Chapter 13

Turkey straddles the East and the West giving it a culture that is a curious blend of the two worlds. No city reflects that dichotomy more than Istanbul. It is a city in which the majority of the population follows Islam, yet it is home to the Patriarch of Constantinople, the spiritual leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is a city filled with synagogues, churches, and mosques, often with unlikely pairings standing side by side.

Istanbul is a modern city with roots deep in the past. The Hippodrome, a horse racing track, dates back to Roman times. Occupying a position inside the Hippodrome stands the Obelisk of Thutmosis III, an obelisk carved of pink marble in 1490 BC for the Temple of Karnack and brought to Turkey in 390 AD. Surrounding the Hippodrome are buildings, many of which were constructed under the Ottoman Empire. In a modern parallel to the obelisk, skyscrapers reach to the sky. The majority of structures date from modern times, but the architectural landscape is not homogenous. An ancient building will stand with a stone’s throw of a modern building.

The antiquity of the Hippodrome drew Oscar like a moth to flame. Debbie walked around the Obelisk of Thutmosis III wishing that she could read the inscriptions upon it. She knew that Oscar and Debbie could read them, but that wasn’t the same as reading it herself. Turning to Oscar, she said, “So you are telling me that they stole this from the Temple of Karnack in Egypt and brought it here to decorate their race track way back when the Romans were here.”

“That’s right,” Oscar said.

Georgia said, “That is one large hunk of solid stone. It must weigh fifty tons. How on earth did they ever get it here?”

“Good question,” Debbie said staring at the subject of discussion.

“This is only the top third of it. The full obelisk was brought here in three pieces. The bottom two pieces were lost,” Oscar said repeating what he had read in the tourist guide that was in their hotel room.

“That’s one big piece of stone,” Debbie said unable to get over the size of the obelisk.

A man bumped into Oscar and mumbled an apology. Oscar, wearing blue jeans and a shirt, rather than his robe and cloak had just been the target of a pick pocketing attempt. Before the man had managed to take two steps, Oscar grabbed him by the wrist. The simple grasp turned into an arm lock within a fraction of a second. In a low growl, Oscar said, “You just made a major mistake. I’d like my wallet back.”

The man was about to protest his innocence when he noticed that the woman wearing the strange hat was holding his partner in a similar hold. He couldn’t believe that the short guy and the woman had managed to capture them both. He said, “I don’t have your wallet. You can search me if you want.”

Using her free hand, Georgia thumped the head of the man she held with a finger and said, “He gave your wallet to this fellow.”

“Would you mind retrieving it for me?” Oscar asked with a smile. He flicked a finger against the head of the man he held. It made a satisfying noise that sounded a lot like the sound made when testing a melon.

Debbie glanced over at Oscar and rolled her eyes. She said, “Would you just threaten them already and let them go? Looking at the obelisk is giving me ideas.”

Flicking a finger against the man’s head, Oscar answered, “The threats start after I get my wallet back. Until then, we just torture them.”

The man Georgia was holding held up Oscar’s wallet for her to take. Ignoring it, Georgia thumped his head and said, “Let me get this straight. The proper order is to torture them, get your wallet back, threaten them, release them, and then really hurt them if you see them ever again.”

The man said, “Here’s the stupid wallet!”

Oscar thumped his captive once on the head and said, “That sounds about right to me.”

“Ouch,” the man complained trying to duck his head.

In the posture of impatience that women learn while waiting for their husbands in the tool department of a hardware store or at the fishing department of the sporting goods store, Debbie crossed her arms and tapped her foot.

She said, “Would you get it over with already? Looking at this obelisk has given me ideas and I’m beginning to get impatient.”

Georgia grabbed Oscar’s wallet out of her captive’s hand. Waving it around, she said, “You’re so lucky that she’s getting impatient. We’d have stayed here all day discussing what to do with you.”

Winking at Georgia, Oscar said, “My ineffective little thief, consider yourself thoroughly threatened. You know what I mean; bodily harm complete with insertion of body parts in orifices that were never intended to hold body parts. You know ... that kind of stuff.”

Georgia lifted the wrist of her captive provoking a groan. She said, “The same thing he said applies to you, but I’ll include removal of sexual body parts. I know it sounds sexist, but I enjoy collecting them.”

Debbie shook her head at the threat made by her wife. They were having too much fun with this and would play with the pair for quite a while longer. She might as well join in. Giving in to temptation, she said, “Come on you two. Break one of their ribs and let them go. That should be enough fun for now.”

While the little taps on the head and teasing banter was upsetting, the offhand way in which Debbie had mentioned breaking ribs was extremely effective in instilling fear in the two captives. In fact, they found her blasé attitude to their predicament frightening. It suggested that this wasn’t the first time they had people in that position.

Oscar and Georgia released the wrists of the men they held. As the men took advantage of their freedom and fled down the path at a fast run, Oscar asked, “Were we supposed to break the rib first and then release them?”

“You know, I think you’re right. The moment they ran off I realized that I might have gotten it backwards,” Georgia said with a laugh. She tossed Oscar’s wallet back to him.

Oscar grabbed the wallet and put it into his back pocket. After putting an arm around Debbie and hugging her to his side, Oscar said, “You mentioned that you had an idea while looking at the obelisk.”

“It looks a lot like a pointy-ended penis,” Debbie said in baby girl voice that sounded innocent, but was anything except innocent. She slipped an arm around Oscar’s back and nudged him with her hip.

“Oh, that does give me an idea,” Georgia said suggestively.

Putting his other arm around Georgia, Oscar said, “I suppose we’ll have to go back to the hotel and explore this idea a little more fully.”

As they walked back towards the hotel with Oscar sandwiched between the two women, Debbie said, “You were definitely having too much fun with those guys back there.”

“Too much fun? I don’t think so,” Oscar said with a grin. The only thing that he had hurt had been their pride.

“Aren’t you supposed to be some sort of holy man or something? I recall reading something like that in a newspaper,” Debbie said. She poked Oscar in the ribs when he bumped hips with her.

“Really? I didn’t know that. I have a hard time imagining me being a holy man,” Oscar said with a grin. When Debbie laughed, he asked, “Did I ever tell you the story about how I learned to fly while meditating?”

“Yes,” Debbie said giggling. She had heard it a dozen times and the image of Oscar flying through the air and landing in the pond still caused her to laugh hard enough to almost wet her pants. It didn’t matter that he told that story every time she said that he was a holy man.

“I’ll tell it to you again,” Oscar threatened. His grin let her know that his threat wasn’t serious. He looked over at her with a lecherous grin and added, “Prepare yourself for the story!”

“No, not the story!”

“The story!”

“Anything but the story,” Debbie said pretending to fear hearing the story once again.

“Anything?”

“Uh, tell me the story,” Debbie said.

Oscar tilted his head back and laughed at the exchange. Pretending like he had forgotten what story he was going to tell, he said, “Hmm, which story should I tell?”

Debbie laughed and started to sing, “On a broken horse he rides...”

Georgia joined in the song substituting the word camel for horse. Oscar said, “Okay, I give up. I won’t tell the story.”

“Good,” Debbie said with a grin. Realizing that the building they were approaching was the hotel, she adopted the baby girl voice and said, “That obelisk really looked like a erection. It made me feel all tingly inside.”

As if trying to make up for lost time, Debbie was practically insatiable in bed. Oscar would wake in the morning with her mounting his morning erection. After that, she would turn to Georgia for more. Finally, she would beg both to make love to her together. Of course, they couldn’t resist her pleas. By lunch time, she was ready for another round of loving. There were quickies before dinner and then long slow sessions in which both Oscar and Georgia made love to her before falling asleep exhausted.

Oscar was not about to complain although he did wonder how Debbie was still able to walk. After one particularly energetic session in bed, he said. “I’ve missed you so much.”

“Same here,” Debbie said snuggling in closer to her husband. She missed nothing more than having her mates hold her in their arms. This visit was coming to an end and she dreaded the arrival of the time when she had to step onto the plane to return to Israel.

“I’ve decided to change my itinerary,” Oscar said.

Sitting up, Georgia looked at Oscar in surprise. Curious, she asked, “What are your plans?”

“I was going to head onto Syria from here, but I’ve decided that it should include the lower half of Europe as well. We’ll head out to Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, France, and then Spain,” Oscar answered.

Debbie sat up and looked at Oscar. Biting her lower lip, she considered her workload. Deciding that it wasn’t that heavy, she said, “I might be able to go on a portion of that trip with you. Maybe I can do the Italy, France, and Spain segments.”

“We’d love for you to come with us,” Oscar said getting excited. He looked across the bed at Georgia and saw that she was nodding her head in approval.

Debbie considered her research and said, “I could probably work weekends and late every evening for the next month. I’m sure they would let me do that to get three weeks or so of vacation.”