Wish You Were Here

by Victoria Connelly

  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.

  Chapter 36

  ‘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 s
earch 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.’

  Chapter 37

  Milo had a vague idea where he was going. Lander had given him directions but he only half-recognised the road out of Kintos. It was a part of the island he didn’t get to very often but he slowed down as they reached the top of a hill, descending slowly until they came to a high wall.

  Milo turned into a driveway and gazed at the sight that greeted them. There was a one-storey white house that was typical of the island but it wasn’t that which made Milo’s mouth drop open but the large swimming pool to the left-hand side. There was no water in the pool but it was full all the same – with the broken bodies of hundreds of statues. There were legs, heads, arms and torsos all over the place. It was a startling sight – as if they were victims of some great war.

  Milo parked the car and Alice was out before he’d even switched the engine off. He joined her by the side of the body-filled pool.

  ‘Do you think she’s in there?’ she asked.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Milo said. ‘She could be, I suppose.’ His eyes scanned the stone stumps. He recognised a couple of Poseidons with broken tridents but he couldn’t see his Aphrodite anywhere. ‘Maybe she’s in a workshop somewhere,’ he said, trying to keep Alice’s hopes up.

  They left the pool of broken bodies and walked round the back of the house where a large barn-like structure stood. There was the sound of some vicious machinery whirring and Milo held Alice back before she could run headlong into the dark interior. He didn’t want her broken body being chucked into the swimming pool.

  ‘Hello?’ Milo called in both English and Greek, taking slow steps into the barn. Alice followed him and they saw a man standing at one of the machines, head down in concentration. They waited a moment, not wanting to startle him. A minute later, he lifted his head up, saw them both standing there and stopped the machine. Silence descended.

  The dark-haired man lifted his goggles from his face and stared at the intruders. Milo stepped forward, his hand extended in greeting and the man wiped his own dusty one on the front of his trousers and shook, saying something in Greek.

  Milo made a bit of polite conversation, telling him about the Villa Argenti, and the man nodded.

  ‘I believe you were going to try and fix the statue of Aphrodite,’ he said, continuing the conversation in Greek. ‘She’s a particular favourite of the tourists.’

  The man shook his head solemnly. ‘She was irreparable. You must have known that.’

  Milo nodded. In his heart, he’d known but he hadn’t wanted to admit as much to Alice.

  ‘What’s he saying?’ Alice asked.

  Milo turned round to face her. ‘I’m afraid she couldn’t be fixed,’ he said.

  ‘So that’s it?’ Alice said, her voice rising hysterically.

  ‘It looks like it,’ Milo said.

  ‘But the statue still exists, doesn’t it? Even if it is in pieces? I need to see it. Tell him that I need to see it, Milo.’

  ‘He didn’t keep it,’ Milo told her.

  ‘What?’

  ‘It’s gone,’ Milo said.

  The dark-haired man was still babbling on.

  ‘Hang on a minute,’ Milo said, listening to him. ‘He’s saying that, apparently, it’s a very special statue. The sculptor is well-known here and he says he got in touch with him.’

  ‘And?’ The conversation was going far too slowly for Alice’s liking.

  ‘The sculptor wanted it back.’

  ‘It’s with the sculptor?’ Alice asked.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And where is he?’

  Milo sighed. ‘I’m afraid we can’t get in touch with him.’

  ‘What? Why not?’

  ‘He’s Yanni Karalis. He’s a recluse and he hates people.’

  ‘But this man got in touch with him.’

  ‘That’s different. This man had something that Mr Karalis wanted. He obviously made an exception so he could get this statue back.’

  ‘But we’ve got to see him. Where does he live? Is that the problem? Is he miles away?’

  ‘Oh, no – he’s right here on Kethos.’

  ‘Then I don’t see what the problem is.’ Alice turned and marched out of the barn, her strides long and purposeful as if she was not going to stop walking until she’d found the statue. Milo thanked the man and followed her.

  ‘Alice,’ he said, ‘I think we’re going to have to admit defeat here.’

  Alice had reached the car and opened the door, sinking heavily into the seat, her face even paler now. ‘I can’t give up,’ she said, looking directly ahead through the windscreen rather than at Milo.

  ‘But this sculptor is famous for not seeing visitors. We’ve bought statues from him in the past and – believe me – we’ve spent a lot of money. They’re the best statues in the world. But he doesn’t have anything to do with a
nyone.’

  ‘But we’ve got to try.’ She turned to face him. ‘Please, Milo.’

  He looked pensive for a moment. ‘Well, I don’t suppose it’ll do much harm to visit him,’ he told her, ‘but don’t get your hopes up’.

  They drove for about twenty minutes before the road started to narrow and climb steeply. They’d turned away from the coast and noticed how quiet it was. They hadn’t passed another vehicle for miles. This was a part of Kethos that the tourists rarely saw. It was bare and barren but there was a strange beauty to it. It was a place where myths seemed to hang in the air and the scent of wild flowers was everywhere.

  Milo glanced at Alice to see what she made of it but she still had that strange, wild look on her face which told him that a beautiful landscape was probably the last thing on her mind at the moment.

  The road curled round to the right and Milo dropped down a gear and started looking out for a likely house. It was the perfect setting for a recluse. No wonder the tourists never made it to this part of the island, because the locals didn’t either, he couldn’t help thinking. How much of his island he had yet to explore. Just when he thought he knew it, a beautiful surprise awaited him round an unexplored corner.

  It was after they’d passed a small herd of goats grazing at the side of the road that they saw the place. Milo pulled over and they got out of the car.

  ‘Well, this looks like it,’ Milo said, peering in through an oppressively massive pair of iron gates which were double padlocked.

  From out of nowhere an enormous dog came bounding across the bare earth, teeth bared as it barked furiously.

  Alice screamed and Milo sprang back.

  ‘Right,’ he said. ‘I don’t think we’re going to get in that way.’ He took a deep breath. ‘Hello?’ he cried in through the gate, setting off the dog again. He noticed there was no bell and no intercom but, if somebody was home, surely they would have heard the dog. He thought about sounding his horn but it probably wouldn’t be heard over the barking.