Hotel

When the owner of the old Hotel, answered the door he was surprised to see the men in uniform and he didn’t hide his disappointment. He wished he hadn’t answered the door. He found some excuses saying that he hadn’t washed the sheets yet; there was no running water in the hotel; because of the panic in Izmir everyone was going somewhere and there were all kinds of people staying in the hotel; this was really not a suitable place for the Officers; there were bedbugs and so on. He said, “If you want we could find another place for you.”

“Is there any other Hotel around here?” asked the Commander.

“No, but maybe the Mayor will find a suitable place for you.”

“That may be so but in the middle of the night we can’t find the Mayor.”

It started to rain preventing them to continue to talk at the door so they entered the building. It was a good  thing for the Hotel owner otherwise Jamil would have hit him. Once they were settled, Bekir Sami and Captain Selahaddin started to work on a report that they were going to send to Istanbul in the candlelight.

Jamil was resting in the next room. He still had his clothes on. Lieutenant Farouk was staring out of the window through the curtain. His boots were dusty. With his thin legs and thin neck he looked more like a schoolboy in the uniform. Jamil thought to himself, ‘What is this young man doing in the middle of this terrible battle? Has the mighty Ottoman Army come down to this?’ Then he thought about the owner of the Hotel. He was a big strong man. Sergeant Osman called these types ‘oak crushers’. This nickname fit him; an egoist, someone who never does anything for the good of others and has an inborn tendency to do all things bad. Jamil wondered why he remembered Sergeant Osman, maybe it was because he was a Circassian like Rashid. He remembered Sergeant Osman was from this region. His home town must have been Mihailich. He tried to remember if he had ever mentioned Rashid’s father Ali. Jamil thought he must have unconsciously been trying to find his friends from this region.

Jamil smiled. Osman was an Artillery Sergeant. They were together during the Balkan Wars, Gallipoli and the Palestinian fronts. Osman had a step-dad who was Captain Ibrahim, also a Circassian; they were together at Yemen. So Osman was with the Military since he was a child. He liked to be a gunner. He was proud to be a gunner. He was working hard and he earned his post as a sergeant yet Jamil thought Osman really didn’t understand how the guns operated. That’s why he had to be sent to another post in the infantry on the first opportunity during the First Suez Canal Campaign. He was among the first who crossed the Canal but he never returned. The mad Circassian… Jamil wondered if he had been killed that day at the Canal, if he did it was my fault. I sent him there; I could have found another way of keeping him with us. He sighed. Did he want to go or didn’t he? When I sent him to the Infantry to replace a man who was wounded did he realized that I thought he was not worthy as a Gunner? Did I hurt his feelings?

Farouk interrupted Jamil’s thoughts, “If I ever get out of this pit, Captain…” Lieutenant Farouk was looking out of the window already regretting that he started the conversation.

“Yes, if we ever survive this?”

“It will be like being born again…”

“Why are you saying that?”

“We won’t owe a dime to anybody. Look at that! We will recruit all the soldiers one by one; we will find all the rifles and bayonets, all the bandages even all the bullets one by one. We have to do everything by ourselves. It is a very hard, very honourable and valuable service indeed… You were just about to strike the Hotel owner downstairs, weren’t you?”

“Me? Yes, I thought about that for a second. How did you know?”

“You pushed me aside and you started to breathe heavily.”

“You wanted me to hit him?”

“No. That wouldn’t make any difference. I wondered, if it had been the Greek Officers at the door, how he would behave. If one of the bandits had rung the bell how would he welcome them? I know those types. They don’t even have fear of death. They don’t have any normal feelings like normal people. They can sense people’s fears though, and then they think they are afraid as well. But if they realized their own lack of fear, they become really ruthless. They are capable of anything.”

Lieutenant Farouk stopped talking. Jamil thought what he was saying was complicated. He tried to think of other bullies he knew from his past.  Then Captain Selahaddin came in the room. “Why is no one asleep yet? You need some rest, Farouk.”

“I will go to bed soon, Captain.”

“I will get the Commander’s bag so that I won’t wake you up in the morning. Is it still raining?”

“It is not as bad as before. Why didn’t Rasim take the train? He is going to get wet. He could have brought some ammunition on the way back.”

“The Commander thought about that and didn’t want to risk losing the Locomotive to the Greeks. Now get some sleep. It looks like we will have a difficult day at Akhisar tomorrow.”

He took the bag and left the room.

Lieutenant Farouk blew the candle out and went to bed after requesting permission from Jamil.

 Jamil woke up at the crack of dawn. He went to the window and lit a cigarette. The houses were wet from the ground halfway up the walls. The roads were muddy. The painted papers around the makeshift victory arch on Izmir road were all wet and torn after the rain. Blue and white flags were not waving in the wind anymore; they were drooping down with the rain. The entire street was filled with those flags as far as the eye could see. Jamil tried to find out which houses were the Greek houses and which were the Turkish houses. It was equally disgusting to think the Greeks hung these flags because they weren’t afraid of the Turks anymore and the Turks hung blue and white flags because they were afraid of the Greeks!

How would the Greek Army enter in this town where people were either scared or overjoyed? Even if the enemy army entered the town, can it stay here for good? Half of the people think that they have been defeated and the others feel victorious even though there has not been a battle yet.

The humidity was causing the smoke coming out of chimneys to stay low and stretch over the roofs. The cows had been let out after being milked and now they were walking around the town and looking lost. Jamil felt like having some warm milk and bagels. Then he changed his mind. ‘No, not the bagels, day old bread crumbled in a bowl of warm  milk with some sugar.’ He looked at Farouk. He thought he said something. Farouk was talking in his sleep; his face looked like he ate something sour. Jamil thought Farouk must be remembering something sad.

Jamil passed his hand through his beard and thought, ‘I have to shave I can’t see the Commander unshaven.’ He didn’t like the dirty collar on his neck. It felt like it was stinging him. He thought, ‘I wish there was hot water, lots of hot water, some scented  soap…no, not the scented soap, just regular white soap…a very clean shiny Turkish Bath.’ That thought really awakened him. ‘We are already at war! We don’t know that yet but it feels as if we are already at war”. He always felt this way even during the fiercest battles. He always wanted hot water and soap. In peace time one can get a bath whenever he wants; no need to dream about that; no need to worry about the dirty collar of his shirt. That was right. They were at war! He slept without taking his gun out of his belt. He slept on his back first, only after he was deep in sleep did he turn to his left side. He would have woken up if he had turned onto his right side because of the gun. He was accustomed to this as a warrior. Somebody knocked on the door. He thought it must be the Hotel owner bringing some tea. He didn’t feel like answering the door. He wished to get out of there without getting into a fight with him. Then he was surprised that it was Captain Selahaddin at the door.

“What happened?”

“I asked him to bring us some tea. He refused. He said it was not time for tea. I wanted some warm water so that the Commander could shave. He didn’t even answer me. He grumbled and went into the bathroom. It was half an hour ago. He hasn’t come out yet.”

“What if we kicked in the bathroom door?”                                                                   

“I think that is what he wants. That’s why I didn’t do it. If we beat him up he will be clean in the eyes of the enemy. The Commander also noticed how you looked at him yesterday. He asked you to be patient; whatever he does, stay cool. They fear the Greeks and they prefer that we beat them up so they can plead innocence. The Commander just laughed at the situation and used cold water to shave.”

“No news from Manisa yet?”

Selahaddin looked at him for some time. “I know what you are thinking! But I don’t think so. He doesn’t look like a guy who would deceive us by saying he is going to Manisa and head towards Usak instead! Have you met him before? Was he at the school with you?”

“No, I haven’t seen him before.”

“When Farouk wakes up; don’t talk in a loud voice!”

“Why?”

“The Innkeeper listens. When I opened the door suddenly after getting suspicious I saw him lean towards our door. I asked him if he dropped something. He said, ‘no’ and vanished. It is just like we are surrounded by the enemy. Do you get the same feeling?”

“I think it is even worse. It is more disgusting than being in the enemy territory.” He looked at Farouk, “He must be really tired. He didn’t wake up even with all this noise.”

Selahaddin thought about the options for a while then said, “ We have to do something about this situation.”

“Like what?”

“Look at us. The Army Commander is here with three officers, taking shelter in a hotel. It is not good. It is not good for morale. We have to find somewhere else to stay. We should go check the Military Recruitment Office to see if it is a suitable place for us and whether the President of the Office is there or not. How many privates are on duty there?”

“That’s right. I will go and check now. Is there anything else?”

“If it is a suitable place to stay, we don’t need anything else. We will have breakfast there. If it is locked, I think it must be locked; we should go to the Gendarmerie base and ask for help. Find a solution Jamil, pretend you invaded Akhisar with your troops!”

The Reluctant Warrior

by Kemal Tahir

Translated by Elif Mat