THE ESCAPE

 “…and then  the barefoot princess agreed to wear the silk slippers that the shoemaker had made to measure for her”  “ But did the princess marry the shoemaker?” “ Sure, they got married and lived happily ever after” “ Where did they go to live? Don’t tell me that the princess accepted to live in the little shoemaker’s house…” “ But no, they lived in the princess’s castle”

Martha couldn’t take it anymore, her jailer was becoming more and more demanding with the story she had to tell him.

She had been kidnapped after school and taken to that sumptuous home where her kidnapper lived with a harem of wives and concubines. He was the absolute master of his home and territory and he could decide freely, at his will, the fate that those who lived there. He had decided that Martha, as had happened to other girls, would be killed after he satisfied his senses with her. Martha very anguished when she knew the fate that awaited her said: “ Ah, the story of Louise B. comes to my mind. She too had to succumb to her fate.” Her jailer and lord wanted to know who Louise B. was. When he learned that she was a girl who had been kidnapped to obtain a ransom but who had been killed despite the payment of ransom, he protested: “ But I didn’t kidnap you to ask for a ransom” “ Oh, yes….you kidnapped me to kill me “ Martha said. Then her jailer asked her to tell him the story of Louise B. The story delighted him so much that he said to Martha he wouldn’t kill her as long as she was able to tell him a different story every night. All that remained was for Martha to accept. As long as she was able to tell stories to her Jailer her life would be saved. The task wasn’t easy because the stories she told had to please her captor, they had to satisfy him. It often happened that after a story he hadn’t found satisfying she had to tell another. It had passed years since her abduction and Martha was exhausted but she couldn’t give up. Every day she thought about how to escape that prison and be free again. The palace ( the residence) of her jailer and lord was supervised by trusted guards and electronic devices. Without mentioning that she could not even go out when she wanted and freely from her room.

On the other hand, Martha was not thinking at all of her kidnapper’s repentance, that is, that he could end up giving up killing her. Indeed, to tell the truth, she would not even have wanted this. It was something else she wanted, something else that arbored in her heart. She wanted to come back free of course, but also to take revenge on her jailer.

 Martha thought about how to find a way to escape the constant surveillance to which she was subjected. She redoubled her condescension towards her jailer, lord, and master. She did her best to tell him more and more interesting stories and to satisfy all his desires and his wishes, as the great sultan he was. To escape from that royal prison and above all to implement her revenge she needed the complicity and the help of the numerous women of the harem. But how to do it?

She worked very hard with her jailer to get to spend some time in their company. Finally, however reluctantly, the sultan allowed her to take the Turkish bath in their company, but he forbade them to exchange a word with them. She would be in their company but in silence.

Martha at first tried to communicate with the sultan’s women by gestures and facial expressions. She chose, to communicate, with the ones that seemed to her, from their looks and their attitude, more receptive and available. One was Rachel, a very young, girl whom the sultan had recently married. Another was Miriam, one of his older concubines.

Martha began to look at Rachel and smile at her, and Rachel returned it with a radiant smile.

Martha winked at her and moved her mouth without speaking, then she brought her forefinger to her mouth, shook her head, and implied that she couldn’t speak but that she greatly needed to talk to her. While she was trying to communicate with Rachel Martha felt her arm seize: it was Miriam who brought her mouth close to her ear without saying a word but just blowing into her ear and shaking her head. What did she want to tell her? Perhaps she too had to talk to her but she couldn’t because she was forbidden to. With each Turkish bath that followed Martha, she perfected her way of communicating without words with Rachel and Miriam. So even before Miriam put a note in her hand with the writing: “ WE TOO want to leave this golden prison” Martha understood that he had found accomplices, and allies for her project.

Even Rachel and Miriam would have liked to kill the sultan, since they too felt like humiliated prisoners, treated like things: that man was the absolute master of their lives, and he could do of them what he wanted. But unlike Martha, they would not have dared to kill him because they feared the reaction of the very powerful allies he had everywhere. It would have been enough for them to be able to escape from that prison palace. This was instead a fundamental point for Martha: she wanted to take revenge on the one who had deprived her of her freedom and enslaved her to his will and pleasure. Besides, Martha was amazed to realize that as the days went by all the women of the harem wanted to escape from the palace and regain their freedom. Of course, the undertaking could have seemed impossible: how to organize the escape by eluding the strict surveillance entrusted to armed guards and electronic mechanisms? Devising all the most unthinkable tricks would not have been enough to put out of action the iron surveillance to which all of them were subjected. Here was needed….A SPELL, something that went beyond their capabilities, which allowed them to escape from the golden prison.

Among the many women of the sultan, there were some who once when they were free had had the reputation of witches. Martha, Rachel, and Miriam resorted to them. Among the fumes of the Turkish bath, they interviewed their gazes and gestures and their silent words written on notes, which they passed furtively, to organize a mass escape plan.

It must be said that Martha was the only one determined not only to escape but also to kill their tyrant. To the other women, who feared retaliation and revenge, who begged her not to kill him ____it would have been enough to be able to escape and to be free again ____she assured that she would not have killed the sultan. But in her heart, she was determined to kill him.

When the night came that allowed the women of the harem to escape because the spell they had resorted had finally worked, making all the guards fall asleep and putting all the electronic control devices out, Martha wanted to risk, determined to have her revenge. She received the sultan like every night and began to tell him a new story. “ Once upon a time, there was a girl free as air who had been taken prisoner….” Martha was so sure that the spell would act even on the sultan and that she would kill him in his sleep that she even dared to tell him her story.

She had with her a dagger with which she would kill him as he fell asleep. But the spell had no effect on the sultan who did not fall asleep but only pretended to sleep. And when Martha was about to stab him he strangled her.