Divulging Remorse ✔

Chapter 22

An old aged couple trudged their way up into the ferry, limping their way on the narrow aisle. The lady had a floral mauve scarf on, which was tied around her face and was knotted under her chin. It was hiding most of the sides of her already thin face, small glasses curved tightly on the bridge of her nose. She wore a loose black skirt and a big beige blouse ending to her knees.

The old man had a ruffled fringe of grey-white hair around his balding, speckled scalp. He had round-framed glasses on his gnarled face and a back slightly hunched with a walking stick in one hand and his lady's hand in another. Dressed in a checkered blue shirt and black pants with suspenders to keep them together, he seemed to look well-built for his age. but apparently he was quite old; about eight decades.

A friendly attendant took their boarding passes and showed them their seats down the corridor in the corner. 

"Can we have a seat near the door? Makes it easier for us to get going," The old man said in a  croaky voice. 

The attendant immediately agreed, "Sure." 

She sat by the window, he took a seat beside her. The entrance was right in front of them and he looked around over the rim of his thick glasses, passengers shuffled in, filling in the array of seats from back to front in sequence. He closely looked at every man or woman who passed by him. 

Once the seats were full, the door closed and the captain's adenoidal announcement came on, "Ladies and gentlemen, we the crew of ErTurk Lines welcome you on board. Our destination would take about three hours and we'll sail for twenty-mph. Hope you have a pleasant cruise. Thankyou!"

The woman started to doze off when the ferry caught speed, while the man peeked out of the window, his gaze reaching to the far off horizon. The blazing chroma of the sun melted into both the deep blue abundances. He watched the waves overlapping one another as the craft sailed forward.

Her head kept bobbing out of its balance as she napped with her mouth slightly open. He gently rested it on his shoulder, putting an arm behind her to lean comfortably back and get some rest himself. 

A girl in her teens, seated two rows behind heaved a sigh of envy and thought that how could the oldies love unconditionally the same person for years?

Irony had a crazy laugh because neither were they old nor were married for long. 

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Dusk was falling, the sun sank lower in the sky and the day's warmth had ebbed to a cool breeze that blew their faces through the rolled down windows. Their taxi moved among cars, people, buses and trains as it sped towards the Bosphorus Bridge. It was the pride of the nation, arching elegantly over the clear blue river, a solid structure that resisted gravity. Seen from over the hills standing in the silhouette, it was a sign of home to all that lived and loved the capital. At first glance, the river seemed serene and peaceful, but underneath the surface were somewhat rough currents that would whiz away anyone who dared touch it.  This bridge also divided the two worlds; the East and the West and they headed where their roots pulled them.

Istanbul rolled past below now that they were up on the bridge, the hills filled to bursting with mankind. Historic stonework palaces and domed mosques trampled against modern skyscrapers, some rising up to seventy stories tall. Two narrow rivulets of emerald water carved the city into three parts, and a quiet sea stretched away to the south, studded with countless merchant ships under steam and sail, flaring a dozen different flags.

With turns into narrow lanes and spinning around to the old part of the city, the taxi halted in front of a small local motel that had somehow managed to elbow its way between a converted warehouse and a block of apartments.