Soft Islam

"...six Lira for a cup of coffee? you have to be kidding me?"

I looked down at the black swamp water hoping to see a redeeming attribute within the tiny esspresso cup.

"And 20 Lira for a martini!?" The menu did not lie. I was far from home but my Canadian Dollar was slighty better than the Turkish Lira. "What is this place and why did you take me here? I'm a broke traveller for christ's sake"

Once again, I looked down at my fumbling hands instantly recognizing each and every common feature from wrist to cuticle. The conversation was still. We had hit a natrual plateau where commonality meets comfort. All that we heard was the natural drone of life; cutlery touching diningware, running water, foot steps and foreign tongues. I looked up to see if she was still there, sitting three feet across from me. Sure enough she was sitting right before my eyes.

She was a high school friend caught between two homes that could not accomodate to her ideal standard of living. She had ping-ponged from Vancouver to Istanbul trying to find that middle way of life suspended between the swath of traditionalism and the "I don't give a shit" fotune of individualism.

As for me... I was lost within this new realm. I was still getting use to the six A.M. mosque calls and the 24 hour trains across backward boarders.
All I could think about was how much I needed this girl to be right where she was sitting. After being alone for so long I needed this moment of clairty to wake me up from months of silence. This a new feeling, like pure white energy surging through my veins, charing my soul. It was a feeling can only be describe as not quite love but more innocent than the usual kind of manufactured lust. All I needed was to be there.

"This might seem like a silly question," I said as I looked back down at the cup of coffee cradled within my hands, "but what's the first thing you are going to do when you get back to Vancouver?"

She paused, looked off towards the Bosphorous Bridge spanning the strait, and breathed out a desperate laugh.

"Sushi," she answered. "Definately sushi."

We were no longer alone. We were two confused kids tangled up in someone's reality....