Author: Don Morgan

Hormat and Bilko awakened to pounding on the trailer door. It was Syeira: Leila called, Farid had a heart attack, Hormat needed to call right away!

Loathsome Uncle Kusmuk wanted to open an amusement/water park called The Pier in Long Beach. His idea was to re-build the existing fishing pier and add rides and attractions along the beach.

Almost as soon as the fencing went up for the compound, some friends from Russian River arrived to open a tattoo shop in the only remaining strip mall shop.

Loathsome Uncle Kusmuk told the Ortrar and Dilmac families they could join him in the compound, if they provided their own quarters.

Bilko moved out of his apartment back into the trailer he, Hormat and Syeira had shared and parked inside the compound. Saleh and Aata did the same. Hormat and Syeira remained upstairs in the Old English Cedar.

There was so much to celebrate, Aata and Saleh threw a party and everyone they knew came.

They built a fire and used the Aata Tastes concession trailer to feed the crowd.

Syeira and Orguz left early for a movie. Loathsome Uncle Kusmuk pawed all the young women. And the fortune teller got drunk and disappeared with Bilko into his trailer.

Loathsome Uncle Kusmuk had plans. He opened an office in the strip mall next to his bar, The Sailor, and put up a simple sign: The Pier.

He installed telephones, bought office furniture, a fax and a printer, but the office remained closed.

The day after Orguz was released from Juvenile Hall, Loathsome Uncle Kusmuk hired him.

That evening, the Loathsome Uncle detailed his plans for his young friend. Orguz was delighted.

The following day, Orguz opened The Pier for the first time.

And the pair began work on the first step of the project: Loathsome Uncle Kusmuk wanted a nice place to live. Together, they laid out a compound on an acre of land behind the Old English Cedar and the strip mall on Tick.

In the evenings, Orguz begin studying for his real estate license.

Near the end of that summer, Orguz passed his GED testing.

Both families came to the hearing to see Orguz, in a brand new gray suit Leila made for him. The little court room was packed.

Orguz did not look like a kid anymore. Now, he looked fit and powerful. Syeira thought that he was the most handsome man she had ever seen.

As Aata listened, a lawyer described Orguz’ good behavior, how he passed his GED on the first try and his desire to study law and real estate.

Judge Murty listened too and granted the defense motion that he be released immediately, he also waived parole. Orguz could go home.

It was the beginning of their third summer in Long Beach.

Bilko was walking Hormat back to the Old English Cedar after dinner and backgammon at Aata Bakes.

Hormat asked Bilko if he was up for yet another game and he nodded, but instead of playing they sat out on the porch swing sipping sweet red wine and talking. It had been a while since they had been alone and talked.

“I’m sorry.”, Hormat said, she wasn’t thinking, it just slipped out.

“For what?” Bilko asked, bouncing slightly with a chuckle. He put his arm over the back of the wooden swing and looked at her, smiling.

“For not telling you,” she started and realized what she was doing. Looked down, looked away, decided it would be now, “I am sorry for not telling you that I love you and all those years,” she was crying, “I think I understand. I am so sorry.”

She folded into his arms and Bilko held her, stunned and confused.

“What are you apologizing for?” he said crying.

“Because I know you didn’t mean it,” she said sobbing, she pulled a way from him, kissed him quickly and ran inside the house and up the stairs.

O, the sound of the door clapping against the wood frame, the cry of the springs, her footsteps on the stairs and the light that flowed out of the house through the screen door, rich as butter.

Bilko sat for a moment, staring at nothing, his face broken in anguish.

Hormat had just spoken to the only thought on his mind since that night with Lori.

Then he started balling like a baby unable to see or hear or think.

When he was done crying, he sat up in the swing. Then, he just sat for a while, swinging slightly, in a fugue.

Saleh came by and asked if he would like to join him for a drink and Bilko, still red eyed and weepy, nodded.

Syeira was just starting high school and displayed both the bewitching charm of youth and the genuine beauty she inherited from Hormat and Leila.

She had thick, black wavy hair and a shadowy darkness that was deeper than the color of her skin, playful and mysterious. And her mother’s brilliant black eyes, and Bilko’s smile.

Boys were beginning to hang around Aata Bakes to wait for her.

Bilko had been thinking to open an auto repair on the now-empty lot on the corner of Hwy One and Tick. He wanted to specialize in foreign and exotic cars, he had even spent an afternoon with Loathsome Uncle Kusmuk making plans.

But when the Old English Cedar two storey house between that empty lot and the strip mall suddenly became available, he and Hormat took their savings and made the down payment on that instead.

She would open Madam Yasdi’s Reading Room on the ground floor, she and Syeira would live on the second.

The following summer, the market on the corner of Tick and Hwy One burned down. Loathsome Uncle Kusmuk put a deposit on that land along with the adjacent five acres behind the strip mall between Hwy One and the beach.

A few months later, Aata Bakes announced two new products: small sweet cakes with raisins and nuts and broken butter cookies in hawthorn berry jam, the brand was now selling in Safeway Supermarkets throughout Southern California.

About the same time, Saleh opened another Circle S Laundry in the main township of Long Beach. The signs out front now featured a picture of the open-mouthed smile of a European looking man with a thick mustache and fedora.

Aata kept her small bakery in the strip mall on Tick.  She did, however, move her kitchen to an industrial park to the north on Hwy 1.

Hormat bought Bilko some plaid flannel shirts to wear when he was working. His tee shirts didn’t fit anymore.

Syeira’s bra size changed significantly and Mehmet’s voice started to change.

That winter, Bilko quit his job at the gas station and rented space in a warehouse to open a small car repair shop.

Syeira’s period started.

The Aata Bakes brand began selling in some small markets in the Long Beach area.

And Loathsome Uncle Kusmuk Ortrar arrived from Bucharest and opened a bar in the strip mall next to the Circle S laundry.

Hormat predicted change.

That August, Syeira and Mehmet grumpily started attending school at Will Rogers Middle School in Long Beach, California.

With no kids at home, Hormat helped out at Saleh’s laundromat, doing laundry, sewing and some tailoring for customers.

And it didn’t take long for the little shopping center on Tick to become known.

Aata and Hormat both wore the same costumes they wore traveling with Jubilee! Saleh added a fedora to his baggy pants and oversized cotton shirts and adopted a curious accent that took a while for Aata to get used to.

Hormat got Syeira to wear some of the costumes Leila had made for her. Mehmet wouldn’t budge from his simple white shirt and trousers.

People thought they were Gypsies and came by just to see the women in their brightly colored clothes and the men in their loose pants and shirts. When they did, they bought bakery.

After work, Syeira, Mehmet, Bilko and Saleh all arrived at ‘Aata Bakes’ for dinner and backgammon at a pair of small umbrella topped tables by the curb.

It wasn’t long before Hormat started giving Tarot readings in the evening and told Bilko, over a game of backgammon, she wanted to live in the Old English Cedar on the corner behind the market.

It took a while to get used to the verdict. They had all expected to be home in Russian River that Winter. Aata left the court in tears.

Saleh was behind her, polite and embarrassed, feeling that he had somehow gone to the wrong wedding or funeral. Bilko was mad. Hormat was hurt.

Every weekend since he entered Juvenile Hall, they had gone to visit Orguz, but until that day none of it had been real.

When they got home that night, they each did what they always did when they were nervous or upset: Aata baked. Bilko drank. Hormat did reading after reading with her Tarot cards. The kids watched TV and Saleh worked.

Regardless, they were all trying to understand what had happened. It didn’t fit. What did it mean?

Aata was the first to say anything, “I want my own bakery! I hate working for other people!”