He woke up with a gasp. Dark orbs drowning in an even darker sea around him. He was shaking, trembling. He blinked rapidly and rubbed at his eyes, as if he could wipe the pitch black from them. Breath after breath after breath, he tried to come to his senses, but he couldn’t flee the grim feeling as the darkness swallowed him back up.
-
“Simit! Simit for 25¢!” The boy yelled in the foreign tongue. He was skipping around the crowded bizarre with a large wooden tray balanced on his head, the well-known Turkish bagel held inside. There was the usual warm buzz of chatter all around him and the wide wooden stands covered in plastic tarp with different foods piled high. Countless people were hollering about how fresh their tomatoes and peppers were or how ripe the figs were this season. This noise also accompanied the chirps of cicadas in the feverish summer air.
The boy was at a closed bizarre, one with a metal roof supported by several beams. It was rusting and seemed as if a simple wind or shake of the earth may send it plunging down. It was early in the morning, but he was used to it. The sun was blazing. Even though the boy was in the shade, he could still see the small rays of light coming from in between the cracks of the roof.
He made a game out of it. The little boy could only step on the areas of daylight shining through. He was smiling because he was winning at his own competition. But then, all of a sudden, the ground around him shook with might and the boy’s next footstep landed in the shade. -
“Aziz! My boy! Where’s my boy? Have you seen him?” A woman yelled in Turkish, tugging at the arms of anyone around her. Many of the worn out and frightened faces were familiar, but now was not the time to dwell on polite conversation. Two little girls with equally worried expressions followed closely behind the woman, holding onto her skirt, not wanting to get lost in this loud, gloomy mess. All hell had broken loose. The ground seemed to quiver with the sound waves of the shrieks heard all around. 
The woman sighed, frustratingly rubbing at her face. “Come on girls, hurry up. I can’t lose you two either.”
-
The ground was literally rumbling. Everything was fine at first; it was just a little shake. Slowly, he realized it wasn’t. Left and right, people around the bizarre were running for their lives, trying to get out of the crowded area. Aziz tried running out, but the heavy tray was slowing him down as the Earth trembled more and more. He couldn’t leave the tray, for he couldn’t lose one of their only money sources. Children were crying as their parents held them in their arms, trying to All around him, people were screaming, running for their lives. Fruits and vegetables were falling and rolling across the ground as the Earth’s shakes became more violent. Aziz knew he wouldn’t make it out of the bizarre. Crouching down with the tray in his hands, the boy crawled under one of the stands. As he heard violent creaking coming from the unstable roof, he prayed and held on for dear life.
-
The woman was hysterical now, rushing to the bizarre. It had collapsed. The beams had crumbled to the ground, bringing the old metal roof down with it and covering the entire area with the metal slabs. Trembling, the woman scanned the area outside the bizarre, or lack thereof, again, but to no avail. She could no longer see the once crowded market filled with happily awaiting customers. She could no longer see the stands of fresh fruits and vegetables and other objects piled high on the stands. She could no longer hear the lively buzz of chatter. She could no longer feel the warmth of the sunny air. It was all replaced by a ghastly feeling in her stomach and a practical warzone in front of her.
-
Panting, the boy tried to move. He was curled up with his hands reaching out, trying to push whatever was holding him back. Nothing budged. The material felt rough under his fingertips. He opened his mouth to scream, and instead began coughing violently, the dust had lodged itself into his throat. Everything around him was too heavy to move. His last hope was to yell for help again.
-
The search party had begun. The men and women all around began lifting up slabs of metal and yelling for whoever was missing.
“Aziz!” The mother yelled again, in the midst of the shattered bizarre.
Cries for help returned from under the piles as the people hastily tried moving them. Person after person was found, some injured, some completely fine. So far, she hadn’t seen anyone not alive yet, but they still hadn’t found her son.
The woman never ceased shouting her boy’s name. Helping one of the other searching men, she lifted piece after piece of the roof, flipped stands over, but so far it had been nearly useless. They’d found one more person, but it wasn’t her son.
So, the process continued: lift, throw to the side, check under, move on, repeat. The woman wondered how anyone couldn’t have found her boy yet, it wasn’t the biggest bizarre, and there were quite a few people helping. Promising herself to not think about other scenarios of why her son wasn’t found, she determinedly continued the search.
-
The two little girls had stayed near there mom, just like she asked. They were trying to help, too, flipping over smaller pieces and calling out for their older brother.
While looking, both girls heard a violent cough come from one of the piles of rubble. The two looked at each other, knowingly, and sprinted towards the sound. The slab was too big for them to lift, so they pushed it aside, leaving an space from underneath the stand. One of the girls looked in to find none other than Aziz, her brother. He was alive.
“Mama!” one of the girls had run up to their mother and tugged on her skirt.
“Hm? What is it?”
The smaller girl pointed a short distance away, but it was clear as day what the mother saw. Choking on a sob, he rushed to her son, breathing heavily. The little girl was helping Aziz out, a hand around his waist and trying her best to hoist him up. She hugged her older brother tightly, just as the mother arrived. Crouching down a bit, she immediately pulled him into her arms, tears streaming down her face and constantly kissing her son’s head.
“Mama, I’m so sorry,” the boy whispered while still hugging his mother. She pulled away for a second, wiping his tears away with her thumb.
“What for? You did nothing wrong.”
“I lost the simit, and the tray,” he said while wincing, as if it physically hurt him to say it.
The woman let out a dry chuckle. “My boy, those things are replaceable, but there’s only one of you. As long as you’re okay, I’m happy.” The two little girls looked at him with bright smiles, seemingly almost oblivious to what was going on around them.
The boy sighed deeply, somehow managing a small smile, too, in the midst of this cruel, cruel world.