The Flight

6. Evim*

Happiness is sometimes

Hidden in the unknown.

Victor Hugo.

Can

This year, winter seems to have no desire to take off its white coat. Temperatures remain icy and despite the passing of time the pavements are tirelessly covered with cotton. It's beautiful but it's far from practical in the frenetic traffic of Istanbul. I am wasting an insane amount of time when I should have already arrived at my destination. I have to pick up Sanem at the fitness center where she's taking her classes for pregnant women. She thinks we're going home wherever I take her for dinner but I have a surprise that I've been planning for several weeks. Today is Valentine's Day, the day for lovers and I'm not the kind of person who follows conventions. No, no candlelight dinner, red roses, and, in view of her state of pregnancy, even less champagne. No, I have many other ideas in mind to celebrate my lover. But that doesn't stop me from being nervous. The closer the moment approaches, the more I wonder if she'll really be delighted to find out what I have in store for her. I have put my heart and soul into it and I hope she will join this project, it's so important to me. And then, no matter how much I prospected, no other project fulfilled our expectations.

Finally, I see her, wrapped in a long creamy coat that can no longer hide her shapes. Her dark hair twirls under a matching cap and in the faint glow at the end of the day, she's radiant. I park the car by the pavement and rush out, eager to hug her. It's barely seven o'clock and I'm already missing my wife. I never thought being in love would make me so dependent on someone and her pregnancy makes me even crazier when she's away from me for too long. The protective instinct certainly. I go crazy imagining that something could happen to her and that I'm not there to protect her.

She hasn't yet detected my presence, too absorbed by her discussion with Leïla, whom I am surprised to see. When she sees me, her smile becomes even bigger.

"Can!"

I hardly have the time to answer her that a chaste kiss comes to seal our lips. I believe that the lack is reciprocal and I am satisfied, saying hello to Leila at the same time.

"I didn't know you would be here?"

"Emre dropped Hayden off to mum in the early afternoon, with her colic I needed to relax a bit! And to see my sister!"

"Perfect."

Sanem looks at me, a strange pout on his lips.

"What's going on, my darling?"

She seems to hesitate before answering me.

"It was my last class. The coach spoke with the doctor and they agreed on breathing exercises and gentle exercise but I have to preserve my perineum."

"Look on the bright side, you'll be able to concentrate on decorating baby's rooms. I'm sure the time will pass quickly."

"Which decoration? We haven't even found the place yet! Not to mention that I'm going to be a big whale!"

I can't help but look up at the sky. Sanem has never been attached to appearances. And she will never become a big whale. At three months from giving birth she has magnificent shapes, a face that exudes happiness and joy of life and a fishing that is unfailing. I have never seen her so full of projects and ideas. Over the last few weeks she has taken the full measure of what awaits us with three babies and despite this, she repeats to anyone who will listen that we're going to make it. At her sister's side, she is learning the gestures of a mother, the mistakes not to make, and the inevitable crying fits that should not be experienced as tears but as a means of communication and release from tension. From time to time she gets anxious and then, with a lot of philosophy, she reasons by trumpeting that there will be hard moments, but that we are so well surrounded, that it will only be a few complicated moments to pass.