BLESS YOU

 

Yelda lived in a house with a garden in the middle of the city in Istanbul. Her old apartment was a tiny, boxy loft on the fourth floor with no elevator. While moving out of there, she and her husband searched frantically for a house, couldn't find one all week, and when they were about to give up, they came upon a beautiful house that was not online. The real estate agent really liked them took them to the house, and they made an offer. In other words, they got the house.

Yelda loved her garden very much and looked forward to planting tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers in it every summer. When summer ended, she planted winter vegetables such as cabbage, lettuce, chard and artichokes. As you know, in this economy and with these diseases, the most important thing was nutrition. Yelda and her husband Serhat were also very careful about nutrition. They believed that the most important pillar of health was nutrition, and then exercise, that is, movement. However, there was something Yelda didn't like about this house: The cats.

They were popping up from everywhere! If one of them entered through the kitchen window, the other entered through the door when she left to hang the laundry. If one of them was pawing at the mosquito net while they were sleeping at night, the other was meowing in front of the window for hours. To make matters worse, both Yelda and Serhat were allergic to cat hair. The slightest cat hair in the air was enough to start a symphony of sneezes throughout the house. Yelda had tried every possible way, had she not installed a sonic cat repellent sound, had she not sprayed a spray to repel cats, had she not planted rosemary in her garden... The cats are never bothered, they look blankly at Yelda who sprayed the spray; They were also crawling on the rosemary plants that Yelda had planted. But today was really the last straw.

Yesterday was Yelda's cleaning day. She had vacuumed, mopped, wiped the windows, washed the bathroom, changed the sheets, washed and re-applied the sofa covers, wiped the kitchen doors, cleaned the inside of the refrigerator... What a cleaning had she done! She fell asleep around 01:00 A.M. at night, and then woke up early in the morning to go to work. While she was running errands outside, she received a phone call from her mother-in-law, and she went to the European side of Türkiye to visit her mother-in-law. In the evening, her husband came to visit them after work, and since they stayed up late at night, they decided to stay there. Yelda, who set out to return home again in the morning, had already planned where she would go and what she would do today on the subway. Her intention was to visit her sick aunt. She was going to go home, prepare her some delicious chicken broth soup, and leave. Yelda entered the garden gate, took a look at her garden and said, “Oh, how nice, there are no cats. "They didn't dig our soil either." She watered her garden. When she opened the door, a completely different picture was waiting for her.

As soon as she turned the key, a cat walked down the corridor. She followed the cat with great anger. And what to see! 3 cats are lying on the bed in the bedroom! This was the last straw. Yelda took the broom in her hand and started chasing the cats! All the cats escaped from the open window. When she went to close the window, Yelda couldn't believe what she saw. The cats tore the fly screen on the window, forced the glass and managed to open it. Yelda, both surprised and angry, went into the living room and threw herself on the sofa. Her nose was already starting to itch. Just as she was about to close her eyes and take a breath, rattling sounds started coming. Had all the cats escaped? No, Yelda thought so. As soon as she made eye contact with the cat, she jumped off the couch towards the cat. The cat was very scared and did not know where to run away from his fear. He was going from room to room, jumping on the window sill, but couldn't find an exit. He was eventually trapped in the kitchen by a very angry and tired Yelda. The cat dug his nails into Yelda's arm, desperately trying to save his life, and finally got into the boiler next to the kitchen window. Yelda was shocked by what she saw. On the other hand, she said to the cat, "Get out of there immediately!" She was shouting, sniffling her running nose and poking the animal with the mop stick. After about 15 minutes and the beginning of the sneezing symphony, Yelda collapsed on the tile floor in the kitchen and started crying. She had no idea what to do, nor could she figure out why this was happening to her. Everything in life would happen for a reason, she believed. But what was that reason? She couldn't find it. Just then, her mother called:

-Hello Yelda? How are you, dear? What are you doing?

-What should I do, mom? The cats entered the house again, this time they were even more crowded, I thought I had chased them all away, but one had stayed in the house. He scratched my arm very badly and he hid in the boiler, I don't know what to do.

-Oh dear... What happened to you... Call the fire department and they will come and take the cats out. So why did they enter? Did you leave the window open?

-No, it wasn't open, but the rear window was a bit problematic anyway, if you pushed it hard enough it would open. I don't know, I think all of the cats pushed on the window at once. I can't understand why this happened to me... I'm tired of these cats, this is the first time something like this has happened to me. Now I have to clean the whole house before Serhat comes home! Aaww!!!

- Dear, if the window is closed, why would this animal come? ALLAH wouldn’t send that animal into your home in vain. Cats come to waste. Could you have left something on the counter?

- I mean, there was a little leftover soup from yesterday.

- So, are you spilling food these days?

- … Actually, I waste more, yes. The garden was fruitful this year. But we can't finish it because there are two of us, so when the crops spoil, I spare it. But I don't throw it in the trash, I dump it in the soil to make compost, does that count as waste?

-Oh girl oh! Waste means consuming more than one needs. So you can either throw those vegetables in the trash or in the soil. Waste starts when you add one more zucchini to your meal. Or when you crack one more egg then you need. Or when you continue eating even though you’re full. It starts, not when you can't finish your plate, but when you take more than you need. My daughter, ALLAH sent not one but three cats into your home because you were wasting money. And look where the cat is hiding! You'd best reduce your portions a little...

- You're so right, mom. Since I grow it myself, it never occurred to me that it could go to waste...

Yelda got answers to her questions. They called the fire department and managed to get the cat out, albeit with difficulty. In order not to have a sneezing duet with Serhat in the evening, she started deep cleaning the house. She was turning on the water less frequently and adding a little less detergent. She had prepared bags to separate her worn out clothes.These would also count as waste, wouldn't they? Thus, Yelda had removed everything that could be considered waste from her home by the evening. The doorbell rang.

 

“Hi dear-- achooo!! Oh... Yelda, did the cat enter the house again?

"Bless you. Ah Serhat ah... Come inside and I’ll tell you everything about it..."