Songbirds(40)

‘I know Nilmini,’ I said, ‘So do I.’

‘I’m sorry, madam.’

‘What for?’

‘Because I have not found what you are looking for.’

*

In the evening I invited Mrs Hadjikyriacou to stay and join us for supper. She demurred at first, saying that Ruba wouldn’t know what to do without her there for the evening meal, but Aliki pleaded and finally she agreed. I made dhal curry but it was nothing like Nisha’s – it lacked flavour and I added way too much coconut milk so it was like mush. But Aliki ate it regardless. After dinner, we sat by the fire drinking tea.

Mrs Hadjikyriacou’s cloudy, silvery eyes regarded me with certainty and warmth. Then she turned her attention to Aliki. ‘Come here, child,’ she said. ‘I can tell you a story. What is your favourite? And why in God’s name are you wearing odd shoes?’

Aliki giggled. ‘I like odd things,’ she said. ‘I’d like to hear a story.’

It was lovely to hear Aliki’s voice, I drank it in. With Nisha gone, my daughter had no one else to speak to at home. Except the cats. Her voice was lost to me, we both knew that.

‘Fair enough,’ Mrs Hadjikyriacou said. ‘Sit here beside me. I’ll tell you about Foinikas, or Palm Tree village, the place where I was born. I lived there all my life, I got married there and had five children there. It’s such an old place. People lived there since the times of the crusaders. Do you know about the crusaders?’

Aliki nodded. ‘We learnt about it at school. Is that when you were born?’

‘No!’ She laughed. ‘How the hell old do you think I am, you little monkey? Eight hundred years old?’

Aliki laughed and laughed and then she quietened at the sight of the old woman’s knitted brow.

‘Well, let me begin,’ she said. ‘Are you ready?’

Aliki sat straight and nodded.

‘The knight commander’s residence was built on the highest point of the village. The village was abandoned in 1974 after the war that divided the island. Today it is often flooded by water from the dam, but back in the day – well, what can I tell you, it was a place of beauty.’

Seeing my daughter held rapt by Mrs Hadjikyriacou’s tale, I felt a pang of jealousy. I had never been able to command Aliki’s attention, but then what did I offer her? Nisha had told her the stories, Nisha had played the games, teasing her imagination and teaching her how to see the world. I remembered the day we had gone up to the mountains and Nisha and Aliki had sat together on the bus, while I sat opposite them across the aisle, next to an old man who had been carrying a jasmine plant on his lap. He must have been growing it indoors by a sunny window for the flowers smelled as if it were summer and I remembered how strange it was to be enveloped by the scent during that chilly October day. The old man had snored, his head bopping gently to the movement of the bus as we headed up the mountain, and Nisha and Aliki had played I Spy.

‘I spy with my little eye, something beginning with N!’ Aliki said.

‘Hm, that’s a hard one,’ Nisha said. She pretended to look all around the bus, then leaned over Aliki and made a big deal of looking out of the window.

Aliki giggled.

‘Hmmm, let me see. Nature?’

‘Nope.’

‘Erm . . . nuts!’

‘Where do you see nuts?’

‘There are almond trees on the hills.’

‘Well, if there are, I can’t see them.’

‘How about’ – Nisha was looking around again, this time at the other passengers – ‘novel!’

‘Nope.’

‘Aliki, this is too difficult.’

‘Keep going!’ she said.

‘Nylon? And before you ask, the woman who is reading the novel – to your right – is wearing nylon tights.’

‘That’s very good,’ Aliki said. ‘But no.’

‘Necklace.’

‘No.’

‘Neck!’

‘No.’

‘Nun?’

I remembered Aliki looking around her at this point, then she started to laugh again. ‘Nisha, where do you see a nun?’

‘We passed a church and a nun was outside in the garden.’

‘You see everything,’ Aliki said.

‘You should be more observant,’ Nisha said.

‘OK, do you give up?’

‘Let me try one last time . . .’ There was a long pause. ‘Nostril!’

‘The answer,’ said Aliki, ‘is Nisha.’

‘Me?’

Aliki had nodded.

‘That’s cheating! I can’t see me!’

‘Why?’ she said. ‘I see you!’

‘I would never have guessed that. I could have gone on all week and I would never have guessed that.’

‘Isn’t it funny,’ Aliki said, in her most adult voice, ‘that you saw everything but yourself ?’

*

On Friday night, around 10 p.m., I received a phone call from Soneeya. She was frantic. ‘Madam, please come meet me at the gate, I have some information. Will you come right away?’

I told her yes, of course. I looked in on Aliki, who was sleeping peacefully in her room. Mrs Hadjikyriacou was still out, sitting in her garden as usual, and I asked if she wouldn’t mind coming in and staying with Aliki for a while.