Your Grace - Burak Çelik

CHAPTER 21

A month later, Ayedah found herself waiting to board a plane at Istanbul Airport; it was nighttime, but Ayedah and the rest of the travellers from set had to take a Virus Testing each earlier after dawn so they would be able to travel. Luckily, they all turned out to be tested negative for any virus, meaning there would be no extra complications. They had been quarantined separately whilst they waited for results, and when they were released they hung around the airport whilst they waited to board their flight that was scheduled to depart later on at night; it had to be later on due to travel restrictions, even though it was a private flight. They weren't all together at the same time, but made sure to keep in communication in case Mehmet called them to gather round.

Ayedah, who enjoyed looking at airplanes, spent a few hours by herself at the windows to watch them take off from the airport runways. She had her favorite leather notebook out, and jotted down anything she was inspired to write as she watched the large jumbo jets and streamlined planes take flight into the sky. Her eyes admired how they would grow smaller and smaller as they flew further and further away till they would look like mere birds; her brain thought up creative metaphors to use in the future for her books and projects as it processed what was in view. There were not many, of course, due to the travel restrictions- but Ayedah found that more comforting and discovered that it was easier to focus on them when there were not so many of them taking off and taxiing on the runway all at once.

Afterwards, she had stolen away to Melike Sultan Pharmacy to see if they had her mood-stabilizer pills, for she was running out- the last thing she needed was to have or start a Bipolar episode during the trip. She had kicked herself for forgetting to visit the pharmacy in town earlier, but thankfully the pharmacy at the airport did indeed have what she needed. She added a small bottle of Melatonin gummies to help her sleep throughout the flight and to control the jet-lag; she knew from past occurrences that if she allowed herself to succumb to the terrors of jet-lag, her mental health would be all over the place with the exhaustion her brain would experience.

Ayedah made sure no one saw her at the pharmacy again, remembering how Burak nearly caught her buying her pills the last time. She wasn't ready to share her disorder with him, or any of the acquaintances she'd made on set or cast members she was friendly with, not even her boss. She was afraid to be judged for it, and maybe be at risk for losing her job. So she continued to do what she had done for the past ten years; stick to her medication without slipping, and never let the truth out. She had been apprehensive at first, but was glad that neither Ozge nor her aunt had recommended sharing it; she was grateful that they were respectful of her values and privacy, knowing that she would be uncomfortable in doing so. Nevertheless, she did not have much to be worried about even if she was still insecure about it- she hadn't experienced symptoms in a long time, even if there was a spot of depression and anxiety here and there. Her original plan for it was going steady.

After Ayedah got bored of watching planes, she looked around to see if there were any shops in duty-free that sold books; she thought that perhaps she could start on something new on the flight and in her spare time when they arrived. It was a habit of hers, to read a new book whenever she would travel. She enjoyed the combined adrenaline of reading a new text and travelling, it would almost always take any extra stress or anxiety weighing on the back of her mind off as she journeyed.

She eventually found a small section for fiction books in one of the stores, and began to browse around. She looked at her watch; it was still a little under an hour before she had to return to the group's designated rendezvous point, a cafe near the boarding area, which was not far from where she was. She had time. "Okay now, which one of you shall I read today, eh?" she wondered aloud in a soft voice, her eyes narrowed as she scoured through the book spines, looking at their titles. She realized that many of them she had already read, and she was looking for something new. She continued searching, and before long, someone had joined her.