The Dark Side of the Island Read Online Free PDF Page A

camp at Fonchi?"
     
     
She shook her head. "No, to another one, but they were all the same." She leaned forward and touched his face. "You look older. Too much older. I think you have been very unhappy."
     
     
He shrugged. "Seventeen years is a long time."
     
     
"Are you married?"
     
     
He hesitated briefly and then plunged straight in and it was surprising how easy it was now, almost as if he was talking about some distant relative or a casual friend who wasn't really important.
     
     
"I had a wife and a little girl. They were both'killed in an automobile accident in Pasadena five years ago."
     
     
Her sigh echoed away into the darkness. "I knew there was something, but I wasn't sure. It still shows in the eyes." She took his hands and held them firmly. "Tell me now. Why have you come back to this place?"
     
     
"When Father John asked me, I told bun I was looking for my other self," he said. "The one who existed here in these islands so many years ago, but now I'm not so sure."
     
     
"There is a deeper reason," she said. "Am I not right?"
     
     
"Who knows?" he shrugged. "Van Horn once told me that life was action and passion. If that's true, there's been precious little of either in mine for quite some tune. Perhaps I thought I could recapture something."
     
     
"And what are you going to do now? Leave on the boat?"
     
     
"That's what they all seem to want me to do. Alerias told Kytros he wouldn't be responsible for what might happen if I stayed."
     
     
She glanced at her watch. "You would seem to have twenty minutes in which to make up your mind."
     
     
"What would you like to see me do?"
     
     
She shrugged. "It isn't my decision to make. It can only be your own."
     
     
She started to get to her feet and he held her hand and frowned, because he knew that for some strange reason this was the pivot on which the whole thing would turn.
     
     
3 33
     
     
"Do you want me to stay?"
     
     
"It would take courage," she said. "Very great courage."
     
     
He smiled suddenly. "But I gave you my courage a long time ago, remember?"
     
     
She nodded, her face serious. "I remember."
     
     
For a little while they sat there staring at each other and then she gently released his hand and stood up. "I'll only be a moment."
     
     
He watched her go down to the altar and drop to one knee, then she stood up, selected two candles and placed them under the statue of St. Katherine. It was only as she lit them with a taper that he realised who they were for and a lump came into his throat that threatened to choke him.
     
     
He got to his feet and walked blindly through the half-darkness to the door.
     
     

The Bronze Achilles
     
Outside in the square it was very hot and he stayed in the shade of the porch and smoked a cigarette as he waited for her.
     
     
Once, Anna appeared in the door of the hotel with a bucket and cloth as if intending to wipe down the outside tables, but at the sight of him, she drew back hurriedly.
     
     
It was quiet and deserted, the shadows long and black as the afternoon waned, and nothing stirred. He stood there, the cigarette burning between his fingers as he stared moodily out into the square and hi some strange way it was as if he was waiting for something to happen.
     
     
There was a slight movement behind and he turned. Katina looked gravely up at him.
     
     
He smiled gently. "It was a long time ago."
     
     
Suddenly, there were tears in her eyes and he slipped an arm about her shoulders and held her close. They stayed there in the cool shadow of the porch for a little while and then she sighed and pushed him away.
     
     
"We must go. If you intend to catch that boat, you're running out of time."
     
     
He followed her out on to the steps, his mind in a turmoil. At that moment, Yanni staggered into the square from the street that led down to the waterfront.
     
     
His clothes were torn and covered in dust and his face was streaked with tears as he sobbed