LiTTLE CHERiNE Book 02 - post135

I chose to take Aganthi. It was she who asked us to save him, so she should be the one to have the pleasure of having him found. We projected and visited the island, walking along the beach until Aganthi sensed someone adventurous enough to sail out a bit further. Once we sensed he’d been found, I wanted to leave, but she asked to stay. Sensing my love when he was carried off the boat alive made me feel glad we’d waited.

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1041

We now have fourteen tissue banks, with three of them kept private just for us. That way they stay hidden, but the costs are financed by the other eleven.

“Alki, I had a crazy idea and want your opinion. It has to do with our tissue banks. I started off by thinking, what would happen if one of us are killed in the alternate world. I am certain the protector could bring back the soul and create a new body here. But I don’t feel it is the best solution - for instance, if we are under attack, we may not have the time to make such jumps.

Would it not be better to create a couple of banks over there, since it is the healers who create the bodies, it will not matter so much if the protector is not there when they die. Then I realised that the Robert and Cherine of that world, their tissues should also be kept here. Just as a backup for emergencies. You do realise they will one day ask to come here to visit.”

“I’ll have the money ready for your next visit there. Can you take a flask of tissue with when you jump?”

“If the flask is too big we will have to have smaller ones made. It would not be difficult. Thanks Alki.”

He finally decided to confide in me, with a smile. “I’ve got a secret Roberto. I had to stabilise my age or else there would be too many questions if I look young. Sometimes Marian and I, we jump to another country and make ourselves young, teenagers, and go to discos and have fun. It feels very good to be so young again, without the problems of that age.”

1042

“I usually have the opposite problem. My girls want to become adults so I have to make myself look older.”

“I hear Cherine made you stay young and everyone thought you were her gigolo.” He chuckled.

I laughed. “Nowadays they are called toy-boys.”

I am getting quite a lot of work done. With all I have seen over the last couple of years I have a plethora of images waiting to be reproduced. My fans are starting to complain that my work is no longer balanced between the normal and my spaced out pictures. I decided to create more pictures that are of this world.

Alki no longer cares whether I do any work or not, he sees my main task as being that of leader of the Cherinians, but for the sake of my own ego and the pleasure I get from painting, I still work at it. Sometimes I hear of a new corporate order and get some ideas; Alki lets me design their site if I ask and it feels good to know that my work still sells. It does sometimes cause a problem, as other corporations see my new design and ask for me to design theirs - and I mostly don’t anymore. Alki laughs when I feel guilty about it and tells me that with me doing such a few, there is an added prestige to my signature and he is able to charge a much higher fee.

Doctor Maria has her problems too. She often uses her own healer to help with her patients and she is making quite a name for herself. This means she is having to put in long hours and she feels she is missing out on being with her family.

“You have killed all the ambitions I had Roberto. When I started, I dreamt of being this successful and would have worked these long hours, even with a family, without a problem. Now all I can think of is my daughter and how I want to be part of her life.”

“At least your work helps people. I can’t believe she is already one year old.”

“The people of the future, they will lose something very precious Roberto. I miss it already. I looked forward to having little children parties for her birthdays. She would be thoroughly bored to have a lot of toddlers around. There are so many things a parent enjoys in the childhood of their children and we will never know them.”

“I’m quite happy to have them appearing as five to ten year olds. That way I still enjoy the child in them without having to go through the painful process of dealing with them as babies. However, Dommi has complained of exactly the same thing. I think all the adult mothers feel the same way.”

“I suppose we will soon have more mothers like Diana. Babies having babies. How can they feel like mothers and daughters?”

“Diana manages. Her ‘mothering’ feelings are very strong. The twins adore and look up to her. Her case is unique in that she never was a baby, born as an eleven year old. I am determined not to allow any of my babies to get pregnant before they have lived at least five years. By then, mentally, they will be equivalent to a normal eighteen year old.”

She laughed when I said that, for there had been an instant chorus of protests. They quickly died down for they sensed I was not in the mood to talk about it. Dommi came over and spoke to me softly.

“Robert, you think of their bodies as being so vulnerable. Do not forget their hearts and minds are even more so.”

“Are you suggesting I give in and let them have babies!!”

“No, I heard what you told Maria. Even at five I was shocked, but I understand your reasoning. You would not be able to make them wait longer anyway. It is just in how you tell them, it was not right that they learn of your decision from your conversation with Maria. It was also not right not to allow them to discuss it with you.”

“I’ll discuss it at home. This is supposed to be a birthday party.”

Agapi spoke up, “You are the leader Robbie, if you have decided this, it will affect all of us. It is not fair that we do not also get a chance to argue it with you.”

1043

“Maria?”

“Go ahead Roberto.”

“You are all sick of me saying you need to live life a little, that knowledge is not the same as experience, so I will not discuss that part of it. Do you all agree that you need to go to school?” They were fair enough to admit they do. “School has nothing to do with you having babies. It has to do with you interacting with other people, of learning to understand the knowledge you borrowed from the adults of your families. I say borrowed, for until you can understand and use the knowledge, it does not belong to you.

Anybody good at arithmetic here? I’ll give you a simple example then. Let us say that Sam and I have a baby when she is one years old. Then the next year both Sam and her baby want a baby. From two people we become three. Then from three we become five a year later. The next year, Sam, her daughter and her two daughters all want to have a baby. We become nine. The next year they all want babies, we become seventeen. And the figures shoot up after that.

Not even the richest man in the world can support a family that grows at that speed. Not counting me, the numbers go, two, four, eight, sixteen, thirty two, sixty four, one hundred and twenty eight, two hundred and fifty six, five hundred and twelve, one thousand and twenty four, two thousand and forty eight. All that within ten years! I have not worked it out, but I guess Sam and I could fill up the whole of this planet in less than two hundred or so years. I did not add to the calculations that there will be twins now and then.

If no one has a baby more often than once every five years, it first of all gives you the chance to be with your baby, give your child all the love and attention they need. By the time you have lived twenty years or twenty five, you can work, help to support your children. Even then I think we will have to slow it down later on. Maybe to one baby every hundred years. Just consider yourselves lucky that you were born amongst the first and do not have to wait that long.”

It says something for their maturity in that they did not argue. They got Nafsika to bring her calculator and they worked it out for themselves. Agapi was the first to say it in a shocked voice.

“My father cannot afford to support so many. I think Robbie is wrong. We should make it a rule from now that we can only have a baby every ten years!”

Soon as we got home I got tackled by Dommi and Cherine.

“You are going to make us wait ten years?”

“Dommi I would not do that to you. You decide when you want a baby. Cherine, the answer for you is yes. You only have about eight years to wait. If we make too many exceptions then there will be no rule. That would be catastrophic.”

“I think you are going to have a lot of unhappy wives.”

“Not from the little ones Cherine, they made the rule themselves. Are you planning on trying to trick me again?”

Her answer was just a little too aggressive for my peace of mind. “If I was, do you think I would tell you?”

“I suppose not. Cherine, they all see you as their leader, if you succeed, they will all try to get what they want also. Are you prepared to face the consequences, are you willing to see your child grow up in a world where there is not enough food or space for her?”

“Why can the normal people have as many babies as they want, but we cannot?”

“They have already over-populated the world because their life expectancy has gone up to the mid seventies and because of the lower death rate of infants. With us we do not have twenty years for bearing children, we will have at least two to three hundred - if not more. Even accidents don’t kill us anymore. Our situation may be enviable in many ways, but it also carries it’s own responsibilities.”

As always seems to happen, once one ball starts rolling the playing field fills up with balls.

1044

Three nights later Alki and Marian came over. Within fifteen minutes Elia and his wife came. Alki gave us a few minutes for social chit chat and for them to greet their grandchildren - they decided that since Dommi is mother to all the children, they are all their grandchildren, the same generosity of spirit that made them look after a little boy just because he was friend to their son.

Alki leaned back with drink in hand and I knew he was ready to speak of what is on his mind.

“When you first let me see some of that magic that existed between you and Cherine, I was happy for you and a little envious. You let me feel a love I had never experienced before with no hope of ever doing so again. As your problems developed, I found I had a role to play and thus was able to participate in this magic from the sidelines (περιθώρια).

As your powers grew, the three of you brought me in closer. I despaired for you. It seemed your gifts were only bringing you death and suffering. I still remember so clearly how you argued with me that what was happening was peculiar to you, your personality. Now of course we can see that it was true, that which enabled you to call forth a protector and healer was part of the problem.

Next Post 136

I hope you enjoy reading this story of fantasy, adventure and love.

Αλέξανδρος Ζήνον Ευσταθίου

(Alexander Zenon Eustace)
^{1st January, 2019}

* posted on Steemit: 1st January, 2019



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