There’s No Place Like Here

22

“So Joseph is a carpenter. What is it that you do, Mary?” I asked Helena as we strolled along the dusty path of the village.

Helena smiled.

We had walked through the village and now wandered beyond, passing fields of glorious golds and greens, dotted with people of all nationalities who stooped and rose as they worked the farm, growing anything and everything I had ever and never heard of. Dozens of greenhouses speckled the landscape, the villagers taking every opportunity to grow what they could. Like the diverse people, the weather had arrived in this place in all its fiery yet vital forms. Already in just a few days I’d experienced the sweltering heat, a thunderstorm, a spring breeze, and a winter chill, inconsistent weather I presumed to be the explanation for the unusual array of plants, trees, flowers, and crops that all managed to live together successfully in the same environment. The explanation for the humans, I hadn’t yet learned of. But it seemed there were no rules regarding nature in this place. Four seasons in one day was accepted, welcomed, and adapted to. It was warm again now as we strolled side by side, me feeling revitalized after sleeping more hours in one night than I had since I was a child. Since Jenny-May.

“Since Jenny-May what?” Gregory would always ask me. “Since she went missing?”

“No, just since Jenny-May-period,” I would reply.

That morning I encountered someone I had been searching for for twelve years. Helena had urged me onward, snapping shut my gaping mouth and clicking fingers before my goggling eyes. I was overwhelmed by her presence, and I was never overwhelmed. I was dumbfounded, and I was never dumbfounded. I suddenly felt lonely, and I was never lonely. But lately I was a lot of things I never used to be. After so many years of looking, it was near impossible to remain as serene as Helena when the faces I saw in my dreams passed me in my waking hours.

“Stay calm,” Helena had murmured more than once into my ear.

Robin Geraghty was the first of my ghosts to float by. We had been seated at the eatery, a stunning timber building on two levels, with a balcony around four sides from which the views of forestry, mountains, and fields were displayed to perfection. It wasn’t a crammed work cafeteria, as I had imagined; it was a beautiful building that housed the local villagers for breakfast, lunch, and dinner; a scheme created to help ration the food they collected and grew. Money, I recalled, had no value here, not even when wallets filled with it arrived on their doorsteps. “Why spend money on something that arrives in abundance daily?” Helena had asked by way of explanation.

On the front of the building, ornate handcrafted timber decorated the entrance as it did the registry. Owing to the many languages of the village, Helena explained, these carvings were the most productive and attractive methods of exhibiting the use of the building. Oversized grapevines, wine bottles, and bread loaves decorated the front, looking so delectable even in their lumber form that I had to run my hand along the smooth curve of the berry.

I was returning from my trip to the buffet-style counter when I saw Robin, causing me almost to drop my tray of doughnuts and iced coffee. (It appeared that a box of food had gone missing from a Krispy Kreme delivery van and had arrived on the outskirts of the village that morning, much to my delight. I had visions of a delivery man, clipboard in hand, ignoring the insults of a stressed-out store manager, as he scratched his head in wonder and recounted the contents of his van, parked up on a busy loading bay outside a downtown New York store while I, and a line of hungry people behind me, dove into the basket in a long-lost place.) The appearance of Robin almost caused me to douse myself; it was as though my iced coffee got a fright too, wavering slightly in its stance.

Robin Geraghty had disappeared at the age of six. She had gone out to play in her front garden in the suburbs of North Dublin at eleven A.M. but was gone when her mother checked on her at eleven-oh-five. Everyone, and I mean everyone, the family, the country, the Gardaí, which at that time included me, all thought she had been abducted by the next-door neighbor. Fifty-five-year-old Dennis Fairman, an odd man, a loner, spoke to nobody but Robin each time he passed her, much to her parents’ concern.

He said he didn’t do it. He swore to me he didn’t do it; he kept on repeating that she was his friend and that he couldn’t and wouldn’t hurt her. Nobody believed him; I didn’t believe him; yet we didn’t have the proof of his guilt. We didn’t even have a body. The man became so tormented by his neighbors, by the media, by the constant Garda questioning that he ended his own life, a sure sign to the parents and everybody else of his guilt. But as a nineteen-year-old Robin walked by me and made her way to the counter, I felt ill.

Although Robin had disappeared at the age of six, I knew it was she the moment I lifted my ogling eyes from the Krispy Kreme to see the young woman walk by. A computer-generated image of her had been made public and updated every few years. I had memorized it, had used it every day as part of my mind checks when I came across familiar faces. And that face was all of a sudden coming toward me. The computer image hadn’t been far off, though her face was fuller; her hair was darker; there was a swing in her hips and a knowledge in her eyes as all she had seen and done had altered all but their color. All the things a picture couldn’t convey. But it was she.

I’d been unable to eat my breakfast; instead I sat in a daze at the table with Helena’s family, while Wanda studied me and impersonated my every move. I ignored her and her constant babbling about somebody called Bobby, instead unable to stop myself from watching Robin while trying to figure out how I felt about seeing this young woman living life as she had done for the past twelve years. My feelings were mixed, my happiness bittersweet, because although all the people I yearned to find surrounded me, it was also the moment I realized that I had spent a colossal portion of my life looking in all the wrong places. It’s that moment when you meet your idol, when all your wishes come true; there’s a feeling of secret disappointment.

Helena and I stopped walking at an uncultivated multicolored field filled with bright yellow Bermuda buttercups, blue-and-mauve milkwort, daisies, dandelions, and long grasses, the sweet smell reminding me of the last few breaths I had taken in Glin.

“What’s up ahead?” I spotted more buildings peeking out behind a gathering of silver birch, the oak visible against the peeling, papery black-and-white bark of the trunk.

“That’s another village,” Helena explained. “There are so many new arrivals every day, we couldn’t possibly fit into this tiny town. Also there are so many cultures that wouldn’t and couldn’t settle for living in environments like this. Their homes are out there.” She nodded toward the faraway trees and mountains.

I hadn’t even contemplated that. “So there are more people I’ve searched for, over there?”

“Possibly,” she said in agreement. “They would have registry offices just as we have here so all the names will be logged, although I’m not sure they’ll release the information, as it’s usually deemed private unless in the case of emergencies. Hopefully, we won’t have to go looking for them, they’ll find you.”

I smiled at the irony. “What exactly is this plan you’re hatching?”

“Well,” she said, smiling as her eyes sparkled mischievously, “thanks to the list you provided me with, Joan is now taking bookings for private auditions for a new Irish play in about”-she lifted my hand and looked at my watch-“two hours’ time.”

I felt anxious about meeting people like Robin, but Helena’s plan made me laugh. “Surely there could have been an easier way to do this.”

“Of course,” Helena said, throwing her lemon pashmina over her right shoulder, “but this is so much more fun.”

“What makes you think that any of the people on my list will come to these auditions?”

“Are you joking?” She looked surprised, “Didn’t you see Bernard and Joan? Most people here really love to get involved in activities, especially ones held by people from home.”

“Won’t the non-Irish communities be jealous?” I half-joked. “I wouldn’t want them to think I’m omitting them from my grand production.”

“No.” Helena laughed. “Everyone will have a laugh at our expense come show time.”

“Show time? You mean we’re actually staging a play?” My eyes widened.

“Of course!” Helena laughed again. “We’re not dragging twenty people to the auditions just to tell them there’s no play, but what exactly that play will be we’ve yet to decide.”

My headache returned. “As soon as I start talking to them today they’re going to realize the likelihood of my running an acting agency is no greater than Bernard’s chances of landing a lead role.”

Helena laughed. “Don’t worry, they won’t suspect a thing, and even if they do they won’t mind. People tend to reinvent themselves here; they use this experience as a second chance in life. If what you were at home was not an acting agent, it doesn’t mean that you’re not one here. The longer you’re here the more you’ll notice that there really is a good atmosphere among everyone.”

I had noticed. The atmosphere was relaxed; people were peaceful and went about their daily duties efficiently yet without rushing or panic. There was room to breathe, space to think, time to spend wisely, and lessons to be learned. People who were once lost took time to reflect, to love, to miss, and to remember. Belonging was important, even if it meant joining a hopeless play.

“Won’t Joseph mind that he can’t take part?”

Helena laughed. “Oh, I don’t think that will worry him in the slightest.”

“Joseph is from Kenya?”

“Yes.” We began walking back toward the village. “Along the coast of Watamu.”

“What was it he called me yesterday?”

Helena’s expression changed and I knew she was feigning ignorance. “What do you mean?”

“Come on, Helena, I saw your face when he called me it, you were surprised. I can’t remember the word, kalla…kappa something; what does it mean?”

Her forehead wrinkled in pretend confusion. “Sorry, Sandy, I’ve no idea. I honestly can’t remember.”

I didn’t believe her. “Did you tell him what I do for a living?”

Her face changed to that same intrigued look from yesterday. “He knows now, of course, but he didn’t then.”

“He didn’t when?”

“When he met you.”

“Of course he didn’t, I don’t expect him to be psychic, I just want to know what he said.” I stopped walking out of frustration. “Helena, please be straight with me, I can’t take riddles.”

Her face pinked. “You’ll have to ask him, Sandy, because I don’t know. Whatever it was, it must have been in his local Kiswahili language, and I’m far from being an expert.”

I was convinced she was lying and so we walked in silence. I looked at my watch again, anxious that I would soon be sharing messages from family members at home. Messages they sent off in their prayers every night to land here and be told. I questioned my ability to transmit their sentiments accurately. What I had said to Helena the previous day was true, I wasn’t a people person; finding them didn’t mean wanting to spend time with them. Wondering where Jenny-May went didn’t mean wanting to go there or wishing she’d return.

Helena, as usual, in her own instinctive way picked up on my feelings. “It was nice being able to tell Joseph about my family at long last,” she said gently. “We spoke about them until my lids closed and I dreamed about them until the sun came up. I dreamed about my mother and her organization, about my father and his searching for me.” She closed her eyes. “I woke up in this place this morning hardly knowing where I was after spending hours in my dreams where I grew up.”

“I’m sorry if I upset you. I’m not quite sure how to tell people what it is their families would want me to say.” I twisted my watch around as we walked, wanting to turn back the time that kept ticking on around my wrist.

Helena’s eyes opened and I could see a layer of tears settling on her lower lashes, building up in an invisible reservoir. “Don’t think that about yourself, Sandy. I felt soothed by your words, how could I not be?” Her face brightened. “I woke up knowing I had a mother out there still minding me. Today I feel protected, like I’m swaddled in an invisible blanket. You know, you’re not the only one whose lifelong questions have been answered I now have photographs in my mind that I never had before; an entire catalog has been filed and stored, all in one night.”

I just nodded. There was nothing to say.

“You will be fine with these people; I know you will be more than fine. The people on the list you have given will be arriving in how long?”

I looked at my watch. “An hour and a half.”

“Right, in ninety minutes they’ll all be there with the full intention of spending a short while of their lives calling Romeo from a balcony or reenacting the great escape through the art of mime.”

I laughed.

“Anything more you tell them will be a bonus, no matter how you phrase it.”

“Thank you, Helena.”

“No problem.” She gave my arm a comforting pat and I tried to stop myself from stiffening.

I looked down at my clothes. “There’s just one more problem. I’ve been wearing this tracksuit for days and I would really love a change of clothes. Is there anything you have that I could borrow?”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Helena said walking off in the direction of the trees. “You wait here; I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Where are you going?”

“Just a minute…” Her voice disappeared, along with her short salt-and-pepper hair and billowing lemon pashmina, into the darkness.

I tapped my foot impatiently, wondering and worrying about where she’d gone. I couldn’t lose Helena now. Up ahead I spotted the towering figure of Joseph leaving the woods, carrying logs in one hand, an axe in the other.

“Joseph!” I called.

He looked up and waved with the axe, a motion that wasn’t particularly heartwarming, and he made his way toward me. His bald head shone like a polished marble, his flawless skin making him appear younger than his years.

“Everything OK?” he asked with concern.

“Yes, I think so. Well, I don’t know,” I added with confusion. “Helena just disappeared into the woods and-”

“What?” His eyes darkened.

I realized my error. “I don’t mean disappeared. She walked, walked into the woods a few minutes ago.” Disappearing from here was impossible, so no wonder Joseph was alarmed. “She told me to wait here for her.”

He set the axe down and watched the woods. “She will return, kipepeo girl.” His voice was gentle.

“What does that mean?”

“It means she will come back,” he said with a smile.

“Not that, what does the Kenyan word mean?”

“It is what you are,” he said lazily, his eyes not moving from the trees.

“Which is?”

Before he had a chance to answer the question, Helena reappeared tugging what appeared to be luggage behind her. “Found this for you. Oh, hi, sweetheart, I thought I heard you tapping away at the trees. Name on the bag says Barbara Langley from Ohio. Hope for your sake Barbara from Ohio has long legs.” She dropped the bag by my feet and dusted off her hands.

“What is this?” I asked open-mouthed, studying the baggage ticket on the handle. “This was bound for New York over twenty years ago.”

“Great, you’ll have a nice retro look,” Helena joked.

“I can’t wear someone else’s clothes,” I protested.

“Why not? You were going to wear mine.” Helena laughed.

“But I know you!”

“Yes, but you wouldn’t have known the person who wore them before me,” she teased, heading off before me. “Come now, how much time have we left? We’re going to the auditions now,” she explained to Joseph, who nodded solemnly and picked up his axe again.

I looked at my wrist. My watch was gone.

“Oh, damnit,” I grumbled, dropping the bag back down on the ground and searching around my legs.

“What’s wrong?” Helena and Joseph stopped walking and turned around.

“My watch fell off my wrist again,” I grumbled, standing back and scouring the ground.

“Again?”

“The fastener on it is broken. Sometimes it just opens and falls onto the ground.” My voice was muffled as I went down on my knees and searched closer to the ground.

“Well, you were wearing it just a minute ago so it can’t have gone far. Just lift the bag,” Helena said calmly.

I looked under the bag.

“That’s funny.” Helena came over to where I stood and leaned over to get a closer look at the ground. “Did you go anywhere when I went into the trees?”

“No, nowhere. I was waiting right here with Joseph.” I began crawling around the dusty ground.

“It can’t have gone missing,” Helena said, not at all worried about the situation. “We’ll find it, we always do, here.”

We all stood still as we looked around the small area I hadn’t moved from for over five minutes. There was nowhere else it could have fallen. I shook out my sleeves, emptied my pockets, and checked the bag to see if the watch had got caught up. Nothing, no sign, nowhere.

“Where on earth did it roll to?” Helena muttered, examining the ground.

Joseph, who had barely said a word since he’d joined us, stood still in the same place he had been standing all along. His eyes, as black as coal, appeared to have absorbed all light from around him. They were on me the whole time.

Just watching.