Finishing Touches

by Patricia Scanlan

  So really, between her decorating and studying and planning the holiday, Cassie had a lot to look forward to in the next year and if she got down in the dumps over Christmas, she would just focus on those positive things. Letting images of the day’s events drift through her mind; she fell asleep almost instantly.

  Seventeen

  Cassie stood in Port Mahon cemetery on a blustery May morning the following year. She gave a guilty start as she realized that the memorial service was over and she had been daydreaming for most of it. Yes, it was hard to believe Jack was dead two years and that her life had changed so completely.

  She waved at Aileen, who waved back. She’d have to ask her for a lift back to Dublin. That hadn’t been the plan at all. Robbie MacDonald, her boyfriend since New Year’s Eve, was supposed to have come for lunch and the service today and then they were going to drive back to the city together and maybe go for a meal or to the pictures. But of Robbie there was no sign. There had been no phone call to say he wasn’t coming and she just didn’t know what had happened. It wasn’t as if he didn’t know where Port Mahon was. She had brought him home soon after they met and introduced him to Nora and the family, and he had been out to visit them several times since.

  Maybe he’d got a puncture or something and had been delayed. Maybe he’d be at the house when they got home. Taking Nora’s arm, Cassie walked slowly down the pathway to the gates of the cemetery, her mind only half-concentrating on the greetings that were coming her way from friends and neighbours. Where on earth was Robbie? She’d kill him when she got her hands on him!

  Robbie MacDonald sat in a chair in his apartment. He was in the horrors. He had woken up with the most excruciating hangover after his night on the town the night before and decided to have a drink to cure it. Several drinks later, he was totally pissed. He knew he was supposed to be doing something with Cassie that day, but for the life of him he just couldn’t remember what it was. His head drooped to his chest. He’d just have a little nap and then he’d be fine and he’d give Cassie a ring and find out what it was they had planned to do. He’d have a shower and freshen up, as he had slept in his clothes. God, he couldn’t remember a thing about getting home last night. It must have been one hell of a party!

  He took another slug of whiskey. Cassie was always at him about drinking. Women! They were the greatest fussers. What harm was a little scoop now and again? Robbie MacDonald’s eyes closed and he fell into a drunken stupor. Not even the insistent ringing of the phone could rouse him.

  Cassie reached Robbie’s apartment block. His car was outside. This was really weird. Maybe he was sick or something. Concerned, Cassie rang the doorbell. In the car-park, Aileen was waiting for her. It was teatime. They had driven up from Port Mahon and her friend had offered to drive her over to Robbie’s apartment. She knocked again, waiting anxiously for a response.

  She was turning to go when Robbie came to the door. He looked a sight and it was quite obvious that he had slept in his clothes. Cassie felt her heart lurch with dismay. When he opened the door she could smell the whiskey fumes off him.

  ‘Hi, Cassie,’ he slurred.

  Anger ripped through her. ‘That’s it! We’re finished. I don’t want to see you again! Nobody is going to treat me like dirt and especially not you, Robbie MacDonald! You should be ashamed of yourself.’ Running down the steps she threw herself into the car. ‘Get me out of here, Aileen, before I commit murder. Men! Why do we bother?’

  ‘Tell me about it!’ said Aileen glumly to herself as she turned the car in the direction of their flat.

  Eighteen

  ‘I can’t find my passport!’ Aileen muttered frantically, delving into her leather bag, which at times resembled a miniature sack. Robbie’s car was speeding towards Dublin airport.

  Laura was not impressed. ‘Oh for Chrissakes, Aileen, didn’t we tell you to put it with your tickets?’

  ‘Do you want to turn back?’ Cassie asked irritably. This was supposed to be the beginning of their holiday, not an endurance test. Honestly, there were times when she could kill Aileen.

  Her flatmate’s auburn head had all but disappeared into the cavernous bag and Cassie did not hear the garbled response. Laura threw her eyes up to heaven. Being thoroughly organized and practical, she just could not understand how Aileen managed to get herself in such tizzies.

  ‘Where did you have it last? Is it with your tickets?’ Laura demanded, in her best prosecuting attorney tone.

  ‘I can’t find them either!’ wailed Aileen, surfacing for air.

  ‘Are they in your case, do you think?’ Cassie said as calmly as she could.

  Laura was not quite as patient as Cassie. She had been looking forward to this holiday for months. ‘How could you mislay your passport and tickets? What kind of an idiot are you? If we miss this flight, Aileen, so help me, you are in trouble.’

  ‘Oh shut up, Miss perfect. We’re not all seasoned travellers like you,’ Aileen retorted angrily as a hot sweat suffused her. Where the hell had she put her tickets and passport? She remembered saying she must put them in a safe place when she was packing. Somewhere that she could put her hand on them when she needed them. She was pretty sure she hadn’t put them in her bag; that was filled with suntan lotions and paperbacks, and sweets for the journey. Aileen definitely remembered saying she wouldn’t put them in her bag so she wouldn’t have to root. They were crossing the Liffey now into the northside. Maybe she’d better ask Robbie to turn back. The girls would kill her and she didn’t know where to start looking back at the flat. Aileen felt like bursting into tears. Her heart was starting to pound. She ran her fingers inside her shirt collar, feeling the pulse beating at her throat.

  ‘Stay calm,’ Robbie said kindly. ‘We’ll turn back if we have to. We’ve loads of time.’

  ‘Thanks Robbie,’ Aileen said to her only ally in the car. Her little finger touched something hard, and she almost stopped breathing with relief. Of course! She had put her passport and tickets in the inside pocket of the cotton shirt she had bought especially because it had an inside pocket!

  ‘I’ve found them,’ she said brightly. Icy silence from her flatmates greeted her discovery as they sped along a dusk-dimmed Dorset Street.

  It was only when they were on the airport road with the lights of the control tower and complex shining brightly in the distance that the other two recovered their equilibrium.

  ‘I’ll take your tickets and passport,’ Laura ordered. ‘I’m not going to have a heart attack every time you go looking for them.’

  ‘OK,’ Aileen agreed meekly, handing over the offending articles. Laura could be so bossy sometimes, but at least the passport and tickets would be in safe hands and she wouldn’t have to be worrying about them.

  Laura, having been through it all before on her trips to the USA, took charge of their check-in and had them in the queue for the star flight to Rhodes before they knew it. Cassie gazed around her at the milling crowds queuing at the check-in desks and felt excitement shoot through her. Their first longed-for foreign holiday, for which they had made so many plans, was finally happening, and she intended to enjoy every minute of it. Here they were finally in Dublin airport waiting to board their flight to the sun-kissed Greek island.

  The gods of Olympus had given the island as a bride to the sun god; that’s what it had said in the brochures and that’s what had made them choose Rhodes. They had checked out the brochures in the travel agents, all of which promised the loveliest of holidays at the cheapest price. Never having been on a package holiday before, none of them knew where to begin.

  ‘We’re not going to Spain,’ Aileen said firmly. ‘I want to go somewhere exotic. Like Egypt!’ She was always the intrepid one of the trio.

  ‘What can we afford?’ Laura, the practical one, enquired. After all, she was working only part-time and the other two weren’t loaded either. Greece was perfect for them. It was exotic and it was cheap. They were seduced by the pictures and descriptions in the brochur
e of sunny blue skies, temperatures in the eighties, unspoilt landscapes with no high-rise buildings, turquoise swimming-pools surrounded by roses, hibiscus, bougainvillaea, jasmine and honeysuckle growing in profusion. It looked like paradise. They booked for the last two weeks in September. Laura would have earned money from her summer work in America and she wouldn’t be due in college until the beginning of October. It would also give Aileen and Cassie a chance to save.

  It was wonderful plotting and planning. The organized one had lists to cover every contingency. Suntan oil from factor ten to two, after-care and moisturizing lotions, plasters, travel-sickness pills, mosquito-repellent. It was a wonder they didn’t have to pay for excess luggage!

  Once they got rid of their cases, they wandered over to the big glass windows that overlooked the tarmac. In the distance, a jet, its red-and-green lights flashing, roared off down the runway and disappeared into the velvet darkness.

  ‘I wonder is that ours?’ Cassie pointed out an Aer Lingus 737 that was being refuelled and loaded with baggage.

  ‘It’s exciting, isn’t it?’ Aileen’s eyes sparkled. As was the case for Cassie, it was her first flight. Laura was already a veteran, having twice flown transatlantic return.

  ‘Let’s go and have a drink before we hit the duty-free!’ ordered the seasoned traveller, leading the way to the bar on the next floor.

  ‘There’s a woman talking a bit of sense,’ Robbie laughed as he put his arm around Cassie and gave her a squeeze. She’d really miss him on the holidays but they had been suggested before she started going out with him and it wouldn’t be fair to let the girls down. Besides, she and Robbie were going to go away for the October week-end and she was really looking forward to it. They had had a wonderful few days down at the Rose of Tralee in August and they had gone to Cork for the weekend a fortnight before. Just even thinking about it gave her a warm glow, Robbie was special.

  ‘Would you two love-birds stop gazing into each other’s eyes and re-enter the planet?’ Aileen teased. ‘I was asking would you like another drink.’ Robbie had bought the first round.

  Cassie laughed. She didn’t mind being called a love-bird, as it was the first time in her life that she really felt she was one. Sipping their Bacardis in the dimly lit lounge high in the airport building, watching charter flights taking off and landing, the girls felt like jet-setters. They had given themselves plenty of time so that they could enjoy a drink with Robbie without having to rush to board the plane.

  Robbie shook his head. ‘Not for me, thanks, I’m driving.’ Cassie gave his hand a squeeze. Robbie had promised her he would no longer drink over the limit when he was driving.

  ‘We’d need to get a move on if we want to have time for the duty-free,’ Laura reminded them, glancing at her watch. They followed her to the boarding gates and Robbie kissed Cassie hard.

  ‘See you in two weeks. Have fun.’

  ‘I’ll miss you,’ Cassie told him softly.

  ‘I’ll miss you too. You’d better go,’ Robbie said, reluctantly, drawing away from her. ‘The girls are gone through.’ Giving her boarding pass to the official, Cassie passed through the gates and Robbie waved at her until she was out of sight. All of a sudden two weeks seemed like an eternity. Stop your nonsense, she told herself crisply, and walked over to join her friends, who were admiring some duty-free jewellery. Cassie wanted to buy a camera, Aileen wanted perfume and Laura wanted sunglasses. They also wanted to buy some duty-free fags and drink.

  Forgetting the time, they browsed happily and had to be paged to board the plane. The mortification of it! Everybody else was sitting waiting for them as a hostess ushered them to their seats. Cassie and Aileen gasped as the plane thundered down the runway and lifted its huge bulk into the air. It was a beautiful night and the lights of Dublin sparkled like diamonds beneath them. Ooohing and aaahing, they tried to make out landmarks and were instantly able to recognize the high towers of Ballymun and, as the plane banked and headed out over the Irish Sea, the twin ESB towers. Settling back, they prepared to enjoy the long flight.

  Everything on the flight was such a novelty to Cassie and Aileen, and Laura regarded them with benign amusement as they tucked into the meal that was served about an hour after take-off, both of them enjoying every mouthful of the pre-packaged food.

  They weren’t the only ones. There was an air of gaiety and anticipation in the plane that was utterly infectious. A singsong started after the meal had been cleared away and the girls joined in lustily. Gradually people began to doze off. The lights on the plane were dimmed as it flew on its long journey across Europe. They had picked a night flight because it was the cheapest but Cassie, who was sitting by the window, would have dearly loved for it to have been daylight so she could see the sights below her. Eventually her eyes closed and she fell into a half-doze. Aileen was snoring beside her and Laura was reading Valley of the Dolls, which was apparently brilliant, and which Cassie was going to borrow during the holidays.

  A couple of hours later, the hostesses announced that they were making their descent towards Rhodes and advised them to change their watches to Central European time. A hum of excitement scorched through the aisles as the plane circled the airport and people craned to look out the windows to get their first sight of the island. The oven-blast of heat, the chirping of the crickets, the overpowering scents of the flowering shrubs hit them as they descended the steps of the plane. Cassie would never forget it. For ever after it was one of the best things about a holiday for her – that moment when you get the smell of a new country. They couldn’t see much in the velvet darkness as they drove along to their accommodation, but what they saw looked promising, although it had been a bit of a shock to notice policemen with guns on their hips at the airport. The courier gave her talk on the bus, warning her clients to be careful in the sun, to stay away from mopeds and not to over-indulge in ouzo.

  ‘Spoilsport!’ whispered Aileen, and the others grinned. The courier told the three of them that their accommodation would be basic but comfortable. Most of the others on the flight were staying in hotels but the girls couldn’t afford such a luxury and had taken rooms in a guest-house. The coach pulled up outside a white-washed two-storey building smothered in luscious blooms and the girls smiled happily. It looked perfect. They were shown to a big white-painted room that had three beds, a wardrobe, a sink and, to their delight, a balcony. The curtains were a lovely blue, edged with a symmetrical Greek pattern that matched the covers on the beds, and blue woven rugs covered the polished wooden floors. The three of them thought the room was gorgeous and assured their courier that they were perfectly happy. Tumbling into bed, they fell asleep, dying for the morning in order to have a good look at Rhodes.

  Nineteen

  ‘Get up! Get up! The sun is splitting the stones!’ Laura urged her two slumbering flatmates. She had said the magic words. Instantly awake, Cassie and Aileen flew to the balcony and gazed out in ecstasy. Skies bluer than they had ever seen before greeted them. The sparkling Aegean caressed the golden beach just below them. Palm trees swayed, birds sang, little white-washed villas lay smothered in pink and red and purple flowers. It surely was paradise. In a frenzy of excitement they rushed to put on shorts and T-shirts. The sun was shining and they wanted to get out.

  They had been told by their courier that the little taverna just down the road served delicious food, including breakfasts, so they repaired there with all haste. Sitting in the shade of an olive tree at a small table covered by a fresh green gingham cloth, they ate their first Greek meal of fresh crusty rolls that melted in the mouth and honey and yoghurt and juicy peaches that had the juice dribbling over their chins. This first morning they didn’t linger over their food despite the urgings of the friendly taverna-owner to have more hot strong coffee. Getting a really good tan was their overriding desire and first priority.

  ‘I wonder is it raining at home,’ Cassie said, as they stretched their already lightly tanned bodies on loungers under straw shades o
n the golden beach of Trianda Bay. It had been a nice summer at home and Aileen and Cassie had made the most of it, but Laura, who had been working in the posh seaside resort of Nantucket on the east coast of the US, was the brownest of the three, much to the chagrin of the others. They lay, protected by factor ten, caressed by a warm breeze and watching the world go by as they began the delightful process of unwinding. When they bathed in the Aegean, it was clear and warm, and they swam lazily, enjoying themselves immensely.

  Later in the afternoon when the scorching sun got too hot, they ate more rolls and delicious cheese at their table on the balcony and sipped cool beer to wash it down. Too impatient to have a siesta, they decided to explore a bit and headed for the town of Rhodes, ten minutes along the coast. It was Sunday and siesta-time and there were very few people about, just a few foreign tourists like themselves.

  There were two towns, the old and the new, and they decided to explore the historical old town. Cassie, who had done her research in Rathmines Library and who also had her guidebook, was able to tell them that the Old Town was divided into various quarters, the Knights’ Quarter, the Turkish Quarter and the Jewish Quarter. Their first point of exploration, they decided, as they pored over the street maps, would be the ancient Knights’ Quarter. They spent a fascinating couple of hours wandering through the narrow streets and squares of an area that had changed little since the fourteenth century, when the Knights of St John had made it their stronghold during the great crusades. Little passageways and courtyards were occupied by merchants selling their wares and led to vantage points with magnificent views of the harbour below. The three girls were busy taking photos that would have put Lord Snowdon to shame.