Hello Ester (Afternoon, Day 6)

The Captain Cezmi I met up with today was the same Captain Cezmi I had once fought alongside in the attack on the Taksim Barracks and against the Italians in Libya. It was strange, as though the intervening years had barely touched that stubborn old man. His hairs had barely started greying; there were just a few strands of silver here and there and one or two wrinkles, that's all. And yet this was the same man that had been there with us during our victories and defeats and had experienced even more tragedy in Libya, the Balkans and Gallipoli. He had seen the full horror of war with his own eyes and felt all its ignominy and its shame in his bones and yet there was no sadness or despair in his eyes, nor was there a sense of defeat or remorse about him. The way he spoke, it was as though we were the victors. And this was not an attempt to deceive us, or himself; he spoke with conviction and with a firm belief in every word he uttered. True, for some time, the country had lost its mind and lost its way but that would soon be brought to an end. Not by him, of course, but by patriots such as ourselves assuming the reins of power once more. Listening to him was unbelievable: he really did live in the past, and, to be precise, in those first uncertain but heady days when war had just been declared and we were swept away by the delusion that we would end up victorious…

Wait, I'm sorry, I'm digressing. Cezmi Bey actually did have some important information for me, especially about you… It may not have been the truth but it was still exciting… The hope that I may still see you again… See, I'm doing it again, getting things all mixed up… I told you I did not have what it takes to be a writer. What I should say first I say last… Anyway, back to where we were. I was telling you how we captured the Topçu Barracks in Taksim but then I had to stop because of my scheduled meeting with Reşit and our planned visit to Cezmi Bey. I took the elevator downstairs to the lobby. Reşit was down there waiting for me.