Page 33

NOW

August 2023

Lily

Casa Rosa, Ronda, Spain

They stopped for a coffee and pastry en route. The sugar and caffeine, with the incredible backdrop of the Spanish coastal town of Marbella in the background, broke the tension that had built up when Zach referred to Lily as his sister. By the time they were back on the road, moving onto the smaller serpentine windy A397, their earlier ease with each other had returned.

‘The road will get tricky for a bit, so I’m going mute as I concentrate. Enjoy the views, Lily. They took my breath away the first time I saw them.’

The road was a single track, reasonably wide, but it had continuous hairpin bends that made her stomach flip as Zach navigated them. But then she caught sight of the coast, and, as Zach had predicted, the view was breathtaking. She forgot about the road before her, trusting Zach’s driving. Sally instead focused on the Spanish landscape. As they climbed higher, she noticed netting had been placed on the reddish volcanic rock face. Presumably, to keep rocks from falling onto the road.

After a particularly large bend, the landscape changed, with the red rock disappearing and white limestone taking its place. She spied a peregrine falcon swooping down over a nearby mountaintop. And they passed a couple of ventas – the local cafés – one of which had dozens of bikers sitting outside, who waved at Lily as they passed them by.

‘Almost there,’ Zach said as the first glimpse of Ronda came into view.

Whitewashed buildings were carved into the cliff edge, and the Puente Nuevo bridge stood proud against a blue, cloudless sky.

‘Ronda is one of the pueblos blancos – white villages – of Andalucia,’ Zach said.

Lily could hear pride in his voice as he became her unofficial tour guide. ‘It’s good to be back. There’s something about this place that resonates with me deeply.’

He slowed to a crawl as he began weaving their car through the one-way streets, moving towards the older part of the historic town.

‘Are you going to tell me where we’re staying?’ Lily asked.

Zach had reassured her that accommodation was sorted, but had remained tight-lipped about where it was.

‘We’re here.’ He pulled into a small driveway in front of a row of whitewashed villas, which overlooked the gorge below.

They jumped out of the car, and Zach practically bounced up to the villa on the left-hand side. He opened his phone, then punched in a code from an email he’d received into a keypad on the wall. Pulling the key out, he opened the front door.

‘Welcome to Casa Rosa,’ he proclaimed, ushering Lily in. ‘I think you’ll like this place. It’s over a century old.’

The hall led into a small open-plan living space. Whitewashed walls, terracotta flagstones on the floor and dark wooden beams on the ceiling gave the room a rustic charm. A small galley kitchen ran along one end, with a sitting room on the other. A comfortable green sofa sat beside a log stove, and a rattan rug was on the floor.

‘It’s lovely,’ Lily said. She opened a door off the hall to reveal a small bathroom with a Moroccan feel. Then, opposite that room, was a bedroom with a large double bed in its centre, with pristine white duvet covers and pillowcases. ‘Erm, Zach, where’s the second bedroom?’

‘There’s only one. You get the bedroom; I’ve got the couch. Simple,’ Zach said. ‘And don’t even think about arguing.’ He left the room to end the discussion and called over his shoulder, ‘Come check this out.’

She followed him onto a small brick terrace. Pots filled with peonies in every rainbow colour sat along its edge, framing the view below. She was speechless as she took in the incredible vista below.

‘This brick –’ Zach touched the weathered caramel and honey-coloured bricks – ‘is part of the city wall of Ronda. Isn’t that something? To be part of something so historic. It’s one of the best-preserved city walls on the peninsula. It’s famed for it.’

‘It’s stunning, Zach,’ Lily said as she breathed deeply the scent of flowers, and birds sang out a welcome. ‘I can’t believe that this morning I was scraping porridge from Ben’s hair and face at breakfast . . . and now this.’

‘Wild, right?’ Zach asked, grinning. Then he paused, his smile disappearing as a frown deepened into his forehead. ‘Lily, this is the first home that I remember. This is the villa my mom and I lived in, in the 1980s.’

Lily felt her breath disappear as the weight of that piece of information hit her.

She looked at Zach, and the years slipped away like leaves in an autumn breeze, until he was no longer a grown man, but a young toddler of two and a half. After decades of wondering where Robert had disappeared to, was she finally standing in the answer? A shiver ran down her spine.

‘Were you happy here?’ she managed to whisper.

He shrugged his shoulders, his own eyes filling with tears too.

‘I don’t know. I think so. But, as I’ve told you before, most of my earliest memories are American ones with Mom and Dad. Playing with my sisters when they came along. All happy there. But I do have fragments of my Spanish childhood locked away in my mind. And when I came here for that summer it was as if the air around me had the key to open them up again. I remembered feelings or moments. Nothing I could cling to, though.’

Lily saw something flash across Zach’s face. A shadow of . . . pain, she thought. ‘Good memories?’ she pushed.

‘Not all of them. I remember feeling scared while I was here,’ Zach said, his eyes looking downwards to his feet.

‘Are you okay?’ Lily asked, moving towards him.

Another shrug. Then he walked back into the villa. ‘Let’s go next door and meet Senor and Senora Alvarez. They are the owners I told you about. I’d like you to meet them.’

They were in luck. A smiling woman with twinkling brown eyes opened the door. She had long dark hair peppered with white streaks, tied in a low bun.

‘ Hola, mi querido chico, Zach ,’ she said as she pulled him into her arms for a warm embrace.

Zach began speaking fluent Spanish. Lily guessed he was introducing her, and smiled as Senora Alvarez kissed both her cheeks, before ushering them both inside.

The Alvarez villa was larger than their rental next door, but had the same earthy charm and similar decor. They walked to a large patio overlooking a lush green garden and found Senor Alvarez smoking a pipe. They exchanged more hugs, and he kissed Lily on each cheek when she was introduced. Senora Alvarez disappeared into the kitchen momentarily, returning with drinks for them all.

‘Tinto de verano is a red wine with fizzy lemonade. It’s delicious and addictive, honestly,’ Zach said as Lily accepted a tall glass, resembling rosé Prosecco.

Lily took a sip and thanked Senora Alvarez. It was cold, sweet and, as Zach predicted, delicious.

She sat back and watched Zach and the older couple chat, laughing as they swapped stories. Their ease with each other suggested many happy moments on this terrace, drinking Tinto de Verano.

‘We should speak English. For Lily,’ Senor Alvarez said slowly.

She could see that he was a kind man, and Lily was grateful to him for this concession.

‘Your mother, she is well?’

Zach smiled as he opened his phone to show the older couple the screen saver, which displayed a photograph of Zach and his mother together.

Senora Alvarez clapped her hands in delight. ‘I like seeing her smile. She not smile enough when she lived here.’

Lily and Zach glanced at each other.

‘She was sad?’ Lily asked.

Senor Alvarez looked at his wife in silent question, who nodded back.

‘She was not sad. She was happy with you, her child. But she was scared,’ he said.

‘Of what?’ Zach asked.

‘I don’t know. But she would not leave your side, even for a moment, for the first year you lived here,’ Senora Alvarez replied.

‘She hides,’ Senor Alvarez said, shrugging. ‘I say to my wife when she arrives with one bag and eyes that never stop looking over her shoulder, that she is running from something.’

‘Or someone,’ Zach added. ‘Mom had just left my father when she got here.’ His lips tightened as he said, ‘He was abusive to her. So you are right. She was hiding. From him.’

Lily nudged Zach’s leg with her foot. ‘But we are confused about when that was. Right?’

Zach turned to the Alvarezes again. ‘Do you remember what year my mom and I arrived here? It’s important to me to find out when.’ He licked his lips repeatedly as the Alvarezes debated this amongst themselves.

Senora Alvarez finally turned back to them both.

‘Sister Monique from the Benedictine Convent in Ronda drove you here.’

Zach’s eyebrows shot up at this information. ‘A nun brought us here?’

‘ Si .’

‘From the convent here in Ronda?’ Lily asked.

‘ Si ,’ Senora Alvarez replied. ‘It was the year before the Olympics in Los Angeles. We all watched Luis Doreste and Roberto Molina win gold. For sailing. Oh, how we cheered! And I remember so clearly your mother saying that it was a double celebration, because it was also the anniversary of when you moved into the villa. And we cheered that too.’

Senor Alvarez nodded his agreement to this.

Lily picked up her phone and googled the Olympics in Los Angeles. She looked at Zach and said softly, ‘That was in July 1984.’

‘ Si. Eso es correcto ,’ Senora Alvarez agreed. ‘July 1984.’

‘Was I a little baby when I arrived here?’ Zach asked, imitating rocking a baby in his arms.

‘No!’ Senora Alvarez said with a laugh. ‘Big, strong boy.’ She showed them his height when he arrived.

Roughly the height of a toddler.

‘Are you a hundred per cent sure?’ Zach asked softly.

‘ Si ,’ both Alvarezes answered, looking a little bewildered by all the questions.

Zach turned to Lily, his face twisted in worry. ‘Why did Mom tell me we got here a year earlier, in 1982?’