan is a bit strict." Once again leaning against the bed crown, half-reclined, engrossed she began talking again.
"Permission is no problem at all. Abba wouldn't have permitted going to Spain but because Sabeen Phupho resides in Turkey, so he agreed. He has complete faith in his daughter anyways."
Then she listened to her friend's voice coming out of the earpiece for a while. When Zara finished speaking, she shook her head in negation.
"Not tomorrow, Dawar Bhai's Henna is the day after tomorrow, you are coming right?"
"Oh and Irum and I are wearing lehengas."
"All the cousins are very excited, it's the first wedding in the family after all."
"Ok, you go and check your mail now, it's getting late and I should go to sleep as well." Having said the parting words, she moved the phone away from her ear and tossed it on the pillow. Then stood up to go.
Outside, the lounge was shrouded in darkness. Haya slowly closed the door to her room and walked barefoot to the kitchen. In a long black shirt and loose black trousers, her height seemed more elevated.
The kitchen was shrouded in darkness. She stopped near the door and fumbled around for the switch board on the wall. There was a sound of the button getting pressed and all the lights lit up.
She stepped forward to open the fridge door and bent down to take out the water bottle. As she bent down, silky hairs slipped forward from the shoulder.
Haya delicately pushed them back with a finger and straightened after retrieving the bottle, then took a glass from the rack on the counter and poured from the bottle into it.
A stream of water started flowing into it. At that moment, her gaze caught a white object on the counter. She was startled, left the bottle on the counter and went over there.
It was a bouquet of partially bloomed white roses, dotted with green leaves peeking from in between. There was a sealed white envelope beside it.
Haya picked up the bouquet, brought it near her face and inhaled the scent with her eyes closed. The alluring, fresh smell seeped deep within her. The flowers were completely fresh, like they were plucked just moments ago. Who knows, who put them there?
She picked up the sealed envelope and turned it over. Other than the house address there was
"Haya Suleiman"
written above it.
There was no sender address at the back, just the stamp and stickers of the courier service. The date on the stamp was of one day before.
No one had ever sent her flowers like this. What was this about?
Confused, Haya tore open the envelope. There was a thick sheet of paper inside. She put two fingers inside the envelope to catch the paper and pulled it out.
The white paper was blank. There was neither a line nor a design in sight. There were just three words written on the side.
"Welcome to Sabancı"
She was shocked. What kind of joke was it? How did the sender know she was going to Sabancı? The date on the letter was of one day before, however she got the acceptance mail 15 minutes ago. The thing she officially got told 15 minutes ago, how did this person get to know about it a day prior.
If she had not just told Zara about it herself, she would've thought this was her doing and it couldn't have been from Sabancı university because there was a national courier service stamp on it. Then who sent her this?
Lost in thought, she took the bouquet and envelope to her room, leaving the glass full of water on the slab behind.
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