Chapter 12

"May we sit down? My stubs are killing me", Sila asks as she and Abel get to the station, "unless you have something better to do".

"Do you really have to call them that? Yes, yes we may". Abel walks her to a nearby bar and pulls a chair back for her.

"Yes, I do. I still don't trust you". She snorts as she sits down and starts browsing the menu. She pulls the two-way speaker closer to her from the middle of the table and calls out, "A bloody mary, please. And a glass of water".

Abel frowns on the other side of the table. "How generous of you".

"Don't get me wrong - you're paying".

"I expected nothing less of you".

"What's that supposed to mean?".

Sila grunts and crosses her arms, clearly waiting for an answer. After getting none once the drinks arrive she grabs the cocktail she turns herself completely away from Abel, mutters a swarm of curse words in Turkish and starts drinking.

"You  okay over there?", Abel asks after a few minutes of sipping his water in silence. Her expression doesn't even twitch.

"We should start looking for them soon, it's five minutes 'til eleven".

They rise from their seats and walk around the open area in front of the station. Three minutes into the search Sila abruptly stops and starts shivering, wrapping her arms around herself.

Once Abel notices that she isn't walking anymore he hurries back to her and gets a worried look on his face. "Sila, are you all right?"

"I-I don't know. This is all so sudden. What should I do once I see them? What should I say?". She tears up.

Abel stands in front of her, confused by her sudden outburst. He imagines every possible solution that he can think of but they leave him empty-handed. As a last resort he presses her head to his chest, trying to calm her down. To his surprise, she starts crying.

"I want to go home", she weeps, "Please, let me go home. I can't do this".

"If you quit now you'll regret it for the rest of your life. They're your children, Sila".

She tries to object but the words she blubbers come out in incomprehensibly short parts. All she can do is bawl into Abel's clothing.