This Way to Paradise

by Cathy Hopkins

‘And neither is she,’ said Kate.‘Want a Coke, India Jane?’

  ‘India Jane,’ said Tom. ‘I’d like a Coke.’

  ‘I wasn’t asking you,’ said Kate. ‘Ignore them, India Jane.’

  Robin reached over and hauled his travel bag on to his knee and lifted the lid so that Kate and I could see inside. ‘Got some of this to put in it,’ he said as he slightly lifted what looked like a bottle of vodka.

  Kate did the one eyebrow raise again but this time looked into the boy’s eye in a smiley kind of way as if to say she approved.

  ‘Couple of Cokes coming up,’ she said. ‘Got some change, India?’

  I nodded. Mum had given me some spare change before we left the house. I got up to go over to the machine to get the Cokes and although I didn’t like suddenly being treated as Kate’s private slave, I wasn’t too bothered. Even though the boys looked like fun, I was more interested in the boy sitting with his back to me a few rows away. I figured that, if I got the Cokes, I could walk down his row on the way back and hopefully he’d notice me and say something.

  I got the Cokes and walked towards Joe. He seemed to be engrossed in a magazine and I could see by the little white earphones that he was also listening to an iPod. I also noticed that he was wearing a pair of Converse All Stars. Black pinstriped ones. Cool. I walked as close as I could but he still didn’t look up. I walked past and was about to go back to my place with Kate when I heard his voice.

  ‘Excuse me . . .’

  I turned around ready to do the ‘one eyebrow up’ cool look, but, not having had time to practise it, I think both eyebrows went up making me look like I’d just had a fright.

  ‘Oh, it’s you!’ said Joe.

  ‘Was last time I looked,’ I replied, thinking I’d made quite a clever answer.

  Joe looked distinctly underwhelmed. He pointed to my bag. ‘Er . . . I think you’re dripping something?’

  ‘Drippi-uh?’ I trailed off as I looked to where he was pointing. Oh. My. God. There was a trail of white gloop all along the aisle behind me. There were spots of it on my jeans. It seemed to be coming from my bag. I looked inside. One of the vanilla yogurts had burst and gone all over everything and was leaking out of the corner of the bag.‘Oh nooooooooooooo. . .’

  Joe was watching me with the same amused look that he’d had on his face in the chemist’s on the day that I’d first seen him.

  I scanned my brain for something earth-shatteringly brilliant and witty to say as I pulled out the yogurt carton and held it up in front of him.‘Yogurt. It’s the one with friendly bacteria. Um. Those darn bacteria! They’re so friendly they follow me everywhere.’

  Joe smiled weakly and raised one eyebrow perfectly. (He must have been to the same ‘learn to communicate with your eyebrows’ morse code training school as Kate.) Then he went back to reading his magazine.

  So much for my new cool image, I thought as I sloped off towards the nearest Ladies. I was about as cool as a tandoori curry with double chilli.

  ‘There are the most amazing deserted beaches to skinny dip on,’ said Kate as we got up to board the plane. ‘I’ll show you guys one night.’

  She was like a different girl by the time our flight was finally called and Robin and Tom were her long-lost best buddies. As I’d witnessed all week, Kate could have won an Oscar for her sulky princess act, but, clearly from the way she was throwing her head back, her guffaws of laughter and her animated body language, she could change her mind on a whim, decide to make the best of things and be party animal supreme.

  I have a lot to learn from her, I thought as I trudged behind her and the boys across the tarmac and up the steps to the plane. I ought to do the same. There’s nothing I can do to change the situation, so why be miserable? The only person to suffer will be me, so I may as well be positive.

  We found our places on board and settled down for the flight, and I resolved to do my best to have a good time in Greece, starting by making some new friends. Not that I could do much from where I was. I’d got the window seat, Kate was in the middle and Joe had been given the aisle. Never mind, I thought, there will be time. As the plane took off and soared into the sky, my head was full of images of Joe and me swimming in the waves. Kate and me barbecuing fresh fish caught by the boys. Robin and Tom driving Kate and me around in an opentopped jeep. And back to more swimming with Joe. Getting out of the sea with Joe. Sitting under the stars . . . Hhhm. I could get quite carried away if I let myself. So Joe was a heartbreaker. So what? He just hadn’t met the right girl yet.

  ‘Do you mind swapping with me?’ Kate asked Joe as soon as the Fasten your seatbelt sign had been switched off and people began to move around the plane.‘I prefer an aisle seat.’

  ‘Sure. Go ahead,’ he said, and he got up, let her out and then they swapped seats. She gave me the most appallingly indiscreet wink as Joe settled next to me and I prayed that he hadn’t seen her. Although I wanted to get to know him better and I definitely wanted him on my list of new best buddies, I didn’t want it yet. The plane was hot. I was hot and I could distinctly smell something that resembled sour milk – and it was coming from my jeans and my bag. I’d applied some of my cinnamon perfume as well as trying to sponge off the spilled yogurt in the loo near the departure gate lounge, but it had sunk right into the fabric of both and needed a good soak before it was going to come out completely. I thought about making a joke about it, like eau de sour milk? It’s the latest pong you know, but I decided against it – Joe hadn’t exactly collapsed laughing at my friendly bacteria line. He gave me a brief smile and asked, ‘All right?’ as he settled in next to me then began to scan the inhouse entertainment brochure from the seat pocket in front of him.

  Tom and Robin were seated ahead of us and, when someone moved and left an empty seat next to them, Kate moved to join them and soon I could hear them chatting away and making plans for when they got to Greece. I was about to say something to Joe, but he put on his complimentary headphones and looked like he was about to settle in for a movie. I glanced through what was on offer, but I’d seen them all. I took another peek at Joe, but he looked immersed already and I didn’t want to disturb his viewing. Oh, this is a great start, I thought as I looked out the window to see a landscape of white woolly clouds stretching out to the horizon in front of me. Sky to the right. Boy watching movie to my left. Yargh, I’m trapped, I thought as a feeling of claustrophobia came over me. Sometimes that happens to me on flights and the only way to get over it is to keep myself distracted. I could see that the opening credits had just begun to roll on Joe’s screen so I quickly nudged him.

  ‘Hey, do you mind if I take the aisle seat so I can move around?’ I asked.‘I promise I won’t disturb you again.’

  Joe shrugged. ‘Whatever,’ he said, and he got up again so that I could move over. As I squeezed past him, he leaned into the back of my neck and inhaled. ‘Hhm. You smell good.’

  I blushed as I sat down. ‘It’s a perfume that my mum makes for me. Um. It’s got cinnamon in it . . . and other things . . .’

  ‘Yeah. Spicy,’ he said. ‘Unusual but nice.’

  Phew, I thought, so hopefully he can’t smell the spilled yogurt.

  ‘Smell is our most potent sense, did you know that?’

  ‘Er . . . no,’ I replied and quickly scanned my brain for something interesting to say. My mind went blank and, a few moments later, Joe picked up his headphones again and seemed to lose interest.

  As soon as he was immersed in his movie, a million things that I could have said flooded into my mind. I knew loads about making scent from watching Mum – how there are three notes: base, middle and light. How perfumers try and get a balance between the three. How they use flowers, herbs, wood, fruit. Blooming bananas, I thought. I could have chatted for hours. What is the matter with me? I thought about turning back to him and getting the conversation going again, but he was focused on his film. Instead I leaned forward to try and join in with Robin, Tom and Kate in front. Back in the airport loun
ge, Robin had given me a ‘vibe’ and, even though he wasn’t my type (I like boys with finer features and Robin has one of those full faces with bushy eyebrows and a big rubbery mouth), I thought that if Joe saw that he was interested in me, he might be a little jealous. Maybe.

  And so I flirted. I laughed at Robin’s appalling jokes. I even sat on his chair arm at one point, and when I was sure none of the air stewards were looking, I swigged back some vodka when he offered me the bottle. I would show Joe that I could be bad too. He glanced up when I swigged the bottle back, so I gave him a look which was meant to be cool and sophisticated, like ‘tralah, I do this sort of thing every day. I am such an experienced woman of the world’. However, at that moment, the plane must have hit an air pocket because it lurched and I lost my balance, fell off the chair arm and was thrown backwards into the lap of a bald old priest in the middle seats. He didn’t look too pleased to find a teenage girl sitting on his knee and neither did the elderly nun sitting next to him. I scrabbled up as fast as I could. Kate, Robin and Tom all had their backs to me and suddenly seemed intent on looking out of the window, but I could see by the way that their shoulders were shaking that they were having a right laugh.

  Kate glanced back at me and gave me the thumbs up. ‘Nice one, India,’ she said.

  I glanced over at Joe in the hope that he was still engrossed in his movie, but, no, he had witnessed me doing my prat act again. I shrugged my shoulders at him as if to say,‘What can you do? Not my fault.’ He just rolled his eyes, smiled, shook his head and went back to his movie. A second later, the Fasten your seatbelt sign came back on and everyone was asked to go back to their seats, so I had to sit back down next to him.

  I am going to pretend that I am not here, I thought as I fastened my seatbelt and closed my eyes. Maybe that way I won’t do anything to make a total idiot of myself.

  Not that Joe was at all interested in what I was doing. After his movie finished, he finally turned to me.‘Sorry I’m not being Mr Sociable,’ he said. ‘Had a few late nights lately so I’m going to have a kip.’

  ‘S’OK. Me too,’ I lied. ‘Yes. Late nights . . .’

  He gave me a look which was a cross between amusement and like he was trying to figure me out and then he fell asleep. He slept through the in-flight meal (chicken, stewed broccoli, dried up rice, a stale roll and a piece of chocolate fudge cake that tasted of chemicals). He slept through more turbulence. And through the announcement that we’d be landing in fifteen minutes. At one point, he lolled over and his head leaned on my shoulder. He looked so cute, angelic really and he had long curly eyelashes. Sitting there in such close proximity to his face and his mouth, feeling his breath on my skin and catching his scent, light and lemony, his thigh against mine, made me feel strange – uncomfortable and cosy at the same time. And he had been right about our sense of smell being our most potent sense. I had to resist the urge to lean over and nibble his bottom lip. Instead I made myself close my eyes and tried to put any such thoughts out of my mind. Sadly though, a part of me had taken the idea and run with it. In my imagination, Joe and I spent the rest of the flight in an Oscar-winning snogerama.

  He finally woke when the plane touched down in Skiathos and the passengers started clapping. So much for my riveting company, I thought as he opened his eyes, looked around as if he wasn’t quite sure where he was and seemed taken aback to see me sitting next to him.

  ‘Wow,’ he said.‘I was just having the weirdest dream!’

  I felt myself blush for a moment then told myself that no way could he have known what was going on in my head. Not unless he was a mind reader. All the same, I didn’t dare ask him what he’d been dreaming about.

  Chapter 7

  Cloud Nine

  ‘Ohmigod,’ I said to my reflection in the mirror in the Ladies at Skiathos airport.

  After we’d landed, I’d gone straight in there. I looked a right mess. My face, neck and chest were flushed bright pink. It was my own fault. I shouldn’t have drunk the vodka. Alcohol always has the same effect and that is to turn me into a Belisha beacon. My mascara had run and somehow my hair had become squidged up on one side. No wonder Joe switched off big time. A red head, with a red face, who stank of vanilla, and who may or may not have had head lice. I think I’d have slept the whole journey if I’d been sitting next to me. There was only one thing for it, somehow I had to wow him with my scintillating conversation on the way to the centre and let him know that there was more to me than the scent of sour yogurt and an alarmingly ability to act like a twit. I brushed my hair, applied my brick-coloured lip-gloss and got ready to face the world (and Joe) again.

  As soon as we had collected our luggage, we went through into the arrival area where Aunt Sarah came swooping down on us. As always, she looked stylish, dressed in a white linen shift dress and some beads that looked like they were made from nuts and seeds (but expensive nuts and seeds). I noticed that Kate popped some gum in her mouth and distanced herself from Robin and Tom.

  Aunt Sarah however gave them a friendly wave.

  ‘You know them?’ asked Kate.

  ‘Oh yes – at least I know Tom,’ said Aunt Sarah. ‘He’s one of Stourton family. I know his parents. Nice people. They’ve got a house up on the north of the island. Fabulous place. They spent a bomb on it. All us Brits on the island tend to get to know each other sooner or later.’

  ‘Hey, Mrs Rosen,’ said Joe coming over to join us.

  ‘Hi, Joe. You want a lift with us?’

  Joe shook his head. ‘I’m going into town first, sort out a few details.’

  Aunt Sarah nodded like she knew what he was talking about. ‘Fine,’ she said.

  I wanted to ask, what details? Where are you going? Already my imagination had conjured up some stunning long-legged, wild-haired, dark-eyed Greek girl who oozed sophistication. I felt so jealous even though I didn’t even know if she existed. How mad are you? I asked myself as I followed Aunt Sarah out of the airport building.

  ‘Tell Mum I’ll get the bus up,’ called Joe then he turned to me. ‘Catch you later.’

  ‘Ye-umpf,’ I said. ‘Ner . . . Yeah. Later.’ So much for impressing him with my scintillating conversation, I thought. My body might have landed but my brain seemed to be still somewhere up in the sky.

  ‘Yeah. Ye-umpf. Ner . . .’ he repeated, then smiled his ‘oh aren’t you an odd little thing?’ smile at me.

  I think I scowled back at him because, for a moment before he took off, he gave me a strange look.

  ‘Oh, me too,’ said Kate suddenly.‘I need a few things in town. Hold up, Joe, I’ll come with you.’

  Aunt Sarah shook her head. ‘Oh no, you don’t,’ she said. ‘There will be time later for going into town. First me and you have to have a word. You go on, Joe.’

  Kate grimaced, then saluted her mother. ‘Prisoner 436 reporting for duty, sir,’ she said.

  Aunt Sarah’s posture sagged slightly. Behind her, Robin and Tom waved at Kate; Tom pointed at his watch and then acted out drinking from a bottle.

  Kate raised her right eyebrow the tiniest amount and gave the slightest nod to register that she had seen him, then she turned to her mother, linked her arm and gave her a half hug. ‘OK, Mommie dearest, let’s have a word. Have you missed me then?’

  ‘Course. Always,’ said Aunt Sarah, but she looked slightly suspicious of the sudden display of affection.

  ‘Hey, Mum. Good job I was on the plane with India Jane,’ said Kate. ‘You should have seen her throwing herself at men. One of them was a priest too. Sitting on his knee at one point, she was.’

  ‘I was not . . .’ I began, but Kate grinned at me and so did Aunt Sarah. I hope she knew that Kate was joshing.

  As we drove away from the airport, I felt my spirits start to rise. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and, as we left the boring area with half-built hotels and apartments behind us and headed out towards the coast, the scenery opened up and became prettier with pine forests on hills to the right and some l
ovely white houses covered in dark pink bougainvillea lining the road to the left. When we got our first glimpse of the sea sparkling down below in the distance, I got that lovely feeling I always get when I see the ocean – like, yahay, holidays! We drove on through a small town where I clocked some interesting-looking shops to check out later, then along the winding coastal road that led to the north of the island. Occasionally, I caught a glimpse of a white sandy beach and holidaymakers lying on sunloungers or playing in the sea.

  Maybe it won’t be so bad here after all, I thought as I texted Erin.

  Wether is hRe, wish U wRe luvly. Muahahaha. IJX

  After about half an hour, we came to a sign on the road that said Cloud Nine and an arrow pointing to a lane leading up into the hills. There, Aunt Sarah swung the jeep to the right and we drove through rows of villas behind whitewashed walls. I tried to see in but the walls were too high for a good nosey. We passed a restaurant up on a corner of the slope and, between the terrace and some trees, I could see the amazing view they had out over the coastline. Cool place for a romantic meal, I thought as my imagination blasted an image into my mind of Joe and me eating up there, gazing out, holding hands. Shut up, shut up, shut up mind, I told myself as we went on past a couple of shops with stands outside selling fruit, flips-flops, snorkels, flippers, beachwear and postcards. Good place for supplies, I noted. The road suddenly came to an end, and we drove through an open wooden gate into a pebbly car park and up to a white bungalow that opened out at the front to a veranda with a high-beamed ceiling. Must be the reception area, I thought as I spotted a long wooden desk inside.

  ‘We’re here,’ said Aunt Sarah and she pulled up outside the steps leading up to the veranda.

  ‘Velcome to ze prison camp,’ grumbled Kate, getting out of the car and stretching.

  I took a look around and could see beyond the reception that there were a number of white bungalows with blue shutters dotted on the hill below.