March 9, 1984

March 9, 1984, is the date on which Kemal Basmacı learned of Tarık’s death at the Keskin home in Çukurcuma. The evening’s unexpected signs of upheaval—the brightly lit house, the absent dinner, and the neighbors gathered before the television—turn a familiar visit into a scene of bereavement, bringing Kemal and Füsun together in grief.

Date and Circumstances

On Friday, March 9, two months after Füsun had obtained her driver’s license, Çetin dropped Kemal off at the house at suppertime. The windows and curtains were open, and lights were on both upstairs and downstairs. This was striking in a household where Nesibe the seamstress routinely objected if even one upstairs light had been left burning at dinner; Füsun would usually go up at once to turn it off.

The unusual brightness initially suggested to Kemal that a quarrel might have broken out between Füsun and Feridun. Instead, he found no one at the dinner table and no food prepared. The television was on, watched by two bewildered neighbors, while Ekrem Güçlü appeared in costume as a grand vizier and delivered a speech about infidels. The ordinary signs of supper had given way to an unsettled household and an unfamiliar audience.

Tarık’s Death

The neighbor Efe, an electrician, told Kemal that Tarık had passed away. Tarık’s death followed a dispute or other aggravating development at a meeting of the association formed by people who had lost money to bankers. After a banker with whom Tarık had invested went bankrupt and fled the country, Tarık had joined the victims’ association, whose efforts to find a legal route to recover their losses had failed. Its meetings often dissolved into arguments, and some members had thrown rocks at banks or assaulted clerks. Tarık had previously distanced himself after incidents of violence, but had begun attending meetings again that summer.

On the day he died, something at the association particularly annoyed him. He returned home complaining of chest pains; the doctor arrived hours too late to help and confirmed that Tarık had died of a heart attack. The date therefore joins a private family loss to the wider financial crisis that had drawn Tarık back into the association.

Füsun and Kemal

After hearing the news, Kemal ran upstairs—not to the master bedroom, but to Füsun’s small room, a place he had long imagined. Füsun was curled up on the bed and crying. She straightened when she saw him, and they embraced with all their strength; she rested her head between his neck and chest and wept convulsively.

Füsun was especially distressed because she had not been home when her father died. Nesibe the seamstress had taken her to a house in Moda to finish a rush-order dress, continuing her sewing work despite Kemal’s financial assistance to the family. The death thus carries both the shock of sudden loss and Füsun’s anguish over having been absent while her father waited at home. For Kemal, the anticipated domestic conflict disappears; the evening instead gives way to a close, physical expression of shared grief.