October 12, 1976

October 12, 1976, marks a small but decisive act in Kemal’s effort to return to Füsun’s life: he carries his father’s pearl earrings to Nesibe’s home in the Çukurcuma neighborhood and entrusts them to her for Füsun. The visit follows a period of renewed anguish at their separation. It does not restore the relationship that day, but it changes Kemal’s immediate course: he leaves the house relieved of the indignation that had kept him apart and with Nesibe’s cautious encouragement to remain near Füsun.

The Date and the Deliberate Visit

Kemal gives the date as October 12, 1976, and recalls the day as bright and sunny, with a trace of summer glare. The earrings were already in his pocket, inside the box his father had given him. His route through Beyoğlu offered him plausible alternatives: after lunch at Hacı Salih, he could walk a few minutes to see Nesibe, or enter the Palace Cinema, where the next show was due to begin at 1:45. By 1:40, however, he had paid his bill and was walking down Çukurcuma Hill. The choice was no longer disguised as coincidence; he admitted to himself that he had come with the visit in mind.

The scene’s emotional contrasts accompany him down the hill: food in his stomach, sunlight behind him, love on his mind, panic in his soul, and an ache in his heart. The earrings are not an incidental possession but the reason he has come. He had promised, in a letter delivered through Ceyda, to bring them to Füsun. That promise had become his answer to the fear that a mistake might cost him the chance to see her again.

Nesibe’s Account of Füsun’s Marriage

Nesibe answers the door. Kemal initially says that he need not come upstairs and presents the box as a gift from his father, dropped off on his way past. Nesibe instead asks him in for coffee, explaining that she wants to speak before Füsun returns. In the sunlit house, her sewing materials are spread about the room: she has taken an urgent evening-gown order, and Füsun is helping her with it.

Over coffee, Nesibe describes Füsun as deeply hurt and asks Kemal to be patient with her moods. She explains that Tarık had first proposed marriage as a remedy for Füsun’s distress, and that the family eventually agreed to her marriage to Feridun. Feridun had known Füsun since she was fourteen and once loved her intensely, though she had then paid him little attention. Nesibe portrays him now as absorbed in the film world and often away from home; she also suggests that he is not as deeply in love with Füsun as he once was. She does not deny that the couple developed feelings for each other, but presents the marriage as a practical response to the crisis rather than as a settled romantic attachment.

The account makes clear what Nesibe means by Füsun’s ordeal: Füsun had slept with Kemal before marriage, and marriage was treated as the way to remove the resulting stain on her reputation. Nesibe holds Kemal responsible for having contributed to this predicament, even as she invites him to help Füsun recover. She also tells him that Füsun was affected by his broken engagement to Sibel and had heard of his suffering. Her suggestion that Füsun may eventually leave Feridun gives Kemal hope, but it remains Nesibe’s prediction, not a change that has already occurred.

The Earrings and the Unfinished Apology

Kemal tells Nesibe that he wants to repair the heartbreak he caused and asks for her help in winning Füsun back. He places the box of his father’s pearl earrings in her hands as a present for Füsun. The handover is mediated: Füsun is not home, so Kemal cannot offer the gift directly or learn her response. Nesibe accepts it, making herself an intermediary in his attempt to return.

The exchange also brings up a separate, earlier object. Kemal asks about an earring of Füsun’s that he says he retrieved on the first night he came to the house, but that never reached her. His question distinguishes that missing earring from the pair he has brought on October 12. The visit therefore gathers two unresolved gestures into one conversation: the lost object from his first visit and the new gift meant to signal remorse. The text establishes that the earlier earring did not reach Füsun, but this exchange does not establish what happened to it or whether she will receive the pearl earrings.

Nesibe warns Kemal, by glancing toward the door, that he should leave before Füsun catches him there. He obeys and walks back up Çukurcuma Hill toward Beyoğlu. His mood has shifted: he feels freed from indignation and from the forms of pique that had turned his anger inward. The immediate consequence is not reconciliation but relief, coupled with a practical opening—Nesibe tells him he is welcome to come on any evening.

A Turning Point Within a Longer Waiting

The date’s importance lies in how it redirects Kemal’s separation from Füsun into repeated presence. In the days before the visit, he had reasoned that seeing her several times a week would be the most hopeful resolution, and that he must keep his promise to bring the earrings. October 12 converts that resolution into action. Yet the scene remains tentative: Füsun is absent, her marriage to Feridun continues, and Kemal’s hope of winning her back depends on Nesibe’s interpretation of the marriage and her willingness to help.

The visit anticipates the pattern that will define Kemal’s later years. He comes to value not only time spent with Füsun but also the Keskin household and the ordinary objects and routines connected with her. Across eight years of faithful visits, evenings with the family and watching television provide a sense of peace and of being outside time; the news, repeating that Turkey is moving toward civil war, breaks that refuge. The private prospect opened by Nesibe’s invitation thus develops within a city and country increasingly unsettled. October 12 is not the fulfillment of Kemal’s hope but the moment he begins to pursue it through patience, gifts, and continued attendance at Füsun’s family home.