LiTTLE CHERiNE Book 01 - post049
“Sweet dreams my little daughter.”
“Love you daddy.”
308
When we got up, we found Tasso had taken the boys for a walk. His wife watched us with the light of a new understanding burning in her eyes, which meant they were harder and more desperate than they had been the previous day. She spoke to Dommi. “The little ones do not understand Greek?”
“No. But if we talk, even though I think in Greek, they will understand what we say.”
She gave up on that wish. “Can we talk? Horis ton Kyrio Roberto? (Without Mr Robert?)”
“I’ll go poison myself with a cup of horrible coffee at the kafeneion. Call me when you want me to return.” Even if she realises that if the young ones can hear so will I, it was obvious she would be more comfortable if I am not around.
“Last night when you made us sleep here, you knew what would happen.”
“Yes.”
“I knew it was not natural. I did not feel like that even in our first days of loving, when we were young and it was all exciting and new to me. Not even those rubbish stories on television did not give me any idea that last night was possible. I felt as if I would die if I could not feel him, if his body did not touch mine, if we did not have sex again and again. Tasso said it was really possible we would die if we did not. Is that true?”
She would feel more comfortable if Dommi did the talking, so the other two remained quiet. “Roberto has already died at least four times because he thought he should not touch us. We had to go where we took you to bring him back. Does that answer your question?”
She nodded. “Men can be so stupid sometimes. Tasso refused to tell me what he discussed with Roberto. He only told me last night was a gift from all of you as he had to refuse to be a part of whatever it is you are. That is true?”
“Yes. I’m sorry it is so.”
“I had many hours to think. That place you took us to, that made us feel what we felt afterwards. We had to have the sex. I am right?”
“In all ways, yes.”
“If I am right, my husband gave away the life of my sons because he feared it. Also the life of my daughter. We would never have had to fear death again, would we?”
“What can I say? He had to.”
“How can you say that? The little one, with the dark long hair, she let me feel what you all felt last night. There was no evil in it. I felt the need, the hunger of the little ones. I felt the love they were given. Maybe it is not right, but it was not bad. Not bad enough to throw away my sons lives for. If I have to love them like that, I will do it. If my soul must go to hell for it, I will do it.”
While she was speaking defiantly, Cherine was facing us (mentally) with defiance also. A defiant guilt. She felt she had gambled and won and that justified her taking the risk. I was torn between anger, due to my intense dislike of others sharing our most intimate moments, and pleasure at the result.
“And Tasso? How will he react to this?”
“Leave that to me. When he returns I ask you to take my boys, let me talk to him. I will not let one day go with my children at risk. Will you and Roberto agree to this?”
“If you both want it, Roberto says yes.”
“He says yes, he decides?”
309
“Always. We will only do what he wants. What Cherine did last night may have turned out for the good, but she broke our rules, she lied to us, she lied to Roberto, she will have to pay for it. We never go against his word.”
“Your Roberto, he forgave my husband - he told me what he did to you and it still grieves him - can he not forgive a little girl for having a big heart? Please do not punish her for trying to save my children.”
“He wants your honest answer. Are you absolutely certain you will not feel the need, at some time, to confess to your priest? If either of you feel guilt for what you will be doing with your sons and later, with your daughter, or what your sons will also do with your daughter, then you will not be able to keep silent forever. It will be like a cancer eating at you inside. If you can see that the rules have changed, that what you give and take with your children is only love….”
“I think the problem is it will be too difficult for my husband to love our sons that way. Maybe later. I will love them for both of us. When our daughter needs him, he can give her the loving she needs. I had not thought of it, you are right, the boys will also want to love their sister that way. This is a hard journey to start on.”
Dommi said, “It only seems that way. I too was horrified, until I saw the need and tender love. Nothing so beautiful can be bad. You will see. Stella think of this. Our bodies are only temporary, they will die and rot in the grave. The souls, if they are in our world, they will last for almost forever. Is it worth sacrificing the souls for the sake of the body?”
“This is strange, you teach the opposite of our church. They would condemn our souls for what we do with our bodies. If I may use your bath, I need to wash and I want to bathe my sons, today will be their first time. I want it to be special, for them to remember their mother smelling sweet for them.”
Dommi is more aware of how difficult, almost alien, the preference for not using scent will seem to Stella, after all, most women, from the time they are little girls, are taught that it is the scents and perfumes which make them attractive to men; their own natural scents are made to seem to be something to be ashamed of and masked. “Stella, can I make a suggestion? Roberto made a rule for us and we have found he was right. Our bath before loving, we never use soap or any scent. There is a hunger in us to smell the real clean scent of each other’s bodies. Try it that way first. It is the sweetest. Also, try to teach your children, and your husband, whatever any of you feel like doing, whatever it is, if it is a part of your loving each other, then nothing is bad. Nothing. We will go to have breakfast with Roberto now - we’ll return when you are ready.”
As they stood up Cherine went to Stella and kissed her cheek. “Dommi, please tell her I am happy she will be our sister. She is a very brave woman.”
The children found it easier to join us in the void. Tasso who still had his doubts was so awed by their souls, took such pleasure in dancing with them and melding in an exchange of love, that the physical aspect of their exchanging love no longer seemed as terrible, it was more like an extension of the love they were sharing now. The elder son, it turned out, has some faint abilities to emote and Cherine concentrated on strengthening his abilities, teaching him how to augment their love and passion. She promised to help him the first few times. When Wendy showed them their little daughter and lit her up with love, Cherine decided she needed to do more to help them and went in and tried to open pathways between them that will help them create their own circle. She then united peripherally with their elder son, careful not to take more than the minimum, she helped open latent pathways she saw in him. Nothing dramatic or immediate will happen, but it will be easier for him to grow.
“I will not take up much of your time, I can feel the desperation in your sons. Tasso, you and Stella will have to visit us again, with the boys. There are some important lessons we learnt and there is no reason you should make the same mistakes we did. Do not try to return to the void without warning us, so that we can be there to protect you from some very bad mistakes.
I am taking the girls so that you have the house to yourselves. Open yourselves to the love you feel your elder son pass on between you. He will link you all together. Wait until you feel it,” I added with a smile, “it is unbelievably sweet.”
310
We walked over to Alki and Marian. Pleased as they were by the developments, we could feel their frustrations. They can only dance when we take them. They need to create their own circle. We had thought to wait for their child to be born.
“Alki, Cherine wants to open Pavlo, the young boy. Would you consider him as part of your circle? There is one drawback, you would not then be the only male.”
“No. I will not have that!” Marian looked at Alki defying him to contradict her.
I had no idea of what the truth is, but I hoped I would be erring on the side of caution. “You will have to wait at least three to four years before your daughter is old enough. Can you wait, we will do our best to include you more often.”
Alki nodded his understanding. “We will wait. Roberto, can you find a place for Pavlo?”
“I do not have a choice Alki. Cherine feels too strongly for me to dawdle. Don’t worry, we will help him soon.”
“Are you in the mood to tackle a few new orders?”
As we discussed business, the ladies surrounded Cherine, who was linked to the family at our home. I could feel her own fires growing and felt sorry for her. She laughed at me.
“Robert you are sweet. Dommi was telling me she was worried you might be feeling jealous that I am sharing the feelings of sex with them.”
“Now that you mention it, should I be?”
She flew into my arms and as I held her precious little body, our love enveloped us in a golden haze - the first time it has ever happened with just the love of the two of us. What added to the beauty of it was the warm happiness we felt of the other two girls at the strength of our love.
“Cherine.” I was excited. “Remember last time, you lost control and spread it over the whole neighbourhood? Could you do that every day?”
“I can.”
“Christ, if you are going to do that you let me know so that I can be here with Marian.”
“I don’t think so Alki. The two of you should be with us. Maybe we should also bring Tasso and Stella and their kids. The stronger we can become the better.” I could hardly contain myself. I got up, pacing the floor with Cherine in my arms.
“Baby you are going to infect everyone around here with our love. There are bound to be some latent talents out there. Especially amongst the children. Once we have woken them and helped to develop them, we move to another block. Girls, sorry, it means we will have to live like gypsies once a week, but if we can spread our gifts and fill Athens with circles, think of all the new Kaleidoscope Worlds!”
“Thank you Roberto.”
“For what Alki mou?”
“For making Athens the beginning of the new world. This will make even a bigger difference to the world than the ancients did. Athens, the birthplace of the New Man! I must tell Themi!” He was chortling with glee, rubbing his hands.
Dommi answered, “Not only you tell him, invite him to join us. He is a friend.” Alki got up and kissed her.
“Can I bring in my friend Maria-Elena?”
311
As I welcomed her friend, Dommi came over, her face glowing, and kissed me. “Thank you Roberto my love. Now I will not worry about our children so much.”
“We have not achieved anything yet my love, we will only be safe once millions of circles are created. In the way that matters most, all our children are already safe. There is no death for any of us. We have the Kaleidoscope World.” I smiled at the idea crossing my mind. “Even if we do not discover any new gifted persons, at least tens of thousands of people, each time, will be touched by our love and maybe it will make their own relationships more loving. We’ll be helping to make life so beautiful for so many!”
Alki was obviously excited by an idea he’d had. “Roberto, at what age are children open to your gifts?”
“I would say the earlier the better. Why?”
“Why not target the maternity clinics?”
“I would rather not Alki. I do not want any child to suffer as Cherine did. They must be part of a family to share with.” His face was apologetic, he had not thought of their loneliness.
“Oh Robert, you can be so silly sometimes, even when I’m filling you with all my love.” Cherine hugged my neck. With a kiss she looked at me with twinkling eyes. “They will not be alone. They will have us, we will find them and they will find us.” Her mind gave a shout of happiness. “Think of us, thousands of babies dancing with us. Oh Robert.” She began to cry, with all the other females joining her, everyone overcome by her vision.
I wiped my eyes. “Alki, I am glad you have a lot of work for me. It will help to keep my feet on the ground. I think I would otherwise float away like Wendy is doing.”
Recalled by my words Wendy drifted back down. I knelt down and she came into my other arm. As I rose I looked at her. “Why aren’t you putting on weight my little dove?”
“Am I a unicorn girl or a dove now?” Her impudent giggle could only be answered with a kiss. Sometimes, I thought to myself, I could die from loving my girls so much. Dommi came up to me, staring at me, her eyes windows to the mother in her.
“Please think of how you can live, not die, for our love.”
Wendy echoed her, “She is right daddy. You know that if you die I will also. I cannot live without you.” Her eyes were changing as she looked at me. Marian also saw.
“You poor kids, you must be suffering, even I can feel it. Alki, come it is time for you to take me to buy the ring you promised. Let them have a bit of privacy.” She laughed at our expressions. “Yes, he asked me to marry him.”
“And you are going to mummy?”
“Yes my Cher baby, and we want you girls to be the bridesmaids.”
“But mummy...” At the joy of the other girls she stopped, biting her lip and looked at me for help.
“Alki, Marian? At the same church we got married in?”
“No, at the Kefalari municipality…Oh!”
“What is it Alki?” Marian was so afraid, she could see her dream being shattered without understanding why.
“The same problem Roberto had, my love.”
There was a deathly silence and Cherine buried her face in my shirt and wept. She felt responsible for destroying her mother’s happiness. Wendy and Dommi put their arms around Cherine.
312
“Just hold it a minute. Cherine, if I had already married Dommi and then met you, would you have minded?”
“Yes.” Her honesty hurt me, I had hoped she would not have minded. “Robert, it means so much to me that I am also your wife…and theirs.”
“Alki, Marian, the decision has to be yours. Just because things worked out a certain way for us does not mean it will be the same for you. You would need to find another Wendy for it to happen. Surely that is not very likely?”
“But Robert, they already have her. She will be so sad if she cannot marry them.”
Shit! “Are you trying to tell me our daughters will also want to…” I stared at her in dismay. My thoughts had not gone down that road - or else I had once more deliberately refused to face the logical outcome of what I already knew.
“They can never marry or love anyone else. I want my daughters to be happy Robert.”
I collapsed onto a sofa. I felt everything was turning topsy-turvy. I was not quite ready to face this yet. Neither could Alki and Marian. There had to be another way. I knew that Alki had known he would have to be linked to his daughter, he had said so himself when I phoned him about Tasso, and he is a much stronger man/person than I am, so if he could suppress the truth and be just as surprised as I am, then I do not need to feel bad about what I consider my inability to think things through.
Wendy lay with her ear against my chest. I could feel her unhappiness at the tension in the room. She softly hummed to herself and as she picked up the thread of our feelings she began to sing softly. As she tugged at our heartstrings we forgot ourselves and her song became a symbol of hope and love. By the time it trailed off into silence we had nothing more to say. Even Marian had her head against Alki’s shoulder, her face dreamy.
I lifted Wendy’s face to mine. “Where do you get that from my pretty baby? It is so beautiful.”
“You gave it to me, remember? I cannot paint, but I always loved music. When I used to wait for…him, I used to hum to myself so that I would not be so afraid.”
“Would you like to study music? Learn to play an instrument and how to write your own songs?”
I felt her joy at my offer and Alki offered to find the best teachers.
“Marian, you cannot imagine how much richer our lives are since our Wendy came to us. It just happens that both Dominique and Cherine are extremely possessive by nature. You do see how much they love her and treasure that something special that makes her who she is. Maybe you will find you will not mind sharing Alki with your someone special, just like Alki will not mind sharing her with you.”
The argument, the shock of the future as seen by Cherine and the song from Wendy had taken the edge off our needs. It seemed to have had the opposite effect on Alki and Marian, so we left them and took the girls for a Baked Alaska. By the time we got home it was empty.
“Robert, Dommi, why do we have to wear clothes when we are alone?”
Dommi emoted her dislike of the idea so I kept quiet, letting her speak. “I’m not going to walk around naked all day - even if my tummy was not starting to bulge. You know how often Robert tells you off for putting your elbows on the table when eating. If you do not learn to behave like a civilised person at home, how will you behave correctly in public. It is all a matter of habit.”
Wendy stared at Cherine with big eyes, so I worried she may have been reminded of her enforced nudity. She surprised me with her humour, “Cherine I do not think it is a good idea. Every time Robert gets excited he starts to drip. We’ll have it all over the sofa and ..”
313
Cherine grinned. “Hmm, that sounds lovely. Can you do that for us Robert. Then wherever I sit I can feel a bit of you is touching me.”
“You are just saying that to get me dripping again. Tell you what I would agree to though. How about we go into the bedroom and forget our manners for a while.”
Chapter Thirty Seven
When Tasso and family next visited, I spent hours talking with them. I explained our rules and talked about the gifts of love and empathy being the forces that power us. I warned them about the dangers, in and out of their bodies. What to be wary of when in public. I felt nervous, worried that they or the boys might say or do something that would expose us. All I had to do is imagine myself as a young boy having to keep something so wonderful a secret from my friends. I found it difficult, for this once, to trust in my Cherine and believe her when she said they will not betray us, that by linking them she’d changed them.
“I felt Nickolas trying to take them to dance, but he was not strong enough. Will they mind if I help him next time?”
Alki and Marian came over and Cherine began her love magic, building the golden glow until we felt we would explode with it. Then Wendy sang to it and Cherine had to let it explode outwards. As it spread she followed it, tasting the emotions of the neighbourhood, looking for any hint of talent. There was none, absolutely nothing. Tasso and Stella asked that we come to their neighbourhood for our next effort. We did. There was nothing there either. We went to our hiding hole, with Themi joining us. Nothing there either. I was starting to get dispirited. I had to remind myself that Cherine had spent eight years emoting before she came across me.
Something did not make sense. Surely it was not just luck that we should have come across Alki, Marian, Tasso and Stella? I began to look for a different answer. Of course I thought that the answer must be something more complicated and looked to all the science fiction I have read for ideas.
Themi asked whether it would be possible for him to join us next time we go dancing. After having shared the golden circle of love with us, he is more eager to experience whatever else we are willing to share with him. We invited him with pleasure, knowing how important it will be to him.
“Themi, we can only call you. If you do not react or you resist we cannot take you. It has taken us a long time to find a way to call people who are not linked to Cherine. Luckily you, as was Alki, are linked, so it will be easier. We also had to find a way so as to help those men I made catatonic. With Wendy, we can do it now, but we don’t know what limits there are to our abilities.” Mischievously I asked, “Tell me, if you participate, doesn’t this compromise your role of ESP investigator?”
“I will try to co-operate. As to my career, I have reached an impasse. I cannot learn much more from you by questioning. Tests you all dislike. This is the only way left open to me. The truth is, I would like to say I have experienced this before I die.”
“Sometimes I am very slow-witted. If you dance with us, when you die someday you will be called to join us, preserving your soul and mind - your personality - in a Kaleidoscope World. Would you not prefer to join the circle of your friend Alki - or would you prefer to try and create your own?”
“If it is possible, yes.”
“They are coming.”
It was almost comical. Of all the people we have brought to the void, he was the most frightened. It took a while for Alki to convince him he is safe. It was obvious that he had never, in his heart, believed us. I was not insulted, for I could see why. He has lived his whole life alone, never loving, his only relationships a few close friends. He had worked at something he loves, but he spent most of his time disproving it. His heart had dried up. The light of his being is beautiful, as it is for everyone I have seen (yes, even Richard), but the fuzzy corona of love that is projected to varying degrees by everyone, in his case was very faint. Yet he has a loving heart. His life must have had some story of pain for him to have shut himself off this way. The girls and I ached to send him our love, but we had to leave it to Alki and Marian. As they exchanged with him, Wendy gave a cry, something like a crystal bell. It was of a joy brought out in surprise.
314
*Marian, Alki, your daughter, she also sent him her love. Themi has a part of her also. Themi, please send her yours.*
Wendy had to help him, but when the foetus accepted his love it was a miracle. Themi brightened until he shone like a miniature sun. He had opened his heart to the unborn baby of his best friend and it felt like a miracle to him.
Awed, the three girls and I danced and merged as far as we dared to, with the unborn babies still holding us back. We did not know it would be harmful to them, but I refused to take a chance. I do not want to lose them to the Kaleidoscope World.
For those readers who have not understood, when they speak using telepathy, what they say is enclosed within stars, and the thoughts exchanged are in italic.
e.g *Hi, I bet you are wishing you could read thoughts.*?