“May I help?” he asked, stooping to pick up some dirty dishes. “I’d like to help.”
Hasim nodded, gesturing for Francis to go ahead.
Francis looked for a vacant spot on the bank and copied what the women were doing; some crouched down, some knelt. Francis was still a bit sore, so he opted to kneel on the very clean, sun warmed stone bank, and gently dunked his first dirty dish into the water.
The women either side of him quickly leaned in and tugged his linen sleeves up so they wouldn’t get wet, murmuringin Turkish as they did so.
“Thank you,” Francis said. “I probably should’ve done that first.”
The women smiled, eyes flicking up to Hasim to gauge his reaction. Perhaps he was the head caretaker, Francis thought. What a fabulous job. He watched the woman on his left, wearing robes of yellow and soft pink, as she carefully washed the dish without hitting any of the enormous orange and white mottled Koi. Francis copied her.
The woman on his right got up, having washed her dishes, and Hasim knelt in her place. When he picked up one of the dirties to wash, the other women down the line stopped what they were doing to stare.
Francis noticed. “Is something the matter?” he asked Hasim.
“No, no.” Hasim shook his head, then said something in Turkish to the women and they got back to work. There were a few shared giggles and whispers.
Francis wondered if Hasim didn’t usually wash the dishes. Had he blundered again?
But Hasim seemed content beside him, so Francis didn’t say anything. He was transfixed by the Koi, they were mesmerizing with their big mouths slurping up stray crumbs of food, and their fins waving back and forth.
Hasim said that the engineers for this water system came from Japan, which meant Türkiye must’ve done some trade or exchange. Granny would want to know. Francis knew he should probably ask, ply Hasim for information, or one of the women.
He should…but he found he didn’t want to.
At least for one day, he didn’t want to think about states and trade, and all of that. He didn’t want to be that person today; he wanted to enjoy good company and maybe pet some more cats.
Chapter 10
After the dishes were all done, it was time for the cat’s early lunch. Francis helped with that and was familiar with the procedure now.
After that, he walked with Hasim to the kitten pavilion. They had been fed as well and were in various stages of playing and falling asleep where they sat, as kittens tended to do. Hasim found his little companion and tucked the sleepy kitten inside his robes for a snuggle.
Francis asked if there was any work he could do, but Hasim said they would have lunch first. They reclined on big cushions inside the pavilion, cuddled the kittens, and ate the food brought out on gold trays by two of the ladies in pink. Children from very young ages to older played with the kittens and fed tiny ones from glass bottles. Hasim explained ones who had no mothers needed hand feeding, and they taught the children to do this so they could grow up to be cat helpers here.
Everyone had food brought to them, the trays set onto low rise tables to stop the kittens from diving into the plates of fruit, cheese, and sweet breads. Although, being kittens, they did try.
Francis was quite content to stay here forever. He hadn’t felt so happy in years.
After lunch, with most of the kittens now dozing, Hasim asked Francis if he liked stories and fairy tales.
Francislovedstories and told Hasim so. “My nose is always in a book,” he confessed. “I adore stories.”
Hasim smiled in response. “My favourite story growing up was The Dragon Prince. Do you know this?”
“No, I’ve never heard this one,” Francis said, propping himself up eagerly on the cushion and getting comfortable. “Do tell.”
“Once upon a time,” Hasim began, “there was a sultan and sultana, that is a king and queen, who longed for a child of their own.
“They tried everything, all of the different ways to make love, all of the best herbs to help a pregnancy, and all of the prayers to God, but still they were without a child for many years. They were so sad. ‘We will never have a child of our own,’ they said!
“‘Oh, but did you pray to the dragon,’ said their advisor. ‘Pray to the dragon, maybe it will answer.’ So, they prayed and made offerings to the dragon, an elder god from the time before time, and soon the queen’s belly grew big, and she gave birth to a son.
“But the baby was not as they expected. This baby had shiny scales all over him, and golden eyes. He looked like a serpent in the shape of a baby, and the king and queen did not like this. They sent their son, their new baby they had so desperately wanted, to the topmost tower, with the wet nurse, where they couldn’t see him.
“There he stayed many years, growing up in the shape of a man, but with the skin and hot breath of a dragon. People called him The Dragon Prince, and they were afraid of his temper, afraid he would eat them. In fact, he did eat many servants over the years.
“Then, when the dragon prince came of age, he said he wished to marry. ‘I want a wife,’ he told his parents. So, the king and queen, fearful of angering him, requested eligible young women from all across their lands, to come and meet their son.
