Read Online Many and Many a Year Ago by Selcuk Altun - Free Book Online
Authors: Selcuk Altun
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the good professor, I asked to be excused. I got the spare key from Aunt Cevher and rushed back to my apartment, where I immediately cancelled my credit cards. After a long hot shower I called the locksmith and watched while he changed the locks. Then I slept for two hours listening to Mozart sonatas. I got up and went to Le Cave in Cihangir, where I bought two bottles of good imported wine. The professor welcomed me in his red apron. His living room was filled with the music of Nat King Cole and the aroma of fresh warm butter. The professor set a good table. He smiled at the two bottles of wine and I felt a bit embarrassed. The food was perfect and the service impeccable, yet I sensed he wasnât fond of praise. My respect for my neighbor was growing with every sip I took. Summarizing my life story for himâwith the exception of being underwritten by Suatâreleased a good deal of my negative energy.
âMay I ask whether the lovely lady in these photographs was your ⦠wife?â I said while opening the second bottle.
âYou can decide for yourself what she was to me,â he replied, staring for a while at the picture on the wall furthest from him. âI went to the Robert College School of Engineering in 1959. That was the year the engineering school first accepted girls, as I was to learn from Esther Ventura, who was standing behind me in the registration line.
ââLet me buy you lunch,â she said. âJust to be nice.â
âFrom that moment we became, like the poet said, two halves of one apple. We were hardly apart until the day we graduated. Since there was no girlsâ dormitory on campus in those days, she lived in a wooden house in neighboring Hisar with her friend Suna. It was a thrill for me to walk her home in the cool of the night after a long study session at the library.
âShe was a spirited girl with a great sense of humor. Maybe she wasnât the most beautiful girl at the college, but she was the most popular. As she was a chemistry major, we didnât have all that many classes together. At class breaks I would meet her in front of Hamlin Hall. She would spot me from 300 yards away and start running toward me, yelling âAaa-liii,â and it would feel like a curtain of fog was lifting from my eyes. But it was also a little embarrassing because I imagined the eyes of the whole campus on us as she threw her arms around my neck. We were considered a model couple by the other students. They knew what time weâd be going to which canteen and would save our favorite table for us. Esther always had a greeting for everybody and a joke for the waiters.
âWe never fought, and only once did I have to lay down the law to her. It was after our first-year finals. She made a proposal that shocked meâshe wanted us to show up in swimsuits and dive into the Bosphorus in front of the Bebek gate of the campus. Of course I was angry when I realized she wasnât joking.
ââThen Iâll do it on my own,â she said.
ââLook,â I said. âIf you go swimming in a place where even the drunks donât dare to fall in, youâll not only cause a traffic jam, but youâll be known as the crazy lady of the school. I canât let you go down in Bosphorus history like that.â I walked away and left her sitting on the bench.
âNext day, at the time of the morning
ezan
, the windows on the tennis-court side of the menâs dormitory were full of boys craning their necks to see what was going on. It was Esther. She was at the front door yelling my name at the top of her lungs. I knew she wouldnât stop until I went down.
ââWhatâs all this?â I said.
ââI couldnât sleep. What would you have done if Iâd dived in?â she said.
ââI donât know, I might have transferred to Middle East Technical in Ankara,â I said.
âQuick as a shot she hooked
âMay I ask whether the lovely lady in these photographs was your ⦠wife?â I said while opening the second bottle.
âYou can decide for yourself what she was to me,â he replied, staring for a while at the picture on the wall furthest from him. âI went to the Robert College School of Engineering in 1959. That was the year the engineering school first accepted girls, as I was to learn from Esther Ventura, who was standing behind me in the registration line.
ââLet me buy you lunch,â she said. âJust to be nice.â
âFrom that moment we became, like the poet said, two halves of one apple. We were hardly apart until the day we graduated. Since there was no girlsâ dormitory on campus in those days, she lived in a wooden house in neighboring Hisar with her friend Suna. It was a thrill for me to walk her home in the cool of the night after a long study session at the library.
âShe was a spirited girl with a great sense of humor. Maybe she wasnât the most beautiful girl at the college, but she was the most popular. As she was a chemistry major, we didnât have all that many classes together. At class breaks I would meet her in front of Hamlin Hall. She would spot me from 300 yards away and start running toward me, yelling âAaa-liii,â and it would feel like a curtain of fog was lifting from my eyes. But it was also a little embarrassing because I imagined the eyes of the whole campus on us as she threw her arms around my neck. We were considered a model couple by the other students. They knew what time weâd be going to which canteen and would save our favorite table for us. Esther always had a greeting for everybody and a joke for the waiters.
âWe never fought, and only once did I have to lay down the law to her. It was after our first-year finals. She made a proposal that shocked meâshe wanted us to show up in swimsuits and dive into the Bosphorus in front of the Bebek gate of the campus. Of course I was angry when I realized she wasnât joking.
ââThen Iâll do it on my own,â she said.
ââLook,â I said. âIf you go swimming in a place where even the drunks donât dare to fall in, youâll not only cause a traffic jam, but youâll be known as the crazy lady of the school. I canât let you go down in Bosphorus history like that.â I walked away and left her sitting on the bench.
âNext day, at the time of the morning
ezan
, the windows on the tennis-court side of the menâs dormitory were full of boys craning their necks to see what was going on. It was Esther. She was at the front door yelling my name at the top of her lungs. I knew she wouldnât stop until I went down.
ââWhatâs all this?â I said.
ââI couldnât sleep. What would you have done if Iâd dived in?â she said.
ââI donât know, I might have transferred to Middle East Technical in Ankara,â I said.
âQuick as a shot she hooked
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