25.05.2022 || It’s been four years since Renaissance in the Daisy Field was published! In honor of this, I am sharing a special chapter. Also, I was going to make a lot of drawings, but it didn’t catch up… Have a nice read! 🌼
2022, The Isle of Sunnyland
As soon as she opened the door of the caravan, a cool humid air hit Crescent’s face, whose a thin white cardigan on her nightdress. The sound of the waves hitting the rocks from afar was heard from the deep. Even though it was still twilight, it could be seen how the herbs around the caravan flying through the morning wind. Cres blinked. She watched Monustar Castle, which was appearing in the form of a black silhouette under the prussian-blue sky.
When she got cold, she closed the door and hugged her cardigan a little more. The hot air inside wasn’t completely gone, so she got warm immediately. She looked at her husband and son sleeping in the caravan bed under the faint baby-blue light of the night light. There was a shelf next to the bed where she put her bag, took out her cell phone, which had been on charge all night, and pressed the button on the side.
The screen lit up. In front of a family photo of Crescent, Melih and Cem who were locked in a close embrace, the time and date were written: May 25, 2022, 4:32 AM. They were going to celebrate a double birthday today.
Cem Cansever was born while the COVID-19 pandemic was ravaging the world, midday on May 25, 2020. His face and facial expressions resembled his father. Another one of the men I loved, his mother thought. The little man she loved and always will. A loving, growing family.
She took her bag quietly and went out at her fingertips. She breathed in the fresh air of the morning. She sat down in the lawn chair, which was left in front of the caravan last night, and took out the items in her bag: A tablet, a notebook and a rubber buckle. She opened her notebook after she tyed her hair up. The notebook was a mess like a garnish. The notes she took while practising Turkish, scribbled shopping lists, interesting information she heard randomly and didn’t want to forget, the plan of the week…
While digging through the old pages, she noticed that she wrote mistakenly her son’s name as “Gem” at first, frequently. Gem was an English word, pronounced as “cem” in Turkish, and this was the reason why Crescent named her son Cem. It meant “jewelry” and was the way Crescent’s father addressed her.
She closed the notebook, looked at the castle again for a moment, opened the tablet, and searched for a file. What she wanted to find was a letter transferred to digital environment, which was written six centuries ago.
Crescent Hill was born on June 1, but every year, she celebrates her birthday a week earlier. Because June 1 was full of sad memories for her. When the first day of June came, she would buy flowers, light candles, and commemorate the family members she lost.
The year before the pandemic, she went to the cemetery in London and left flowers in two tombs lying next to each other. For Daisy and Jasmine… And for John Joseph Daisy and Jasmine Llyin who has been given a representative tomb although her bones have not yet been found… Apart from that, she was always in Istanbul; inside her room, she used to go into her mourning, quietly. It was painful not to have been able to go to her father’s, -Eagle Hill’s- grave on the island even for once.
Therefore, she started to strive to spend June 1, 2022 on the island months ago. Her efforts had borne fruit, and this year she had been fortunate. She flew with Melih to London and then to The Isle of Sunnyland. Here she was breathing the air of the island where she was born, raised and became a princess.
It was her first time here since 2017. Access to The Isle of Sunnyland was difficult, the underground system was not working due to lack of maintenance. This year, they were able to go to the island with the caravan after they carried out a costly maintenance.
Crescent hoped the challenges would soon be over. As the sole inheritor of The Isle of Sunnyland, she was meeting with architectural companies. Monustar Castle would be restored, the island would be rearranged, the transportation system and infrastructure would be established, and in about five years, the Kingdom of Hillyin would be opened to tourists. According to the promises of the companies, the island would provide a serious income and bring the Cansever family to wealth.
As the light was shining, the woman in the chair found the letter.
A week before his execution on June 1, 1389, Eagle wrote to his daughter:
❝To my dear daughter Crescent…
Today is May 25, 1389. You’ll be 14 in exactly one week.
My little purple jewelry, which was born in the room where I wrote these lines, was only a week old baby. You were almost small enough to fit in my palms. I held you in my arms in fear. I feared you’d cry, I thought I’d hurt you without knowing. When you opened your tiny eyes and saw me and your mother, you laughed so beautiful that years passed and it stayed in the walls of my heart like a painting.
A week from now, I’ll be smiling to death for the sake of that smile. In my last breath, I will remember your first smile.
The law of the Holy Mongrel… I didn’t want to mention this crumbly relic in my last memory. But this law led me to write this letter. This law wanted to separate us from each other. This law sentenced you and me to death the day you turned fourteen and became a teenage girl.
Time has flowed as fast as the rivers descending from the high mountains… If you can grow up, if you can get through that day – and I did my best to make it happen – you’re going to witness the flow of time and you’re not going to believe it.
You’ll probably be in England with your mother when you read these lines. Dr. Daisy will be your stepfather. He’s a good person, he’s no stranger to you, you know him from your school years. You’ll have a happy life, my dear girl. That’s why my heart burns not with worry, but only with longing. Embrace your new family. Be respectful of your family and your community. Actually, I know, the otherwise is not possible for my princess… I wanted to write anyway because fathers give advice.
Maybe someone will tell you something about the past, something that happened before you were born. You can be mad at me. You might think I’m a lot different than the way you know me. Whatever you say, I accept in advance. But, my dear girl, I kneel before you and beg you.
Please, my jewel, don’t hate me. It’ll kill me. Only then will my soul find peace.
I want to know that you love me. You can be angry with the one you love, or even angry with the one you love the most. But please don’t lower your head because of me, don’t make a sentence that starts with “I wish”.
When you hear my news, don’t cry and ruin yourself. Smile like you did when you were a baby. If you commemorade me once in a while, we’re not separated. Because the real death of man is in oblivion.
With eternal love,
Your father❞
She finished the letter she memorized with tears, once again. She turned to the castle and said, “I love you, dad, I will always love you.”
Enes Talha Coşgun translated this story from Turkish to English. Thanks to him.