MORNING SERIAL
“WOW,” I said. “That is quite the urban myth.”
Lou got back to her feet and leaned across the boulder with binoculars aimed like an arch-surveillor. “It’s eerie as f***, is all I know,” she said. “You’ve been?”
“I saw it from the north. All those huge abandoned hotels and holiday resorts. Famagusta was a bit of a gold coast resort in the early ’seventies.”
I got up next to her and took the binoculars. I could still only see a faint line that may or may not have been a wall, and nothing resembling an abandoned city.
“Maybe you can see your house from here?” Lou joked. “You mean my tower,” I said. “Your tower?”
“Yes. My own fairy tale castle,” I said sarcastically. “I live in a tower near an old forgotten wood, and a swimming pool constantly occupied by an odd motherless Russian family.”
“Just the two girls and the dad?”
“Yeah.” I lifted the binoculars. “Not sure where it would be from here.”
“It can’t be that hard to spot. What kind of tower is it?”
“I think it’s an old remodelled water tower. Although I’m no expert on these things.” She took the binoculars back from me.
“Whereabouts would you say it is? It can’t be that hard to spot if there’s a tower on the estate.”
I was happy to play along, and I began pointing from the half-imagined spots where Napa lay and then where I supposed Paralimni might be. “It would be at a kind of ninety degree apex from these two points.” She let out a short sharp gasp and I thought for a moment, unbelievably, that she could see it. “Is that it?” I said. “Surely not.”
“No,” she said. But she had seen something, she couldn’t hide it. I was about to press her, but she took my hand and pulled me back down behind the boulder. I thought she was going to kiss me, our eyes locked for a moment, but she didn’t. “I’ll need to get back soon,” she said after a short while of silence, both of us just soaking up a bit of that sumptuous mountain quiet.
> The Golden Orphans by Gary Raymond is published by Parthian www.parthianbooks.com