A Place Far Away

by Vahan Zanoyan

  “Has he been with her the whole time?”

  “Except for four days, when she was not clean, yes.”

  “And in those four days, did he see anyone else?”

  “He stayed alone.” Sumaya still talks in short, matter-of-fact phrases, even though she has already decided that she needs to take Natalia into her confidence and possibly even make her part of a plan of action, if that were to be necessary.

  There is a long silence as the two women ponder the situation. A maid brings mint tea in small glasses, sets it on the tray on the coffee table and leaves. Natalia stands up and serves Sumaya her glass, sits back down with her own glass, wondering whether she should say anything or let Sumaya open the conversation.

  “We need to bring Farah into this,” Sumaya says finally. The undefined “this” suggests to Natalia that Sumaya considers them to be involved in a situation together. She is relieved to find out that Sumaya shares her instincts about a possible threat to them all. His age, the family pressure on him to get married, and now a young woman that he cannot part with—this is a prescription for disaster that could bring their lucrative world to a sudden end.

  Farah is the Turkish girl, real name Ferda, recruited in Istanbul by Sumaya personally on one of Al Barmaka’s business trips. He had met her at one of the parties that his Turkish hosts organized. The place was swarming with ladies of the night, and Al Barmaka had returned to his hotel with Farah. He had asked Sumaya to stay behind and arrange for her to be brought to Dubai, with a one-year contract. “Don’t come back without her,” he had said.

  Farah too is in her mid-twenties, discovered by one of the recruiters of a brothel in Izmir and later brought to Istanbul. She has thick dark hair, brown eyes, with a distant hint of Asian origins that sometimes is more pronounced when she smiles, medium height and heavier than Natalia and Lara. Farah is not as serious as Natalia. She likes to laugh and joke around, even get rowdy once in a while. Natalia is a bit surprised that Sumaya wants to include her in their “thing.” There is also a fourth woman, a Moroccan, who is the only lady there other than Sumaya who speaks Arabic. Natalia would have thought she might be a better co-conspirator if they needed to resort to intimate pillow talk to extract something from Sir.

  “Not Aisha?” she asks, referring to the Moroccan.

  “No. She should know nothing. She cannot be trusted. Besides, her time is almost up and she’ll be sent away.”

  “But what about Farah?”

  “She still has four months, a little less than you. And she knows people in Turkey who could be helpful, depending on how things go.”

  Sumaya is always very frugal with her words. She does not like long conversations. To her, speaking, like undergoing surgery, should be done only when absolutely necessary. In moments like this it can lead her listeners to frustration. It is obvious that Sumaya has thought of a plan, but she won’t just come out and say it.

  “Depending on how things go?” Natalia is careful not to be pushy, but has to know what Sumaya is thinking. The girls cannot do anything without her.

  “Look,” Sumaya says, “we don’t know what this is yet—a passing infatuation or something more serious. But clearly you’re nervous, and probably so is Farah. The new girl is unusual and very desirable. Can you take a chance?”

  “Ms. Sumaya, I am not sure what you are suggesting. I admit I don’t like what is going on. I used to be his favorite, you said so yourself. And I have really appreciated your friendship in all this. But now I don’t know what to think. I remember how he sent away that other girl—was her name Samya?—when I first got here. You told me about it and you said her contract still had five months to run, but he had gotten tired of her, and she had not acted properly—too aggressive, right? Am I now in the same situation? Of course I have not been too aggressive or done anything else wrong. But how can I fight a seventeen-year-old that he seems to be entranced by, assuming that’s what we’re facing?”

  “We have to be ready for anything. But you are not in the same situation as Samya. He has paid for you in full; he had not done that in Samya’s case. So he has less incentive to send you away before your contract runs out. Probably the worst case scenario for you is that he’ll pay your salary until the end of your contract and then send you away without using you. Which means no gifts, no bonuses, no farewells. Probably the same with Farah.”

  “What can we do?”

  “First, we don’t panic. I’m not worried about you. But I am worried about Farah. She is hot blooded and can get out of control.”

  “Ms. Sumaya, please, can you tell me anything about the new girl?”

  “Her name is Leila. She is from Armenia. She is seventeen. Very beautiful. Wild and feminine at the same time.” Sumaya expresses pure fact and diagnosis, without even a pinch of emotion thrown in.

  “She’s from Armenia? She probably knows Russian, right?”

  “She knows some Russian, even some Turkish, she says. Her English is very poor, but passable. She has learned it in the street. No schooling, as far as I know.”

  “Can she really be a serious threat?”

  “He has asked her to call him Ahmed in bed. That is his first name, by the way. Did he ever ask you to do that?”

  “No.” Natalia is shocked; until now she did not even know what his first name was.

  “He has not asked anyone else to do that. There was once a Ukrainian woman, before you, and he told her it was okay to call him ‘my love’ or ‘lover’ in bed. But that did not last long, and besides, that was different from a first name. It was more a part of their flirting.”

  “Okay, so this is more serious than anything else. But still, this girl was a prostitute, right?”

  “Oh yes. She was working here in Dubai.”

  “Can he marry a prostitute?”

  “Al Barmaka can do anything he wants,” says Sumaya with a sense of abandon. “The girl is young. Maybe he thinks he can train her to be a good Arab wife. Who knows? Let me ask you again, can we take a chance to find out?”

  Natalia notices the change in the question. The first time, Sumaya asked, ‘Can you take a chance?’ The second time she asked, ‘Can we take a chance.’ Until then, Natalia was still looking at Sumaya as the manager, a kind of Chief of Staff. But now she realizes that she has as much a stake in this as any of the girls. A ‘wife’ would threaten her job as much as the job of the concubines. She could be rendered obsolete overnight. This is a huge revelation that makes Natalia feel unusually equal in status to Sumaya. This time, they need each other, and the relationship is more balanced than ever.

  “No,” she says, and is conscious of the fact that she has begun to adopt Sumaya’s style of talking in short, curt sentences. “We cannot take that chance. So what do we do?”

  “Let’s bring Farah in first,” says Sumaya.

  Clearly Farah has a role here that Natalia does not understand.

  Sumaya reaches over to the phone on the side table, and dials. “Bring Farah,” she says in English, and hangs up. It must be the Indian driver, thinks Natalia.

  As they wait for Farah, the atmosphere is a bit tense. Sumaya is drawn into her own thoughts, and Natalia is trying to figure out how they all relate in this game. There is no question that Sumaya has to call the shots, but the lineup is confusing for Natalia. She likes to have things neat, organized, with everyone knowing where they fit in. Meanwhile Sumaya is trying to sort out a scheme to eliminate the Leila problem. There are several options worth considering, none of them safe, given Al Barmaka’s apparent devotion to her.

  Sumaya’s cell phone vibrates in the side pocket of her abaya, sending shivers down her thigh. Her hand dives into the pocket and brings out the phone. It is Al Barmaka’s private office calling, which is unusual in the early evening. She would have thought he’d call from his cell phone. She decides to take it in private and walks into her bedroom, telling Natalia to keep Farah busy when she arrives. But when she answers the phone, it is the voice of his Indian busine
ss manager that greets her.

  “A very good evening to you, Ms. Sumaya, dear,” says Manoj with exaggerated cheerfulness. “I trust all is well with you and your ever so pleasant complexion.”

  Complexion? Sumaya is now very annoyed, but keeps her cool.

  “Yes, Manoj. How can I be of help?”

  “Well, Ms. Sumaya, dear, His Excellency has arranged for Leila to start taking Arabic lessons regularly. Sheikh Nizam will come three times a week to teach her, starting tomorrow afternoon at four p.m. His Excellency has asked that you organize and oversee everything as usual, and, considering that Leila, hmmm, well, is a lady, that you be present at all the lessons, so as not to have any awkwardness whatsoever. Those are his instructions, Ms. Sumaya, dear.”

  “Sheikh Nizam?” Sumaya asks. “Is she to study Arabic language or religion?”

  “Just language for now, Ms. Sumaya, dear. Sheikh Nizam is a first class instructor of both language and religion, but for now his assignment is to teach her Arabic.”

  “Okay, Manoj. All is clear. Good night.”

  “Many thanks, Ms. Sumaya, dear. And wishing you a superb evening.”

  If I hear you say ‘Ms. Sumaya, dear’ one more time, she thinks, I’ll strangle you with my bare hands! Arabic lessons? Maybe religion will follow? And why did he not bother to call me himself? Am I now at Manoj’s level? Sumaya has to sit down. She had taken the call standing up, looking out the window of her bedroom at the beautiful lawn and shrubs. But her knees feel weak and shaky. She sits on her bed and stares at the silent cell phone in her hand. She can still hear ‘Ms. Sumaya, dear’ oozing out of the phone in the totally fake, slippery voice of Manoj. He’s probably laughing right now at how he’s keeping the real plan from me, she thinks. The women can come and go, but the almighty male business manager is untouchable. We’ll see about that, Mr. Manoj, dear, we’ll see about that.

  She hears the front door open and Farah greet Natalia with her usual enthusiasm. That too is unusual. These two are competitors, she tells herself. Why are they acting like sisters? The cold-blooded Russian professional and the excitable Turkish prostitute, hugging and pretending to be sisters in her own living room. How much more am I going to see at my age? she asks silently. And what about Leila, born Lara? She seems to have the subconscious instincts of Farah, excitable and unpredictable, but the outer behavior of Natalia. Could that be true? Could a creature that combines such entirely different worlds actually exist? And what happens when such a creature learns Arabic and converts to Islam? Who can fight her in this dominion? How can she then not become the queen, governing all, ruling the domain in his name?

  Sumaya does her best not to show her anxieties as she enters the living room. She greets Farah as if nothing has happened and sits down in her chair. But they both notice that she is paler than usual, and she knows that they notice that something is amiss.

  “I do not want to sound alarmist,” she says to the two women, “and there is still a lot that we don’t know, but we may have a little problem on our hands. A little seventeen-year-old problem.”

  Farah is not sure what this is all about.

  “Summarize it for her,” says Sumaya, acting too tired to do the talking herself.

  Natalia says, “There is a new woman, or girl, seventeen. He is captivated by her and has seen only her in the past two weeks. She is from Armenia. Apparently beautiful, unsophisticated, uneducated, uncultured, but captivating nonetheless.”

  “So that’s why I have not seen him for two weeks?” asks Farah lightly, still not sharing the concern of the other two about the seriousness of the situation.

  “And that’s why chances are you won’t see him again at all,” chimes in Sumaya, eyes still closed, her forehead resting awkwardly in her hand, showing no patience for those who are slow to catch up. “As long as Leila is here you don’t stand a chance with him.”

  “Sorry, Ms. Sumaya. Sorry if I upset you. But I don’t understand what a seventeen-year-old girl from Armenia has to do with me, with us…”

  “You don’t understand?” screams Sumaya, finally her patience shattered. “You really don’t understand? He has seen no one but her for two weeks. He has not ever asked anyone but her to call him by his first name. He has hired a private tutor of the highest caliber to teach her Arabic. And you still do not understand? What is there to understand?”

  “So sorry, Ms. Sumaya,” whispers Farah. “I had no idea about all this. So sorry. I really did not know.”

  Even Natalia is taken by surprise by the news about the private tutor. She does not understand why Sumaya would hold that bit of information from her, and does not suspect that she may have learned about it during the phone call just a few minutes earlier.

  “Well, now you know,” says Sumaya, regaining her characteristic cold composure. “What do you think we should do about it?”

  “What should we do? Isn’t it obvious? Her tie with Sir has to end. Either she leaves, or he gets, so sorry, how you say, he falls out of love with her…”

  “Falls out of love?” asks Sumaya.

  “So sorry, yes. In Turkish, we say gets cold from her…hard to explain, but basically he not love her anymore…”

  “Farah, talk freely. How can we make him ‘get cold from her’?”

  “Complicated,” says Farah. “That too much complicated. We need hair, nails, maybe other things from both her and him. Too much complicated.”

  “Farah, I am not interested in voodoo here.” Sumaya raises her voice. “Forget hair and nails and whatever. Focus, Farah, focus. We have a problem. What do we do?”

  “OK, fine, focus, focus,” exclaims Farah, protocol forgotten. “What do we do? Isn’t it simple? We get rid of her, that’s what we do. We get rid of her. If not that, you tell me what we do!”

  Finally Sumaya feels she has the conversation where she wants it. She wants the girls in on the plan that she has in mind, but wants them to come up with it together. Thinking ahead, she knows that there will be very serious repercussions with Al Barmaka later, and the girls have to be fully implicated along with her so they do not point the finger only at her.

  “We get rid of her,” she repeats with a measure of sarcasm in her voice, indicating that she is still not sure what that means. “We just get rid of her? Nadia, what do you think?”

  “There are many ways to get rid of her. If this was Moscow, she would just disappear. Simple. But here? I don’t know.”

  “So you agree we should get rid of her,” says Sumaya.

  “We have no other choice. It looks like she may have the power to get rid of us soon, no?”

  “We cannot make her just disappear as in Moscow. How then?” It is Sumaya again leading them on.

  “I not seen her,” says Farah, “but I think Mehmet in Turkey would love to have her.”

  Finally we are getting somewhere, thinks Sumaya. This is the only logical choice that she can see. She knows Mehmet. She negotiated Farah’s contract with him, or through him, but it was never clear who the ultimate boss was. But Mehmet seemed to have the authority to make decisions on the spot.

  “Why would Mehmet love to have her?” asks Sumaya, but regrets the question, worried that it will take them off track.

  “Well, as I say, I not seen her, but if she really is young and beautiful and Armenian, she’s for Mehmet. He loves to fuck young Armenian girls.”

  “How do we get her out of here and into Turkey?” asks Natalia, for the first time getting the sense that Sumaya has planned this scenario all along. She is brilliant, thinks Natalia, with newfound respect for the lady who is now staring at her with very serious and penetrating eyes.

  “It can be done, if planned carefully. But there will be serious consequences. He will be furious. All the blame and suspicion has to go to her and a few security men. It has to look like she planned an escape and seduced the guards to help her. We know nothing about it.”

  That’s going to be a very delicate operation, thinks Natalia. We’ll have to ma
ke the new girl do something against her will, and still somehow pin the whole thing on her.

  “How do we handle her in this?” she asks. “I mean will she know that she is escaping? Or are we going to have her think that she’s taking a trip to Turkey, maybe to meet Sir there, and then she just ends up with Mehmet?”

  “What do you think?” asks Sumaya.

  “The first is easier, because she’ll be more cooperative, assuming that she wants to escape. But the second is much safer. The less she knows the better.”

  “So we make her ‘escape’ without making her know that she’s escaping?” asks Farah.

  “If she knows she’s escaping, then she’ll know we are helping her. Why take that risk? Maybe we can make her believe that she is going on a trip to meet Sir somewhere. Then she lands in Istanbul and disappears.”

  “Mehmet should not keep her in Istanbul,” says Farah. “Maybe Izmir, or Antalya. Too much traffic in Istanbul. And Sir goes there sometimes.” Farah is thinking ahead, which is unusual for her.

  Sumaya is satisfied with the meeting, even though her face does not show it. She is all business.

  “I need some time to think,” she tells them. “Farah, think of what message to send Mehmet. In some ways, the less he knows the better too. We should pull this off while keeping everyone involved in the dark.”

  “It will be easy to keep Mehmet in the dark,” says Farah. “He not care about details. He get girls against their will all the time. So no surprise for him if Leila kicking and screaming and telling fantasy stories about Sir. In fact, better if she do, then it will be normal for Mehmet. And he’s used to Armenian girls sold in Turkey against their will. This is good plan, Ms. Sumaya.”

  “Does this Mehmet know Sir?” asks Natalia.

  “Of course not,” answers Sumaya. “He knows me, and he knows of him, but no details. Not even a name. Farah, you understand that it should stay that way, right?”

  “Of course.”

  “Sir should not suspect that she escaped to Turkey,” says Natalia. “That will be very difficult for us to arrange. If we send her there, there’ll always be some trail. And if he suspects anything, he may start asking questions and investigating.”