Madonna in a Fur Coat

Sabahattin Ali

Of all the people I have chanced upon in life, there is no one who has left a
greater impression. Months have passed but still Raif Efendi haunts my
thoughts. As I sit here alone, I can see his honest face, gazing off into the
distance, but ready, nonetheless, to greet all who cross his path with a smile.
Yet he was hardly an extraordinary man. Indeed, he was rather ordinary,
with no distinguishing features – no different from the hundreds of others
we meet and fail to notice in the course of a normal day.