The Abyssinian Proof

30

Amida squatted over the cloaked figure sprawled facedown amid the weeds and listing grave markers in the old cemetery behind the Fatih Mosque. He lifted the cloak. Beneath it was a dark-skinned boy with a thick mat of tightly curled black hair, a dark fuzz of down outlining his upper lip. His neck was arched back coquettishly, one cheek pressed against the earth, lips parted in a grimace of what could either be pain or ecstasy. His eyes were closed, but his face held nothing of repose, only hard absence. With trembling hands, Amida pulled the cloak back farther and saw that the boy was naked. Lines in the shape of two peaks had been carved into the boy’s back. Amida crouched over the body, rocking back and forth on his heels, making a thin keening sound.

A breeze suddenly sprang up. The cypresses creaked and sighed. Amida sat up and looked around nervously. Seeing no one, he tucked the cloak around the body as if putting a child to bed, then stood and ran out of the cemetery, through the courtyard of the mosque, past the tomb of Sultan Mehmet II, and down the Street of the Lion-House.