“Where are you? I needed the documents on Saturday, you promised.”
“Yes. I wasn’t here. I was leaving.”
“Leaving?”
“Yes, leaving.”
“Leaving what?”
“Leaving a comedy of errors.”
Lucky was a now. He delayed Sit Down. He learned to say maybe later in Turkey. It was lingua franca in inefficient micromanaged bureaucratic countries. Yeah, yeah.
Layers and years of later. He invented a tale. “I'll get them to you by Monday.” Ha, ha, ha. Monday turned into Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday. Lucky was a moss free rolling stone.
Please return to your seats. Fasten your seatbelt. Put your tray in an upright position and open your window blinds. Only the blind can see, said Omar adjusting his acuity.
Tuesday, October 30. Smell the scent and scene the screensaver scream team. His disappearance was discovered if you can discover a disappearance in a 4,000-year old historical zone.
Someone tried his line. A cold metallic message sang, “The number is no longer in service.”
It's a numbers game, said Profit Before People. They tried again. Ha, ha. No luck.
On the 30th, after the holiday, when Lucky was late for class, Ebru, the TEOL secretary in Giresun overlooking a Black Sea low cost coast harbor and Roman candle candy castles called him. No answer.
The previous week on the 23rd, she’d screamed in his cellular ear, “Where are you? You have a speaking class now.”
“I’ll be there in no time.”
At that decisive moment he was retuning his traveling shoes and salivating grilled meat. Coffee grounds coated his throat.
Turkish coffee should be hotter than hell, black as death and sweeter than love.
He showed up that afternoon and pushed TEOL students through a magic lantern language acquisition mirror.
A week later he was history.
Kill SIM
A German woman coughing on Flight 007 between Istanbul and Bratwurst via Bang Cock showed a refugee from Kiev how to fill out an arrival card for immigration.
A nervous confused Crimean woman wearing large silver hoop earrings fiddled with her passport and immigration documents misunderstanding quality of life values en route to sweet and sour Southeast Asian menu escapades with two daughters.
Ebru couldn’t find Lucky. His phone was dead. He’d turned it off and discarded the red Vodaphone SIM card into a green Re-cycle Through Re-Education Reform Labor Camp container at Gate 214 in the Istanbul pre-boarding zone while meditating on his death.
Passing through with élan.
He relaxed in 39B on an Airbus 330 with Winter Hawk gaining altitude.
Free to fly.
Bamboo exhaled.
The Language Company
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