The Architect's Apprentice

by Elif Shafak

Earlier Sinan had the carpenters assemble a huge treadwheel crane. Groups of men took turns inside, at times walking, at times running, turning the wheel that hoisted the heaviest stones. Jahan thought there was something about a construction site that resembled the deck of a ship. In both there was the innate knowledge that any individual failure would be the failure of all. And success would be doled out in the smallest portions, shredded like the salted, dried meat in their soup. When putting up a building or sailing in the deep, you learned to watch over one another; an enforced togetherness emerged, a brotherhood of sorts. A tacit understanding ruled across the ranks. You accepted that the task at hand was mightier than yourself, and the only way to forge ahead was by toiling together as one. So you buried the dislikes and the fights, unless a mutiny erupted, in which case the world would be turned upside down.