"'Oturup saatlerce güzelliğini konuşacak olsam yeter miydi kelimeler? Toplasam dünyanın bütün dillerini betimlesem seni onlarla.. Yeter miydi güzelliğini kaldırmaya bu aciz ve bedbaht lehçeler?'''
-save me
The big man made me want to break down and sob like a little girl.
For just a moment, I imagined wrapping my arms around him and letting him protect me from the world.
I closed my eyes and slammed my head down against the hard floor. The minor concussion cleared the crazy from my brain.
No one was going to save me.
No one came to save me.
The police never came.
Earl, Cecelia, and Cliff never barged in, knocking down iron bars to set me free. My family never burst through the stone wall of my cell to get me out.
I never rose up in a sterile hospital bed to find my family surrounding me.
Deep in the marrow of my bones—something instilled in me since I was a child—assured me that someone would come and save me. That some type of guardians would come to help me, the police or firemen, the army or the FBI, perhaps a hidden sector of the government that I had never heard of before.
Someonewould show up to help me.
A familiar face would suddenly arrive and draw me into a firm hug. My nose would fill with scents of comfort and safety from being smashed against their shoulder hastily. They would wipe my tears and tell me everything would be okay, that I would be safe. They would squeeze me tightly. The very moment their arms circled me, the tension would wane from my muscles because I would know that I was safe and that they would take care of me—that no one else could hurt me.
But no one ever came.
My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
But being too happy in thine happiness,—
That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees
Death, always cruel, Pity's foe in chief,
Mother who brought forth grief,
Merciless judgment and without appeal!
Since thou alone hast made my heart to feel
This sadness and unweal,
My tongue upbraideth thee without relief.
And now (for I must rid thy name of ruth)
Behoves me speak the truth
Touching thy cruelty and wickedness:
Not that they be not known; but ne'ertheless
I would give hate more stress
With them that feed on love in very sooth.
Out of this world thou hast driven courtesy,
And virtue, dearly prized in womanhood;
And out of youth's gay mood
The lovely lightness is quite gone through thee.
Whom now I mourn, no man shall learn from me
Save by the measure of these praises given.
Whoso deserves not Heaven
May never hope to have her company.
"They saved you from the poppy field. Of course, I was the one who planted the poppy field - oh, so long ago now. I wanted to save others, liberate them from the tyranny of a heart. First the poppies put people to sleep. Then my metal mice bring them to me. I feed them a cake with a pollen pill inside-' she gestured to the empty plate and pulled a small vial of pills out of her pinafore pocket- 'not enough to put them to sleep again, just enough to sap their strength so my mice can stop them escaping."
“And you’re certain you’re ready for this?” he asks. “This is only the beginning.”
I ride up until he’s but an arm’s length away. “I am certain,” I sign, my determination as solid as the icy ground beneath me. “We have a king to save.”