Faza 4

Daniel had been wired when she arrived safely home from dinner, but as soon as her head hit the pillow, she was gone. She dreamed of a group of gigantic grasshoppers, sailor beetles and millipedes playing guitars, a piano and cellos under the canopy of the forest. She sat in the soft grass, her legs tucked under her a lone figure savoring the concerto. Suddenly, the sun hurled itself to the earth and set the trees ablaze. They tore their roots from the soil and started running crying large fat sappy tears. The flying insects took to the sky with their instruments while the millipedes scampered swiftly away. 

Daniel stood in a filmy night gown and lifted her hand against the blaze. Cows and sheep galloped towards her.

"Run away little Daniel!" They bayed and haphazardly split to either side of her. She started to run after them, but they disappeared and she knew not which way to go. Faintly she heard the sound of water and rushed in its direction. A tree aflame shrieked pitifully as it passed, its roots thumping as it beat a path in the darkness. 

"Stop! I hear water. Come this way tree, this way!" She waved her hands around and the tree circled back. "Yes, come! I'll help you." Many more trees followed and she led them to a great river. They jumped in, one after the other, until there were no more flames and she fell to her knees in relief. But the ground began to vibrate. Vibration increased to agitation with the sound of precipitous pounding on the earth. It crescendoed with each impact until it ceased and a form towered over her.

I faint whistle sliced the darkness and the tip of a huge segmented leg pierced the ground a few yards in front of her. It's body began to glow revealing two enormous pedipalps poised wide. The claws hovering like independent beings as they scissored alternately. One wide cobra head swooned from left to right while the other dipped. With fangs exposed it hissed, four eyes trained on Daniel. Something glistened over head and she realized it was the enormous telson of a scorpion. At the sting, a sol drop of venom glistened pristine. It stealthily retracted and she realized, she was going to die.

But not before the large being bobbed around involuntarily to the polka...

Daniel had sprang out of bed, literally and subsequently collided with the floor. Two morning DJs hooted and yawped blowing bazookas to the polka on the radio.

"La la-la-la, buerrrrrpop! Good morning Putra it is great to be alive! And what a morning we've got planned for ya..."

~~

No, concentration was very hard under these circumstances because Romania reminded her of Adonia and Adonia reminded her of the Öküz family dinner. The Öküz family dinner reminded her of her nightmare and that freaked the hell out of her. It was too realistic. She could still remember the feelings, see every little detail. She needed to get out of the dip in the Danube and she had to have a talk with someone.

That someone was Faza.

Daniel didn't bother to lock her bicycle. Old town had zero crime. No purse snatching, pick pocketing or mugging. No black market existed nor fraudulent merchants or kiosks. Everyone who practiced business in old town was from the old town, they called them the "first fathers." Up the kickstand went and it was settled in front of the display window of The Human Story. She did however, pause before entering the business. She hadn't really thought it all through, just hightailed it here while she still possessed the nerve.

The door swung open on its own with a light jingling.

"For how long do you plan on standing in front of my door Daniel?" The blustery voice asked, but it wasn't a question. Daniel took in the familiar head full with white hair and bushy brow. 

"Just sorting a few things out." She charged in. The door jingled closed behind her.

"Questions about my book." He announced.

"No, about why the whole house fell silent and everyone started treating me like I was insane when I mentioned your name?"

"I don't follow." The bushy eyebrows sat low and he blinked a few times.

"At the Öküz home."

"You went there?"

"You told me to go." She countered aghast.

"No, I did not," a think finger thrust up in the air as he walked past, "but this is interesting."

"Inter..."

"How did you find it?" He spun unexpectedly. "The estate I mean."

"Beautiful Faza, absolutely breathtaking in every way." Her soft smile disappeared as she remembered, "but that's not why I'm here,"

His did too, "of course not." He continued walking and started up the stairs. "Who did you meet first?"

Daniel watched his retreating form and growled as she followed. "Kurt. Faza..."

"Kurt?" He stopped on the landing.

"Yes Kurtar..."

"Kurtarıcı!" His laughter bounced off the old walls in the confined space. Daniel had to cover her ears. He bound up the steps again, "we call him Tawny."

"But that's a bit girly for me." She bounced along, "I mean, I totally intend to taunt him with it forever...no I don't." She realized he had turned down a hall and followed.

"Why not?"

"Because I never intend to see him again." They were now in a front room. Three windows opened out to the street and pedestrians bellow. Each held a window box filled with flowers. Books sat in every available wall space. A vase rested on a small table that contained fresh cut flowers, the watering container was on the floor nearby. Two antique love seats graced the middle of the cherrywood floor. They faced one another separated by a coffee table. An easel supported a vibrant pencil drawing of a woman looking up engagingly. Most prominent was her upturned face in an excellent three point perspective.

Daniel could almost feel the wind tickling her hair and the warm sun lighting her face. It was masterfully done.

"My wife. Coffee or tea my dear?"

"Tea, thank you." Daniel murmured. At the bottom of the drawing was written 'The day I fell in love.' It was signed in a signature she couldn't read and the year, 1966. When she moved in closer she could make out a reflection in the woman's eyes. If she wasn't mistaken, "Faza."

"Yes?" He clattered in supporting a tray with a teapot, brown sugar, milk, two cups with saucers and a small plate containing an assortment of sweets.

Daniel pointed, "is that a doily?"

"Yes, my dear. What's proper never goes out of fashion." He looked at her pointedly before setting it down and pouring tea. He handed Daniel her cup and saucer. "As you like." He began to settle himself and condiment his own cup. "Who did you meet next?"

"Mir."

"And then?"

"Nana, Faza why do you get to ask all the questions?"

He sat forward, "did you meet his father?"

"Sevgili, yes. He was very nice in an intimidating kind of way, but..." She fell silent.

"He is the patriarch of one of the three families, what did you expect?" He bit into a hazelnut tort.

"More arrogance and condescension I suppose." Daniel continued to examine her tea.

"Have a tort."

"Don't mind if I do." She moaned as the flavor rolled over her tongue.

Faza allowed her to relish it a bit before asking, "but?"

"I don't know." She sighed with exasperation. "He's a magnificent specimen of something I don't understand."

Faza allowed an artful pause, "and why won't you see him again?" He regarded her through his brows.

"Who? Sevgili?"

"Kurtarıcı, my dear. You said you had no intentions of ever seeing him again."

"Because there is something going on and it's freaking me out." She took a sip of tea and placed it on the table. "Who are you and why do you keep talking to me?"

"Do you want me to stop?" He blinked confused.

Daniel heaved a heavy sigh, "Faza please, I saw that stupid copper inlaid depiction, it's too damn dark at night on that property than is healthy and the two headed scorpion beast tried to kill me."

"Where?" His question was instantaneous.

"In my dream the night of the...what do you mean where?" Daniel's eyes rounded.

"Sorry," Faza held up his hand, "I meant when." Daniel relaxed. "I see it didn't succeed." His face mirthful.

"It was distracted by the polka." She slid her hands down her face. When she looked at Faza, he looked away. "That. Right. There. That's what I'm talking about. Now you think I'm crazy."

"No I do not." He looked back at her and smiled. "Insan hikayesi has freaked people out for centuries. How presumptuous of you."

"No, I didn't mean it that way."

"So you have a nightmare after seeing it and spending an unusual evening with one of our most distinguished families," he waved it all away with the flick of the wrist, "you lost me at the polka."

"My alarm. If the radio hadn't sounded it would have killed me." She pouted.

"Have a fruit tart."

"Don't mind if I do." She reached for it without hesitation and took a bite.

"In your dream it was stopped by the polka?" He ran the pad of his thumb over the nail tips of his four fingers.

"Correct. It's started moving around to the polka. It didn't seem happy about it either." Daniel eyed him as she sipped her tea, "Are you taking mental notes?"

"Do be serious, I'm showing interest. How did you and dinner come about?"

"Mir invited me after I destroyed the happy lunch atmosphere." She rolled her eyes.

He ducked his head forward, "happy lunch...?"

"Adonia, we clashed. She called me 'that' and attacked my choices in life and I called her a cheap undignified pompous shrew." Faza's laughter actually made her jump about a foot in the air.

"Priceless!" She held tightly to her tea cup as he laughed. "If she had her way and married into the family it would be disastrous."

"You think she won't?"

"Who knows. Dogan, Kurtarıcı's brother has no fire and doesn't appear to want to ignite one." He sighed. "Listen my dear, if you have another opportunity you must explore it. Avoiding aberrant situations is..."

"What black folk call, self preservation."

He rolled his eyes, "is not how a self proclaimed connoisseur of the human story proceeds. As long as everyone and everything fits in neat little boxes, we learn nothing. It is only when we dare to explore what's outside the box does the human story truly come to light." 

Daniel sat mesmerized for a moment. She really hated it when her instincts conflicted. What exactly was she suppose to find out? "Are you saying that the Öküz are outside the box?"

"My dear Bağlılık and all things pertaining to it have never been inside the box." He spread is arms, "why do you think I am here?" Somewhere a clock ticked and traces of the violin drifted along on the breeze. Daniel looked at the drawing of Faza's wife.

"Did you draw that Faza?" She pointed toward the easel.

His face took on a soft wistful look, "unfortunately not. She did, it was how she confessed her love to me. I was very dashing in those days."

"She drew you reflected in her eyes." Daniel got up and rounding the table sat down beside Faza.

"I was all she could ever see. She went to the Center for the Arts here you know. As gifted a Bağlıca as ever lived." Daniel watched him as he spoke and wondered about their story. When he turned and leveled his gaze on her she smiled and lightly tugged his collar.

"I don't know Faza, you still strike a gallant figure to me." He blushed. "Why do you talk to me and invite me into your private spaces when you don't do so for others?"

"Because we are after the same thing my dear. And you are welcome to come by anytime you wish."

~~

Three rounds and no decisions. Where had she heard that? It's how she felt about her talk with Faza a few days ago. Daniel now lay on her floor in her homestay. The bright Sunday morning sun bathing her in its soft glow. Three rounds and no decisions. Should she go to the Danube or not? Were they anymore than a lively ridiculously wealthy family? It might be interesting to observe rich people enjoy their riceza. Maybe they will have forgotten her. Three rounds and no decisions.

She hadn't given directions or even told them where she lived. They had not exchanged cell numbers either. How could Vida possibly know where she was? No, it was just a polite way to end the evening. Daniel sat up. She reached for her tablet and slid Faza's book off the desk instead. Her fingers glided over the heavy copper seal imbedded in the leather cover.

The Three Princes

Contents:

Vulpe 

Primul

Öküz

Yalnız

Daniel had skimmed through the Vulpe section a few days ago. The earliest Vulpe was a strategists from the region of Romania who a Sultan from modern day Turkey came to love very much. In an act of friendship and high regard, Vulpe was given land and people to cultivate and help protect it. The land Vuple called Bağlılık which in Turkish means loyalty. It was a trait he and the Sultan shared until the great mans death. Vulpe's loyalty applied as well to his son who became Sultan after him. Bağlılık's ties through the years with Turkey have remained peaceful down to the present and explain the strong Turkish influence on the county.

It was a singular story.

She flipped to the last section: Yalnız. Turkish meaning alone or lonely. A solitary figure in Bağlılık lore who battled great evils to protect what he loved most. He represents the human struggle between good and evil, the plight of the underdog and the power of love and loyalty. He is in the heart of every Bağlıcau.

Daniel flipped a few more pages and froze. There artfully drawn was the scorpion creature from her dream. Every detail coincided with what she remembered. From the two heads to the pedipalps even the faint coloring. It was all there. She stared at it until her eyes watered then blinked and whispered, "Faza you..."

"Daniel! Oh there you are." Voda stood in a cotton dress looking confused, "Daniel, you don't look ready at all."