LUCKY PARS

It was Friday again—how quickly it had come. Pars was about to leave.“Did I take everything?” he wondered, patting his pockets. Just then, he saw the birds waiting on the balcony. He turned back.

At that moment, his mother had already started grumbling:“Why are you coming back, son? Things won’t go well if you do.”

Pars replied, “Let me just feed the birds, Mom. Otherwise, it'll bother me all day.”

His mother said, “Son, there's bird poop everywhere. What are you going to do with those birds now?”

And to be fair, Pars's mother had a point. He tried to clean it up when it came to mind, but the hot water he threw down annoyed the downstairs neighbor. And of course, the neighbor also had a point.

So, what could Pars do? To avoid arguing with the neighbor, he waited for rainy days. Whenever it rained, he would think of the balcony, rush out, and clean it. Especially when winter came, he felt deep sorrow for the birds. He would say,“Look, Mom, we’ve found ourselves a warm home, and they're out there in the cold, just trying to find food.”He tried to soften her heart.

Over time, his mother began to agree with Pars. She even gave one of the birds a name.

Pars kissed his mother a second time and stepped outside. After all, his mother spent the whole day cleaning and tidying the house. And really, doesn’t making everyone happy require a bit of effort?

Pars started the car. He hadn’t had breakfast yet—it was still very early. He stopped by a market to grab something. He bought a coffee and some biscuits, thinking he’d eat them on the road.

He got back in the car and turned the key, but four pigeons standing in the road blocked his way. Pars always slowed down in such situations and counted to make sure they were all clear.“Where’s the fourth one?” he thought, keeping the car idle.

Just then, a huge truck sped past in front of him, and at the same time, the fourth pigeon appeared right beside the car.“How lucky I am,” Pars thought. “Good thing I waited for the pigeon.”

He checked the car’s range and set off.“I can go and come back comfortably,” he thought and pressed the gas. He also activated the vehicle’s front car tracking system. Pars always believed these systems responded well.

As he was going downhill on a slope, the car in front of him suddenly slowed down and pulled over. Since his speed dropped rapidly too, he suddenly noticed a sharp turn ahead. But there was nothing to worry about—he was already going slow.

Just as he was about to get annoyed at the driver ahead for stopping so suddenly, he thought,“How lucky I am. Good thing he stopped,” and thanked him in his heart.

He made it to the school half an hour before the first class. He bought a tea and a bagel, sat in the cafeteria, and waited for the lesson to begin.A cat came up to him, rubbed against his pant legs, made him pet it, and then disappeared.

Pars entered his law class. His disheveled professor appeared at the door again. In a few minutes, the man would open his pessimistic mouth and start with,“If you do this, that’ll happen. If you don’t do that, this disaster will befall you,” listing every negative possibility with full force, topping it off with stories from his own misfortunes, until all the energy in the classroom had been drained like a cold draft sweeping in.

Seriously, so many bad things happened to the professor.Every week he would say, “Guess what happened to me this time,” and the stories would roll on. One story led to another, and with incredible fluency, he would fill the entire class time.

But the last three minutes of the lesson were always different. The professor would express gratitude for everything he had in life.He tried to instill this attitude in his students, too.

And Pars always liked this final part.“Gratitude, professor. We really are lucky…”

Aydın YAKUPOĞLU