Free Ben by Kerry Needham Page A

and saw my dad, my mum, Danny and Ben the dog, followed by a long-haired Stephen. It had been him! They all looked so amazingly healthy. Glowing tans were one thing, but they all had thelook of people without a care in the world. You could tell just by looking that they were happy, and not just because we’d arrived. Whatever new lives they’d carved for themselves on Kos, it was working. I’d never seen bigger smiles on anyone in my life.
    Ben nearly fell out of my arms as he flung himself towards his nan. His little legs were running in mid-air just trying to get to her. I thought I was all cried out but I could feel a few more drops coming. This was where I was meant to be.
    We all piled into the Land Rover and drove back to Paradisi and the caravan. It was a forty-minute journey but it felt like seconds. Everyone was in party mood, talking fifteen to the dozen. Ben was being barraged by questions left, right and centre but he just wanted to talk to his namesake in the back. I couldn’t take my eyes off the scenery: olive trees covered the hills, while rows of pure whitewashed-brick villas lined the streets. The further we got from the airport, the more I started spotting old women dressed head to toe in black. It was like a uniform. My family, all sporting shorts and T-shirts, couldn’t have stood out more. Above it all was the light blue sky, as endless and unspoilt as the ocean had been on the way here. If I weren’t holding Ben so tightly I would have pinched myself. It was like stepping onto Fantasy Island.
    Greek drivers like to use their horns every couple of seconds, so it was a relief when Dad finally pulled off the road, turned down a short drive, then parked outside a familiar-looking caravan. The last time I’d seen it, it was looking the worse for wear outside their home in Chapel St Leonards. Now it was surrounded by olive and fig trees on one side, the driveway at the front and fields everywhere else. It might not have been everyone’s cup of tea, but to me it looked magical.
    What Dad had rented was originally an overgrown patch of field. A few months later, their little domain was worthy of an episode of Grand Designs . Dad and Stephen had hacked down the foliage and cut back all the trees and bushes, leaving the caravan in a picturesque clearing with views of green whichever way they looked. They’d put up a cane fence all the way round and turned it into their own private haven, with large vegetable patches on one side and a beautiful seat carved out of a tree on the other. They’d even built a shelter so they could sit outside without danger from the sun. Mum hadn’t been exaggerating – Paradisi really was idyllic.
    Ben saw it, too. As soon as he was released from the Land Rover he pulled his shoes and socks off and ran off to explore. He hadn’t got far when he turned and called out, ‘Nanny, get me, get me, get me!’ Greek grass, as he had just discovered, wasn’t like English grass. It is coarse and spiky and quite vicious if you have such tender young skin. After that experience, Ben wouldn’t go anywhere without company. And certainly not without his shoes and socks.
    Mum was relieved when she finally caught up with him.
    ‘Look what I’ve got for you, Ben.’
    She led us to the other side of the shelter where the grass was shortest. There was a paddling pool, already filled with water warmed by the sun, a tricycle, a pushchair, a cot, buckets, spades – you name it, Mum had it ready for us. After the generosity I’d experienced that day, very little could have surprised me, but this took my breath away. Mum had borrowed everything from friends whose own children had moved on to other things. Ben didn’t know what to play with first.
    Eventually, Mum managed to drag us into the caravan for the guided tour.
    ‘This is where Nana lives, Ben,’ she said, and let him run into her bedroom. Then she led us into the lounge and explained to Ben that the sofas there would convert