FATAL JOURNEY

By: Jercy Yang

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Words Checked: 2333

Words in Oxford 3000: 95%

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Contents:

About the Author………………………4

Preface..............................5

Chapter 1- The Beginning…………7

Chapter 2- Kurdish Surprise…….10

Chapter 3- The Encounter………21

Chapter 4- Still a stranger……..24

Chapter 5- Time to leave………..32

Chapter 6- It ended in Ankara..33

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About The Author

Jercy Yang, who’s going to be 19

years in June, is a girl who daydreams

much. She dreams to have a German

husband and a house by the lake.

She dreams to be a global traveler

with her mates. But she doesn’t

dream to be a writer. Here it is a

novel written with her kinky

imagination. Hope you’ll enjoy it.

Peace.

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Preface

Her name is Sue Preece, a

37-year-old woman happily married

with Chris Preece. She has just quit

her job as a journalist because she’s

tired of all those competing

colleagues and she wants to

experience the life while she’s still

alive. By traveling.

There are five members in the

family. The husband, Chris Preece,

40 years old, and two sons, Steven,

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who is going to the junior school and

Joel, who’s in an elementary school.

The last member is their dog, JuJu.

JuJu has been part of the family for

three years since Steven found her on

the street.

Her journey starts …

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Chapter 1- The beginning

One evening after dinner, while we

were taking a walk, I told Chris about

my idea of traveling alone.

“How are we going to do this

separately?” asked Chris.

“Hey come on… it’s going to be really

interesting. Think about this, we are

in different countries missing each

other. How romantic!” I said.

“That’s rather cliché for me.”

We burst out laughing. You know,

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he’s just too realistic sometimes.

For him, I dream too much.

I knew Chris was furious about my

decision of traveling without him. But

at last I won, I convinced him and it

took me only five hours! There’s no

denying that family is important to me,

but Chris knows me well. He knows

what I want. He decided to stay

home and take care of our sons so that

I can travel without any worries. I

really appreciated that.

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“Thanks for always supporting me...”

I kissed my family goodbye in the

airport and started off for my journey.

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Chapter 2- Kurdish Surprise

My first destination is Diyarbakir,

Turkey. It is situated in southeastern

Turkey, on the banks of the Tigris River.

Two languages are spoken here,

Turkish and Kurdish. I’ve always

wanted to visit there because of the

Kurdish people and the famous Tigris

River. It took me three hours to get

there from Urfa. The bus stopped at

several check points, soldiers armed

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with guns got on the bus from the

front and rear doors checking our

passports or IDs. The atmosphere

was quite tense. It was the daily

routine, because there were rallies

going on here everyday.

Finally, I arrived in Diyarbakir at six

in the morning. It was a cold day for

June. I left my bags in the hotel

and started to wander in the town

with my camera. It was crowded in

the downtown. Women together

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with children and friends. I guess

there are barely foreigners or

tourists in Diyarbakir because they

were all glancing at me as if I were

from Mars. I was looking for post

cards to send Chris and let him know

where and how I am. In the end, I

gave up searching for post cards.

People were nervous when they see

me and they were not willing to talk

to me. It wasn’t until another

visitor told me about the rally that I

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understood why. There was a rally

of PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party).

Anyone who was found talking with

foreigners would be considered

suspicious and get caught. I

supposed I would be experiencing it

again as I planned to stay in

Diyarbakir for a few months. A man

approached me when I stopped at a

fruit shop.

“Where are you from?” he asked.

“Wales, why?”

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“Are you here for tourism?” He spoke

with a tone of doubt and

unfriendliness.

“What else could I do here?” I tried

not to seem weak.

The conversation kept going like this

until he said…

“Sorry, it was my fault. I thought you

were my ex-girlfriend. You look just

like her! I’m really sorry.”

Oh my, I am already 37 years old!

This young man is less than 25 years

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old. An apology he offered was to

be my guide. I thought for a

minute, but since I know almost

nothing about Diyarbakir and

Kurdish, I agreed happily.

He introduced himself as a 28-year

interior designer, his name is Ahmed.

He just got back from England a few

months ago where he worked there as

an apprentice of a famous interior

designer. That was why he spoke

great English. Then he told me about

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this Irish girl he dated who left him for

another rich guy. I could see the

hate in his eyes so I tried not to talk

about that any more. Then Ahmed

asked questions about me.

“I’m 37 years old and I’m married. I

have two sons, Steven and Joel. Oh,

and our dog, JuJu. I was a journalist

but I just quit three months ago. I

want to travel, to experience the life

when I’m still alive.” I answered.

“That’s good. How long do you plan

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to stay here?” Ahmed asked.

“I don’t know, maybe for a few

months. It depends on me, I don’t

really have a schedule. But I know

what I’m going to do right now…

Hunt for food!” I laughed.

Ahmed took me to a Kurdish

restaurant and we ordered Lahmacun

and raw meat. Lahmacun is made

with dough, bestial oil and with meat

on it. It’s something like really thin

pizza and it is quite tasty. As for raw

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meat, it’s another popular Kurdish

dish. It was served with green salad

and lemon, and it was also delicious.

I loved Kurdish dishes ever since then.

Ahmed was Kurdish and he told me

it was forbidden to have anything

published in Kurdish. Officially,

there is nobody identified as Kurdish

in Turkey. Somehow, they do exist in

Iran, Syria, and Armenia. There are

lots of immigrants from Syria since

Diyarbakır has a border with Syria and

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most of them stay in Diyarbakir. His

parents were also immigrants from

Syria. I was glad that Ahmed was

willing to tell me about the Kurdish

people. Some of my Turkish friends

refused to talk about it with me.

The clock reminded me of time, and I

realized we had been talking for four

hours. Ahmed had to leave. We

said goodbye in front of the restaurant

and he promised to meet me at my

hotel tomorrow morning to show me

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around. Ahmed left his phone number

in case I had to reach him.

Right when I was happy to have the

luck of a free guide, I bumped into an

old woman. She was a very old lady

and I thought she was blind because

her eyes weren’t looking at me when

she talked to me. I said sorry and

with my very limited Turkish, I tried to

communicate with her. I guess she

said something like she lived nearby

and she had to go home because her

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grandchildren were waiting for her. I

accompanied her to her home and

found the grandchildren thin and dirty.

I said goodbye and I called Ahmed to

postpone our date to 2pm. I had

decided to do something the next

morning for the kids and this old lady.

Chapter 3- The encounter

I bought fruits, vegetables, and

sweets this morning. People seemed

friendlier and less nervous now.

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Well… at least they talked to me and

some even smiled at me. They made

my day. I then rushed to the old lady

that I bumped in on the streets last

night. I knocked on her door but no

one answered, so I opened the door.

“Hello? Is there anybody home?”

“Who’s that?” Someone answered

me in English.

“Sorry, I’m here looking for an old

lady.”

From the kitchen emerged a man

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with a glass of water in his hand. I

told him about the encounter last

night. He was the old lady’s son,

Bera. He used to work in Istanbul but

no one would hire him because he

spoke Turkish with a Kurdish accent.

Bera now works as a tour guide who

draws customers at random on the

streets. Bera’s family was often

starved because there weren’t many

tourists. I explained my purpose of

coming and showed him what I’d

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bought in the market. And I could

tell from the tears in his eyes that he

was really touched. I turned my

head away, I didn’t mean to make

others cry. But I was happy to give

them a hand.

Chapter 4- Still a stranger

I went back to downtown. I noticed

some kids were approaching me. At

first, it was a small group, but then

the number soon grew. They were

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getting close and I was standing here

nervously. Luckily, I saw Ahmed

passing by, so I waved and yelled his

name. Those kids escaped right away.

“Good timing, you saved me.” I said.

“Those kids are violent attackers.

They would do everything just to get

your money.” Ahmed told me.

“Thank God you were there! I was

scared.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll always be there for

you, Sherry.” He said the name

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Sherry small but I could still hear that.

“Thanks.” I felt a bit odd hearing this.

But I said nothing, I didn’t want to

talk about his sad past. I simply told

him that I was looking for postcards

for my husband. I didn’t talk much on

the way to shops. Ahmed was

keeping the one-way conversation

going for more than 20 minutes. We

stopped for the postcards, I missed

Chris so much and started to have the

idea of going back to Wales. I told

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Ahmed about that and he got mad! I

didn’t see why. He was so mad that

he didn’t talk when we were walking.

I began to feel afraid of this man that I

had met only one day ago, and who

was actually still a stranger to me. I

did not know him, I didn’t even know

what he had told me was true. He

could be dangerous. I guess I showed

my fears because he told me not to be

worried, he just thought about the

past with Sherry, his ex-girlfriend. I

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tried to comfort him like a sister, also

to remind him that the girl and I were

totally different.

“You gotta seize the day, one cannot

always live in the past.” I said,

trying to sound like an expert.

“I know, but I just can’t help myself.”

“Did you go to a psychologist for this?”

“No, I don’t need it at all.” That was

loud.

“Alright, calm down. Why don’t we

go have dinner? It’s on me.”

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“Fine, if you want.”

So we went to another restaurant in

downtown. I had Kebab today, I’d

had Kebab in France and it was

delicious. Ahmed didn’t eat, he

drank the beer instead. I dared not

to talk to him…

After dinner, he was better and I

started to talk. He suggested going to

the River Tigris at night because the

view is very different from what you

see during the day. I agreed, I didn’t

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have any plans for that night.

We spent forty minutes walking

from the restaurant to the River Tigris.

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It was just amazing at night! You

can’t imagine how great it was. I

stood there, imagining the past,

Mesopotamia past. Yeah, the past

that I learnt from history class. I

never thought I would stand here

someday. The Turkish government had

made it to a dam. I was wondering

when I should leave Diyarbakir.

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Chapter 5- Time to leave

Therefore, I decided to leave two

weeks after. I spent these two weeks

with Ahmed. All was going good until

I told him about my plan of leaving

Diyarbakir. He went crazy and

shouting at me saying that I would

never leave. I was completely

scared. I didn’t go back to my hotel,

I went to Bera’s home and he kindly

asked me to stay that night. I called

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Chris to tell him about this. Chris

asked me to leave right away but it

was eleven o’clock at night, there was

no way I could get leave. So I

decided to leave the next morning

without informing Ahmed.

Chapter 6- It ended in Ankara

I spent twelve hours taking the bus to

Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey.

Then I went to the hamam, a place

where people scrub your back and.

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After having a great shower in hamam,

I decided to walk around the city and

take notes about where I could visit

the next day. I wanted to visit St.

Sophia church, the Blue Mosque and

the Topkapi Palace. The next

morning, I got up early and had a big

breakfast in the hotel restaurant. I

was full of energy and ready for my

adventure. Somehow, it felt like

wherever I went, there was someone

following me. I was eager to find out

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who that was but I couldn’t. Every

time I turned around my head, the

person was already gone. For the

very first time of my life, I feared for

something unknown. On 25th June on

the street of Istanbul, I heard steps

approaching me. Fast steps

reminded me of terrible scenes in

movies. I knew someone was walking

towards me and all of a sudden, the

person got my neck and held it so

tightly that I couldn’t breathe. I was

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struggling to breathe, and I wanted to

know who that was. I tried hard to

get rid of the person but I couldn’t, he

was far stronger than I was. Then I

fell on the ground, I saw it was a man

with a hat covered. He took it off

and said “I can’t bear to see your face

anymore, Sherry.”

It was Ahmed!

It was how I ended my life.