Table of contents:
Childhood (Eli)
Eli doesn’t remember his mother’s departure.
She had quietly left one morning when he was just three.
His father was always a shadow—there, but absent.
Eli was raised by his grandmother.
Her name was Grace.
They lived in an old house in a small town.
Every morning, Grace lit the stove and told Eli stories.
But her tales always ended with sorrow.
“Some people are born to leave,” she’d say.
“Others are born to stay.”
Even at that age, Eli chose to stay.
But something was always missing inside him.
He had no memory of his mother’s voice.
Only a void.
And that void opened the first parenthesis.
The Face in the Mirror (Eli)
Eli grew up.
Grace aged, and one day, she quietly passed away.
That day, Eli was truly alone for the first time.
He moved to Istanbul.
Got into a university, then found a job.
But every morning, when he looked in the mirror,
he saw the lines of Grace’s face.
And in his eyes, the absence of his mother.
People called him “balanced.”
“How nice, you never get angry,” they’d say.
But no one knew:
Eli had left his anger behind years ago,
in a story forgotten by the stove.
Since then, he had only been silent.
And silence became his second parenthesis.
The Meeting (Eli & Sam)
They met at a seminar.
Sam was speaking on stage.
Eli sat in the back row.
Sam’s voice was loud, but there was a crack inside it.
Eli noticed right away.
Because cracks are best seen by those already broken.
After the seminar, Sam approached him.
“You didn’t speak at all,” he said.
Eli shrugged.
“Listening is easier.”
Sam smiled.
“I always talk, because if I stop, I’ll fall.”
Two opposites met in the same silence.
Friendship in Silence (Eli & Sam)
They began walking together.
Without words, just steps.
Eli saw the weariness behind Sam’s laughter.
Sam heard the scream behind Eli’s silence.
One day, Eli took him to Grace’s old house.
It was empty now, but the walls still smelled of stories.
Sam sat by the stove.
“This is your root,” he said.
Eli nodded.
“And also my emptiness.”
The Opened Parenthesis (Eli)
Eli began to write.
He found one of Grace’s old notebooks.
Inside was an unfinished tale.
A child searching for his mother in a dream.
Eli completed the story.
But he changed the ending:
The child didn’t find his mother.
He found himself.
He showed it to Sam.
Sam read it.
And simply said, “Keep going.”
That day, Eli closed a parenthesis for the first time.
Sam’s Story (Sam)
Sam’s story wasn’t easy either.
His mother had left him when he was young.
His father was an alcoholic, full of rage.
Sam chose laughter to survive.
But every laugh muffled the scream of the child inside.
He told Eli:
“I always laughed, because if I cried, I wouldn’t stop.”
Eli held his hand.
“Now we can be silent together,” he said.
The Dot (Eli & Sam)
One day, while sitting in the park, a child approached.
He held out a notebook.
“I’m drawing,” he said.
Eli drew a circle.
Sam placed a dot inside it.
“What’s this?” asked the child.
Eli smiled:
“Us.”
Sam added:
“And what remains inside.”
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