But I just couldn’t . . . because whatever lay inside it would mean accepting that Pa had gone. And I wasn’t prepared to let him go yet.
After we’d eaten, CeCe paid the bill and we went back to the apartment, where she telephoned her bank to have the deposit on the flat transferred. Then she settled herself in front of her laptop, complaining about the inconstant broadband.
‘Come and help me choose some sofas,’ she called from the sitting room as I filled our yellowing tub with lukewarm water.
‘I’m just having a bath,’ I replied, locking the door.
I lay in the water and lowered my head so that my ears and hair were submerged. I listened to the gloopy sounds – womb sounds, I thought – and decided that I had to get away before I went completely mad. None of this was CeCe’s fault and I certainly didn’t want to take it out on her. I loved her. She had been there for me every day of my life, but . . .
Twenty minutes later, having made a resolution, I wandered into the sitting room.
‘Nice bath?’
‘Yes. CeCe . . .’
‘Come and look at the sofas I’ve found.’ She beckoned me towards her. I did as she asked and stared unseeingly at the different hues of cream.
‘Which one do you think?’
‘Whichever you like. Interior design is your thing, not mine.’
‘How about that one?’ CeCe pointed to the screen. ‘Obviously we’ll have to go and sit on it, because it can’t just be a thing of beauty. It’s got to be comfy as well.’ She scribbled down the name and address of the stockist. ‘Perhaps we can do that tomorrow?’
I took a deep breath. ‘CeCe, would you mind if I went back to Atlantis for a couple of days?’
‘If that’s what you want, Sia, of course. I’ll check out flights for us.’
‘Actually, I was thinking I’d go alone. I mean . . .’ I swallowed, steeling myself not to lose my impetus. ‘You’re very busy here now with the apartment and everything, and I know you have all sorts of art projects you’re eager to get going on.’
‘Yes, but a couple of days out won’t hurt. And if it’s what you need to do, I understand.’
‘Really,’ I said firmly, ‘I think I’d prefer to go by myself.’
‘Why?’ CeCe turned to me, her almond-shaped eyes wide with surprise.
‘Just because . . . I . . . would. That is, I want to sit in the garden I helped Pa Salt make and open my letter.’
‘I see. Sure, fine,’ she said with a shrug.
I sensed a layer of frost descending, but I would not give in to her this time. ‘I’m going to bed. I have a really bad headache,’ I said.
‘I’ll get you some painkillers. Do you want me to look up flights?’
‘I’ve already taken some, and yes, that would be great, thanks. Night.’ I leant forward and kissed my sister on the top of her shiny dark head, her curly hair shorn into a boyish crop as always. Then I walked into the tiny broom cupboard of a twin room that we shared.
The bed was hard and narrow and the mattress thin. Though both of us had had the luxury of a privileged upbringing, we had spent the past six years travelling round the world and sleeping in dumps, neither of us prepared to ask Pa Salt for money even when we’d been really broke. CeCe in particular had always been too proud, which was why I was so surprised that she now seemed to be spending money like water, when it could only have come from him.
Perhaps I’d ask Ma if she knew anything more, but I was aware that discretion was her middle name when it came to spreading gossip amongst us sisters.
‘Atlantis,’ I murmured. Freedom . . .
And that night, I fell asleep almost immediately.
2
Christian was waiting for me with the boat when the taxi brought me to the pontoon moored on Lake Geneva. He greeted me with his usual warm smile and I wondered for the first time how old he really was. Even though I was certain he’d been the skipper of our speedboat since I was a little girl, with his dark hair and bronzed olive skin covering a finely toned physique, he still didn’t look a day over thirty-five.
We set off across the lake, and I leant back on the comfortable leather bench at the stern of the boat, thinking about how the staff who worked at Atlantis never seemed to age. As the sun shone down and I breathed in the familiar fresh air, I mused that perhaps Atlantis was enchanted and those who lived within its walls had been granted the gift of eternal life and would be there forever.
All except Pa Salt . . .
I could hardly bear to think about the last time I was here. All six of us sisters – each one adopted and brought home from the far corners of the earth by Pa Salt and named in turn after the Seven Sisters of the Pleiades – had gathered at our childhood home because he had died. There hadn’t even been a funeral, an occasion for us to mourn his loss; Ma told us he had insisted on being buried privately at sea.
All we’d had was his Swiss lawyer, Georg Hoffman, showing us what at first glance seemed to be an elaborate sundial, which had appeared overnight in Pa’s special garden. But Georg had explained that it was something called an armillary sphere and that it plotted the position of the stars. And engraved on the bands that circled its central golden globe were our names and a set of coordinates that would tell us exactly where Pa had found each of us, along with a quotation written in Greek.
Maia and Ally, my two elder sisters, had provided the rest of us with the locations the coordinates pinpointed and the meanings of our Greek inscriptions. Both of mine were as yet unread. I had stowed them in a plastic wallet along with the letter Pa Salt had written to me.
The boat began to slow down and I caught glimpses of the beautiful house we had all grown up in, through the veil of trees that shrouded it from view. It looked like a fairy-tale castle with its light pink exterior and four turrets, the windows glinting in the sunlight.
After we had been shown the armillary sphere and handed the letters, CeCe had been eager to leave. I hadn’t; I’d wanted to at least spend a little time mourning Pa Salt in the house where he had raised me with such love. Now, two weeks on, I was back, desperately in search of the strength and solitude I needed to come to terms with his death and carry on.
Christian steered the boat into the jetty and secured the ropes. He helped me out and I saw Ma walking across the grass towards me, as she’d done every time I’d returned home. Just the sight of her brought tears to my eyes, and I leant into her welcoming arms for a warm hug.