The Strange Journey of Alice Pendelbury

by Marc Levy

  Your letters seem to indicate that you miss rainy old London less and less. I’ve taken to daydreaming about the excellent raki we drank together. Some evenings I imagine what it would be like to return to Istanbul and have dinner with you in Mama Can’s restaurant. I’d like to come and visit, even just for a day, but unfortunately it’s impossible as long as my work keeps me here.

  Your ever-devoted Daldry.

  P.S. Did you ever make it to that picnic on the Princes’ Islands? Do they deserve their name? Did you meet a prince?

  My dearest Daldry,

  You’ll probably lecture me for taking so long to reply, but please don’t take it personally. I’ve been working constantly for the past three weeks.

  Things are coming along nicely, with both my Turkish and my perfume. The master perfumer in Cihangir and I are on the verge of a breakthrough. For the first time yesterday, we managed to create an interesting accord. The arrival of spring has helped a great deal. If only you could see how much Istanbul has changed over the past few months. Can took me out to the countryside last weekend, and I discovered some wonderful fragrances. The whole area surrounding the city is blanketed in roses, and I think I’ve probably seen a hundred different varieties. The peach and apricot trees are also blooming, and the redbuds that line the shores of the Bosporus are covered in little purple blossoms.

  Can says it will soon be the season for mimosa, lavender, and all sorts of other fragrant flowers. Turkey really is a perfume maker’s paradise. I’m tremendously lucky to be here. You asked about the Princes’ Islands—they’re very beautiful and lush with vegetation, but Üsküdar Hill isn’t too bad these days either. At the end of my shift, Can and I often go for a late dinner in one of the many little cafés tucked away in the neighborhood’s hidden gardens.

  In a month the weather is supposed to heat up considerably, and we’ll be able to go to the beach and go swimming. I can’t help it: we’re still in the middle of spring and I’m already impatient for summer to arrive.

  I’ll never know how to thank you for encouraging me to discover Istanbul. I love the hours I spend with the perfume maker in Cihangir, and my work in Mama Can’s restaurant. She’s so affectionate that she feels like family to me now. The warm evenings when I walk home from work are a pure delight.

  I would like very much for you to come and visit, even for a short while, just to show you all of the beautiful things I’ve discovered since you left.

  It’s late now. The city is falling asleep, and I’m going to do the same.

  I’ll write you again as soon as possible.

  Your friend,

  Alice

  P.S. Tell Carol that I miss her and that I’d be very happy if she found the time to write.

  13

  Alice posted her letter on her way to work the following evening. When she got to the restaurant, she could hear Can and his aunt having a loud argument that ended abruptly as soon as she came in. Alice noticed Mama Can frown at Can, warning him to keep quiet.

  “What’s going on?” she asked innocently, putting on her apron and tying the strings behind her back.

  “Nothing,” said Can. His face said otherwise.

  “You were arguing. You both sounded angry.”

  “An aunt should be able to contradict her nephew without him rolling his eyes and showing her disrespect,” said Mama Can. She sounded furious.

  Can left without saying goodbye, slamming the door behind him as he went.

  “Goodness. It must have been serious,” said Alice, going over to the huge stove, where Mama Can’s husband was already hard at work.

  He turned to her with a spoon and had her taste his stew. She said it was delicious. He wiped his hands on his apron and went out of the back door to smoke a cigarette without saying a word. He seemed angry with Mama Can too.

  “What on earth is going on?” asked Alice.

  “The two of them are ganging up on me,” complained Mama Can.

  “If you tell me what happened, I might take your side. Two against two is a fairer match.”

  “That foolish nephew of mine is too talented a teacher. You’ve gone and learned our language, and now you think you can understand everything. He should mind his own business, and so should you. Get back to the dining room—there aren’t any customers here in the kitchen. And don’t slam the door!”

  Alice obeyed, taking her notepad and a pile of freshly washed plates and heading back into the dining room. It was starting to fill up with customers.

  As soon as the kitchen door was closed behind her, she could hear Mama Can shouting at her husband to put out his cigarette and get back to work.

  The rest of the evening passed without any further confrontations, but every time Alice went past the kitchen, she noticed that Mama Can and her husband weren’t speaking to each other.

  Alice’s shift never ended very late on Monday evenings, and the last customers usually left the restaurant around eleven. She finished tidying up the dining room, took off her apron, and said good night to Can’s uncle (who muttered good night under his breath in return). Finally, she said good night to Mama Can, who gave her a strange look as she left for the evening.

  Can was waiting for her outside, sitting on a low wall.

  “Where did you go? And what on earth did you say to your aunt before I arrived? I’ve never seen her like that; she was in a dreadful mood. It was a miserable evening.”

  “We had an argument, that’s all. Things will be better tomorrow.”

  “Am I allowed to know what you argued about? I had to suffer because of it.”

  “If I tell you, she’ll be even more furious, and tomorrow’s shift will be worse because of it.”

  “Why? Is it something to do with me?”

  “I can’t say. But it’s late. I should take you home.”

  “You know, Can, I’m a grown woman. You don’t have to walk me home every night. I know how to get to my apartment.”

  “I know that. But I’m paid to take care of you. I’m just doing my job like you do in the restaurant.”

  “What do you mean, you’re paid to take care of me?”

  “Mr. Daldry sends me money every week to take care of you.”

  Alice looked at Can in disbelief and then walked away without saying a word. Can caught up with her.

  “I also do it out of friendship.”

  “Don’t tell me it’s out of friendship when you’re being paid,” she said, walking faster.

  “One doesn’t necessarily go without the other. Besides, Istanbul is a big city. The streets aren’t as safe as you think they are.”

  “Üsküdar is practically a village. Everybody knows everybody. You always say so yourself. Now leave me alone. I know the way.”

  “Fine.” Can sighed. “I’ll write to Mr. Daldry and tell him I don’t want his money anymore. Would that be better?”

  “It would have been better if you had told me to begin with. I’ve written to tell him that I don’t need his help, but I see now, once again, that it doesn’t matter to him what others want. It makes me so angry.”

  “Why should somebody trying to help you make you angry?”

  “Because I never asked him. I don’t need his help.”

  “We all need somebody’s help. Nobody can do anything worthwhile on their own.”

  “Well I can!”

  “No, you can’t. Would you be able to create your perfume without the master in Cihangir? Would you have even found him if I hadn’t taken you to him? How would you have met the consul or Mr. Zemirli or the old schoolmaster?”

  “Don’t exaggerate. You had nothing to do with the schoolmaster.”

  “Who took you down the street that went past his house?”

  Alice stopped walking and turned to face Can.

  “Fine. Without your help, I would have never met the consul or Mr. Zemirli, I would have never worked in your aunt’s restaurant, I wouldn’t live in Üsküdar, and I probably would have left Istanbul long ago. I owe
it all to you. Are you satisfied?”

  “And you wouldn’t have walked down that street and past that school.”

  “I apologized. Let’s not spend the rest of the evening bickering over details.”

  “I missed the part where you apologized. You don’t owe it all to me alone—you wouldn’t have met any of those people, or found a job with my aunt, or lived in the room she rents you if Mr. Daldry hadn’t hired me. So you might as well continue apologizing and thank him as well.”

  “I thank him in every letter I write, for your information. How do I know you’re not just saying all this so that I don’t tell him to stop sending money in my next letter?”

  “If after everything I’ve done, you still want to go ahead and make me lose my job, that’s your decision.”

  “I can’t believe you!” said Alice.

  “I can’t believe you. You’re more stubborn than my aunt,” said Can.

  “Fine. I can live with that. I’ve had enough arguing for one evening, anyway.”

  They looked at each other, not sure what to do with themselves now that their argument had dissipated.

  “Let’s have some tea and make peace,” suggested Can.

  Alice let Can take her to a café at the end of a narrow street. The outdoor terrace was still full of people, in spite of the late hour.

  Can ordered them two rakis. Alice said she’d prefer the tea he had initially offered, but he wouldn’t have any of it.

  “Mr. Daldry wasn’t afraid of drinking,” said Can.

  “You think it takes courage to be a drunk?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never really thought about it.”

  “Well, you ought to. Drunkenness is a stupid way of forgetting about one’s problems.” She paused and thought for a moment. “But now that we’re already drinking, you can tell me what the fight with your aunt was about. To make it up to me.”

  Can resisted, but Alice finally won him over.

  “It was because of all the people I introduced you to. The consul, Mr. Zemirli, the schoolmaster, even though with him I swore that we only passed his house by chance.”

  “Why does she object to me meeting people?”

  “She thinks we’re getting mixed up in other people’s lives. That I’m getting too involved in your business.”

  “Why should that bother her?”

  “She believes that when you get too involved in other people’s lives, even when you think you’re doing them a favor, you will always bring them bad luck in the end.”

  “Well, I’ll go tell Mama Can first thing tomorrow that you’ve brought me nothing but happiness.”

  “You can’t say that! She’ll know I talked to you, and she’ll be furious. Besides, it’s not entirely true. If I hadn’t introduced you to Mr. Zemirli, you wouldn’t have been sad when he died. And if I hadn’t led you down that street, you wouldn’t have felt so confused after meeting the old teacher. I’ve never seen you so distressed.”

  “Make up your mind, my friend. Was it your talent as a guide or chance?”

  “Maybe a little of both. Chance made the konak burn, and I took you down that street. Chance and intention got mixed up.”

  Alice put down her empty glass, and Can refilled it immediately.

  “This reminds me of the good old times with Mr. Daldry,” he said.

  “Could you just forget about Daldry for five minutes?”

  “No, I don’t think I could,” said Can, after giving the question some thought.

  “How did the argument with your aunt begin?”

  “In the kitchen.”

  “Not where, how?”

  “I can’t tell you. She made me promise not to.”

  “Well, I release you from your promise. One woman can lift a man’s promise to another, if the two women in question get along well. Didn’t you know?”

  “Did you make that up?”

  “Just now.”

  “That’s what I thought.”

  Alice begged. “Just tell me why you were talking about me.”

  “Why does it matter so much?”

  “Put yourself in my shoes. Imagine if you walked in on Mr. Daldry and me in the middle of an argument about you. Wouldn’t you want to know what it was all about?”

  “I’d know what it was about. Mr. Daldry probably criticized me again, and you took my side and were scolding him. You don’t have to be a mind reader to know that.”

  “You drive me crazy.”

  “Well, my aunt drives me crazy because of you, so I suppose we’re even.”

  “Fine. Let’s make a deal: I won’t say anything about your pay in my next letter to Daldry, but you have to tell me how the argument with your aunt started.”

  “You’re blackmailing me to betray Mama Can’s trust!”

  “Yes, but I have to sacrifice my independence and peace of mind by not saying anything to Mr. Daldry about him paying you to watch over me. We’re even.”

  Can refilled Alice’s glass. “Okay, but drink this first.” His gaze was steady and penetrating.

  Alice tossed back the drink and set the empty glass on the table. “I’m listening.”

  “I think I found Mrs. Yilmaz.” Alice looked bewildered. He thought she hadn’t understood. “Your old nanny. I know where she lives.”

  “How did you find her?”

  “Well, I am the best guide in Istanbul. I’ve been asking around Üsküdar over the past month. I finally found somebody who knew her.”

  “When can we go and see her?” Alice couldn’t hide her excitement.

  “The time has to be right. And Mama Can can’t know anything about it.”

  “What does it have to do with Mama Can? Why didn’t she want you to tell me?”

  “I told you. She thinks I’ll only hurt you by taking you to meet Mrs. Yilmaz. My aunt has an opinion or a theory about everything. She thinks that the past should rest in the past, that it’s never good to stir up old stories. She says that we shouldn’t dig up what time has left buried.”

  “Why on earth does she think that?”

  “I have no idea. Perhaps we’ll find out. But you must promise that you’ll be patient and wait for me to organize the visit without saying anything.”

  Alice gave her word, and then Can asked her to let him take her home. He had drunk an impressive volume of raki over the course of his confession, and it was imperative for them to be on their way while he could still walk.

  The following evening, on her way from Cihangir to the restaurant, Alice stopped by her apartment to change clothes before her seven-o’clock shift.

  The atmosphere in the restaurant seemed to have returned to normal. Mama Can’s husband was busy in the kitchen, shouting whenever a plate was ready, and Mama Can watched over the dining room from her cash register, only leaving her perch to greet the regulars and point them toward the tables that she assigned according to her own personal opinion of their importance. Alice took their orders and hurried between the tables and the kitchen.

  When the rush hour of the evening service hit around nine, Mama Can left her stool to lend Alice a hand. She was watching Alice, and Alice knew it. She did her best to act as if Can had told her nothing of the previous day’s argument. When the last customer was gone, Mama Can locked the door, pulled up a chair, and contemplated Alice, who was setting the tables for the following day, as she did at the end of every evening. She had taken the tablecloth off the table next to where Mama Can was sitting when the rag she used for wiping down the tables was suddenly snatched out of her hand.

  “Go make us some tea, my dear. And bring two glasses.”

  Alice welcomed the break. She went to kitchen and came back a few moments later with the tea and glasses. Mama Can told her husband to close the serving hatch between the kitchen and the dining room. Alice put down the tray and sat across from her.

  “Are you happy here?” asked Mama Can as she poured the tea.

  “Yes,” said Alice, wondering what was coming next.
r />   “You’re brave. Just like me when I was your age, I was never afraid of working. It’s a funny situation when you think about it, between our family and you, don’t you think?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “During the day, my nephew works for you, and in the evening, you work for me.”

  “I’d never thought of it that way.”

  “You know, my husband doesn’t say much. He says I don’t leave him any time to get a word in edgewise, that I talk enough for both of us. But he likes you and respects you.”

  “I’m touched to hear that. I like you all very much too.”

  “And the room I’m renting you—you like it?”

  “I love how quiet it is, yes. The view is lovely and I sleep well there.”

  “And Can?”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “You don’t understand my question?”

  “Well, Can is the perfect guide. Probably the best guide in Istanbul. And we’ve spent so many days together that I think I can consider him a friend as well.”

  “My girl, do you realize how much time you spend together? It has been months, not days.”

  “What are you trying to say?”

  “I’m just asking you to be careful with him. You know, love at first sight only exists in books. In real life, feelings grow slowly, the way one builds a house, stone by stone. Do you think I fainted with pleasure at the sight of my husband the first time I saw him? No. But after forty years of living together, I love him very much. I learned to appreciate all of his qualities. I got used to his weaknesses. When I get angry at him, like I did last night, I try to spend some time alone and I think.”

  “What do you think about?” asked Alice, somewhat surprised at this unexpected revelation.

  “I imagine a set of scales. On one side I place all the things that I like about him, and on the other side I put everything that annoys me. And when I look at the scales, I realize that everything balances out, or even leans toward the positive side. That’s because I’m lucky to have a husband I can count on. But Can is much more intelligent than his uncle, and unlike his uncle, he’s also rather handsome.”