An Evil Eye

43

“ I suppose you want me to be grateful. You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Yashim, the little lala everyone loves. Even Fevzi Ahmet.”

Yashim shakes his head. “I wouldn’t expect it.”

“I know what’s wrong, don’t I?” Fevzi Ahmet inclines his head. “What makes you think too much. What makes you soft.”

He leers. Yashim does not react.

“And you can’t change, can you? I can teach craft, but there are some things that even I can never give.”

And he makes a little bow, of pure contempt.

Yashim thinks: I’m not like you. Out of all this bloody mess, this ruin of hopes, I have this small satisfaction. I know now, and forever, that I could never wish to be like you.