Wish You Were Here (21 page)

Georgio had alerted the police about the disappearance of Tiana but Milo wanted to do something more practical than hang around the flat waiting, on the chance that some overworked officer might ring them back with information. He wanted to get out there and pound the streets looking for her himself. He wanted to get back to the boat and see if she’d somehow managed to get there.

‘Are you coming?’ he asked his brother.

Georgio shook his head. ‘I think we should all stay here in case she comes back.’

‘She’s
not
going to come back!’ Milo shouted in frustration. ‘She’s trying to get away from here!
Here
is the
last
place you’ll find her!’

‘Oh, God, I can’t bear it!’ Sonya said, mopping her eyes. Her mascara had streaked down her face and, for the first time in his life, Milo saw her looking less than perfect.
Goodness
, he thought. She really did care about his little sister.

‘I’m going out,’ Milo announced. ‘I can’t stand around here doing nothing.’

‘I’m coming with you,’ Sonya said, getting up from the sofa.

Milo blinked in surprise. ‘What?’

‘What?’ Georgio echoed.

‘I need to
do
something!’ Sonya cried.

‘You need to sit down,’ Georgio said.

‘This is my fault,’ Sonya said. ‘I pressed you and pressed you until you agreed. I never once thought about Tiana. Milo’s right – we put ourselves first.’

Georgio placed his huge hands on her shoulders. ‘Don’t think like that. We did what we thought was right.’

‘But I must try and find her,’ she said, making a move to find her handbag.

Milo looked pleadingly at Georgio and his brother read his mind. ‘Sonya,’ Georgio began, ‘I don’t think it’s a good idea. Milo can cope perfectly well on his own.’

‘But he’s only one person,’ Sonya said. ‘We’ll cover double the ground if I go as well.’

For a moment, Georgio looked helpless as his wife put a pair of stilettos on. She looked as if she was about to go out shopping rather than marching up and down the streets looking for a missing child.

‘Darling,’ Georgio said, ‘you don’t have to do this.’

‘Yes!’ she said, almost screaming the word. ‘I
do
have to do this! Or
un
do it or—’ she paused, and her beautiful mouth started to tremble.

Georgio stepped in and guided her back to the sofa. ‘You’re not in a state to go anywhere,’ he told her gently, stroking her hair as she cried.

‘But I’ve got to try.’

He shook his head. ‘Milo will take care of things. I need you here with me.’

‘You do?’ she said.

‘Of course I do,’ he said, kissing the top of her head. ‘And we need to stay here for Tiana. Both of us.’

Milo was relieved to get out of the apartment. Knowing that he was permanently broke, his brother had pressed some money into his hands just before he left.

‘Let us know as soon as you find anything,’ Georgio had said.

‘Of course,’ Milo had replied.

‘Milo?’ Georgio called as he’d headed for the stairs.

‘Yes?’

‘I’m sorry.’

Milo had nodded and had watched as his brother had returned to his flat and slowly closed the door.

He hailed a taxi outside the flat and spent ten minutes driving slowly up and down the neighbourhood streets, his eyes scanning every inch for Tiana but she was nowhere to be seen.

‘Take me to the port,’ he told the driver. ‘
Slowly.
’

He rolled his window down but he didn’t hear the noises of the city. It was as if somebody had hit a mute button on the world and his vision focused on the streets, his head twitching from side to side as they drove to the port, trying to see down each and every street and alley they passed.

Would Tiana really have walked all this way on her own? He tried to get inside her mind. What would he do if he was in her position? He’d try to get home, that much was clear, but how? Would she have any money even if she could find her way back to the boat?

His mind whirred with worry at the different scenarios. She was a ten-year-old girl on her own in a large capital city. Part of him was hoping that she would go unnoticed and that she would be able to find her way back home by herself, quickly and quietly. The other part of him was hoping that some kindly person would notice her and help her but what if the wrong kind of person saw her first?

Milo closed his eyes as kidnappers, child molesters and murderers all jostled for space in his imagination.

‘Tiana,’ he said, whispering her name in despair as his eyes snapped open again for fear of missing her in the streets.

He wished with all his heart that Alice was there beside him, holding his hand and telling him that everything would be okay in that calm, quiet voice of hers. But she wasn’t there; she was over a thousand miles away and certainly wasn’t thinking about him and his problems.

When the taxi arrived at the port, he jumped out, flung some notes at the driver and ran down towards the boat for Kethos, stopping everyone he passed along the way.

‘Have you seen a small girl? She’s ten years old, long dark hair, about this high,’ he said, gesturing with his hand. But everybody said no, shaking their heads and getting on with their own business. How could they be so callous, Milo wondered? Didn’t they know this was Tiana who was missing? His dear, sweet, innocent sister whom he loved more than anything in the world. Didn’t they care? Somebody
must
have seen her. How could a little girl – his special little girl – just disappear?

He dithered by the ticket office and then asked the man inside if he’d seen a little girl.

‘I see many little girls. Many tourists. Everybody has a little girl with them.’

‘But she would have been on her own,’ Milo said but the man simply shook his head and Milo walked away.

To get on the boat or not to get on the boat – that was the question. Should he wait around the port, hoping he’d spot her, or get the next boat back to Kethos in case she’d already made her way back there? Could she have got there that quickly, he asked himself? She was a pretty determined young lady.

He got his mobile out of his pocket and rang Georgio.

‘I’m getting the next boat back,’ Milo told him. ‘We can only hope that she made it on to one of the boats that’s already gone.’

Georgio didn’t try to stop him. In fact, he thought it best if Milo went home in case Tiana was trying to get back there.

Once on board, Milo couldn’t relax. He paced up and down the deck, hobbling on his sore ankle and cursing every time he twisted it. He should sit down. He knew he was doing himself more harm than good and he wasn’t making the time pass any faster by his strange hobbling march.

The sea was a dark, malevolent navy now and there were gunmetal-grey clouds hovering on the horizon. That’s all they needed – Tiana desperately trying to get home in the middle of a raging storm.

The boat ride back to the island was the longest of Milo’s life. He sincerely believed that he’d be able to swim faster with all the pent-up anxiety that was racing around him. When, at last, it docked, he pushed past the tourists and the locals, and he looked up and down the harbour, desperate to see his little sister there.

‘Hey, Milo!’ she’d call casually. ‘What took you so long? I’ve been here
ages
and I was getting bored.’

But there was no sign of her and Milo’s face fell with the weight of worry.

* * *

‘He’s selling the house?’ Stella cried. ‘He can’t! It’s my home!’

‘It was
his
home,’ Alice pointed out as diplomatically as she could. It was a few days after the funeral and the contents of their father’s will had been revealed to the sisters. The family home was to be sold and, once bills had been settled, the proceeds were to be shared – equally – between Alice and Stella. There was also a small sum in a bank account and a few shares which didn’t amount to much. The car had been left to Stella and her father’s old watch had been left to Alice. The watch was probably worth more than the car was these days, Stella was quick to point out.

The possessions in the house were to be left to the discretion of the sisters and the beloved glasses that had belonged to their mother were to be shared between the two of them.

Stella didn’t seem at all happy at any of the arrangements. ‘But this hasn’t been his home for the last few years. It’s been
my
home.’

‘But it has to be sold. There are bills to pay,’ Alice told her. ‘We have to get things sorted out.’

‘And what am I meant to do?’

‘Well, there’s no rush,’ Alice said. ‘There’s no telling how long it will take to sell the house and it’s better if you stay. People prefer to see a home lived in although you’ll have to have a good sort out and tidy up.’ She cast her eye over the pile of clothes that had been dumped on a chair in the living room.

Stella looked shocked. ‘And after? What happens then?’

Alice sighed. She was becoming exasperated. ‘You’ll just have to find somewhere else. You’ll have plenty of money to put down a good deposit for a place of your own.’

‘What – a pokey flat in town?’

‘It would be a start, yes!’

‘But I like
this
house.’

‘Yes, but you can’t afford this one.’

‘You’re just being greedy, Alice. You just want your half of the money. You’re not even thinking about me.’

That seemed to do it for Alice. She was fed up of Stella accusing her of things she wasn’t guilty of and she wasn’t going to take it any more.

‘You’re right,’ she said. ‘I’m not thinking of you and you know why? Because I’m going away.’

‘Going where?’ Stella sounded panicky.

‘Kethos.’

‘Kethos? What on earth are you going there for?’ Stella asked and then she rolled her eyes. ‘Oh my God! You’re going back to that guy, aren’t you?’

‘No, I’m not going back to that guy.’

‘Then why on earth else would you bother going back there?’

Alice bit her lip. What could she say? ‘I’m going back—’

‘Yes?’

‘Because—’

‘What?’

‘I have some private business there.’

Stella’s face screwed up in disbelief. ‘You’re so weird, Alice. I’ll never understand you.’

‘No, you won’t,’ Alice said, ‘because you never make an effort. Everything is always about you, isn’t it?’

‘What?’ Stella said, her face creasing up in consternation.

‘The whole world has got to revolve around you all the time, but it doesn’t, Stella. It
doesn’t!
There are other people on this planet too – people with dreams and worries – people who have feelings! Only you don’t seem to notice because you’re too wrapped up in your own selfish ways.’

‘Selfish?
I’m
selfish?’ Stella said, her face reddening and her eyes blazing with indignation at being scolded.

‘Yes –
you!
You think it’s fine to spend money that isn’t yours on things you don’t need and then you expect somebody else to tidy up the mess. Well, the world doesn’t work that way and the quicker you learn that, the better, and I won’t always be around to sort things out for you!’

‘Alice – I—’

‘And don’t try to sweet-talk me, or flatter me or make me feel guilty about something because that isn’t going to work again. I’ve had enough, Stella.’

Stella’s mouth dropped open but – for once in her life – she didn’t have a smart comeback nor did she break down in tears, and Alice used the moment to leave the house and get as far away from her as was possible.

Milo was pacing up and down the harbour, wondering what to do. It felt like he’d paced the whole of Greece in his anxiety over Tiana but he just couldn’t keep still whilst she was missing. He’d been in and out of every shop on the harbour front, asking if they had seen her. One woman had taken her time in replying, her eyes scanning the ceiling. Milo had waited, his heart thudding in his chest, and then she’d given him a look as if to say he was completely mad and that, of course, she hadn’t seen a little girl.

He asked the row of fishermen who seemed to live on the harbour wall but they never saw anything that wasn’t directly under their nose or under the water.

When he found himself at the bus stop, he decided it was best if he got himself home and be there if that was where Tiana was making her way back to. He was just fishing around in his pockets for some change when he saw her. It was a girl with long dark hair on the other side of the street. She was looking in a shop window with her back to him. Milo tried not to get excited. After all, most of the girls in Greece had long dark hair.

‘Tiana?’ At first, her name came out as a whisper but then the dark-haired girl turned around and he saw that it was
his
dark-haired girl.

‘TIANA!’ he cried, her name carrying above a sea of tourists between them. She turned and saw him and he breathed a sigh of relief, tears filling his eyes as she smiled and began to run towards him.

‘Milo!’ she shouted, her feet flying over the pavement.

Milo’s arms opened wide as she crashed into him. ‘Oh my God, Tiana! I was so worried about you.’ He stroked her long hair and breathed in the scent of her in relief. ‘I’ve been looking all over Athens for you. I didn’t know where you were!’

‘I was here,’ she said. ‘Well, I’ve been here a
little
while.’

‘I’ve never been so worried in my life!’

‘But I was fine,’ she said. ‘You shouldn’t worry so much. I can look after myself.’

He cupped her face in his hands and looked down at her. ‘Yes, well I can see that now but what if something had gone wrong?’ he asked. ‘What if you’d taken a wrong turn down a street or somebody had abducted you or you’d fallen into the sea?’

She laughed. ‘But I didn’t!’

Her calmness suddenly angered him. ‘You mustn’t
ever
do anything like that again.’

Her smile vanished. ‘But I thought you’d worry if I stayed with Georgio and Sonya. I thought you wanted me to live with you.’

‘I do! But you should have stayed where you were. I would have come to collect you.’

‘I didn’t want to stay there. It didn’t feel right.’

‘But you were safe there, Tiana.’ He saw the sadness in her eyes and suddenly felt terrible at having shouted at her. She was safe now and that was all that mattered so he hugged her to him again. ‘How did you get back, anyway?’

Tiana looked a little uneasy for a moment. ‘I took some money,’ she said. ‘But I’ll pay it back!’

‘Where did you get money from?’

‘Sonya’s handbag.’

Milo laughed. ‘I think she’ll forgive you.’

‘But I ran out of money here so I couldn’t get the bus home.’

‘So, what were you planning to do, then?’ Milo asked, trying to sound serious.

‘I guessed you’d come looking for me so I thought I’d wait around here for a bit.’

‘Oh, really?’

‘Yes,’ she said philosophically. ‘I knew you’d be here sooner or later.’

‘You did, did you?’ he said, getting her in a gentle headlock in the crook of his arm.

‘Owww!’ she cried but she was laughing at the same time.

‘Knew I’d come for you, eh? Knew I’d bail you out of any trouble you managed to get yourself into?’ He ruffled her hair and then kissed the top of her head. ‘Come on, let’s get back to the bus stop and get you home.’

They walked hand in hand.

‘I guess I won’t be going to school today,’ Tiana suddenly said.

‘I guess not,’ Milo said.

‘It was really horrible when they took me. I screamed all the way to the boat and then cried for the whole journey too.’

Milo smiled with pride but he didn’t think it wise to praise her for such behaviour even though he secretly applauded it. They were going to have to build some sort of ongoing relationship with Georgio and Sonya, after all.

‘I’ve been thinking,’ Milo said after a moment, ‘and I was wondering if you might like to spend more time with Georgio and Sonya.’

Tiana stared at him with bewilderment in her eyes. ‘What do you mean? I thought you didn’t want me to live with them. I thought you said—’

‘I don’t want you to live with them!’ Milo said. ‘I’m not talking about you moving to Athens. I’m just thinking you could stay there every now and again – like a little holiday.’ He knew he wasn’t selling the idea very well because his heart really wasn’t in it but he had to think about Georgio and Sonya and he remembered the fear he’d seen in their faces when they’d thought something might have happened to Tiana. ‘You’ve got your own room there and everything, and they love you, Tiana! They really want to spend more time with you.’

Tiana’s eyes filled with tears. ‘Do I have to?’

‘No, you don’t have to but it would be really kind if you did.’

She looked thoughtful for a moment as if weighing up all the pros and all the cons and then she nodded solemnly.

‘Good girl,’ he said, ruffling her hair. ‘Now, I’d better give Georgio and Sonya a call and let them know you’re okay and it would be very nice indeed if you spoke to them too.’

‘But what would I say?’ she asked.

‘That you’re sorry.’

‘Do I have to?’

‘No, but it would be very nice if you did that too,’ Milo said, his eyebrows raised as he awaited her response.

‘Oh, all right then.’

‘Good girl,’ he said and he ruffled her hair once more for good measure.

* * *

It was a strange feeling to be going back to Greece, Alice thought as she stared out of the plane at the wispy white clouds that threaded by her window in eerie skeins. She couldn’t help feeling a deep sadness when she thought about all that had happened since her last trip there. She felt like a different person now. For a start, she was an orphan. That was probably being a bit overly dramatic at the age of twenty-eight, she thought, but she couldn’t help it. She no longer had a mother or a father and the thought made her intensely sad.

Arriving in Athens, Alice thought about a conversation she’d had with Milo. He’d lost both his parents some years ago. He’d mentioned it briefly – as if it didn’t matter – but she’d seen the sadness in his eyes and she’d wanted to know more.

She shook her head. This trip wasn’t about Milo. She wasn’t going to think about him or their unfinished conversations. It didn’t matter what he thought about his parents because he wasn’t a part of her life. The only part he might play in it was to help her undo this wish which was his fault in the first place. If he hadn’t told her about that silly statue, none of this would have happened. She’d have left the villa that day in blissful ignorance as plain old Alice Archer and would be living quietly at home, and Bruce, Wilfred, Larry, Mr Montague and Ben would never have batted an eyelid at her.

Leaving the airport in a taxi, Alice looked at the streets which led up to the Parthenon and wondered if she’d have time to visit it on her trip. She’d booked five nights because there’d been a deal on and she thought she could probably do with some time away from work and home, some time to call her own. However, thinking about the Parthenon, it probably wasn’t a good idea. There were no doubt dozens of statues of gods and goddesses up there amongst the ruins and Alice didn’t want to be tempted by any of them. Heaven only knew what would happen if she had a close encounter with Zeus or Athena.

She couldn’t afford to book the villa she’d stayed in with her sister and she couldn’t find any other places available on the island at such short notice. Holiday season was in full swing and Kethos was fully booked. So she made do with a room in a characterless hotel on the mainland just outside Athens and near enough to the ferry crossing to get her over to Kethos with the least fuss possible.

Arriving at the hotel after giving an amorous taxi driver the brush-off, she dumped her suitcase and walked across to her second-floor window. She could see the sea if she stood up on tiptoe and craned her neck. She tried to imagine the little heart-shaped island of Kethos beyond the indigo waves. What would Milo be doing, she wondered? How many children would he be tucking into bed that night? And would he be making more with his beautiful Greek wife who had no idea about his romantic liaisons with tourists?

As Alice gazed out across the little patch of visible sea, she only hoped that she could get over to Kethos and back again without running into Milo the married man.