Thirteen Days By Sunset Beach (6 page)

"What's special?"

"Putting paper in the bin instead of down the loo, your uncle means," Pris said.

"Shall we find a better subject for discussion over breakfast?" Julian said.

Perhaps William didn't think he meant immediately. "Mummy says we haven't got to because it's unhygienical."

As Ray made to put Sandra's frown into words, their red-haired neighbour Jane did. "Everybody needs to use the bins, otherwise the pipes get clogged."

"I don't think it can be quite that bad," Natalie said.

"I'm telling you it is, and I'm a plumber."

There was silence while she returned to her apartment, and then Natalie said "Well, thank you so much for showing me up."

"Don't be like that, sis," Doug said. "When did you stop mucking in? You always used to when we went away with mum and dad."

"Maybe I didn't have a choice." Perhaps because she realised this would upset them, Natalie was quick to add "Or maybe it's different now I have a little boy to look after."

"Then you should have said before I booked for everyone."

"Stop it now, you two," Sandra called. "They've always been like this," she told whoever needed to be told.

"In that case," Julian said, "Natalie can't have changed that much."

"Nobody was blaming you, Julian," Pris said.

"I wouldn't have assumed it. You might want to say what there is for anyone to be blamed for."

"Mum was saying she didn't."

"That's very loyal of you, Timothy, but please consider the example you're setting."

"Tim, we think you're a credit," Sandra said.

Ray felt impelled to break the silence in which the waves on the beach seemed to have grown nervously shrill. "I was going to ask," he called, "if anybody tried to get into your rooms last night."

"Are you saying there are thieves about?" Julian demanded.

"I'm not at all. I just wasn't sure if I heard someone knocking on a door or two."

"I'm sure they didn't knock on ours," Sandra said.

"We didn't hear anything," Doug said.

"Nor did we," Julian said. "What is it, William?"

"I thought I did, but you're not supposed to answer."

"Then I hope you didn't. Good boy." Less enthusiastically his mother said "I hope you weren't thinking of that silly story of your uncle."

"I didn't make it up, Nat."

"I don't care who did. We don't want that kind of thing keeping anyone awake."

"I went back to sleep," William said. "It didn't even really wake me up. It was too soggy."

"Well, that's the first time I've ever heard about a soggy knock," Sandra said. "Are we all finishing our breakfasts? We don't want to miss the pickup."

***

As everybody crossed the courtyard a coach slowed to a halt beyond the arch, and a chubby young man with a shock of unmistakably bleached hair pranced down the steps. His badge named him Jamie, and his gestures were graceful enough for a dancer. "Good morning, all you lively people," he cried, waving extravagantly as well.

William giggled before Natalie could hush him. Ray helped Sandra up the steps and kissed her hand. They and their party were the first passengers on the coach. "You have the front seat, William," Sandra said.

"Just you thank grandma," Natalie said as he made to do so. They took the seat while Julian sat opposite, and she murmured "Don't be rude again, William."

"I said thank you."

"You know perfectly well what your mother means," Julian said, and Ray wondered if he was annoyed because Jonquil hadn't sat with him. "We don't laugh at anyone. We've told you, other people make different choices about the kind of life they live."

Though he wasn't looking at Jamie the guide said "That's if you think everybody has a choice."

"I do, yes. Otherwise we'd have no morals."

"Some of the folk here might give you an argument."

"We're aware the economy has problems. That doesn't mean they can't choose how to solve them."

"They have," Jamie said, picking up a clipboard to plant crosses next to names. "Elysian Apartments next, Alexandras."

The bus was speeding along the deserted dusty road to Sunset Beach when Pris said "What's with the musical chairs, you two?"

Ray glanced back to see Tim and Jonquil moving to his side of the aisle. Although like their grandmother they were wearing hats and sunglasses, Tim said "Too sunny over there."

"You aren't still determined not to get a tan," Doug protested.

"That's how some people like to look these days," Natalie said. "Remember when we used to fight over who had the best one?"

"I'm glad you've calmed down, then," Julian said. "All the same, it's a pity to spend money on the sun if it won't be put to use."

The road through Sunset Beach looked as dead as all the signs. The electric jester was arrested with one bent leg in the air, while the neon cat would be poised all day at the start of a leap. A few of the locals were cleaning or tidying bars and tavernas at a sleepy pace that struck Ray as typically Greek. The coach halted in front of an apartment complex, outside which a young couple sat in the shade of a trellis so laden with vines that the tendrils appeared not just to be growing on the grey wood but feeding on it. "Good morning, lively folk," Jamie cried, and they blinked at him.

Two of the accommodations where the coach stopped didn't yield up any customers. "You'd wonder why anyone would bother booking," Sandra commented, "If they aren't going to put in an appearance."

"They should have got someone to give them a knock," Doug said.

"Do you have to keep talking about that?" Jonquil complained.

"No need for impoliteness," Julian said, "even if you're trying to protect William."

"Can't I do anything right?"

"A great many things," Sandra told her. "And we like how you look after your brother. Our two did for each other."

Ray wondered if she meant they'd stopped, because he didn't think they entirely had. As Jamie returned to the coach by himself again Pris said "Why would anyone come all this way to your island and then miss a day like today?"

"Something brings them," Jamie said. "They keep coming back."

Once the coach left Sunset Beach behind, the hills that formed the spine of Vasilema rose on the inland horizon. More passengers boarded in resorts that Ray had previously slept through—fishing villages colonised by apartments and hotels—and then the port appeared, its bony buildings swarming uphill while the bay brandished masts at the increasingly overcast sky. "Everybody follow me when we leave the bus," Jamie said. "If I lost anyone it'd break my heart."

When William made a small anxious sound Natalie said "I'm sure you never have."

"I'm sad to say we lost a visitor just last week."

"How did you manage that?" Doug said.

"Not on any excursion of ours. The gentleman went off by himself," Jamie said, waving to mime carelessness. "He had a room not far from where you're staying."

"I take it you'll have tracked him down," Julian said.

"I wish I could tell you that. He disappeared last week and nobody's found him." As Natalie began to interrupt, Jamie raised his voice. "He was talking to the lady at his digs about visiting the mainland," he said. "Somebody here at the harbour said they thought they saw him take the ferry, so we think that's where he must have wandered off to."

Sandra was speaking at the very least for Ray as she said "How long has he left of his holiday?"

"That's what has people worried. He should have gone home days ago, but he couldn't have without his passport." Jamie moved to the top of the steps as the coach reached the harbour. "The police have that," he said and gazed at William. "What do you think is the moral of the story, sunbeam?"

William giggled at the nickname before saying gravely "Don't lose your passport?"

"That's wise advice, but I'll tell you what I meant—never go anywhere by yourself without letting somebody know where you'll be. Best of all," Jamie said and raised his eyes to include every passenger, "just don't go anywhere by yourself."

***

"Won't that be too spicy for you, William?" his mother said. "We don't want you wandering about in the night."

"Nobody was," Jonquil said.

"I wasn't saying you were, Jonquil. We don't want him being kept awake, that's all."

"I didn't wake him." More urgently than Ray would have thought was called for, the girl said "Did I, William?"

"This isn't about you, Jonquil," Julian said. "Quite a few things aren't, young lady."

"You don't need to tell me."

Ray suspected Pris meant to head off any further confrontation by saying "I don't think anything's too spicy here."

They were in Chloe's Garden, where Doug had suggested everybody at the table share their dinner. "Just have a little taste of anything you like the look of, William," Natalie said as if she were doing someone else a favour.

Ray was more concerned to see Sandra sample everything, which she more than did. She appreciated it aloud as well, though he wasn't sure how much this was designed to encourage William. The boy set about competing with her expressions of pleasure, to nearly everyone's amusement. "So do you like the taverna, Will?" Tim said.

The boy giggled so vigorously that he had to wipe his mouth. "Use your serviette, William," Julian said.

Before he'd finished dabbing with the paper napkin William said "That isn't what it's called."

"It's the polite name for it, William," Natalie said.

As Ray saw Sandra reflect that they'd never used the word, William giggled again. "Not what you said, daddy. What Tim did."

"See what the sign says, William," Jonquil said and grinned at her cousin.

"Could you refrain from trying to confuse your brother," Julian said with no hint of a question. "If you want to be involved with him, please set your standards higher."

As Jonquil's grin collapsed, Tim sent her a wink. Ray saw Pris and Doug exchange a glance, but it was William who spoke. "It does say that, daddy, look."

"You know perfectly well this is a taverna, William," Julian said and glared at Jonquil. "Greek people use a different alphabet, that's all."

"I can't see why they don't get rid of it," Natalie said, "if they're so eager for tourists."

"Maybe Greeks come here for a holiday as well," Doug said.

"That isn't how the driver from the airport made it sound. He was saying people here aren't like other Greeks."

"That's what Greeks say about Crete," Pris said. "Doug and I thought we all might like somewhere tourists hadn't taken over."

Natalie looked stubbornly unpersuaded, an attitude Ray recalled from her teens. "Can I just say something to everyone?" Sandra said.

Perhaps she meant to quell any argument, but Ray felt as if her words had pierced his guts. Had she thought better of keeping the secret? "Why," Natalie said, "what's wrong?"

"Nothing whatsoever with my holiday. I was only wondering if anyone would mind if I had a different day."

For a shaky breath Ray was furious that she'd made him panic. In a bid to leave his shameful reaction behind he said "Different how?"

"I wouldn't mind finding that little beach with the cave. I don't think it's too far from a bus stop."

He knew where she was thinking of—a secluded sandy beach the cruise had passed, at the foot of a cliff about halfway between Sunset Beach and Vasilema Town. A grassy section of the cliff sloped down to one end, while at the other an inlet vanished into a cave where the light from ripples lapped the walls and the equally spiky roof. She'd wakened just in time to see all this, having dozed beneath the awning of the boat throughout much of Jamie's commentary, which Ray had found somewhat relentless and bereft of detail. "You can have my day if you like, gran," Tim said. "I don't mind going there."

He and Jonquil had roused themselves at the sight of the beach or the cave. They'd been almost as sleepy in the shade as their grandmother. "We can put your day and mine together, Tim," Pris said. "The monastery is off the road. I'd still love to do your saint's day, Sandra."

"Are there any more changes of plan?" Julian said without encouraging.

"Don't let it throw you, Jules," Doug said. "Let's just all have a good time."

Julian let everybody see him taking out his phone. "The way to make sure of that is to be organised."

"Then let's organise the beach tomorrow," Ray said and was aware of a disagreement in the kitchen. Whatever Chloe and her daughter were murmuring about, the mother won. As Ray watched her approach, asking other diners on the way how their meals were, he had an odd sense that she was readying herself. She reached the table at last and gave the depleted dishes an approving nod. "How is all?" she said.

"Delicious," Sandra said with sufficient gusto for the whole party.

"That is good," Chloe said and met her eyes. "Bitten," she said, touching her own unmarked neck.

"I was the other night. I've been more careful since."

Chloe shook her head. "Never once."

"Some people seem to attract them, don't they?" Pris said. "They aren't bothered about us."

"We've put repellent in the room," Ray said.

"No good," Chloe told him.

"It's worked wherever else we've found mosquitoes. If there's a local secret I hope you'll share it with us."

Chloe was pursing her lips when Natalie said "Could I just ask if we really need to have cats around the table while we're eating?"

"You'll have noticed we're English," Julian said. "It wouldn't be allowed in any restaurant at home."

"I don't think they're doing any harm, are they?" Doug said. "Now dad was asking—"

"It's a question of cleanliness, Douglas. I believe you'll agree we've already lowered our standards to save trouble."

As Doug visibly withheld a response Chloe said "That is life here. All feed."

"Well, they won't be feeding from us," Julian said and held up a hand to fend off any rejoinder.

Chloe stared at the hand before closing her eyes as a preamble to stalking away. "Do pardon me," Julian called after her, but she didn't turn. "I'd forgotten we aren't allowed to do that. As I say, we're English."