fatal journey
DESCRIPTION
By: Jercy Yang 1 Words in Oxford 3000: 95% 2 Chapter 2- Kurdish Surprise…….10 Chapter 5- Time to leave………..32 Chapter 4- Still a stranger……..24 Chapter 1- The Beginning…………7 Preface..............................5 About the Author………………………4 3 with her mates. But she doesn’t She dreams to be a global traveler years in June, is a girl who daydreams novel written with her kinky imagination. Hope you’ll enjoy it. Peace. Jercy Yang, who’s going to be 19 4TRANSCRIPT
FATAL JOURNEY
By: Jercy Yang
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Words Checked: 2333
Words in Oxford 3000: 95%
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Contents:
About the Author………………………4
Preface..............................5
Chapter 1- The Beginning…………7
Chapter 2- Kurdish Surprise…….10
Chapter 3- The Encounter………21
Chapter 4- Still a stranger……..24
Chapter 5- Time to leave………..32
Chapter 6- It ended in Ankara..33
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About The Author
Jercy Yang, who’s going to be 19
years in June, is a girl who daydreams
much. She dreams to have a German
husband and a house by the lake.
She dreams to be a global traveler
with her mates. But she doesn’t
dream to be a writer. Here it is a
novel written with her kinky
imagination. Hope you’ll enjoy it.
Peace.
4
Preface
Her name is Sue Preece, a
37-year-old woman happily married
with Chris Preece. She has just quit
her job as a journalist because she’s
tired of all those competing
colleagues and she wants to
experience the life while she’s still
alive. By traveling.
There are five members in the
family. The husband, Chris Preece,
40 years old, and two sons, Steven,
5
who is going to the junior school and
Joel, who’s in an elementary school.
The last member is their dog, JuJu.
JuJu has been part of the family for
three years since Steven found her on
the street.
Her journey starts …
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Chapter 1- The beginning
One evening after dinner, while we
were taking a walk, I told Chris about
my idea of traveling alone.
“How are we going to do this
separately?” asked Chris.
“Hey come on… it’s going to be really
interesting. Think about this, we are
in different countries missing each
other. How romantic!” I said.
“That’s rather cliché for me.”
We burst out laughing. You know,
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he’s just too realistic sometimes.
For him, I dream too much.
I knew Chris was furious about my
decision of traveling without him. But
at last I won, I convinced him and it
took me only five hours! There’s no
denying that family is important to me,
but Chris knows me well. He knows
what I want. He decided to stay
home and take care of our sons so that
I can travel without any worries. I
really appreciated that.
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“Thanks for always supporting me...”
I kissed my family goodbye in the
airport and started off for my journey.
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Chapter 2- Kurdish Surprise
My first destination is Diyarbakir,
Turkey. It is situated in southeastern
Turkey, on the banks of the Tigris River.
Two languages are spoken here,
Turkish and Kurdish. I’ve always
wanted to visit there because of the
Kurdish people and the famous Tigris
River. It took me three hours to get
there from Urfa. The bus stopped at
several check points, soldiers armed
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with guns got on the bus from the
front and rear doors checking our
passports or IDs. The atmosphere
was quite tense. It was the daily
routine, because there were rallies
going on here everyday.
Finally, I arrived in Diyarbakir at six
in the morning. It was a cold day for
June. I left my bags in the hotel
and started to wander in the town
with my camera. It was crowded in
the downtown. Women together
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with children and friends. I guess
there are barely foreigners or
tourists in Diyarbakir because they
were all glancing at me as if I were
from Mars. I was looking for post
cards to send Chris and let him know
where and how I am. In the end, I
gave up searching for post cards.
People were nervous when they see
me and they were not willing to talk
to me. It wasn’t until another
visitor told me about the rally that I
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understood why. There was a rally
of PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party).
Anyone who was found talking with
foreigners would be considered
suspicious and get caught. I
supposed I would be experiencing it
again as I planned to stay in
Diyarbakir for a few months. A man
approached me when I stopped at a
fruit shop.
“Where are you from?” he asked.
“Wales, why?”
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“Are you here for tourism?” He spoke
with a tone of doubt and
unfriendliness.
“What else could I do here?” I tried
not to seem weak.
The conversation kept going like this
until he said…
“Sorry, it was my fault. I thought you
were my ex-girlfriend. You look just
like her! I’m really sorry.”
Oh my, I am already 37 years old!
This young man is less than 25 years
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old. An apology he offered was to
be my guide. I thought for a
minute, but since I know almost
nothing about Diyarbakir and
Kurdish, I agreed happily.
He introduced himself as a 28-year
interior designer, his name is Ahmed.
He just got back from England a few
months ago where he worked there as
an apprentice of a famous interior
designer. That was why he spoke
great English. Then he told me about
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this Irish girl he dated who left him for
another rich guy. I could see the
hate in his eyes so I tried not to talk
about that any more. Then Ahmed
asked questions about me.
“I’m 37 years old and I’m married. I
have two sons, Steven and Joel. Oh,
and our dog, JuJu. I was a journalist
but I just quit three months ago. I
want to travel, to experience the life
when I’m still alive.” I answered.
“That’s good. How long do you plan
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to stay here?” Ahmed asked.
“I don’t know, maybe for a few
months. It depends on me, I don’t
really have a schedule. But I know
what I’m going to do right now…
Hunt for food!” I laughed.
Ahmed took me to a Kurdish
restaurant and we ordered Lahmacun
and raw meat. Lahmacun is made
with dough, bestial oil and with meat
on it. It’s something like really thin
pizza and it is quite tasty. As for raw
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meat, it’s another popular Kurdish
dish. It was served with green salad
and lemon, and it was also delicious.
I loved Kurdish dishes ever since then.
Ahmed was Kurdish and he told me
it was forbidden to have anything
published in Kurdish. Officially,
there is nobody identified as Kurdish
in Turkey. Somehow, they do exist in
Iran, Syria, and Armenia. There are
lots of immigrants from Syria since
Diyarbakır has a border with Syria and
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most of them stay in Diyarbakir. His
parents were also immigrants from
Syria. I was glad that Ahmed was
willing to tell me about the Kurdish
people. Some of my Turkish friends
refused to talk about it with me.
The clock reminded me of time, and I
realized we had been talking for four
hours. Ahmed had to leave. We
said goodbye in front of the restaurant
and he promised to meet me at my
hotel tomorrow morning to show me
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around. Ahmed left his phone number
in case I had to reach him.
Right when I was happy to have the
luck of a free guide, I bumped into an
old woman. She was a very old lady
and I thought she was blind because
her eyes weren’t looking at me when
she talked to me. I said sorry and
with my very limited Turkish, I tried to
communicate with her. I guess she
said something like she lived nearby
and she had to go home because her
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grandchildren were waiting for her. I
accompanied her to her home and
found the grandchildren thin and dirty.
I said goodbye and I called Ahmed to
postpone our date to 2pm. I had
decided to do something the next
morning for the kids and this old lady.
Chapter 3- The encounter
I bought fruits, vegetables, and
sweets this morning. People seemed
friendlier and less nervous now.
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Well… at least they talked to me and
some even smiled at me. They made
my day. I then rushed to the old lady
that I bumped in on the streets last
night. I knocked on her door but no
one answered, so I opened the door.
“Hello? Is there anybody home?”
“Who’s that?” Someone answered
me in English.
“Sorry, I’m here looking for an old
lady.”
From the kitchen emerged a man
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with a glass of water in his hand. I
told him about the encounter last
night. He was the old lady’s son,
Bera. He used to work in Istanbul but
no one would hire him because he
spoke Turkish with a Kurdish accent.
Bera now works as a tour guide who
draws customers at random on the
streets. Bera’s family was often
starved because there weren’t many
tourists. I explained my purpose of
coming and showed him what I’d
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bought in the market. And I could
tell from the tears in his eyes that he
was really touched. I turned my
head away, I didn’t mean to make
others cry. But I was happy to give
them a hand.
Chapter 4- Still a stranger
I went back to downtown. I noticed
some kids were approaching me. At
first, it was a small group, but then
the number soon grew. They were
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getting close and I was standing here
nervously. Luckily, I saw Ahmed
passing by, so I waved and yelled his
name. Those kids escaped right away.
“Good timing, you saved me.” I said.
“Those kids are violent attackers.
They would do everything just to get
your money.” Ahmed told me.
“Thank God you were there! I was
scared.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll always be there for
you, Sherry.” He said the name
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Sherry small but I could still hear that.
“Thanks.” I felt a bit odd hearing this.
But I said nothing, I didn’t want to
talk about his sad past. I simply told
him that I was looking for postcards
for my husband. I didn’t talk much on
the way to shops. Ahmed was
keeping the one-way conversation
going for more than 20 minutes. We
stopped for the postcards, I missed
Chris so much and started to have the
idea of going back to Wales. I told
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Ahmed about that and he got mad! I
didn’t see why. He was so mad that
he didn’t talk when we were walking.
I began to feel afraid of this man that I
had met only one day ago, and who
was actually still a stranger to me. I
did not know him, I didn’t even know
what he had told me was true. He
could be dangerous. I guess I showed
my fears because he told me not to be
worried, he just thought about the
past with Sherry, his ex-girlfriend. I
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tried to comfort him like a sister, also
to remind him that the girl and I were
totally different.
“You gotta seize the day, one cannot
always live in the past.” I said,
trying to sound like an expert.
“I know, but I just can’t help myself.”
“Did you go to a psychologist for this?”
“No, I don’t need it at all.” That was
loud.
“Alright, calm down. Why don’t we
go have dinner? It’s on me.”
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“Fine, if you want.”
So we went to another restaurant in
downtown. I had Kebab today, I’d
had Kebab in France and it was
delicious. Ahmed didn’t eat, he
drank the beer instead. I dared not
to talk to him…
After dinner, he was better and I
started to talk. He suggested going to
the River Tigris at night because the
view is very different from what you
see during the day. I agreed, I didn’t
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have any plans for that night.
We spent forty minutes walking
from the restaurant to the River Tigris.
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It was just amazing at night! You
can’t imagine how great it was. I
stood there, imagining the past,
Mesopotamia past. Yeah, the past
that I learnt from history class. I
never thought I would stand here
someday. The Turkish government had
made it to a dam. I was wondering
when I should leave Diyarbakir.
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Chapter 5- Time to leave
Therefore, I decided to leave two
weeks after. I spent these two weeks
with Ahmed. All was going good until
I told him about my plan of leaving
Diyarbakir. He went crazy and
shouting at me saying that I would
never leave. I was completely
scared. I didn’t go back to my hotel,
I went to Bera’s home and he kindly
asked me to stay that night. I called
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Chris to tell him about this. Chris
asked me to leave right away but it
was eleven o’clock at night, there was
no way I could get leave. So I
decided to leave the next morning
without informing Ahmed.
Chapter 6- It ended in Ankara
I spent twelve hours taking the bus to
Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey.
Then I went to the hamam, a place
where people scrub your back and.
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After having a great shower in hamam,
I decided to walk around the city and
take notes about where I could visit
the next day. I wanted to visit St.
Sophia church, the Blue Mosque and
the Topkapi Palace. The next
morning, I got up early and had a big
breakfast in the hotel restaurant. I
was full of energy and ready for my
adventure. Somehow, it felt like
wherever I went, there was someone
following me. I was eager to find out
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who that was but I couldn’t. Every
time I turned around my head, the
person was already gone. For the
very first time of my life, I feared for
something unknown. On 25th June on
the street of Istanbul, I heard steps
approaching me. Fast steps
reminded me of terrible scenes in
movies. I knew someone was walking
towards me and all of a sudden, the
person got my neck and held it so
tightly that I couldn’t breathe. I was
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struggling to breathe, and I wanted to
know who that was. I tried hard to
get rid of the person but I couldn’t, he
was far stronger than I was. Then I
fell on the ground, I saw it was a man
with a hat covered. He took it off
and said “I can’t bear to see your face
anymore, Sherry.”
It was Ahmed!
It was how I ended my life.