“Clearly it runs in the family!” Lydia says.
“It’s definitely convenient.” Luca said quietly to Iris.
“It goes all the way from Pandora to Protesilaus in the trojan wars in 1000BC, give or take, to 700-800 AD and the owner of The Gift Giver.” Alessandro said. “From there we’ve traced the rest back, or rather forward, to us.”
“What makes you believe it’s real and accurate?” Iris asked.
“There are a few things. The captain of the gift giver is on there and we have verified that he did exist. Then around 450BC, we have a statesman in the family called Iasonas. We’ve checked through records and found that he also did exist at the same time as Pericles. There are plenty of references to him and the decisions he made during meetings.” Alessandro explained.
“And then we have the Pericles quote which makes us think they could have known each other.” Lydia adds. “Plus, all the records of Iasonas and his male relatives being statesmen. We know his father was a statesman too, plus his son and his grandson and so on until we get to his 4 times great-grandson.”
“Is he the one who is related to the mother of The Gift Giver’s captain?” Iris asked.
“Yes, that’s the one.” Lydia replied.
“Ok.” Luca said quietly, almost to just himself. “Ok.”
Iris put her hand on Luca’s arm. He looked up towards her face.
“Are you ok?” She asked him.
“What? Oh, yes, I’m ok. Just looking through all of this. It’s real.”
“The connection to Pandora?” Iris asked, confused as to what he was talking about.
“Yes, I’m looking through all these papers and all the information they’ve found and it all adds up.”
“Are you sure?” Iris asked.
“I’m a historian, I know what I’m looking at and what I’m looking for.”
“I know, I know.” Iris said, holding her hands up. “I don’t doubt you. I’m just double-checking.”
“So, what now?” Alessandro asked, turning to Iris.
“I don’t know.” Iris replied. “To be honest, even now I’ve made the connection with the cabinet to Pandora, I don’t know how that helps me. If it’s from the Gods how do I stop it? Can I even stop it? Or is it destined to go on forever?”
“I suppose you just need to give it to someone else.” Lydia said.
“Yes but who, mama?” Alessandro interjects. “She’s not married, no kids, her mother gave it to her so she can’t give it back.”
“Cousins? Do you have any?” Alessandro asked Iris.
“No, both my parents were only children.”
“What about us?” Luca interrupted. “Could you give it to one of us?” Alessandro nods in agreement.
“I don’t know. The way my mother explained it made it sound like it has to be given to the next generation. I don’t know if anyone has given it away to a cousin or something like that. It’s always been father to son to daughter kind of thing. Aren’t we all in the same generation?”
“That’s a good question.” Luca said. “I’ve only charted my family back to me. I don’t know how it splits. What about you, Alessandro?”
“Same, I’ve only plotted ours back to my mother. Where does your family tree go back to?” He said, turning to Iris.
“I’ve got mine back to the 1700s where my I think 5 times great grandfather came over from Italy. That’s where it intersects with Luca’s family tree. So where do we all join together?”
“Let me take a look at my notes.” Alessandro said, flicking through the papers on the table next to the almost cold coffee. “So, I have gone back to a man from the 8th century in Venice. I then found some more generations of his family that are from here, Igoumenitsa, but basically, it’s his grandfather and grandmother. I couldn’t find anything further back than that.”
“Do you have their names?” Alessandro asked. “Maybe I can find them on my tree.”
“Yes, hang on, let me find what I wrote down earlier.” Luca dug around in his bag and found his notebook from earlier. He opened it up and started flicking through the pages. “Lycus and Agatha. Do you have them on your tree?”
“Yes! I do! Ok, so from them there are..” Alessandro started counting in English "48 generations to me. Luca?”
“47 generations to me. Iris?”
“Let me get up my research on my phone. It’s interesting Luca that you’re not the same generation as Alessandro.”
“It’s probably because my parents were older when they had me.” Luca said.
“That makes sense.” Iris said, tapping on the screen on her phone. “Ok! How many generations from Lycus to the guy on my tree from Bracciano?”
“Uh… 43. How many from him to you?” Luca asked.
“Five. So I’m 48th generation like Alessandro. Which might mean that I can’t pass the cabinet on to either of you. Plus, I don’t have it with me so we can’t even try.”
“Then let’s go get it.” Alessandro said. Luca and Iris both look at him quizzically.
“To the UK?” Luca asked.
“Why not? We all go to the cabinet and then see if she can give it away to either of us.”
“But what then? Even if I can give it to one of you, what if it’s bad straight away? Who are you going to give it to? Are you married, Alessandro? Or do you have kids?” Iris asked.
“No, neither. But we’ll work it out. It’s not just you anymore dealing with this alone. We can work together to solve this. Isn’t that what family is for?” Iris smiled at Alessandro. The idea that she actually has a family now was starting to grow on her. Plus they all seemed to be warming up to each other after the initial shock about the cabinet.
“Ok, let’s see if we can find any more information on this cabinet box thing and then we’ll see what we can do with it.” Said Luca. “Now we all know about it, three of us trying to find information on it shouldn’t take as long and we can cover more ground.”
“Ok! Let’s have dinner and then you can all make a plan.” Lydia said. “I’ll start cooking, you three set the table and put all these papers away.”
Chapter 29
After a very filling dinner cooked by Lydia and plenty of conversation, Luca and Iris made plans to meet up with Alessandro again the next day. They decided between them that they needed to find out what they could about the cabinet itself, while they were still in Greece, and then they’d all go back to the UK with Iris to see if she was able to give the cabinet away to either of them.
“Hopefully we’ll find something that means I won’t have to give it away to either of you.” Iris said.
“Are you sure you want to put an end to the cabinet permanently? From what we know about it from the stories, it sounds like it’s actually a good thing for a while.” Lydia asked.
“You’re right. I didn’t know that before today. I came on this adventure to find out what I could about the cabinet and my plan to end it was based on the horrendous things that happened to my mother before she gave the cabinet to me.”
“Maybe you don’t need to get rid of it now. Now that we know what it’s for, it doesn’t seem right to destroy it. Maybe meeting us and opening up your family tree was enough. You have people you can give it away to now. And when we all eventually have families of our own, we’ll have even more people to give it to.” Alessandro said.
“And we’ll be sure to all keep in touch and get together with all our families regularly so that they know each other and can pass it between them as needed.” Luca added.
“That’s a good point!” Iris said. “Maybe it doesn’t need to be destroyed after all. And it has done a lot of good so far, even just from what I know from my mother and me. And yes, you’re right, maybe opening up my family tree was enough for now. The descendants of Pandora were apparently supposed to share this between them anyway so maybe I was supposed to meet you all. Like for future reference!” They all laughed a little at that.
“But let’s still research it
anyway, in case there are any more surprises we should know about that come with it.” Luca said and both Iris and Alessandro nodded in agreement.
Iris and Luca said their goodbyes and both embraced their newly discovered family members. For the first time in a while, Iris felt like things were finally going well. Like things were back to how they’re supposed to be. For so long Iris has been alone. Her mother was so far away and they lived totally different lives anyway. She barely had any friends and all she really did usually was work. These past few weeks of having the cabinet have brought a purpose to her life every day that she’d only just now realised. Getting something every day had been exciting and her life had lacked any kind of emotion for far too long. Meeting James happened because of the cabinet, meeting Luca was because of the cabinet. Even meeting Lydia and Alessandro was thanks to the cabinet. Maybe she didn’t need to give the cabinet away so quickly, with Luca and Alessandro at least she now had potential options when the time came.
Her phone ringing drew Iris away from her thoughts. Her mother’s name flashed up on the screen and she quickly answered it, turning away from the others, leaving them to their conversation.
“Hi mum, how are you?” Iris said, genuinely happy to hear her mother’s voice.
“Darling, I’ve got some bad news.” Evelyn’s voice was heavy and her words to the point.
“What is it?” Iris said, growing concerned.
“Your house, it’s been broken into. One of your neighbours called the police this morning.”
“What? When? Oh god, what did they take?” Iris dropped her head and ran her hand through her hair.
“Well, that’s the problem. They’ve taken everything.” Evelyn said.
“Everything?” Iris said anxiously.
“Yes, including the cabinet.” Evelyn sighed.
“Oh shit. The cabinet. What does that mean now? What’s going to happen?” Her worry was evident in her tone, so much so that Luca stopped the conversation he had been having to listen.
“I have no idea. I don’t think this has ever happened before to the cabinet. I don’t think it’s ever been stolen. But we both know what happened when it was given away without the explanation.” Iris murmured in agreement.
“I know. Listen, mum, I have a friend who’s a police officer. I’m going to speak to him and see if he can tell me what’s happening with the investigation. I’ve got to get it back.”
“Have you had any luck on finding out where it came from?”
“Yes, I was going to call you later to fill you in. That’s why I really need to get it back. It’s not cursed or magical in the way we thought it was. Let me speak to my friend and when he gets back to me, I’ll call you back and tell you everything I’ve found, ok?”
“Ok sweetheart, I’ll speak to you soon.” Iris tapped the screen of her phone to end the call and put her phone back in her pocket. She explained what she’d just found out to her waiting audience.
“I’ve got to call my friend; he can help me. I don’t know what’s going to happen now. I’m not going to know until the morning if I’m going to keep getting objects but likewise, I could become very ill very quickly and as far as I know only getting the cabinet back into my possession will stop that.” Iris filled the three in on what she was told by her mother about giving the cabinet away.
“When did this happen?” Luca asked, “Did you get anything this morning?”
“I’m not sure, my mum said the police were called this morning but I did get an object this morning.”
“What was it?” Asked Alessandro.
“A magnifying glass. I gave it to Luca earlier when he was struggling to read some hard copy documents.”
“That’s how you happened to have that on you?” Luca asked, surprised.
“Yep, that’s where that came from. I had a feeling I’d be giving it to you as soon as I saw it.” She said with a half-smile. “Listen, I need to get back to the hotel and call my friend. I need to find out everything I can about what’s happened and I’ll probably need to go home as soon as possible. We’ll meet you here tomorrow and I’ll let you know what I find out about the burglary.”
Lydia and Alessandro nodded. Luca and Iris repeated their goodbyes, albeit much quicker this time, and made their way back to the hotel. Iris would find out tomorrow morning whether the cabinet would still work for her or not.
The Bedside Cabinet: The Cabinet Mystery Book 1 Page 13