Wish You Were Here

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 search 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.’