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Essentially, this mysterious story between the fox Silent Foot and Veysel Baba takes place in the famous Shoreditch Park of Northern London, as the city of rains.

One of the main characters in this mysterious story named Veysel Baba lives alone at number 8 of Kinder House next to the Shoreditch Park.

As the other character of this interesting story, the fox named Silent Footalso lives alone in its shelter at the bottom of walls of St John’s Hoxton Church. Shoreditch Park bringing together of these characters from different worlds and forming a circle of compassion collects and keeps many secrets for these characters.

Including these secrets, Shoreditch Park has two different worlds in days and nights. The lovely Shoreditch Park filled with people and playing children during days turns to a different place and becomes a meeting point for all foxes living around the vicinity. The loyal Shoreditch Park with numerous secrets and mysteries would never be disturbed with these two identities or ways of life.

One day, Shoreditch Park covered with the secrets has decided to use its entire energy in order to meet and introduce these two different characters of our story in the morning of a winter day. Veysel Baba was drinking in a pub until late at that winter night and dragged to a world of uncertainty. It was two o’clock in the morning when he left the pub. The man was hitting the bottle day and night like a tired warrior or a commander whom lost everything.

The man has drunk on that night as usual and he was willing to continue if the pub has not been closed. The man left the pub in a desparate mood and headed towards the bus station. The weather outside was really cold and he waited the bus for a long time. The entire city was in a deep sleep at that time while he was hanging around miserably in the streets. Waited for so long in a cold weather, the man has taken a seat in the back. He just wanted to arrive home and lie on his bed. As he arrived to the bus stop close to his home, he got off and started to walk towards home by passing through Shoreditch Park. Walking on this path is helpful for sobering up. By this way, he was trying to take lessons from his mistakes. However, as the morning comes and he sobers up, he turns to the same mistakes.

As Veysel Baba was walking around the park in a very early morning hour with a scattered and sleepless mood, he thought the happy people sleeping in this hour. While all the people working for a certain reason and sustaining a stable life were sleeping and dreaming, he was spending days and nights at the pubs persistently. Believed in having great times all night long, the man actually was making his life unbearable and searching for a healthy way of life every night. A good reason or a happy coincidence would ensure him to hold on life or get on his feet. His weak body ruined by inhumane tortures many years ago has been fully collapsed due to irregular life style and eating habit as well as harmful habits such as alcohol.It was the time to stop the rot. But how? He didn’t know the exact answer.

The talking fox, the other character of this story, left its home as a shelter for many years under the walls of St. John’s HoxtonChurch and headed towards the mysterious Shoreditch Park. In these months of winter (January-February), female foxes take the road to the famous Shoreditch Park to find a male candidate for mating whereas male foxes try all means for flirting. If a male is successful, then he would mate.Besides mating, the male fox stays near the female one and helps in caring the babies. Following a fifty-day of maternity, the mother fox gives birth to three or five babies. This number would rise up to twelve in certain occassions. The eyes of infants are closed and they can’t see for two weeks. The red fox babies with the binominal name of Vulpes Vulpes are fed by their mother for first six weeks. The babies get familiar with the nature by playing around by the first month. In case the female fox dies for any reason or fails to return home, the male undertakes the care of babies.

The infant babies start to move independently from their mother. Following ten months, they reach the maturity level sufficient for mating whereas they leave the nest and start searching for a new shelter by the first year. The red foxes hunt usually at nights. Except of the mother fox teaching the hunting ways to her babies, all foxes hunt alone. Spending the year alone, the red foxes are seen frequently throughouth Europe as in other continents. The red foxes seen especially in Northern Europe also live in the rural areas of England.

As the trouble makers for rural population employed generally in farming, the foxes enjoy to steal and feed with poultry including chickens, turkeys, gooses and even rabbits.

Furthermore, they also steal and feed with other animals like pigeons or rats. By this way, the red foxes prevent from overpopulation of animals in urban areas. In this sense, they are beneficial for us since they contribute indirectly to sanitary environment within the cities. Recognized with their crafty nature and involved in may stories by this nature, the foxes can adapt to different life forms easily. By choosing the cities as living spaces, the red foxes generally appear at nights except the cold winter months. It is almost impossible to recognize the red foxes moving and walking silently while it is possible to see them in every region of England. Our sly and trouble maker friends finding or creating a living space near the villages, cities and parks are the roots of our widely known stories and dreams.

Found a shelter by the walls of two-hundred years old St. John’s Hoxton Church close to the mysterious Shoreditch Park located in the northern region of London, the city of rains, this trouble maker and night hunter fox also belongs to the vulpes family. Silent Foot took the road to Shoreditch Park with the hope for finding a new spouse in that cold winter night and noticed a man talking to oneself and sitting on a bank in a half-stunned mood. The man was alone and drowned in tears. This old man seemed to repent in that moment. Regardless that his home is located near the park, he has chosen this park to punish himself in a cold winter night. While the entire city was sleeping at that moment, the monument of loneliness Veysel Baba has preferred to punish himself with persistence.

Silent Foot, the talking fox, saw the desparate mood of this man appeared to be a monument of defeat and gave up looking for a spouse. By crawling quietly along the bushes, the fox went to the man sitting on the bench. In such a close distance, the fox heard the regretful words of this old man. The man’s lonesome, desperate and plaintive mood made the fox very upset. Settled in the mysterious Shoreditch Park and its vicinity for a long time, Silent Footprobably didn’t experience such a sad coincidence. It seemed like the man has fallen to the middle of this mysterious park from an incomplete story. It also seemed like various mystical powers have sent this man sitting on a bench in order to finish the story.

Silent Foot, by means of its knowledge gained for many years, took a decision immediately and said: “This man must be the lucky person whom I have been waiting for many years. The man seems faithful and frustrated by loneliness just like me. I can open the door of friendship based on mutual respect, trust and love with this man seemed like the monument of loneliness.

It is necessary for me to welcome this important opportunity”. The fox walked on its paws silently and reached the man. However, the man sitting desperately on a bench was frustrated to notice the talking fox.

Spent the entire day in pubs, the man was drunk, sleepless and fatigued. His home is a few hundred meters away but he decided to spend the night in this mysterious park since there was a forgotten or neglected confession issue. He needed to complete this confession issue definitely in the middle of the park. There was nobody outside due to cold weather and late hour. As nobody would hear in 3 am, he was able to shout his objections and cry to his God freely.

Under the influence of these thoughts, the man stood up with his last effort and started to pray loudly by raising both hands to the sky. He shouted:

“Cry, oh Veysel Baba, cry! You reached the end of this road. You have the sole responsibility against the defeat in a challenging struggle called life. You are also the leading actor of this tearful solo tragedy. There is no future in this play and there is no need to be a future. Because you don’t have any place in this journey to hope called life. You don’t fit to this journey. You ruin the harmony, rhythm and beauty of this journey. As there is no future beyond this phase, it’s time for you to retreat, isn’t it? Because you really don’t fit to this world with your sinful and insensible life style.

Oh, Veysel Baba! You produced, wrote and played this solo tragedy filled with many regrets. Sometimes you were benevolent, helpful, fair, egalitarian or a warrior of justice while you also were betrayed, tortured, pushed towards loneliness, forgotten, colored, directed by numerous ideas and included in the choir of devotion by prefering simplicity. Regardless that you have realized your never ending mistakes, you never hesitated, criticised yourself or got yourself together. You were a stubborn all the time whereas you didn’t want to take lessons from your mistakes by turning back. You made such a defeat inevitable by persisting on yourself.

Oh, Veysel Baba! You are performing your final scene like a monument of defeat in the middle of this park at such a cold winter night while the people are sleeping well in their homes. Most of the people excluding you did the right thing by following the simple truths of life and they formed several life norms. On the other hand, you escaped from the simple truths by choosing the easiest way and created a fake world based on lies. Thus, you became a little toy for the empire of sins and crimes.

Many people care about days by involving in daily works while you act in the contrary way by chasing pleasure andparticipating in charming nights. As the people walk for a holy purpose, you walk towards darkness with a great tenacity.

Oh, Veysel Baba! O, the man frustrated by life! O, the man as a friend of loneliness! Where is the man who was once recognized as a role model? Where is the man who was once foresighted with modern thoughts? Where is the man who was an anti-capitalist? Where is the man who had universal and socialist thoughts? Where is the man who pointed out peace, fraternity and equality? Where is the stubborn man who defended freedom? Where is the man who told all the people in this world are equal? Where is the man who drew a line in discrimination between races and faiths? Where is that nature lover man standing against global warming? Where? He is right here standing as a monument of defeat in the middle of Shoreditch Park.

You, Veysel Baba! This sad defeat is your mark as well as the tearful final. You reached the end of this tearful game. Soon, the lights will be turned off and the act will end forever. Everything that has a beginning also has an end. People come into the world, grow up and die finally. You were born, you grew up and you are now facing with this modest final. It is unnecessary to insist on this dramatic path of life. In this point, it is also unnecessary to persist and continue this meaningless life. Because more life means more pain, distress, tear, disappointment, defeat and loneliness. For this reason, farewell to all memories and experiences. Farewell, farewell, farewell…”

The weather was really cold at that moment and it was four in the morning when this tired man fell asleep in the middle of Shoreditch Park. There were nobody around except our talking fox, Silent Foot. Fell asleep for death slowly at that cold winter night, the man felt his blood drawn from his veins. In a half-blind state, he saw a fox. It seemed this fox would like to warm the man with its long tail. The fox’s kind behavior and effort made him to remember his warmhearted mother.When the man is alone, he always remembers his childhood days and the villager ladies washing clothes by the river. He also recalls her mother cleaning his son on the rubbles. Everytime he feels cold and says “Mom, I’m cold”, he remembers her mother heating the water in a boiler and then pouring it over his head. But in such a cold winter night, there was nobody to warm him in the middle of this park. Only a talking fox witnessed the incidents and revived the man fell asleep for death by intervening to the current situation.

END OF CHAPTER

08/08/2016 Veysel  Baba – Kinder House, London