Ghost Town Kid
He looked at me (the kid). "Hullo," I said. Ha ha ha said he. His grandmother, filling my entire eye-space, came out. I handed her a crumpled note.
I woke up to the buzzing of bees outside my windows. Kayakoy – Ghost Town. Through and above my window were the remains of 17th century homes, stone foundations really, left by their Greek inhabitants during the Greek-Turkish switcheroo during Turkey's Independence Years... The walls, most without roofs, hung eerily over the now-Turkish village that lay below in the valley, like a gray skeleton it hung, clutching the hillside precariously.
I had spent the day before scrambling over stone wells and walls – through empty churches where the only worshipper was the vagrant sheep. Now I went to find the pension owner to settle the bill.
Empty. Hello? Hello? Still empty, the courtyard.
A dog, puppy really (!) yapped in the garden, hidden from me through the flapping wings of white laundry. Then I heard him. The kid. Laughing. Peals of laughter laughing giggling choking laughing. Yap yap bark bark goes the puppy. Laugh ha ha ha goes the kid. Baaaaa goes the billy goat, wet nose wriggling at rubbish next to the fence.
He looked at me (the kid). "Hullo," I said. Ha ha ha said he. His grandmother, filling my entire eye-space, came out. I handed her a crumpled note. She broke into a litany of Turkish, all hands waving and eyes glinting and .. face softening. Seeing me as an obvious buffoon with no knowledge of the language, she pushed out her palm and waddled off into the village to get change. Wait here, her eyes commanded.
Ha ha ha, said the kid. In his hand he clutched a toy wheel. Yap yap. The dog wanted attention, still tied as ever to the oak. Yap yap = what'sgoingonwhat'soingon -- lemme playplayplay! Eyes, large, almost as large as the puppy, stared at me. I touseled his hair.
"Watcha got there?" I pointed to the wheel. He looked at the wheel.
"Vroom," he said. Vroom Vroom. Eyes, large as ever.
"Oh yeah? Vroom?" Vroom. Vroom Vroom. VROOM. And then off I go, clutching my imaginary wheel, shuffling imaginary gears, start the ignition, then neutral to L1 to drive -- moving on very real feet through very real air through and around the white flapping wings. Vrooo.. Vroo... Vroooooom!
Vrooooooom.... ha ha ha Vrooooooooom!
Yap yap yap bark bark. Baaaaa. Vroom Vroom. Off we went. Feet then wheels then (sunlight glinting on the Ghost Town) hands and arms spread apart.. vrooom... wings wings wings taking flight... Bzzzzzzzzzzmmmmm.....
Ha ha ha!