Wish You Were Here (22 page)

The next morning was business as usual for Milo and Tiana. She got ready for school and he got ready for work. The only difference was that Milo was going to work on an ancient moped that a neighbour had lent him. It really was a terrible vehicle and Milo would probably have got more speed out of a mule but, until he replaced his old moped, he didn’t have much choice.

All that morning, he couldn’t take his eyes off Tiana. She sat like a little miracle in the middle of their kitchen, the sunlight flooding through the window and making her skin glow.

He’d packed her lunch as he always did, checked that she had all her books and had written a note to the teacher explaining why she’d been absent the day before and why she hadn’t had time to do her homework.

‘She won’t believe us,’ Tiana said.

‘Probably not,’ Milo agreed.

Now, riding the ancient moped to work, he thought about the conversation he’d had with his brother the night before. Georgio called after ten when he was sure Tiana had gone to bed.

‘Is she all right?’ he’d asked anxiously.

‘Well, she’s not crying herself to sleep if that’s what you’re worried about.’

‘There’s no need to be so cruel.’

Milo had sighed. There was still a part of him that wanted to punish Georgio for what he’d done but another part of him – the gentler part – wanted to sort things out between them all. He might not be able to understand why his brother had acted the way he had but knew that it was because he loved Tiana, and he told him his idea about her spending more time in Athens with them.

‘Are you serious?’ Georgio said.

‘If you promise to take good care of her and not emigrate or something.’

There’d been a pause. ‘You can trust us. We won’t do anything like that again. Sonya’s really shaken up. She didn’t –
we
didn’t – realise how much she loved her home.’

‘She’s an islander, Georgio, like me,’ Milo said and he heard his brother exhale slowly.

‘I can see that now.’

‘She’ll never leave,’ Milo told him.

‘I’ll never try to force her to.’

There’d been a silence that was neither awkward nor uncomfortable. It was as if the two brothers were letting something settle between them and, when they said good night, it was understood that what had passed would not be spoken of again. Apologies had been accepted and punishments received.

Now, turning off the main road towards the Villa Argenti, Milo was glad that it was all behind them. He’d known things had been building up for some time but hadn’t known which direction they would take.

Lander was there by the gate when Milo arrived. ‘You all right?’ his colleague asked him, giving him the once-over.

‘I think I’ll survive,’ Milo said, getting off the moped and taking his helmet off.

Lander peered closely at his face. ‘You been to the hospital for that cut?’

‘What cut?’

‘The one below your hairline.’

Milo’s hand flew up to his head and felt the scab that was forming there. ‘It’s nothing.’

‘You’re limping too,’ Lander pointed out as Milo walked into the garden.

‘I’m fine. I just want a nice quiet day without any incidents,’ he said and he disappeared into the garden to enjoy the solitude before the first of the tourists arrived.

Alice had never seen such bright water in her life. At once, she remembered Milo saying that the sea was ‘six shades of blue’ but she was sure she could see far more than that and it dazzled her eyes. There was clear aquamarine, dancing turquoise, there was indigo and navy, sapphire and lavender and so many shades in between.

Her fingers clenched the railings as she looked down into the water, marvelling at the foamy white wake behind the ferry which widened like a gigantic tail over the thousands of shades of blue and green. It would be easy to believe in mermaids on such a day or even believe that the mighty Poseidon lived in the watery depths, his trident ready and waiting to capture any unsuspecting tourist. And hadn’t Aphrodite been born from out of the sea? Alice remembered reading about a god having his unmentionables cut off and flung into the sea and the goddess of love rising up out of it.

Alice shook her head. Why was she always thinking about gods and goddesses? It was far more likely that there’d be nothing but jellyfish and the occasional flip-flop in the water below but she couldn’t shake the notion that if her statue of Aphrodite had had the power to grant wishes then what else was true from the world of myths and legends? Were there winged horses flying around the Greek mountains? Had Medusa been real? Alice felt so confused with it all but decided to dismiss the mythical beings for now and focus on getting herself to the Villa Argenti.

She walked to the front of the boat and watched as they approached Kethos. The familiar sight of the harbour made her feel nervous all of a sudden with its rows of white buildings and brightly-painted shutters. As they got closer, she could see the little row of fishermen on the harbour wall and could well believe that they’d been sitting there without moving since she’d last seen them.

Narrowly avoiding being proposed to by an Italian tourist who was quickly dragged away by his furious girlfriend, Alice walked to the bus stop and waited for the island bus to take her to her destination. There were about a dozen or so other holiday-makers standing in line that morning and she guessed that a fair few of them would be accompanying her to the villa.

The bus ride felt like something from a dream – a half-remembered thing that she thought she’d never encounter again and she couldn’t help but let a little part of her float back to that first week on Kethos when everything had been so beautiful and she’d been falling in love with Milo.

She looked out of the window as the bus turned a corner and the earth fell away towards the sea. There were gasps from the other tourists who had never seen the view before and Alice couldn’t help feeling just a little bit territorial because this was her special place.

Getting off at the Villa Argenti, Alice sighed at the number of people who accompanied her down the long sweep of driveway. Didn’t they have anywhere else to go? Must they all be here today? She’d be lucky if she got a private moment with Aphrodite at all, especially if everybody knew about the wish. They’d be queuing up for hours to place their hands on her magical body.

Alice decided to make her way towards the Goddess Garden straightaway in an attempt to beat the crowds. She wanted to get this over and done with as quickly as possible.

The garden was quite different from when she had last seen it. Everything seemed so much bigger and greener and there were flowers in dazzlingly exotic colours and a border filled with old-fashioned roses in pinks and creams. A part of her wanted to linger and take it all in but she was too anxious to deal with business first and so directed her gaze straight ahead.

Her feet crunched along the gravel towards the Goddess Garden and she saw a few familiar faces. There was Demeter with her sheaf of wheat and there was Artemis with her hounds. Alice stopped. One of the hounds had a large crack around his neck and there was something amiss with Athena too – she’d lost an arm.
How on earth had that happened,
she wondered?

Alice walked on towards the sheltered corner of the garden that was home to Aphrodite. Red roses were in bloom around her feet and Alice took in a deep breath of relief that she was finally there. She’d made it and she was going to change things back to the way they had been before she’d made the wish. Everything was going to be all right.

But, as she looked up into the beautiful, serene face of the goddess, she knew that something was wrong. There was something about her face that didn’t look right. It was her and yet it wasn’t her. Alice blinked and tilted her head to one side as if that might make a difference but it didn’t. It
wasn’t
her, was it? It wasn’t the same statue. She knew it was Aphrodite – a representation of her, at least – but it wasn’t
her
Aphrodite.

She looked around the garden as if somebody was playing a trick on her. What was going on? She couldn’t ask anything of this statue, could she? That wouldn’t work. This Aphrodite was an imposter. She had no right being in the garden. And what about Artemis’s hound and Athena and her missing arm? Something had happened here and Alice’s mind raced as she realised what it might mean for her.

In another corner of the garden, Milo was watching a tourist who was hovering awfully close to a perfect pink rose, eyes looking askance as if to see if she was being observed.

‘I don’t believe it!’ he whispered to himself a moment later when the tourist snapped off the head of the rose between two vicious-looking fingernails. He cleared his throat and stepped out of the shadows but didn’t look directly at her. He was just letting her know that he was there and that any future rose-plucking would be dealt with less kindly.

He found it all rather amusing, actually. It was a compliment to the garden that people wanted to take a little bit of it away with them but, if every tourist had the same idea, there wouldn’t be a garden left. He’d once seen a man bent double in one of the borders actually attempting to dig a whole plant up – roots and all. He’d escorted him to the gate and told him not to come back and that the goddess, Artemis, would send her hounds in pursuit of him if he were ever seen there again.

Now, Milo was making his way to the Goddess Garden. He wanted to check on the new rose bushes that had been planted in the winter and were looking their very best now. The red roses around Aphrodite were particularly striking and he wanted to make sure they were in perfect condition. Mr Carlson was due back any day now from yet another business trip and, if the roses were looking good, it might take his mind off the fact that his favourite statue had been lost to the earthquake.

His feet crunched down the pathway. Only one tourist had reached this part of the garden already and Milo watched her for a moment. She was hovering around the statue of Aphrodite, pacing up and down as if in distress. He thought it was amusing at first. After all, he’d seen all kinds of goings-on as far as tourists were concerned.

It was only when she turned around that he stopped smiling because the figure that had been pacing up and down wasn’t just a tourist. It was Alice.

‘Alice – you came back.’

Alice froze. She didn’t need to turn around to know that Milo was standing behind her.

‘Alice?’ he said again. She took a deep breath and turned to face him.

‘What?’ she said.

‘I wish I’d known you were coming. I could have met you at the boat.’

‘I didn’t come here to see you, Milo,’ she said abruptly.

‘Oh,’ he said, looking thoroughly deflated at her declaration.

‘I needed to see the statue again.’

Milo looked puzzled. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Where is she?’ she asked.

‘Where’s what?’

‘
Aphrodite
, Milo! Where is she?’

‘Oh, she got damaged. We had an earthquake.’

Alice stared at him. ‘An earthquake?’

‘Yes. Aphrodite got broken and Athena lost an arm. You should’ve been here. It was really dramatic.’

‘Oh, God!’ Alice exclaimed.

‘It’s all right,’ Milo went on, ‘nobody was hurt.’ He gave a little smile and she suddenly felt guilty for not asking him if he was okay although, looking at him now, he did seem as though he’d sustained some injuries. He saw her looking at him. ‘Oh, this wasn’t the earthquake. I came off my bike.’

‘Are you all right?’

‘Just a few scuffs and sprains.’

‘What happened?’ She inwardly cursed herself as soon as the question was out there but she couldn’t deny that there was still a little part of her that cared about this man.

‘I was going too fast – not paying attention to the road.’

‘I see,’ she said, wondering if he realised how stupid that was when he had a family to look after. He really shouldn’t be tearing around the island roads like a boy racer when he had responsibilities.

‘You said you came back because of the statue?’ Milo prompted her.

Alice nodded and began pacing up and down the path again.

‘I’ve got to find her – the one that was here before. Where is she?’

Milo shook his head. ‘I told you – she got smashed in the earthquake. We had to send her away.’

‘Send her where?’ Alice’s eyes were wide and wild.

‘There’s a man on the island who does repairs. He came to collect her but I really don’t think there’s much he can do. She was in really bad condition. So we got another one so as not to disappoint the tourists.’ He paused. ‘Why’s this so important to you?’

‘I’ve got to find her,’ she said, her words firing out of her mouth in staccato desperation. ‘She’s the only one who can help me now. I’ve come all this way. I’ve
got
to find her.’

Milo looked concerned now. ‘Calm down. You’re not making any sense.’

She stared up at him, anxiety in her blue eyes. ‘But you don’t understand how important this is.’

‘No, I don’t,’ he said, ‘and I wish you’d tell me what’s going on.’

Alice sighed. ‘I made a wish on this statue – the other statue – the one that was here when I was on holiday. You told me that it granted wishes and I was silly enough to make one and it came true and it’s caused nothing but trouble. I’ve got to undo it.’

Milo’s mouth dropped open and he didn’t say anything at first but Alice felt sure he was doing his best to stifle a laugh. ‘Alice, have you
any
idea how mad that sounds?’ he said at last.

‘Look, you can stand there and laugh at me or you can try and help me.’

‘Of course I’ll help you.’

‘It’s your fault that it happened at all. I’d never have made a wish in the first place if it hadn’t been for you.’

Milo scratched his chin. ‘What exactly happened to you? Alice?’ His hand was upon her shoulder and he guided her towards a nearby white bench where they sat in the dappled light of a fig tree. It was the same bench on which they’d sat together the first time they’d met. ‘Tell me what’s going on.’

Alice took a deep breath. Her mind was buzzing with fear and confusion and she knew she had to try and calm herself down if she was going to sort anything out. So she told him everything that had happened since she’d left Kethos and, indeed, the things that had happened to her when she’d been on the island.

‘The pelican?’ Milo said incredulously once she’d finished.

‘It was male, wasn’t it?’ Alice said.

‘And you’re sure it was the statue that did all these things to you?’

‘What do you mean? What else could it have been?’

Milo shrugged. ‘Your natural charisma and beauty?’

‘Oh, don’t be soft,’ Alice said. ‘Nothing like this has happened to me before and it all started after my visit here.’

Milo shook his head. ‘I think you’ve made some mistake.’

‘But you’re the one who told me she could grant wishes.’

‘Yes, but that’s just something I say to the tourists. It’s just a bit of—’ he hesitated, looking for the right word, ‘
fun
.’

‘Well, it wasn’t much fun for me, I can tell you,’ Alice said, ‘and I’m not the only one, you know. There’s a whole website forum full of people who have had their wishes granted.’

‘Oh, that’s just holiday fun!’

‘Well, if you’re not going to help me then I shall do this on my own.’

‘I didn’t say I wasn’t going to help you. I just said that it all sounds very—’ he paused, searching for the right word, ‘unlikely.’

‘Well, you try getting to sleep when your ancient neighbour’s serenading you at your window or getting a day’s work done when your boss keeps trying to corner you.’

Milo looked thoughtful for a moment. ‘Look,’ he said at last, ‘I believe anything you say, and I want to help you if you really think that the statue holds the answer to all this.’

‘Of course I do!’

‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Then we’ll find her and we’ll sort it out.’

Milo knew that he owed Lander big time. Leaving Alice at the gate, he went in search of his work colleague, finding him deep in a shrubbery tackling some out-of-control ivy.

He cleared his throat. ‘I’ve got a favour to ask you.’

Lander was brilliant. As long as Mr Carlson was away, the two of them could pretty much make their own rules up and Milo could go off on a wild-goose chase around the island with his mad Englishwoman if that was what he wanted to do. Goodness, Lander had even let him borrow his car.

‘Now, don’t get any ideas, will you? I’m not driving around on that dreadful moped of yours longer than I absolutely have to,’ he told Milo.

Milo thanked him profusely and walked back to the gate where Alice was pacing like a caged animal.

‘We’ve got a car,’ he told her.

‘What happened to your bike?’

‘Went over the cliff – like me,’ he said with a grin. Alice gawped at him as if he was quite mad.

Milo didn’t often get a chance to drive a car. He’d learned to drive, of course, and his brothers had shared a car for a while until Georgio had left Kethos and taken it with him. Milo hadn’t really missed it. He adored the freedom of his moped with the wind in his face and the close contact with the land although he’d had rather too much contact with the land in the last few days, he had to admit.

Getting in the car with Alice felt strange. They were suddenly enclosed together in a small space and didn’t have the distraction of the garden around them any more. He cleared his throat. Alice looked pale and distant and he desperately wanted to reach out and take her hand in his but he didn’t feel it would be right. There was too much that had been left unsaid so he drove out onto the main road in silence.

Lander’s car, although pretty old, was a surprisingly smooth drive and took the hairpin corners of the island well. It was a pleasure to handle but it wasn’t such a pleasure to sit in stony silence with his travelling companion.

Milo’s fingers clutched the steering wheel, his knuckles turning white as he wondered what to do. Would now be a good time to tell her everything? After all, hadn’t he been going to do that on the day she had left Kethos? He was going to be open and honest with her because she deserved nothing more than the truth. Besides, he
wanted
to tell her. If they were to stand any chance of a future together, she had to know what his situation was.

But she didn’t come back here to see you
, a little voice reminded him.
She came to see Aphrodite. You weren’t even on the agenda.
He groaned at the realisation. That didn’t mean he couldn’t still tell her the truth, though, did it? And how he felt about her.

He threw a quick glance her way. She was staring resolutely ahead as if into some horrible abyss.

‘Alice,’ he said, swallowing hard.

‘What?’ Her one word was cold, sharp and uninviting.

‘There’s something I need to tell you,’ he said, desperate to clear the air between them and frustrated that she was so uncommunicative.

‘Can it wait? I mean, if it’s not about this whole Aphrodite business.’ She turned to look at him. ‘Well, is it?’

‘No,’ he said. ‘It isn’t.’

‘Okay, then,’ she said. ‘Let’s just focus on that for now.’