THE ISLAND OF CHARON
a novel in the series
"PLAYING ANOTHER REALITY"
CHAPTER 5. THE WISH TREE
5.2. AN ABANDONED LIGHTHOUSE
I woke up and jumped up like scalded. I looked around — the same hut.
“Ugh… Thank God! The Beekeeper was just…”
Stop! Suddenly I realized that the Beekeeper was not a dream! Our conversation with Sofia had really taken place during my last visit to Ammouliani, although the Beekeeper hadn’t come to me in the morning…
However, my memories could wait! The potion from the Cave had a limited life span of 24 hours only! And the Wish Tree riddle was much more relevant than any beekeeper!
“What to do?” I thought tensely. “To ask Yanis? He would exclaim something like that ‘Aha! I see! You have been to the magicians!’ But on the other hand, who else is here to ask? The Girl, looking for her mother, or the Boy, who needs a lantern, perhaps as much as me? Oh! Great idea! I’ll tell Yanis that I want to find a lantern for the Boy!”
I came down the stairs to the shore. It was dawn. The Ocean had already receded, and I walked across the bare sand to Yanis’ cafe.
I approached it and knocked. Silence. I opened the unlocked door.
“Yanis! Hello! Are you there?”
And again, silence. I went inside — a doghouse! There was no bed, I found only a kitchen table and some shelves there. Okay, he cooked outside, behind the cafe, over charcoal… but how could he live in such a small place?
Empty! No Yanis…
However, female curiosity made me linger for a moment. I examined the contents of the table and shelves: jars of spices, herb roots, some dried fruits and…
“Oh no!!! Wow! Well, I’ll remember it to you!”
My gaze strayed to exactly the same bottle that the Chief Wizard had given to me the day before.
I left the cafe and wondered where Yanis could spend the night. In the village? But, running my eyes along the bare beach, I noticed an overturned boat not far away.
I reached it and knocked.
“Yanis, aren’t you here, by chance?”
I heard a stirring under the boat, and then it was slowly lifted from one side.
“Alice? At this hour?” Yanis gave me a sleepy look and squinted against the first sunlight.
“Hi, sorry! But… where does the Wish Tree grow?” I asked outright, while he was still not aware of the reality.
“At the pier! Where else would it grow?” Yanis was surprised and yawned, trying to shelter in the boat from the sunlight, but then he suddenly smiled slyly and asked, “Why are you not sleeping? Sunset is still far away! If you’re afraid to sleep alone, you can join me!”
“Next time!” I nodded.
The boat went down right before my eyes, and almost immediately Yanis’ serene snoring could be heard in the morning silence.
***
“Shit! I forgot to ask him where to get lanterns!” I thought on my way to the pier. “But it’s good that I didn’t have to lie about a lantern for the Boy. In fact, if I get two for myself, I can as well take one as a gift for the Boy.”
I returned to the hotel on the cliff, went out through the reception gate onto the main road, turned left, walked for about ten minutes towards the pier, and suddenly I felt completely unwell. It seemed as if the Sun, barely risen from its overseas bed, was hunting me down to roast and eat for breakfast! And if at first I was flattered by the shadows of the trees, soon my legs were already tangled, my eyes closed by themselves, and my body had the only one question to my mind,
“Where is it possible to lie down until sunset instead of dropping dead on the road?”
On the edge of despair, among the suddenly parted palm trees, I noticed a lighthouse and rushed towards it.
The lighthouse, of course, had already fallen into slumber, but the door to the tower was open. I flew inside and looked up, measuring by eyes the spiral staircase.
“Hey! Is anybody here?” I shouted.
Suddenly someone patted me on the shoulder. I shuddered and turned around. There was a gray-bearded man in front of me, in a blue dressing gown, with glasses and a magic cap on his head, as if a fairy-tale character! He swayed, apparently being very sleepy, and yawned almost in my face, though politely covering his mouth with the hand.
“Are you here for the stars?” he asked.
I was about to say, “I’m just passing nearby, but there is nowhere else to spend the day,” when I suddenly remembered…
“No! For the lanterns!”
“Well, and what did I ask?” he wondered, yawned again and added, “There is only one lantern available now, one for all. It’s a star called the Sun. And who are you?”
“I’m Alice. And you are the lighthouse keeper, aren’t you?”
“I’m a stargazer! Oh, those new ones! Come back after sunset, Alice!”
“I beg your pardon! Is it possible to stay here, in your lighthouse, to…?”
“To wait until the sunset?” the Stargazer grinned and muttered, “I wish someone had thought of something non-standard… Let’s go!”
He took me to the basement and offered any of several cozy rooms to choose from.
“Who should have told me that I would be running an hourly hotel!” he whispered after goodbye.