The Black Tulip

The Daring Choice

That night, Laleena cannot sleep. The three strangers’ faces drift through her mind long after the house has gone quiet, and she tosses and turns, caught somewhere between sleeping and waking. Eventually, she climbs out of bed for a drink of water and notices Cengiz’s tin soldier lying on the kitchen shelf, where it must have fallen. She lifts it into her palm, and to her surprise, tears begin streaming down her cheeks unexpectedly. “What do you think I should do?” she whispers to the soldier. An answer comes to her, clear as a bell: follow your destiny. She turns the phrase over, wondering what it could possibly mean, before the meaning settles into place. Follow her own destiny.

By morning, Laleena has made up her mind. She drinks a large mug of beet soup for strength and leaves the house as the sun comes up, garlic and potatoes in her basket to sell at market. On her way, she passes the caravansarai where the three Ottoman men are lodging. Their camels rest among the courtyard grasses, slowly gnawing on dried grass gathered from the hills. The men are gathered around a low table, sipping tea and eating. Laleena sets down her basket, takes a deep breath, and steps into the courtyard.

The man with the harelip asks what she wants. Laleena asks, in Turkish, whether it’s true they are looking for girls to take to İstanbul. Her voice sounds bolder than she feels, and her heart pounds as though it might jump out of her chest. The man with the harelip chuckles, remarking that this one has spunk, bargaining before there is even a deal on the table. The tall one asks why she wants to know. She tells them she knows of a girl who might be interested. The tall one shrugs and says it would depend on the girl. She would have to be pretty, talented, and well-behaved, and he studies Laleena closely as he says it.

Rattled by his stare, Laleena blurts out a question of her own, asking how much, for example, they would pay for a girl similar to her. The men seem astonished all over again, more by her brash behavior than by the question itself. The harelip man scornfully says that Laleena lacks tact and poise. The words hurt. Laleena knows she slumps when she walks, the way Mother always used to scold before the war, and she is suddenly conscious of her too-big feet and her wide-set, dark brown eyes, so unlike the light-colored eyes most people around here have. She straightens her back anyway and pushes forward.

The men laugh at her bargaining, but the tall one pulls a pouch from his coat and counts out three gold coins. He tells her these are for the girl’s family. She should make sure they receive them. When Laleena reaches for the coins, he snatches his hand back and asks how they can trust her. She promises to keep her word, warning with unexpected determination that there will be trouble if they don’t do the same.

One of the brothers growls his agreement. They settle on dawn the next morning, and the tall one, grinning as though he already suspects there is no friend at all, flips the three coins to her one by one. She catches them in midair, feels their weight, then turns and hurries off toward the market as though nothing unusual has happened.

Laleena lies awake again that night, unable to settle, so she slips outside to say her goodbyes. Owls call from the forest, the moon lights the landscape, the sky is clear and crisp with shooting stars scattered across it, and a spider spins its web nearby. She visits her flower beds one last time, walking past the roses, the violets, and the hyacinths she planted with her own hands, before kneeling among the tulips she tamed from the wild. Their petals dropped long ago, leaving only bulbs topped with pale yellow crowns, and she digs up a few of the ones she and Cengiz have been experimenting with, separates their stalks, and wraps them carefully in an old shawl to bring along on her journey.

Back inside, Laleena packs a small bundle. Some clothes, a few paintbrushes, some of Mother’s herbal remedies, and Cengiz’s tin soldier. She writes Mother a letter telling her not to worry, that she has made a good choice, asking for forgiveness, and telling her how much she loves them all. Before dawn, she slips the three gold coins under Mother’s bolster and kisses her forehead lightly. Mother stirs but does not wake.

Cengiz has fallen asleep in his clothes again, so she covers him with his blanket and strokes his curly hair, whispering for him to take good care of everyone. On the other side of the bed, one of the twins stirs but doesn’t wake, giggling faintly in his sleep. Her cheeks wet with tears, Laleena closes the door quietly behind her and leaves the only home she has ever known.