Welcome to Home
Deniz moved to Canada several years ago, with the English that the first time he had to speak outside of school and with a talent for cooking. He used to be in culinary school in Turkey and worked as a chef for years and when the economy got worse and worse every year, the beautiful cuisine had less and less customers. People tried to eat to survive, not for enjoyment.
With his first savings, selling his car and with his family’s help, he moved to Canada. First he didn’t find any place to fit in. He looked and acted more stiff and serious for the Canadians around him. He missed speaking his own language, he still swore in Turkish too, he missed his family, mostly his mom. And at one point he just accepted that Canada took him inside its territory for cooking, he couldn’t feel like he belonged there.
After a while he met Angel. Angel is a barista in his favorite coffee shop. She looks and acts nice but Deniz’s experience told him these people are the most dangerous people. Being nice with everyone, smiling while listening. And he met Angel when he gave up on the people in Canada.
Their one meeting turned to two, second turned to third and at one point he told her he feels so alone in Canada. He is always cooking, which, his restaurant is doing really well. His little boutique restaurant turned into a 3 floor fine dining place and Deniz feels proud of his work and his cooks.
He loves staying in the kitchen, but everyone who knows kitchens knows this, it’s like a military base if it is serious. And he is in the chef uniform. He already had this serious face and default defense mechanism around him that made him almost impossible to approach and with the limited time between planning, prepping and serving food, the time left for him made him feel more like a slave to the kitchen than a successful chef.
His home used to be completely silent, ironically enough he didn’t have any food at home too, he hated cooking for one. The days went with coffee and cigarettes for breakfast, kitchen, gym and home.
In one morning though, he met with Angel and she wanted to hear about home back in Turkey, how Istanbul was, how was the road, how did he open the restaurant, she learned some swear words in Turkish and she invited him to her birthday party.
He suggested closing the restaurant, then his restaurant used to be much smaller, and made the birthday party there.
And Deniz’s nightmare started there. Deniz told them that he just wanted to move in with someone after his rent agreement ended. The day before there was a water drainage issue and his wood floor was inflated and because he was in the kitchen he couldn’t do anything.
Angel has a best friend, Alex. Alex Hollow. He is an academic in a good university, he is tidy and because Deniz didn’t know any better then, he looked like such a nice person.
The first time he saw Alex, Deniz felt, yeah, this is it. I can see myself living with this man. He looks beautiful, not in a flirty way, but he looks like he got his things together. He is a little shorter than him but he has a decent amount of muscle. Good glowing skin and he liked the food Deniz made.
Perfect, you would say. No, it is the textbook definition of trouble that did not send any invitation.
Now… where are we. It’s been 3 years living with this man. Deniz wants to beat his past self who was talking shit about the silence at home, the sitting and watching TV at peace and having his time till work without the headache.
And yeah, look at the present now.
“Is it your first time living in a fucking home?” Deniz is so used to hearing this shouting in his home at this point. In five seconds this annoying voice will start screaming and come in front of his screen and make him scream too. He just put his head to the rest and took a deep breath. Alex woke up, here we go.
And there it comes. “WERE YOU LIVING IN A CAVE BEFORE, HEH? I fucking told you a million times before, do not leave that fucking bathroom floor wet. I did fucking fall, you asshole”
“Alex I swear to god, when I see your fucking face I think I was overreacting about how miserable I was in fucking Turkey” and here we go, Deniz also screaming now “IN THE FUCKING TURKEY”
He is not resting on the couch anymore now, he stood up because they are having that fight again it turned out. Sometimes Alex demands the whole neighborhood listen to their fighting when he has energy. Unlucky enough, this is one of those days. “I also fucking told you let me fix the fucking bathroom floor. Whatever you do with that shit makes everywhere fucking wet” and he is now mimicking his devil housemate’s voice from two weeks ago “But nooo. We need to call a man, they need to check it. I AM A FUCKING MAN, MAYBE YOU ARE NOT THAT MAN, I AM. Now enjoy your fucking ice rink ass bathroom floor.” He walked towards him but that bitch never flinched. “If we are lucky you would hit your head in the right part and your brain would start working again.”
Alex is now walking towards him. Here we fucking go. “Oh no in our fucking home if we are talking about an idiot, it would be fucking you. Like hell I would trust him to fix fucking anything in this home again. Every fucking time in this hellhole something breaks you suddenly become a fucking big man” and now he puffs his chest, mimicking contest dear Wallflower Street. Alex Hollow’s turn. “I will fix it don’t worry” his Turkish accent imitation boiled Deniz’s blood. “Look what happened when you did the fucking electric cables.” He frantically opens and closes the light switch. “When you open the light it fucking closes the TV. TELEVISION DENIZ OUR FUCKING LIGHT SWITCH CLOSES OUR TELEVISION. Yeah go on Nikola Tesla, be the man you fucking are” he mumbled under his breath when he walked toward the kitchen.
Deniz found it similar sometimes to how Alex and his mom fought. This fight will never end. Yeah, the shouting did but now Alex fucking Hollow, his dear roommate, will be bitching about it all day. Maybe on a random Wednesday he will remember that light switch tragedy again and start the fight all over again. “All fucking bark no fucking work. Classic.” He again mimicked his talk in the kitchen and unfortunately Deniz could hear again. “But nooo, there is our man in our home fucking up all already broken stuff and even working stuff.”
He is shouting again. Deniz is going to start eating the carpet from frustration. He hates him. “My fucking nervous system used to work completely fine you dickhead, you broke it with your fucking unp-”
Deniz’s turn, Deniz’s turn.
He rushed to the kitchen and went in front of Alex’s nose. Put his finger on his chest when he talked. Digging there otherwise they are so close to having a fist fight at this point but both of them are stuck in this home for at least ten more months. That fucking rent used to be paid monthly, not in Canada. Deniz feels like a prisoner with this annoying Canadian boy. “Shut your fucking mouth before we end up in a fucking police station or hospital you bitch and stop lying. Your nervous system. Don’t make me fucking laugh, you are just born too late for lobotomy and we all are paying the price for that fucking timing problem”
“Oh no Shakespeare has spoken, now you can speak with words more than four syllables heh. Good job Deniz” Alex opened the refrigerator and just watched it absentmindedly. “You think I would fucking get scared of you, hospital or police station he says.” Alex started laughing now. “You need to visit both alone. My only crime is I couldn’t guess I WOULD BE LIVING WITH A CAVEMAN FOR YEARS in the middle of Canada and this caveman also somehow figured out how to find a fucking job too.” Alex closed the refrigerator without taking anything. Deniz hates when Alex does that.
“I’m a fucking chef Alex, you are the one afraid of the real world that stayed too long in doctorate. Because you are too pussy for real jobs you are going to be a fucking professor. So mature, so modern. Good fucking job Professor Pussy”
And with that they both fucking switched off again. Alex is tired, Deniz is about to die. They are both short of breath and all red and sweating.
“You told me you were going to cook vegetable lasagna today.” Alex said with a quieter voice now.
Deniz turned his back to the kitchen countertop and answered with a more relaxed voice. “Yeah I know, I bought the stuff. Do you want meat in it or not, I have to defrost the meat if you want it.”
Alex took two glasses and poured water into them. He handed one of them to Deniz. Deniz started drinking, his throat is hurting from screaming.
“Meat would be great, but please with the low fat one.”
Deniz walked towards the freezer and took the minced meat that he already removed the fat from because he knows Alex is not a big fan of eating meat fat.
“Okay, I will let you know when it’s ready” Deniz started preparing the food.
“I’m calling the man for the shower.”
Oh my fucking god.
“I WILL FIX THE FUCKING THING YOU’RE GOING TO CHARGE US A FORTUNE JUST TO APPLY SILICONE.”
Welcome to home.
