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Chapter 25
‘This is it.’ Spirospulled into a parking space on the street that ran parallel to the beach. Across the road was the small town of Benitses with its small stretch of souvenir shops, two grocery stores, a bakery shop and some restaurants and bars.
Behind the town centre, narrow lanes wound their way up the hillside. Its cobbled streets, with their villas, cottages and two-storey flats, were now home to locals and more mature tourists, giving it a relaxed atmosphere.
Lili liked the place. Benitses also had a harbour, which she had spotted before they parked at the beach. There were yachts and boats moored, bobbing on the calm water.
Lili got out of the car. Wooden planked walkways ran from the promenade down the sandy beach. Lili had never seen these before and imagined they were so people could walk down to the waterfront, avoiding the hot sand. Dotted about were seats and low tables with parasols.
Lili walked alone down to the water’s edge, carrying her sandals by their straps in one hand. She tried to picture the beach as it might have been twenty-four years ago, without the wooden walkways or the chairs and small tables. There were people sitting at the tables, sunning themselves and eating their takeaway food from the local delis and eateries across the road. She tried to imagine a young couple with their child, paddling right there at the water’s edge.
‘If only you hadn’t gone to Zakynthos,’ she whispered, staring at the horizon. She felt a lump in her throat at the thought that if they hadn’t, they might be there with her, taking a trip down memory lane together. But such a thing could never be.
Lili’s eyes dropped to the sand between her toes. She was beginning to wish she hadn’t made the trip. What had she hoped to gain from going back there, apart from sad thoughts of what might have been?
Lili slipped her sandals back on and returned along the planked walkway to the promenade. Across the road, she spotted Spiros sitting at a table outside a restaurant. He waved.
Lili returned his wave and made her way across the road to join him. The attentive restaurant staff appeared as soon as she sat down. She ordered a cup of English tea and sat staring at the beach.
They finished their drinks in silence.
Lili was feeling sorry for herself, and wasn’t interested in conversation or exploring the town, with its quaint streets and friendly atmosphere, as she had intended.
Spiros, sensing she wanted to leave, said, ‘Would you like to return to Corfu Old Town and visit the British Cemetery next?’
Not really, thought Lili, but it was on her to-do list, to see her mother’s grave. She nodded. ‘Do you think we can stop on the way to purchase some flowers?’
After stopping off along the main road to buy a bunch of flowers from a street vendor, they returned along the coast road to Corfu Old Town. On the outskirts of the town, they pulled into a long residential street with houses on one side and a six-foot-high wall running the length of the road on the other. Lili guessed that behind the wall was the cemetery.
After finding a parking space, Lili followed Spiros to a cast iron gate set in the wall. The gate creaked on its hinges as they stepped inside the cemetery. He gave her a potted history of the place, but Lili wasn’t listening. The first thing she noticed, apart from the size, was the sudden quiet from the cacophony of noises outside in the town beyond. She couldn’t hear cars or people. The only sounds were crickets and birds.
Lili found the cemetery quite different from the ones at home, with their neat rows of gravestones. Here, it was as though she’d stepped insideThe Secret Garden.There were winding paths in various directions through a canopy of mature trees, which provided respite from the midday sun. There was an abundance of flowers along with some potted plants and old stone garden ornaments dotted about the place.
She caught Spiros saying something about the cemetery being a haven for wildlife. Apart from the two of them, there didn’t appear to be another soul around.
It was much larger than she had expected. Lili looked at the bunch of flowers she had in her hands. She’d thought it would be straightforward to find her mother’s grave, but the graves appeared to be in no discernible order; it was as though someone had just randomly picked each spot under a tree or over by the boundary wall.
Spiros stopped talking and looked at the flowers. ‘You’ve come here to visit a grave, haven’t you?’
Lili nodded. ‘My mother.’ She stared about her. ‘I have no idea where it is.’
‘Wait here. I will find the caretaker. He is a good friend and has worked here all his life. I’m sure he will know.’
They returned down a path to the entrance, where there was an old-fashioned cast iron bench next to a wooden trestle table. On the table was a visitors’ book. Lili didn’t fancy writing her name and a message inside. Instead, she took a seat and watched Spiros walk over to a small single-storey building. He knocked on the door.
Lili stood up when an old man appeared at the door. He stepped outside the house. She heard Spiros speaking to him in Greek. She’d started to approach them when the old man spotted her.
‘Alena?’
Spiros turned around and looked at Lili. The old man, his eyes wide, was still talking in Greek.
His reaction when he saw her reminded Lili of Joseph when he first set eyes on her. ‘What is he saying?’ Lili asked.
‘He says you’re a ghost.’
