Among the Olive Groves Read online

  Kate caught her mother’s hand.

  “I’m so sorry, Mum. I shouldn’t have run out like that.”

  The mood lightened in an instant.

  “It’s alright. We understand. It must have been a huge shock,” Margaret said.

  “It was.” Kate noticed that the brown envelope was now on the side, and she pointed to it, “I don’t know what I want to do about the envelope yet. But I’d like to hear your story, if that’s okay?”

  Her parents looked at each other, and her mother nodded.

  “I’ll leave you to it,” Fletch said.

  “No,” Kate cried and grabbed his arm. She needed the support. She needed him here. “I want you to stay, if that’s okay with Mum and Dad?”

  Her parents nodded. They liked Fletcher. He was a sensible boy, and there were far worse people their daughter could have chosen for a friend. They were glad she decided to run to him. As she drank her tea, Margaret began her tale.

  “Your father and I had been married for three years. For those three long years we’d been trying to have a child, but sadly none came. We didn’t know what to do. I was afraid it was me, your father was afraid it was him. But neither of us spoke about it. We became grumpy and distant with each other, until one day, unable to put up with either of us anymore, Aunt Cheryl sat us down and demanded we talk to each other. She wouldn’t let us leave the room until it had all spilled out,” Margaret paused to drink some tea.

  “Once we’d learned why we were both so unhappy, we set about getting help. We were lucky, since Aunt Cheryl was married to a doctor and he put us in touch with the right people. Even though the process was long and drawn out, we eventually got accepted and, not long after, you came into our life. We were so happy. Our little bundle of joy.” Margaret looked up, tears filling her eyes. “Even though you were adopted, it never felt like you were someone else’s. The moment we saw you, we fell deeply in love with you. Our beautiful little Kate. Our daughter. We loved you so much. We always will.”

  Kate blossomed with love. She had never heard her mother talk like this before and it touched her deeply. She rushed around the table and hugged her mother, rocking her gently as Margaret sobbed in her daughter’s arms. It hurt Kate to see her parents go through this. They were so brave telling her, when they could have just kept it to themselves, but they had chosen to be honest with her and that counted for a lot.

  “I love you too, Mum. I love both of you. I always will.” She smiled up at her father and placed a hand on his to show him how much she cared. He smiled back at her, eyes filled with pure unconditional love, and it melted her heart.

  “I don’t understand why you told me, though. If that’s how you feel, why didn’t you just keep quiet?” Kate asked, sitting back down.

  Brian explained, “It was the right thing to do. Like your mother said, we love you, and you will always be our daughter. But we felt you had the right to know who you are and where you came from. We don’t have all of the answers but we do have some.”

  Kate turned to look at the envelope. She did not know what she wanted to do. She looked at Fletch and searched his face for an answer, but none came.

  “It’s your choice, Katie. Only you can decide. Not me, not your mum or your dad, just you.”

  She knew he was right. She looked around the table, and then at the envelope again. She already knew what the answer would be. Her parents had done so much for her, and they had always loved her without fault. She did not need to hear about her past. Brian and Margaret may be adoptive parents, but they had loved and cared for her, put food on the table and clothes on her back, put up with all of her childish misdemeanors and that was all she needed to know.

  “It changes nothing. I’m Kate Fisher. My birth mother abandoned me a long time ago,” she said as she looked up at her parents, realising for the first time what they meant to her, and what sacrifices they had made in their lives for her. “I love you both very much and you are, and always will be, my parents.”

  Tears fell and Kate stood and walked around the table to where her parents sat. Leaning forward, Kate held them tightly, clinging onto them for dear life, not wanting to ever let them go. They were her parents and that was all that mattered.

  As Margaret held her daughter, stroking her hair lightly with her hand, she felt relief wash through her. They thought they were going to lose the thing that was most precious to them, but they had not. Their daughter still loved them and was not going anywhere. They knew telling her would be a big risk, but they had wanted to do what was right, and it was right that Kate was given an opportunity to know about her past.

  “We love you too, Kate, before, now and always.”

  Fletch silently crept from the room to make another pot of tea, allowing them to be family once more. In the hallway he removed a small present from his pocket, and placed it on the table by the front door. It was a dolphin pendant that Kate had seen in the window of her favourite shop months earlier. He knew that she would love it. He then walked into the kitchen to boil the kettle. What a shock to get on your birthday, he thought as he stared out of the window. He could not even begin to imagine what kind of turmoil Kate was going through.

  Maybe today was not the day to tell her he was in love with her after all.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Cornwall, England, 1991

  Kate slammed the door behind her, and threw her coat and bag over the stair banister. It had been a long day, and work was always tiring. Good, but tiring. She worked at the local Tourist Information Office. It was a varied job and she enjoyed meeting new people and being part of the tourist industry. She thought it was much better than working in a supermarket or the local chip shop. Her parents had been very proud when she announced two years earlier that she had gotten a job there. Many teenagers struggled to find work, but Kate had plugged away, applying for job after job, finally succeeding. The pay was not great, but she enjoyed it and it had prospects and that was all that mattered.

  She could hear her mum clattering around in the kitchen, and her father laughing at something on TV in the living room and it made her smile. It was just how it should be. Things were finally back to normal.

  In the end, she had managed to have a good birthday. The four of them had spent the rest of the day at Holywell Bay, and Kate had realised during that afternoon that she could not imagine her life without her parents. She had been really lucky being placed with such a lovely couple. Family was not about who gave birth to you, it was about who brought you up, who looked after you, who saw you through the scrapes and she had to admit that she would not change them for anyone. They were her mum and dad and always would be.

  She stepped into the living room and placed an arm around her dad’s shoulder, hugging him lightly. Walking back into the kitchen, she kissed her mum’s cheek before sitting at the table. Her mother shouted for her father as she put dinner on the table and, once they were seated, they began to eat. Absentmindedly, Kate shuffled through the day’s delivery of post: a bank statement, a magazine and a card addressed to her. The card intrigued her and she ripped at the envelope. What looked to be a belated birthday card fell on to the table. It was old and printed on strange raised paper, unlike anything she had seen in the shops. Inside was an old banking passbook.

  Curiosity peaking, she opened the card and began to read.

  My dearest Katerina,

  Happy Birthday!

  You are now twenty-one and you have your whole life ahead of you, and I am truly grateful to your parents, Brian and Margaret Fisher, for that. They are such nice people. I like them a lot and I know they will look after you and raise you well.

  I hope that by now they have told you about your adoption. I asked them not to tell you until you were a little older, the only thing I asked of them was that they keep your name, Katerina. So I hope this card will not come as too much of a shock. You probably have so many questions and I am sorry but I am unable to answer them all. You see, I am very ill and I only ha
ve a little time left. The doctors tell me there is nothing more they can do for me. I am losing the will to fight and no longer have the strength left to eat, move or speak, it has been hard just to write this card.

  There is so much I wish I could tell you, but time is escaping. I can tell you that we are of Greek descent, but sadly, I know nothing about our family. I too was adopted. You have to understand that the war did terrible things to people and it changed lives forever.

  This card contains a bank passbook, it is all the savings I have, it was part of the divorce settlement with your father. It is now yours, but there is one condition attached.

  You must find out everything you can about our family, who we are and where we came from. All I know is that my mother’s name was Elena and she lived on one of the Ionian Islands. Please Katerina, it is my dying wish. Make things right for our family.

  I love you very much and will always carry you close to my heart.

  Your loving mother,

  Athena

  “Bloody hell!” Kate muttered.

  “Language, Kate!” her mother said sternly. She caught the look on her daughter’s face and felt the fear ripple through her body.

  “What is it?”

  Kate refused to hide it from her parents and passed them the card. The room fell silent and still. It was an age before anyone spoke.

  Eventually Kate sighed. “What on earth am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to find out about something with little or no information to go on?”

  Her parents looked at each other and shrugged. They had no idea how to handle this.

  Finally her father spoke. “It’s up to you Kate, and whatever you choose, we’ll support you.”

  Kate scanned the card again, and felt the hurt and anger surge through her. How could this woman just abandon her at birth, die a few years later and then get someone to send her a birthday card telling her what to do! Who did she think she was? Kate wanted to just throw it in the bin and forget about it, but how could she when the words ‘It is my dying wish’ jumped out at her and pulled at her. She was confused and it made her angry that this woman was now trying to dictate her life from the grave.

  “Where the hell are these Ionian Islands anyway?”

  “I think they’re off mainland Greece,” her father replied factually.

  “Well I couldn’t go, even if I wanted to,” she said stubbornly with an air of finality to her voice. “I can’t get time off work.”

  Brian and Margaret knew that was an end to it. Once Kate made up her mind, there was little chance of persuading her otherwise. They said no more and turned their attention back to dinner.

  Kate leaned over and opened the kitchen bin behind her. She dropped the card and passbook in it. Let it end up in a landfill, she thought. She had had enough and no longer cared. Her birth mother was selfish and had no right to tell her what to do.

  Enough was enough.

  ~

  Kate snuck out of the house just as dawn was creeping over the horizon. As she reached the beach she stopped, searching the crashing ocean waves. The previous night had been fractious, plagued with nightmares, making her wake suddenly in sweat drenched sheets that twisted around her, tying her in knots. She kept thinking about the card and what it meant. In the depth of night, she suddenly remembered that her birth mother had called her Katerina. She thought it over. Her parents had always just called her Kate. Katerina sounded very foreign.

  At three am she had crept downstairs to the kitchen and lifted the bin lid, but it was empty. Her mother had already taken out the rubbish and the bins were out on the pavement for the Council to empty the following morning. There was no way she was going to start rummaging in dustbins in the dead of night. Resigned, she had tried to go back to sleep but just tossed and turned. Eventually she was stirred by the crashing and banging of the bin-men as their household rubbish and her birthday card disappeared into the back of a rubbish truck, lost to her forever. Feeling annoyed, she decided to head to the beach to see Fletch.

  A surfer suddenly appeared from the foaming chaos, bringing her back to the present. His board flipped expertly along a wave, making it look like the easiest thing in the world, before it finally got the better of him and he wiped out. Running onto the sand, Kate headed towards the rough, surging waters, waving wildly to catch Fletch’s attention. Moments later, he had left the sea and was walking up the beach towards her.

  “You’re up early. Coming out to catch some waves?”

  “No, you know I hate all that,” she laughed, as she sat on the sand.

  “So what brings you down here then?” he asked, as he sat next to her, flicking water from his hair in the same manner a dog would after swimming in a river.

  “She sent me a card.”

  “Who did?”

  “My birth mother.”

  “She did?”

  “Yes. She’s dead. She died not long after I was born. But she instructed a solicitor to send the card on her behalf. Oh Fletch. I have no idea what to do. She told me she wants me to go and look for my real family because she never knew them. She even said the words it’s my dying wish. I thought it was all over.”

  “So what are you going to do?”

  “I have no idea.” Kate looked out across the ocean, while waves rolled and crashed, never ceasing. Like life, they continued on around them, moving forward, never stopping.

  “You have to do what feels right for you, Katie. No one can tell you otherwise. Don’t let pleas from some dead woman you never met force your hand. If she cared that much, she would have handled things differently, but she didn’t. It sounds like she was trying to lessen her own guilt, without any thought for you.”

  “That’s a bit harsh, Fletch.”

  “Is it? We’ve been friends for a long time, Katie, and I care for you a great deal. More than you will ever know. I hate the turmoil you went through when your parents told you about the adoption. I hated seeing you hurt.”

  “I know. But what if I do have family out there? Shouldn’t I find them?”

  Fletch was angry. He liked Brian and Margaret very much but wished that they had just kept their secret to themselves or told Kate when she was little, so that she could have dealt with it better. He could understand why they had wanted to tell Kate, but he hated seeing the girl he loved as a shadow of her former self. She pretended she was okay with it all, but he knew it was hurting her deeply and that she was still struggling to come to terms with it. There were dark circles under her eyes, a sure sign that she had not been sleeping well. The news that she had received a birthday card demanding she do a dead woman’s bidding just made him even more furious. Who the hell did the woman think she was? Dead or not, it was totally unfair. He could not bear to see her like this.

  “We’ve been over this so many times, Katie. I can’t tell you what to do. You have to work this out for yourself. I care about you, I really do, but we can’t keep having the same conversation over and over again. It’s beginning to do my head in,” he said with exasperation. “Whenever you have a problem you always run to me expecting me to fix it for you, and I can’t keep doing it. You have to figure this one out for yourself.” He stood, grabbed his board and raced back into the waves.

  “Fletch!” Kate shouted. But he ignored her, disappearing into the tumble and froth. She sat there for ages in the hope he would cool off and come back, but he did not. Eventually she stood and ambled back up the beach.

  She felt let down.

  She felt confused.

  She felt angry.

  She felt sad.

  If this was how Fletch reacted, then there was no hope. No hope at all.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Zakynthos, Greece, 1939

  It was early spring. The cooler winter temperatures began to give way to warmer weather, flowers were blooming and trees were blossoming. Scudding clouds had changed from a dirty grey mass to fluffy white cotton buds. Islanders loved spring. It was a season of possibilities, summer was on i
ts way and anything could happen.

  Angelos found Elena sitting on the beach, staring out across the hazy sea. She had a faraway look in her eyes and her face was a mask of anxiety. It was not something he had seen in her before and it concerned him. He sat next to her, smiling, but her frown remained.

  “Elena?”

  She smiled, but the light never reached her eyes, as they remained focused on a point far out to sea that was only visible to her. His concern only grew. Lifting her hand, he cradled it in his, trying to grab her attention.

  “What is it, Elena? Are you ill? Has someone hurt you?”

  “No.”

  “Then what is it?”

  She sighed and turned to look at him, “What do you think of the war they are predicting, Angelos? Do you think it will affect our tiny island?” He had learned long ago that Elena was always this blunt, and she believed in being straight with both her questions and answers.

  “I do not know.”

  Angelos cared little for life off of the island. They were so far removed from the rest of the world on their little haven of paradise that world events did not matter. His father had mentioned something about the uneasy politics of the new German leader but Angelos had not really listened.

  “I hope not. I love this island and its people. They mean a lot to me, and I could not bear it if we were invaded,” Elena said.

  “Are they going to? Surely they learned from the Great War?” Angelos was confused. Was the world really about to go to war or was Elena being dramatic?

  “There is a man called Hitler. They say he is to be feared. He spouts rhetoric and creates a lot of unease. I heard he has been in prison and yet the people of Germany have chosen him to lead them. Why would they do that? What kind of politics is this?” Elena’s face clouded again and Angelos caught a glimpse of something, a fleeting fear. Moments later it was gone and her smile returned, her eyes glinting with merriment. It worried him how she was able to hide everything away as if it had not happened.