JULIET

It is still night when I arrive at the airport. Mr. Samsó finds me before I find him. He's younger than I thought when we talked on the phone, although I would point out that he has a super formal style.

He waves his hands up as soon as he sees me and I start walking in his direction with my old suitcase on wheels trailing behind me. With the money that I will collect, I hope to be able to make some purchases. Among them, a new suitcase, since I hope that my work finally begins to bear fruit by traveling as I had hoped from the beginning years ago, but that still does not give me the opportunity to visit another country at least.

Getting to know Silicon Valley is already an immense pleasure for me, the opportunity makes me super happy and I'm not willing to let it go once again. As soon as he distinguishes me, I realize that his older man's attire does not suit him at all at his age, which I suppose should not be more than thirty years. Maybe he's twenty-five, but his kind old man look just doesn't match.

Bah, just because I am the most outstanding geek of an entire application for virtual classes, he will come to speak in this way. Well, no way.

"Mr. Samso."

"Juliet! You can call me Neville," he says as soon as he greets me with a gesture that doesn't imply physical contact. I appreciate that, I don't like contact. " Can I call you Juliet? How are you?"

"Um, good. Yes. Juliet is fine," I warn. " Although I suppose I won't be able to call Mr. Deniz 'Kerem'.

" In the years that I've known him I still haven't felt comfortable enough to do it. If you have the courage, you can play with your destiny."

"I wouldn't try it again," I tell him.

"Should I help with the suitcase?" he proposes, holding out his hands.

I hand him my handbag instead since I don't want him to see my suitcase all ruined, although I'm sure he must have already noticed it.

" The flight is here."

"Did you come to the airport of this city just to take a flight with me?" I ask, a little surprised to draw the conclusion.

"I wanted to make sure you came."

"I am terrified of flying."

"Really?"

"Nope. But yes when it comes to your boss. Good God, was he seriously going to fire me last night for not being there sooner as he demanded?"

"Um, that's how it is. But you will know him, he has a good heart and knows how to compensate when people respond with loyalty."

"It is not loyalty, it is exploitation to want to take over the schedule of others."

"But nobody would pay you twenty thousand dollars for such a short time just so that their baby who is learning to know the world can say two or three words in Turkish."

"Well, you have to be a bit of a magician. And if I don't get it?"

"When you arrive at your destination, you will sign a contract. If you do not achieve the objective, but do the work, the money will be paid to you accordingly."

"And if I do get it?"

"You will have the extra that doubles it."

"And if I get more than a few words? I still doubt it, how old is he? And why doesn't he speak yet?"

"Actually, he's ten months old."

"It's a joke?!"

"Nope. But next week he will be eleven months and it depends on you that when he is a year old he will already babble something."

"Definitely what you are asking me does not seem viable."

I pin myself to the ground, feeling a sudden panic take over me. I doubt that I would be able to do something like that, I don't have the necessary notion or a magic wand to get a child who has barely learned to sit up and perhaps try to stand up on his little feet to say a few words in a language that is not even the language of the city ​​where he grew up.

I'm thinking about it again, when he gets in the way of my thoughts. I know Neville is trying to keep me, but I also suspect that it's because he's trying to do his job well, and I understand him.

But I'm afraid I'll leave something to be desired in my performance.

"I can't, I really can't" I get extremely tense and I'm about to enter a crisis.

"I have to tell you something," he warns. "Juliet, Mr. Deniz lost his wife less than a month ago and since then he hasn't held his son."

"What are you saying?"

"He is not able to speak to him directly or to look him in the face. He has never put him to sleep and never even feeds him."

"Why? He's a monster!"

"He does it to take care of him. He is afraid of hurting him."

"Why would he hurt that creature?!"

"Because losing his wife has filled him with fear, and his son Ali is the closest thing to her that he has. He has a team of experts around him to manage his care. You are only in charge of his intellectual stimulation, you will not even have to bathe him or feed him or change his diapers.

"I don't have children, but I do have the head necessary to deduce by mere common sense that a child whose diapers are changed also needs the love of someone who says a word to him when they make him a little plane to give him porridge."

"Then you can arrange it with the team in charge."

"It's not possible. He is the father! And he has a team of people who are in charge of doing what corresponds to him! not turkish."

"It is."

"But..."

"Please, Juliet. Beyond the money and beyond Mr. Deniz, do it for the noble soul of that creature who will see the world without even keeping a memory of his mother.

I swallow thickly and my chest swells just getting an idea of ​​what it means for that little boy to have absolutely everything, but not his mother's affection and consequently not his father's.

Knowing what an ogre that man is for having done to me what he did to me last night, leaving me extremely distraught until Neville's call, I am not surprised at what awaits him when he grows up and begins to be aware of the world around him.

"You will have extra benefits"he adds, "Mr. Deniz wants you to be the constant stimulus that he needs, so you must accompany him in all his job opportunities that he attends because he should not be separated from the child either."

"Will I be well paid?"

"I can assure you."

Oh dear.

"That...means I'll constantly spend...next to that man just for being his baby's support," I admit.

"Exactly. And that was an expert's suggestion."

"How?"

"The pediatrician suggests that he have someone to give him the love that the father finds himself limited in being able to give him. Juliet, your mission is two fold. Or triple."

"That sure doesn't suit me." The account begins to get diffused inside me after all the mess in which I begin to reflect that I am involved.

"Not only are you teaching Ali the language, which is the reason for the contract you were taken for, but there is more as well."

"I must teach Ali to love his father," I reply, my voice low.

"And you must also remind Mr. Deniz how he is to cherish his son. And for this, in the first instance, you have to teach him to love again. Juliet, you have the right profile, your clients and students value you for your human quality beyond your knowledge of the language. I am sure that you are the one to do this job, you will save two people at the same time. Besides yourself. Shall we get on that plane, then?

I swallow thickly listening to him.

It's too much responsibility.

My palms are sweating as I quickly assess what decision I need to make.

The image of Mr. Deniz crosses my mind and his penetrating eyes fill me with enigmas, but also with a magnetism that is impossible for me to leave behind when I know which direction to take.