Set You Free (CANEM)

XLVIII

The morning blew in as the wind did. Effortless and with ease. 

It hissed at the curtains and blew them against their frames.

Sanem awoke, as if from another life, as her slumber must have been deep and intense. A dream that she could no longer remember.

She woke to see the empty living room and a blanket that had been placed over her. She did not know how or when it had appeared.

Stretching her aching muscles, she arose into the new day.

"Günaydın!"

She warmed at his voice as it echoed through the house. Heading towards her, he held some breakfast that he had prepared while she had been asleep. He seemed very pleased with his efforts.

"What's this?" She smiled gladly.

"What does it look like?"

Carefully, he placed the tray down before her and she regained her upright position. She could smell the wafts of pleasure in the air and how it instilled the feeling of home within her.

Home was a funny thing.

She had never realised how much it meant to her until everything had come crashing down on her two years prior. At first, the homesickness had been so severe, from moving from one place to the other, but eventually, she settled into her new abode.

The nights had been the worst.

All the pain she had would finally spill out of her, like an overflowing cup, and the tears were relentless. A dull ache for something familiar and when she found it, her heart would skip a beat. But when she was in this new place, these new surroundings, it at first felt like she was unable to cope. Anxiety having its tight grasp around her neck and pulling at her limbs.

But now, the place she once feared was her home.

A new space that didn't smell like her hometown, didn't have the familiar faces or the back roads that she knew. Everything about it seemed wrong.

All her mind and soul had longed to do was flee and return to the nest that supported her. Her mother and father and sister, all there to support her equally. 

It had been baby steps.

She thought about it as she munched away.

"What do you want to do today?" Can smiled.

"I don't mind, we can head to the office as normal."

"Olur."

The clock ticked rhythmically on the wall, reminding them of the passing day. They were both usually in tune with each other, waking up early when the other did, but as time passed, the foreboding stress of an eventful day lay in clear sight.

The sound of an incoming call put an intrusion into this planning.

"Evet?"

And without even looking at who was calling, Sanem knew straight away it was her sister. The sound of a crying child accompanied by Leyla's professional jargon could be heard immediately as the call was connected.

"Sanem, it's an emergency!" 

Sanem held the phone further away from her ear at the volume her sister was using.

"What happened?"

"We are meant to go to a meeting in an hour and nobody is available to watch our child!"

"Tamam, Sakin ol."

Sanem looked to Can and his confused expression. Bringing the phone away from her lips, she whispered about what Leyla had said.