CHOCOLATE - Orhan KEMAL
CHOCOLATE
They were in front
of the huge shop-window of sweet-seller where boxes of sugars, sweets and chocolates
of different sizes were exhibited. They were under the spell of the chocolates.
He was a sturdy boy standing between his elder sister and the daughter of the
yogurt-seller. The yogurt-seller`s daughter and the "Sister" were
of the same age. A while ago, the sister had taken with compulsion her sturdy
brother to the barber. There, in the barber, were big mirrors and a cage with
blue beaded wires lodging a bright yellow bird.
The barber was
also a friend of his father. The barber, having a slender jat-black moustache,
was smiling the big-breasted girl living in the opposite house. He was not disinterested
since the big-breasted girl was responding with a cheerful grin; so they were
beckoning and laughing at each other. The sturdy boy had witnessed this while
having his head shaved. He had also seen incessantly chattering tiny bird in
bright yellow color. Everything would have been all right for him if only the
shaver hadn't pulled his hair this roughly. He was suffering such a deep pain
that he had a great desire to run away and pelt the shop with stones. That was
why he had never been fond of getting a shave and why he wasn't only stamping
but also kicking his elder sister. He would have showed her if she hadn't suggested,
"Let's gather our money and buy a chocolate for fifty".
In front of the
sweet-seller's shop-window they all forgot about the barber, the mirrors, the
cage and the bright yellow bird. Chocolates were the only things real for them.
Those gelatins in red, purple, yellow and blue, blazing under the sun light
and the chocolates tightly packed with these variegated gelatins. Beside the
sister and his brother, the daughter of yogurt-seller was completely lost in
this riot of colors; or just conversely, these colors of blue, yellow, purple
and red were blazing inside them.
Both the elder
sister and her brother knew what the taste of chocolate was like. Once, their
aunt had brought them some chocolate from Sariyer. Their aunt had a black mantle
and a big pimple on the face; her eyes looked as if they were tinged with eye-salve.
Sometimes she was giving them money. And there also were times when she had
brought them nougat or round candy-floss From Emirgan the taste of which was
resembling nougat. Once, their father had brought them nougat at one of these
rainy nights of his return from journey having a beard of some days and a sharp
smell of gas. Though he used to bring nougat occasionally, he frequently used
to swear with his long and dusty beard: "You, the dolt, the beast, the
cuckold!"
But neither nougat
nor candy-floss could compete with the taste of chocolate. Had the yogurt-seller's
daughter ever tried some chocolate? He didn't care whether she had or not, because
his sister and he had a sum of fifty which would afford chocolate…
- " Hey sister!"
- "Yes?"
- "Are these
chocolates the same with those my aunt brought?"
- "Of course
not."
- "The chocolates
my aunt brought are sweeter, aren't they?"
- "Sure, they
are."
At that moment
the yogurt-seller's daughter interrupted:
- "All chocolates
are alike."
- "How do
you know?" asked the others.
- "Well, how
do you know then?"
- "Our aunt
brought us chocolates from Sariyer."
- "Mine did
also."
- "Do you
have an aunt?"
- "Do you
so?"
- "Of course
we do."
- "And I do
too."
- "Our aunt
brings us chocolates whenever she comes!"
- "The same
with my aunt."
- "But our
aunt brings nougat and candy-floss as well."
- "So my aunt
does."
- "Where does
she bring them from?"
- "I ask the
same question to you."
- "Answer
you first!"
- "Why am
I first to answer?"
- "Then why
do we answer? Our father is a truck driver, so he wanders all around the world."
- "My father
is a yogurt-seller; he sells yogurt even to the apartment houses."
The boy turned
red in the face and exclaimed to his sister:
- "Sister,
I say!"
- "What is
the matter?"
"If her aunt
brings chocolate for her, then we let her go and eat!"
- "I won't
go" replied the yogurt-seller's daughter.
The red ribbon
of sister turned into yellow:
- "Why not?"
- "Why don't
you go then?"
- "Do you
compete with us?"
- "Do you
so?"
- "We can
stay here till the night falls."
- "So I can."
- "Does this
place belong to you?"
- "Or does
it belong to you?"
The boy exclaimed
in anger:
- "Sister!"
- "You shut
up!" replied her and addressing to the yogurt-seller's daughter:
- "We are
not like you at all."
- "I am not
either."
- "What are
you saying?"
- "It is none
of your business."
- "Say it
again like a man!" threatened the boy.
- "I don't
mind saying."
- "Then say
it again."
- "I am not
afraid of you."
- "We are
not either."
Meanwhile a blue
brand-new De Soto was passing through the eroded parquets of the street.
- "Sister?"
- "What?"
- "My father
can drive even that blue car, can't he?"
- "Yes, he
can."
The yogurt-seller's
daughter heard their conversation but couldn't understand anything. In fact,
she didn't have an aunt but she always wished she had an aunt who had brought
her chocolates from Sariyer and candy-floss from Emirgan. Or she wished her
father had been a driver… and she wandered whether the chocolate was really
something so sweet.
- "Sister?"
called the boy.
- "What?"
- "Isn't it
better we ask for chocolate?"
- "Do shut
up!"
- "We can
buy chocolate, can't we?"
- "I said
shut up!"
- "I know
that we don't buy any, because there are tar boilers in the hell."
- "Didn't
I tell you shut up?"
The yogurt-seller's
daughter couldn't help laughing, so the sister lost her temper once more:
- "Why did
you laugh?"
- "What's
it to you?"
- "What did
you say, ha?" asked the boy in anger.
- "You can't
frighten me. When did you see the hell?"
- "When did
you see it?"
- "I had never
seen the hell."
- "We hadn't
either."
- "Then how
do you mention the tar boilers in hell?"
The two siblings
looked at each other and it was the sister answering:
- "I heard
it from my father. Don't you believe that he can know the tar boilers?"
- "May be
he can, but not you."
- "Sister!"
interrupted the boy,
- "What?"
- "Let's show
her that we can buy chocolates whenever we want."
With her yellow
tin ear rings, the yogurt-seller's daughter challenged:
- "Please
do show me then."
- "Let's show,
ha?"
- "You pretend
as if you have money."
- "You mean
we don't have money?"
- "Do you
so?"
- "Here it
is!"
- "My father
gives me more money" said the yogurt-seller's daughter unpleasantly.
Then, the sister
too showed her money and the yogurt-seller's daughter made a face and replied:
"My father
gives me so much money that I don't know how to spend."
The sister was
about to cry:
- "Then go
and buy a chocolate for fifty!"
- "I can buy
if I want, but I won't."
- "Then we
buy," said the boy.
- "Sure you
can!"
- "You mean
we can't?"
- "Buy then!"
- "You, the
fool!" replied the boy.
The "fool"
turned red in the face:
- "You are
the fool actually!"
The red color of
the ribbon was reflected in the face of sister:
- "I had nothing
to do with that matter."
- "Then why
did your brother do so?"
- "Any way,
we aren't as rude as you are."
- "I am not
as rude as you are actually."
- "You shut
up…"
- "But we
have money, haven't we sister? So why do we have to shut up?"
Finally they arrived
at the shop leaving the yogurt-seller's daughter behind. Her hair was dirty
and tousled. An alcoholic and a gambler father and four sisters were all she
had in life. Each morning her sisters were fading in the sirens of the tobacco
factory and in evenings they were empty-handed on their way home. Her mother
used to return home with packages of grape, fig, cheese and olive when she was
alive. She also used to cook, do the wash, comb her daughters' hair and attach
ribbons she had made from scraps. Her sisters had no obligation to work at the
factory; instead, they used to ski, jump rope and play with ball. Her father
at all used not to drink this much then.
They got out of
the shop having a chocolate for fifty and first the red paper was thrown away,
and then the silver proceeded. Finally the chocolate was shared and eaten. Was
it really too sweet? But again the girl said:
- "I wouldn't
eat it even though it didn't cost a thing," she said.
Was she heard?
If so, what did they say? She pretended not to show her envy while they were
eating their chocolate. Yet, pieces of chocolates eaten with relish were lingering
in her mind. When she opened her eyes, plenty of chocolates in multicolored
gelatins were being demonstrated in the shop window. Then she closed her eyes
again, this time those lingering in her mind were a brother who she took to
the barber and shared her chocolate; a father who could drive even that big
blue car; and an aunt who brought nougats form Sariyer and candy-floss from
Emirgan. Her sister and the boy were walking together in the street when she
re-opened her eyes. She kept on closing and opening her eyes and they were in
the curve of the opposite street when she last saw them; they were vanished
in the street at her last opening of her eyes. She was about to go when she
saw red chocolate gelatins thrown on the pavement. She suddenly took a suspicious
glance at the street worrying to be considered a "Gipsy".
A simit-seller
passed her by.
She looked at the
windows of houses furnished with tulle curtains.
And she couldn't
help stooping and grasping that puckered silver gelatin.
Another simit-seller
was passing by.
She passed through
streets running the puckered gelatin down after and after as if it was just
a ball. The last street she came was so dirty that she could scent urine.
But, this didn't
prevent her from flattening the silver ball. Here it was the remnant of a chocolate
and she licked it up a several times after.
Orhan KEMAL