Read Online Lily and the Lost Boy by Paula Fox - Free Book Online

hours in the dark little kitchen; and Paul always chose the omelet. The restaurant was the smallest in Limena. For a joke, people called Efthymios “Onassis,” which had been the name of a rich shipowner. In his placid way he appeared to enjoy the joke himself.
    â€œLet’s go, children,” called Mr. Corey.
    Paul played his last, and winning, card. “Once again!” he cried.
    â€œHow boring it must be for you,” commented Lily.
    â€œIt’s never boring to win,” Paul said with a grin.
    As they passed Dionysus’ shrine Mr. Corey said, “It looked like this in the moonlight on an evening two thousand years ago.”
    â€œIt couldn’t have, Papa,” said Lily. “It was new then. There were statues inside it, and the columns were standing.”
    â€œYou could set yourself up as the local historian,” said her father.
    If they hadn’t all been together, she would have spoken to him of the great banquet she had read about that had been given for Xerxes, the son of Darius the Persian, 2,462 years ago, probably close by where they were now walking. But she knew it would annoy Paul; he’d say she was showing off or being horribly boring. If they were by themselves, Paul seemed to like it when she told him something she had read about the place they were exploring. But not around their parents.
    She thought she knew why—it was because she was a better student at school than Paul. Her mother had said once that Paul was often lost in dreams. But Paul didn’t know it was difficult to be good at learning. It seemed to her that everyone felt sorry for people who were lost in dreams. Her parents weren’t sorry for her. Now and then she made herself into a heavy lump and replied dully, “I dunno,” when her father asked her what she was reading or studying these days. He’d just laugh and pat her on the head. But when Paul stood as though frozen by such questions, Papa looked dreadfully worried and lectured him for hours.
    It was unjust. She could lose herself in dreams too.
    On an impulse she took her father’s arm and held him back while Paul and her mother went on ahead past the police station.
    â€œPapa, listen. When Thasos was called a continent and the Thasians ruled cities in Thrace and had a big navy and trading fleet, Darius told the people they had to sink their warships. Then he made them give a huge feast for Xerxes and his army, and it bankrupted the treasury. And Mr. Kalligas was telling me about another big feast that the people here had to give a Bulgarian garrison during the second world war. And that was only forty years ago. There was a cook in Limena, and he told the fishermen to bring him a catch of dolphins. He cooked them up and served them, and the whole garrison—two hundred eighty soldiers—got violently sick because you can’t eat dolphins, Mr. Kalligas said. Then the cook and the people who served the feast had to hide up in the mountains until the war was over.”
    â€œThat’s so impressive, Lily,” her father said.
    â€œNo, no!” she protested furiously. “Don’t talk that way!”
    â€œWhat way?” he asked mildly.
    â€œIt’s not impressive. It’s what happened. But what I wanted to tell you was this. You know that sleepy old man who sits on the bench near the baker’s every morning? Well—he was the one who cooked those dolphins!”
    â€œI’m speechless,” said her father.
    â€œNot quite,” Lily noted tartly.
    Mrs. Corey and Paul were down the street near the butcher’s, talking to the handsome policeman. As Lily and her father joined them, she saw the reflected light of a street lamp sparking off the policeman’s dark glasses. He wished them all a good dinner, bowed, and went on by. Rosa waddled confidently toward the tables of a taverna where her master, the lawyer, was sitting with friends, all of them nibbling at