Mert grumbled to himself while looking for a handhold on the overcrowded bus. "Enough of this shit! I'm working like crazy, morning to night, and I still can't please anyone! I'm sick of this stress, I'm sick of this traffic, I'm sick of these scams!" With only a few classes remaining until his graduation, he had barely even been able to find opportunities for technician jobs at construction companies. He was too angry to realize that he was perpetuating his own bad mood with these thoughts, but he was on his way to meet the only person who could resolve his situation.
The bus was approaching its stops in Taksim. This part of Istanbul was always crowded, but at least seven or eight thousand people were gathered this day to protest the hydroelectric power plants being built in Turkey's Black Sea region. The banners carried by some activists, with photographs of the region before and after construction, revealed the extent of the forest's destruction.
As soon as he saw blue eyes sparkling in the crowd, Mert felt his anger subsiding; only a slight flaring of his nostrils remained. It was his girlfriend Tuba; Mert was proud of his sweetheart, with her pure beauty, intelligence, and success…although she also couldn't find the type of job she wanted after having successfully graduated from an economics department. Mert loved the thought that thousands of men were looking at her but she was smiling at him alone; it was a real confidence booster. Having found her quickly in the crowd, he kissed her a little possessively. In her sweet voice, Tuba asked: "Mert, what's up?"
"I'm just down. It's all the same usual stuff."
They kept quiet, both as if to suggest that they should talk later; it was hard to communicate in the noise of the crowd. Around them, people held banners proclaiming, "If you build a plant, we'll tear it down" and "This water will never be stopped." After listening to the press statement, Tuba and Mert separated from the crowd and went to eat at a corner restaurant.
"Let's get out of this city!" exclaimed Tuba, as the waitress, tired of her own long working hours, sat their meals on the table without enthusiasm. Mert's heart filled with joy. This turmoil, this system that made life unlivable, bad food, inflated rent, a lifetime of working unwanted jobs… Their potential was being wasted. They had to take buses to go out to protest the new world order, financing the diesel that was being burnt. The children they saw on the news, homeless, motherless, fatherless because of wars, were in that state precisely so that people like Mert and Tuba could go home and use too much electricity. Feeding the same things that they protested was a vicious circle and both of them had begun to detest being a part of this order. Mert looked lovingly into her blue eyes. It was hard to find a companion to share the burdens of life with among such crowds of people, but they had succeeded.
It was already eleven at night when they got home. They were tired; they went to bed without talking again about the idea of leaving Istanbul. Before he fell asleep, Mert reminisced about their first meeting. The beautiful girl he had met on his trip to the Aegean in his sophomore year. It wasn't love at first sight. Mert's face was always sullen back then; he was more indifferent to the outside world than today. But in their few days together, they had fun, they got drunk, and they decided to continue on together to the Mediterranean and the ancient city of Olympos with their friends Kenan and Betül. Mert held Tuba's hand for the first time along the way.
The dirt road winding through the forest in Olympos was cool under the shade of the pine trees. Cheerful voices of travelers in bungalow hostels mixed with laughter while the coolness of the night mixed with the sounds of music. The forest road was connected to the beach, covered in the gravel of different shades of gray, next to a stream that would soon meet the sea. For those who dared leave the main road, the ruins of ancient Olympos suddenly appeared with large and small waterfalls. Its flaming stones, with small fires burning constantly from vents along the side of the mountain, were suggestive of doors opening onto a mysterious journey.
The second day after their arrival, they sat chatting in a gazebo for hours and then listened to music around the campfire later into the night. When the guitar being passed around the circle reached Mert, he started playing a song that no one had ever heard before. The lyrics mentioned the name "Tuba." Tuba couldn't stop herself from asking: "Is this song new? Who sings it?"
"I sing it." When Tuba couldn't resist hugging Mert, her real songs began. Their emotions intensified all the more as the others around the campfire whistled and applauded for them. As campers retreated one by one to the bungalows, Mert and Tuba remained by the fire until they were alone, wishing time would stop. They both felt as if they had found their missing pieces. Lying side by side on the pebbles, gazing up at the stars shining above them, they fell in love with a devotion that would permeate their very cells.
To be continued...
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