Birds Without Wings by Louis De Bernieres

Author:Louis De Bernieres [Bernieres, Louis De]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781448113828
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2004-07-01T04:00:00+00:00

54

Olives

NERMIN BEGAN TO wonder if now it was more probable that her sons would never return. Over the next few days the feeling of unease grew so great that finally she decided to go and see her friend.

She found Polyxeni outside the back of her house, breaking up twigs for use in her brazier. Nermin felt ashamed to be asking for something directly, and Polyxeni perceived her confusion. Nermin was fiddling with a pot that she held in her hands, rotating it, and putting her fingers inside it, not knowing where to look with her eyes. Polyxeni knew straight away what Nermin wanted, because of the pot, but she teased her friend a little anyway. She said, ‘You know you can say what you want! Come on, what is it?’

‘Oh, Polyxeni,’ exclaimed Nermin at last, ‘Polyxeni, I’ve finished the last of the lucky olives you gave me, and I ate one every day, as you said, and everything felt good, but now I’ve eaten the last one, and I worry that now my luck will run out, and my sons won’t return. I am sorry to ask, normally I would never ask, but do you have any left? Without them I don’t feel lucky any more. And I brought Iskander’s pot back, just as you asked.’

Polyxeni laughed. ‘Is that all?’ She took the pot and went inside and filled it. When she came back out she gave the pot to Nermin, and said, ‘I haven’t heard from Mehmetçik since they took all the Christian boys for the labour battalions.’

Nermin looked at her tearfully. ‘Will you have enough lucky olives for both of us?’

‘Pray for a good harvest,’ said Polyxeni.

The two women embraced before Nermin left. On the way home she ate one lucky olive for each day that she had missed.

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