The Secret of Ka Read Online Free PDF Page B

hoping to get this cute Turkish guy to like me.
    It was half an hour before he knocked. Perhaps he had given me extra time, afraid he might catch me in the shower. It would have been just like him; he was so shy. But all I had on when I answered the door was a tank top and shorts. It's what I wore most of the time since I had arrived in Istanbul, but somehow, right now, it felt kind of mischievous. I mean, he noticed how little I was wearing. It was like he was afraid to look.
    I think it was my belly button that got him.
    He looked hot from the sun so I offered him another Coke, which he took gratefully. I gestured to the bathroom.
    "You can take a shower if you want, cool off, I don't mind."
    He quickly shook his head. "I'm fine," he said.
    I smiled as I picked up scissors and moved toward the package, which was sitting on a table not far from the flat-screen TV "I feel guilty opening it after you did such a nice job wrapping it up," I said.
    "Be careful you don't cut it," he said.
    "I hear ya." I sliced off the tape without penetrating the cardboard. In minutes I had the carpet in hand and was about to unroll it on the floor. Then I ran into the bathroom and returned with four giant towels. The floor was clean but not clean enough for me.
    The first thing I noticed was that we had done a great job hosing it down. There was not a spot of dirt on it. Amesh made a similar observation.
    "It was this clean when I wrapped it," he said.
    "Did anyone see you wrap it?"
    "No. I was alone."
    "Good," I muttered, because my eyes were growing larger with each passing minute. Again I was amazed at how black the bottom of the carpet was; it looked like a rectangular window into deep space. It was made up of an incredibly dense forest of one-inch fibers—that stood up so straight, but which bent so easily—I could not for the life of me figure out what they were made of.
    "It almost feels like hair," Amesh said.
    "Very stiff hair, and at the same time, very soft."
    "Can something be stiff and soft at the same time?"
    "No, not really. But this is unlike anything I've felt before."
    "Turn it over," Amesh said.
    We flipped it, and our puzzlement deepened. There were no individual fibers that we could see, but the reverse side was extremely soft and smooth.
    "It's silk," Amesh said.
    "It's not silk."
    "What is it?"
    "I don't know."
    "How can you be sure it's not silk?" he asked.
    "Because it's like it's all ... one."
    "One what?" he asked.
    "I don't know, one piece. Let's study the design."
    The predominant dark blue color was rimmed on all four sides with an inch of bright gold. In the center was an ill-defined black circle, two feet across and filled with stars.
    Around the star field flowed a group of characters set against a series of exotic backgrounds. The carpet seemed to tell a story.
    At the top, there was a garden filled with two types of beings—humans and what might have been angels. The latter walked with the people, but were taller and brighter. Most wore silver gowns, while the humans wore simple animal skins.
    The scene flowed by a dragon, or some kind of monster. It glowed a sober red and as it pressed upon the soft green of the garden, the monster transformed it into a desert.
    On the lower half of the carpet were the humans; the angels, who had lost height as well as luster; and a third species, who were taller than the other two. They were an unpleasant brownish gray and had flat, almost featureless, faces. The bottom showed these three groups at war with each other. But then the dragon reappeared and crushed the life out of the angels and the other mysterious creatures. In the end only the humans remained.
    At the top and bottom of the carpet were gold tassels. There were nine on each end. They were woven from some kind of thread, but I hesitated to say what it was. I tugged on them to reassure myself they were real. Staring at the mysterious images had left me feeling spacey.
    I sat back on my knees. Amesh sat on a