story - remember it till tomorow

We went to Turkey, three of us, and when we left the airport Lila left her sleeping bag by mistake. We were staying at a crappy hotel in the city, feeling a bit uncomfortable about where we were in the world. We ate a lot of After Eight mints, I remember the thin black paper envelopes littering the floor next to the hotel beds. We decided to leave, go to the coast, but first we had to go back to the airport to get the missing sleeping bag. Lila and I left Kath at the hotel with the bags, and I think we took a dolmus (a minibus taxi) to the airport. We got the bag back fine, and then we walked along the highway trying to figure out how to get a taxi back. It was hot, we were both a bit irritated. We stood by a traffic light, hoping a dolmus would stop. Then a bakkie pulled up next to the light, in the back were two women, and a huge pile of tomatoes. The women had scarves on their heads, and they looked friendly, and I thought it was so sweet with the tomatoes, so I smiled at them. One woman smiled back, then motioned us to come with an urgent sweep of her hand, and get in the bakkie with them. We jumped in, and the bakkie sped off down the highway. The women were so jolly, they talked to us in Turkish, they pushed their tomatoes on us. I remember Lila holding them in her hands, looking a bit desperate as they gave her more and more, wondering if she should put them in her backpack, thinking about squashed tomatoes. Not having a common language, we all just ended up smiling at each other a lot. The bakkie drove into town and to a block of flats in an area we didn’t really recognise. One woman motioned us out and towards a small door in the building. Lila and I looked at each other. I was a bit worried. But they were insistent, so we opened the door and stepped into darkness. It was a stairwell, but there were no lights. We started to walk up the stairs, slowly, with every step my apprehension grew. A dark stairwell in Turkey, what would be waiting for us at the top? As we climbed the third flight, a light appeared, out of a doorway. A pretty young girl stood in the light. “Hello” she said. Her name was Elif.