Page 49 of The Silent Sister


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Rhodri Jones — 12 June 1955

Almost two years on from the devastating earthquake that decimated the island, Kefalonia is being rebuilt and islanders are returning home. One such man is Kostas Koulouris, 38, an engineer who had been working in Australia at the time of the earthquake. He returned to find all his family had perished — his parents, his sister and her husband all died when the earthquake flattened their house. However, a year on from his return, he has found out his five-year-old niece, Iôánna, may have survived. After extensive research, he believes she was taken out of Kefalonia without permission from the authorities in Greece and brought to Wales.

Can you help? Has a Greek woman and a little girl who answers to the name of Iôánna settled in your town or village in the last two years?

If so, please contact Rhodri Jones, Chief Reporter, on Cardiff 3421. Help Kostas Koulouris be reunited with his niece.

Eléni gasped and put her hands to her mouth. Her throat constricted. There was no mistaking who the little girl in the cutting was. She’d never seen a photograph of herself that young, but there was no doubt. She wasn’t five — or was she? — and her name wasn’t Iôánna, but the large brown eyes and thick black hair, the shape of the face... She took a deep breath.Ithas to be me!It had to be the reason she and her mother had left in such a hurry. When they’d gone to live in Cardiff with Great-Aunt Gwladys, everything had improved. She’d had no more nightmares and she’d begun to speak. Perhaps her mother had thought they could remain anonymous in a large city. There were lots of different nationalities and their communities in Cardiff, whereas in Porth Gwyn they’d stood out. Hot tears pricked along her eyelids as she thought of the wonderful old lady whose plump arms would envelop her every night as she’d told her a Welsh folk story before bedtime. Eléni remembered the first time her father had come home on leave when they’d just moved to the Cardiff house. Her mamá had taken her to Tiger Bay where his ship had docked. He’d scooped her up in his arms and squeezed her tight. She’d been practising saying, ‘Welcome home, Baba,’with the help of Auntie Gwladys and he’d given her the widest smile she’d ever seen when she’d said it. Her mamá had been happy too. On that first leave of her father’s since they’d been in Cardiff, her great-aunt had often looked after her, taking her down to the boating lake and nearby park ‘to give your mam and dada time on their own’. It was strange how she’d always referred to them as ‘mam and dada’ not ‘mamá and baba’.

On the next page was another letter from Aunt Eugenia.

AgapitíCassia,

I was so pleased to receive your letter. I have been worried thinking you and Eléni were unhappy and I could do nothing about it. You were right to leave the small town. Could it be the reporter you told me about? Be careful. You may still be found out.

Eléni thought back to the newspaper advertisement. The head offices of Rhodri Jones’s newspaper were in Cardiff, so her mother had been taking a chance on staying anonymous.

Theía Gwladys sounds as if she is a good woman. Does she know Eléni isn’t yours? Try not to keep any secrets from her. With Tom away, you need her.

You sound so happy in this latest letter. Perhaps Tom being at sea for so long was what made you realise you had indeed fallen in love with him after all and the feelings you had for him in Fiscardo were genuine ones. I am pleased to be wrong. Treasure him. You are lucky to have a man who loves you back.

I am so pleased there is to be a new baby. Eléni is going to love her new baby brother or sister. You do not love Tom like a friend now, eh?

As she read the words, Eléni was taken back to the day her mother had told her she was expecting. They’d been sitting with Auntie Gwladys in the sitting room.

‘I’ve got some exciting news, Eléni.’ Her mother had smiled. ‘What if I tell you that in a few months’ time you’re going to have a new baby brother or sister?’

Eléni squealed and clapped her hands. ‘Really? I am going to be big sister!’ She mimed rocking a baby.

‘You are and you’re going to be such a help to your mam,cariad,’ said her auntie.

Bronwen’s arrival had been a happy time, Eléni remembered.

This letter was proof her concerns after earlier reading about a so-called marriage of convenience were for nothing. So hermotherdidn’tlive a lie. Her parentsdidlove each other as she thought. There was only one person who had been made to live a lie. And it wasn’t her fault.

There were photographs of baby Bronwen and one of Eléni holding her baby sister. She found the newspaper cutting and compared the photographs. Shewasthe missing five-year-old Iôánna!

Conscious of the time, Eléni flicked through the rest of the book. Her mother had pasted in certificates from events in Eléni and Bronwen’s childhoods — swimming events at the Empire Pool, ballet exams — even though she would never be a ballerina — and Brownie badges that had once adorned their sleeves on the tan-coloured uniforms. A whole page was given to an Eisteddfod certificate, where Eléni had won first prize in a drawing section. Underneath was written:My lovely Eléni, who learned to draw so well when she couldn’t talk.In capitals, Cassia had added:WE ARE SO PROUD OF HER!

Tears ran down Eléni’s face. She wanted so much to rant and rave at her parents, but if she hadn’t read the dropped letter they would still be the close, loving family her friends envied, in spite of the annoying little sister.

She heard her father’s truck pull up outside. She gathered up the journal and replaced it under the bed. There was one thing she kept back. The newspaper cutting with her photo on the front. She would decide what to do with it later.

‘Anybody home?’ her baba’s mellow voice echoed in the hallway. Eléni went to the top of the stairs.

’Just me, Baba. Be prepared for Madam Bronwen to swan in on high platforms. Got her own way with Mamá as usual. They’ve gone to Credenford.’

‘Now, now. Your mother wouldn’t have gone if she didn’t want to. Have you had a good day?’

‘It was... interesting.’ Eléni hoped and prayed he hadn’t seen Reg Morgan.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Eléni found that time passed painfully slowly as she waited for her mother and sister to return. But at the same time, her stomach performed somersaults as she tried to decide what to do.You’d best come straight out with it,she told herself.You won’t be able to carry on as normal after what you’ve found out. You’d just be perpetuating the lie.

Did it make a difference? Eléni or Iôánna, a twenty-three-year-old, or was she twenty-five? She was still the same person, so did it matter?

Yes!shouted a voice in her head.It matters a lot! They have been lying to you and letting you think they are your real parents.