Guntekin and “Choliqushi”

The excerpt is told in the voice of a girl named Farida: in the fourth grade the French teacher Aleksi opa assigns an essay on first memories in life, and Farida presents herself as a “different” girl who stands apart from the others. She says she lost her mother when very young, that her father was a cavalry major, and that she was then placed in a French sisters’ school in Istanbul; at school her teacher calls her “not a human child but a choliqushi” for her mischief, and after that everyone calls her “Choliqushi.” Later Farida sees, from up in a tree, a meeting between her cousin Komron and a widow named Narimon, becomes very angry with Komron, and although she values his gifts cannot lose her resentment. At school, after her friend Mishel laughs that she is a “gurd” (a simpleton) in matters of love, Farida invents a claim that she has fallen in love with Komron to prove herself, and the lie spreads through the school; Komron keeps visiting the school. In summer she stays at her aunt’s home in Taqirdog‘ and confesses her lie by the sea to her cousin Mujgon, whom she calls “opa” (elder sister); when Mujgon says that Farida has really fallen for Komron, Farida bursts into angry tears, and at night Mujgon tells her that Komron is not indifferent to her either.