Along the way

Dondurma (noun) - Ice-Cream.

It was ice-cream that was at stake. That, and pride, of course.

It had started with polite curiosity. The three of us, my father, my sister and myself, had come to graze, courtesy of a small cafe, in a quiet back street of Fethiya. We were the only customers, the one other table al fresco being occupied by the cafe owner and a friend, fully engaged in a game of tavla - backgammon. The owner broke his concentration to take our orders, then promptly returned to the game.

A few minutes later, he noticed my glances towards the game. As they wrapped up their third since we had arrived, he gestured at me – would I like to play? A bowl of ice-cream said I couldn’t beat him.

One game quickly turned into best-of-three, and then of-five, as our new friend realised he had possibly misjudged this English girl’s ability to move checkers around a board at the throw of the die. Of course, the game requires more skill than that – an aptitude to judge probability and diminish possible risk is key – but I had been in Turkey for a number of weeks now, and been playing backgammon for longer than that.

The games were well contended; the original opponent brought out two delicate glasses of Turkish tea - çay – black, and sickly sweet, as the second got underway. As we played, I forgot I was over 2,000 miles from home, sitting opposite a man with whom I could barely communicate. Communicate through words, that is: between the tavla and the çay, we engaged one another until, finally, the fourth game went my way, ending our tourney at 3-1.

The ice-cream that followed was more a formality than anything else. The true experience had already been played out, and, as I watched the owner’s son dart across the street to find the required delicacy, I almost wished my hand had been forced into that fifth game.

Nevertheless, I tucked into my reward, feeling once again the tourist. I watched as my old opponent turned around, murmuring to his friend, both casting a few smiles back my way. I can only conjecture those fleeting words spoke something along the lines of:

“I let her win, of course”.