The Tomb in Turkey

THIRTY-THREE

The rest of Carole and Jude’s stay in Kayaköy was pleasantly uneventful which, given what had happened in the first four days of the holiday, was probably just as well. They got into a pleasant rhythm of doing some things together and some separately. Sometimes they might be apart at lunchtime, but they went out to eat together every evening. They explored the varied cuisine on offer in some of the other restaurants. They tried the more expensive options, the zhuzhed-up boutique hotel Izela and the Lissiki Wine House. They had excellent and reasonably priced meals at the Village Garden (literally, someone’s back garden) and the Villa Rhapsody (known as Atilla’s after its ebullient owner).

But more often than not they ended up eating in the casual welcoming atmosphere of Antik. And Jude failed regularly to stop having a large wonderfully cold beer before she moved on to the wine.

At the beginning of their second week they even went together to the archaeological site of Tlos to experience more of the Lycian culture. They climbed up the high rock, marvelling at the ingenuity and mindset of a civilization that would choose to build tombs in such inaccessible places.

But Carole still didn’t get the ‘TLOS PROPERTY’ joke.

One day they went to the fabulous sandy beach at Patara, but before they did anything else Carole insisted they should visit the ruined city, recently and very impressively excavated. After that they rented loungers. Jude stripped down to her bikini and sploshed about in the bracingly large waves, while Carole kept her trousers on and, sitting awkwardly on the edge of her lounger, tried to concentrate on one of her Times crosswords. Jude would have been happy to stay on the beach till it got dark, but aware of her friend’s lack of ease, agreed to leave about two. They had an excellent late lunch in a restaur-ant called Ayak in a nearby village, then returned to Morning Glory to laze by the pool.

As the days went by, Carole’s throat got less sore and, having gone through the spectrum from purple to yellow, her bruises slowly faded.

One morning they were visited at Morning Glory by the police – two very correct young officers who spoke excellent English. Both women made statements about the events of the Thursday evening. The policemen took their contact details but said there would be no need for them to change their travel arrangements. They could return to England the following Monday as planned.

They didn’t see Barney Willingdon again while they were out in Turkey. As soon as Henry was reunited with her husband, she had booked them on the first flight back to England, where she very soon forced him to consult a specialist in erectile dysfunction. It is to be hoped, given the amount of trouble it had caused to so many people, that his problem was sorted out. Maybe Viagra worked its magic, but Carole and Jude never found out because the Willingdons didn’t contact them again after they’d returned to Fethering.

On the Wednesday of their second week, as an indication of how much she was entering into the holiday spirit, Carole Seddon did two things she had sworn she never would. She bought a trashy novel (there were plenty of books in English available in Fethiye).

And, even more daringly, she bought a plain black bikini.

Then she spent a lot of the remainder of their time at Morning Glory reading the one and wearing the other, lying at the poolside with Jude a few loungers away. And when she’d finished – and, it had to be said, rather enjoyed – her Danielle Steel, she started reading Fifty Shades of Grey (only, of course, to see what all the fuss was about).

She’d long ago stopped wearing her money belt. She no longer even noticed the muezzin’s daily calls to prayer. As the days went by there seemed to be less and less urgency to go and see any more archaeological sites.

And Carole Seddon almost – dare it be said? – relaxed.

When, on the Monday morning, the pre-booked taxi arrived to take them to Dalaman Airport, Morning Glory was living up to its name, the frontage of the villa a splendid display of blue.

The weather was good when they got back to England, late that afternoon. Even though they had return railway tickets, Carole did not demur when Jude said they should get a cab from Gatwick to Fethering.

They parted on the pavement between their two houses. Jude went back to Woodside Cottage and began to check through the list of messages on her answering machine. She dealt with most of her client work on the landline, only allowing a favoured few her mobile number or email address. If she didn’t protect herself in that way, she knew that she’d get no peace with constant day and night ‘emergency’ calls from her frequently paranoid clientele.

The first thing Carole did on her return to High Tor was to unpack (she had fixed to pick up Gulliver the following morning). She felt a slight pang as she folded away the black bikini and the beige cotton shorts, but then pulled herself together. There were things one might do in Kayaköy that one wouldn’t dream of doing in Fethering. So Carole Seddon’s legs were removed from public view for at least another decade.

As soon as she had finished unpacking and put on a load of washing, she rang through to Fulham.

Gaby sounded extremely perky when she answered the phone. In the background, Lily could be heard chattering away nineteen to the dozen.

‘Just checking in.’

‘Oh yes?’

‘To say I’m safely back from Turkey.’

‘Ah.’ Gaby had clearly forgotten her mother-in-law had been away, but covered the lapse very quickly. ‘Oh, great. Did you have a good time?’

‘Very good, thank you,’ said Carole, surprising herself actually to be telling the truth. ‘And how have you been?’

‘Fine.’

‘I meant about the pregnancy.’

‘That’s fine too. Still pregnant, everything where it should be.’

‘No more sickness?’

‘No, thank the Lord.’

‘And Stephen’s in good form?’

‘Oh, as ever. You know Stephen.’

‘Yes,’ said Carole, though she sometimes wondered whether she actually did. ‘Any other news?’

‘Not really.’

Carole still wasn’t sure whether the teddy bear with Union Jack shorts was a suitable present for her granddaughter, or whether it was too common, but she made the decision quickly and said, ‘I did buy a little something for Lily.’

‘Oh, she’ll be delighted.’

‘And I thought I could give it to her when I next see you.’

‘Great.’

‘Which I hope will be very soon.’ And it was a measure of how much the holiday had done for her confidence that Carole then went on to ask, ‘I wonder, are you around this coming weekend? If you are, I could come up on Sunday.’

It was the first time she had ever invited herself to Fulham. Normally, she waited until an invitation had been issued. But the relaxed way in which Gaby said that would be great and they’d love to see her made Carole feel that her previous inhibitions had been unnecessary. And that brought rather a warm glow to her.

Then Gaby called out to ask if Lily would like to speak to Granny, and Carole got a very full and detailed account of everything that was happening in her granddaughter’s three-year-old life.

After the call had ended, Carole felt rather at a loose end. She still wasn’t out of holiday mood, and it seemed like the time to go out to one of Kayaköy’s bars for a drink.

So she rang Jude and suggested they pay a visit to the Crown and Anchor.

‘Blimey, you never got that tan in England,’ said Ted Crisp as they entered the bar.

‘No, it’s from Turkey,’ said Carole Seddon, the relaxed cosmopolitan traveller.

‘Oh,’ said Ted. ‘Yes, of course, you told me you were going. Incidentally, do you know what’s the best way to serve Turkey?’

‘We know that one,’ said Jude. ‘You’ve asked us before.’

‘Have I?’ said Ted, looking a little disturbed. Though his jokes were almost always dreadful, he prided himself on not telling them more than once to the same person. ‘What’s the answer then?’

‘Join the Turkish army,’ said Jude.

‘Oh damn, you did know it.’ Ted reached down to the wine fridge. ‘Two large Chilean Chardonnays, is it?’

‘No,’ said Carole boldly. ‘Could you make it two large Sauvignon Blancs?’

‘Bloody hell,’ said Ted Crisp.

And as the two women sat down at the bar to talk about their holiday in Turkey, Carole realized that, the whole time she’d been there, she hadn’t taken a single Imodium.