Free Lily and the Lost Boy by Paula Fox Page A

As they neared it, Lily heard applause and loud shouts and the music of the bouzouki. Standing at the entrance, looking in, were Mr. Kalligas and Costa, the museum keeper. The Coreys went to speak with them. The two men greeted them all warmly, but their attention returned at once to what was happening inside the taverna.
    Tables had been moved back to make a space. In the center of it Mr. Hemmings was dancing, his head thrown back, his eyes closed, his arms raised high like the wings of an angel in flight. Dimitrious, the barber, was sitting in a shadowed corner playing, his head bent over the bouzouki, his hands moving nearly too fast to see.
    He had cut Paul’s and Mr. Corey’s hair several times. Lily had gone along with them to the little triangular shop near the ferry harbor. He often had to put his scissors down and go on a savage fly-killing expedition around the walls. He was a very handsome young man. But when he laughed, you could see he had no teeth left. Mr. Kalligas had explained to Lily that Dimitrious had gone to Kavalla and had all his teeth pulled out because he couldn’t afford all the dental work he needed, and he couldn’t afford false teeth either. Now and then a tourist would promise to buy him a fine set of teeth if he would go to Berlin or Paris, or some other place with them, and sing in a nightclub. Dimitrious was always willing but, Mr. Kalligas reported, the tourists would forget about him and go back to their ships, leaving him and his bouzouki on the wharf.
    The music grew louder and seemed about to explode the instrument itself. Jim Hemmings whirled, knelt, kicked out his long legs, sprang up like a great cat, clapped his hands, and snapped his fingers; and though Lily had been troubled back at the pastry shop when the man spoke to her father and ignored her and her mother, she couldn’t help but admire him now. The Greeks watching followed his every movement and gesture, their eyes gleaming. She glimpsed Jack Hemmings standing near the barber, his eyes open wide, looking at his father with adoration. Then, gradually, the dance began to grow slow, and the music softened. Mr. Kalligas touched both children on their shoulders, beckoning to them to follow him outside.
    Lily especially liked that about Mr. Kalligas, the way he often would take her and Paul aside and speak to them seriously.
    â€œA great, great dancer,” he said to them. “Rather an awful chap! Cold as ice! But we all follow him into the sea if he dance like that. What a devil of a dancer! I heard new people coming along here. Did you know that? A Danish man and his family. He comes to draw the Temple of Halyke. You know about that—”
    Costa interrupted him with shouted words too fast for Lily to understand. They both grabbed Paul, gripped him with their hands, and lifted him straight up in the air, shaking him like a giant rattle. Costa swiped at his ankle. Lily saw, with horror, an enormous black millipede drop to the ground and scuttle away into the dark. Paul seemed frozen as they set him back on his feet. “What!” he exclaimed, then shuddered. “What was that?”
    Mr. and Mrs. Corey appeared at Paul’s side, bending over him solicitously.
    â€œHe’s all right,” Mr. Kalligas said. “I save him. You got to look out for those things. The bite is badder than the snake.” Costa, who was gentle and hardly ever spoke about himself, patted Paul on the back and whispered, “Good, good …”
    â€œDid you see it?” Lily asked as they walked home.
    â€œDon’t talk about it,” Paul said firmly. “I felt it. That was enough.”
    The music of the bouzouki faded away.
    â€œI think that’s enough wildlife for you today,” Mr. Corey said to Paul. “Sea nettles, millipedes—what next?”
    It was dark along their path except where moonlight scattered silver coins among the pebbles. Lily shivered. She wasn’t