Page 39 of The Silent Sister

It was the day Eléni had been waiting for.

Her mother was taking her to Porth Gwyn Hospital to have the cast taken off her arm.

She’d managed to return to work as planned and, as Mr Williams had promised, she’d been working on the till where she’d become proficient at using just her right arm while the other was supported in a sling.

Her plans to get a waitressing job would have to wait.

‘Ready? I bet you can’t wait to get that old thing off.’

‘I can’t wait. It’s so heavy as well as itchy.’ Eléni remembered being told by the nurse on the first check-up that on no account was she to poke anything down inside the plaster cast to relieve the itching. She didn’t dare admit she had been doing just that with a knitting needle!

Cassia parked her car in the spaces along the front of the hospital. Once inside, they were led to a waiting room and it wasn’t long before Eléni was called in to have the cast removed.

She looked down at her arm and wriggled her fingers as if to prove to herself everything was working. The skin was wrinkled and shiny where it had been covered in plaster for the last eight weeks. Had it really been that long since the accident?

The nurse smiled at her. ‘Yes, it all works. Just make sure you treat it with a bit of care to begin with. Here’s a sheet with some exercises to help build up your strength again.’

After thanking her, Eléni joined her mother outside in the waiting room.

‘All done?’ said her mother. ‘Why don’t we go and have an ice cream up at the lake? It’s a nice day and it’s not often it’s just the two of us, is it?’

Eléni smiled. The row hadn’t been mentioned again and Eléni had been putting off mentioning a trip to Kefalonia.

Instead, she’d enjoyed feeling close to her mother again.

The visit to the library had brought home to her how terrible it must have been for Cassia living through the trauma of the earthquake.

Eléni had been back to the archives several times and Margaret Harris had gone out of her way to be helpful.

She’d found books about Kefalonia’s varied history and its geological past. Eléni had learned that because of its position, major earthquakes were commonplace.

She’d also borrowed more modern books that told her how tourism had been picking back up after the restoration of the towns around Argostoli and the photographs had showed her what to expect when she visited the island.

What would her mother’s reaction be if she could persuade her to return, she wondered.

How would the new town appear to her mamá, who had lived there before the earthquake had ruined everything?

Ice creams in hand, they found a bench overlooking the lake. Several swans, their white feathers gleaming in the sunlight, swam past them. Their long necks gave them an air of importance as they were followed by the smaller ducks.

‘You used to love to bring bread for the ducks when we first arrived in Porth Gwyn.’ Cassia smiled.

‘Why did we have to move to Cardiff?’ Eléni watched her mother’s eyes darken.

‘Oh, it seemed better to be nearer to the docks when your father came home on leave.’ Cassia paused and then added, ‘Uncle Glyn was worried about Auntie Gwladys being on her own. She’d had a fall, see. It worked out well, didn’t it? And of course, Bronwen arrived soon after.’

Nothing to do with a reporter turning up, then. Could the reporter have been Rhodri Jones? ‘You must have missed Porth Gwyn, though. It’s so much better than a big city.’

Her mother nodded. ‘Yes, but I’m happy here now. I wasn’t back then but I knew when your baba left the Navy, we’d always come back. I want you and Bronwen to be happy here too. Shall we have a walk around the lake before going home? It’s exactly a mile, so your father says.’

* * *

Her next day off from the craft shop was her birthday and Eléni called in the Metropole to see if there was any work going.

She’d waited tables in a café in Cardiff and at Smoky Joe’s coffee bar since she’d returned to Porth Gwyn, only leaving to work in the craft shop.

The waitressing job was going to be in addition to the hours she worked for Mr Williams. She had to start earning more money.

The young woman behind reception took down Eléni’s details.

‘I’ll pass this on to the manager and he’ll be in touch. I’m afraid I don’t think they need any more waitresses at the moment, but I may be wrong. Of course, with summer coming up, it’s always a busier time of the year for visitors then, isn’t it?’

Eléni’s heart sank. She’d set her sights on getting an evening job.

‘What about positions for chambermaids? I could always work on my days off.’ She knew she sounded desperate. ‘And some weekends.’

The woman shook her head. ‘I’m sorry, but it would be daytime and most of our ladies work every day.’

Eléni thanked the receptionist and left the hotel foyer.

Porth Gwyn was a spa town and full of large hotels built at the height of the time when visitors had come to take the waters. Eléni smiled to herself when she remembered how she and Bronwen had tasted the water from the chalybeate fountain in Rock Park.

‘Ugh!’ Bronwen had grimaced. ‘It’s foul. How can that awful taste be good for you?’

Yet many people in the nineteenth century had believed it was and had paid handsomely to stay in the town.

Eléni walked through the gardens opposite and tried her luck at the hotel on the side street. The receptionist there told her the same thing — the manager would be in touch.

‘What’s your telephone number?’

‘Porth Gwyn 2419. Thank you.’ All Eléni could do was hope.

She strolled back to call on Gabriella in the craft shop.

‘I came in to tell you I’ve had no luck getting the waitressing job. Mind, it was only the receptionist saying she doubted there were any vacancies. It looks as if I won’t be going anywhere soon.’

Gabriella was the only person she’d told about her Kefalonia plans. ‘Sorry to hear that. But didn’t you say you got some money from your great-aunt after she died? And what about the money your parents gave you for your twenty-first?’

Eléni had totted up all the money she had in her building society book and, yes, she might just have enough for a plane ticket, but she had no idea what it would cost to live in Kefalonia for a few months.

‘I’m not expecting to find my uncle in a few weeks, so I have to allow for a longer stay and it’s going to cost money if I stay in a hotel or lodging house.

My next day off is Thursday so I’m going to go to Credenford on the bus.

There’s a travel agent on the main street. I hope to figure out the cost then.’

‘It’s so exciting.’ Gabriella rubbed her hands together. ‘I just know you’re going to find him... and maybe a handsome Greek Adonis too.’ The doorbell chimed as a group of women entered the shop. ‘I’d better go. See you later.’

On her walk back home, Eléni thought back to what Gabriella had said. Her excitement about her forthcoming trip would not be matched by her mother. Things were good between them at the moment, so Eléni didn’t want to spoil it until it was necessary to tell her.

As she opened the door, she heard her mother on the phone.

‘Thank you, I’ll tell my daughter.’ Cassia turned to Eléni. ‘That was The Crown. Something about a waitressing job. The girl said she’d spoken to the manager and they don’t have any vacancies at the moment, but will keep your details on file. I didn’t know you were leaving the craft shop.’

Eléni took off her coat and hung it on the hall stand.

‘I’m not. I love working for Mr Williams. I’m just trying to get more work to boost my wages. You know I’m saving.’ Her heart pounded as she waited for her mother to ask what she was saving for, but the question didn’t come.