LiTTLE CHERiNE Book 03 - post019

Sylvestro was amongst them and had noticed the sudden change in all of them, without a word having been spoken, and he was disturbed. I sent him a reassuring smile, waved him over to join me while I have my breakfast.
“You are not in trouble at work?”

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1456

“I thought of telling them I was stuck in Greece without transport back.” I saw the mischievous gleam in his eyes and smiled back.

“Are you on duty tomorrow?”

“No. I’m only on duty one Sunday a month.”

“Must be nice living where crime is so low.”

“Not good for my career prospects though. I must admit, I prefer being where I am, I would not enjoy being in a big city with the type of crimes they have. Life would too soon begin to look ugly.”

“How would you like to be out of a job?”

He looked disturbed. “I do not understand. Roberto, I enjoy the work I do.”

“I meant how would you like to live in a world where a police force is not necessary?”

“There is such a world?”

“I suppose I could answer yes, but then I would only be playing games with words. Not yet Sylvestro. We hope someday it will become true though. We also expect to have a world without doctors and nurses.”

“That would be a strange world. You mean your power to heal? You would give it to everyone?”

“No, everyone has the gift of healing within themselves. As we grow and more and more people become Cherinians, the need for many things will die out. Sylvestro, would you need a car or an aeroplane if you could ‘jump’ to anywhere you want? Do you have a part of the world you would love to live in? Maybe some tropical island? There would be nothing to stop you living there and jumping back to your town, doing your job, visit friends if you want to and then jump back home. We already have a lovely lady who married a Cypriot, she lives in Cyprus with him, but jumps each morning back to Norway to attend University, see friends, maybe even have a meal or see a movie in her language and then she jumps back home.”

“The first time I met you I envied you. I thought you were gifted with the ability to heal. I saw you as a man pure in your thoughts, even though you had a strange sense of humour. I believed your gift came from being almost a saint. Now I find out you have many more powers than I imagined and you definitely are not a saint!”

I grinned. “You are being tactful by saying you now see I am no saint?”

“I was to leave that for you to explain. I am still deeply troubled seeing you loving so many children.”

“You mean fewer would have been okay?”

“I…”

“Sylvestro, I am baiting you, that means I am teasing you. I know exactly what you mean. Last night I saw you talking to an English lady, Marian. Did she tell you she is the mother of Cherine and Melina and Bernadine? They are all my wives. We are going about this the wrong way around. I must admit I have been doing it on purpose for the pleasure of seeing you shocked. Do you know why I am doing that?”

“No.”

“Because I trust you. With everyone else I first let them hear our story, and that way they learnt of my loving little girls in a way that helped them to also understand why. I think I have played enough and we should now let the girls tell you our story. I must warn you though about Wendy. You will hear her story and it will sicken you, but she has grown and developed a gift unlike anything you can imagine. She has become a singer and composer. Her songs will affect you as you have never been affected before. That is because while she sings, she is able to project the feelings that go with the song. After she has sung for you, I warn you, you will be tempted to fall in love with her. Candy may join in and sing with her too, as may the other Wendy.”

“All you have managed to do is confuse me. The other Wendy? There are two girls called Wendy?”

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“No. As Candy told you, she is also a Wendy. All three of them are the same person. She is so wonderful that just one of her was not enough for us.”

Cherine giggled. “Robert, you are just making things worse! Let him hear the story first.”

“Then take him Cherine and let him hear it.”

I went in to my office and contacted some of my hacker friends to discuss an idea I had. As they are scattered all over the world I had to leave a number of messages, but at least the few I got sounded interested in my idea. By the end of our chat, two of them backed out, but the one agreed to help. I did not want just one person doing this so I told him to wait until we have a dozen or more. He agreed to wait, offering though to find a few more by himself. I thanked him, checked my emails and logged off. I sat a few minutes thinking about it and then went to rejoin the others.

They were giving him the ‘full works’ and were still only at the part where we found Wendy. I cringed at what he will think when he hears of what I did to her father. I found the cigarettes, intending to go out into the garden, happened to listen as they described her condition and the game I played with her and, getting caught up in the story and the emotions again, I quietly sat and listened.

It has become a sort of rule, unless there is an emergency, that visitors jump into our house by going to a spare bedroom or our garden and walk in from there. A trickle of them grew and by the end of the story the room was full. In the silence after Wendy ended, Sylvestro sat lost in a world of his imagination and emotions and gave a start when he suddenly realised the room is full.

I had kept an eye on Edward and his wife. I saw them become involved in the story, their faces revealing their emotions and I felt more relaxed about him, so I stood up to leave for my smoke.

“Roberto, can I have some time to think about this? I am feeling too emotional to think calmly as I should right now.”

“Want to join me for a cigarette outside? We do not smoke in the house unless there is an emergency on.”

We were joined by a number of smokers and a few others who just wanted to be part of the conversation. At first we did not speak, each lost in his own thoughts. Sylvester spoke first.

“I am a lover of the opera, whenever I can afford to do so I travel to Scala and buy any ticket I can. Roberto, if those girls told that story in a theatre, even if the story meant nothing to the people, they thought it was only a story of the imagination, they would not have one empty seat for the whole year. It will be playing in my mind for a very long time.”

“The girls heard you and they are flushed with embarrassment and pleasure. Thank you for those kind words, they often get forgotten as most people tend to concentrate on what they learnt.”

“I cannot believe that! Mama mia! You said I should be careful not to fall in love with Wendy! How could I not! To hear her story, of her suffering and then to find so much beauty in her, it is unbelievable!”

“Edward, I promised to take you both to the world of Meli. I have someone special to meet there so how would you like to go now?”

“From what I have heard, I think I would like that.”

“Sylvestro, normally I would first take you dancing. As you will not be leaving us today we can do that afterwards. Shall we all go in and ask Meli if we may visit?”

Of course it was at that moment that the doorbell rang. Dommi opened and welcomed the father and two daughters. He had brought a cake, as many Greeks do when visiting. They were rather taken aback to see so many people, though they recognised most of them from the club.

“Have I come at the wrong time, I did not know you were having guests.”

“You are here at exactly the right time and are very welcome.” I whispered in his ear. “I’m sorry, but I do not think you ever told me your first name.”

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“Apostoli.”

“Friends, I invited Apostoli and his two lovely daughters, Martha and Vicky last night. We will have to put off our visit for a few hours while we explain about the Cherinians to them. Those of you who are tired of hearing the story will be welcomed to visit next door at the house of Alki and Marian.”

“What are you saying Roberto, how can they visit us if we are sitting here listening?”

“Girls, you take Martha and Vicky around and introduce them. I’ll take Apostoli.”

We did the normal courtesy bit and Dommi brought out some coffee with a slice of their cake. I am not fond of orange cream cakes, but had a slice out of courtesy. Cherine felt my distaste and came into my mind and did something, turning the taste into that of chocolate. It was strange eating yellow chocolate cake, but at least I could enjoy myself.

“Apostoli, you have already had a glimpse of what we can do. I hope you realise that there is nothing we can or would do that would not be out of love, so there is no need to feel any fear. You recall the story about me being the Angel of Athens? It was true in that I did use my abilities to heal myself. I did not use any special abilities to save the young boy, that was just fortuitous (τυχαία), my being present at the right time and place.

I grew up a normal boy, began work and fell in love. The young lady I loved decided she did not love me and I was left heartbroken. I spent my time staying at home, not wanting to see anyone. Then one day I saw a little girl outside my window. Her name was Cherine. All the magic of love and our gifts grew from meeting her. This is Meli, daughter of Alki and Marian. She is our official storyteller and her assistant is Wendy, who adds her musical magic to the tale so as to help you visualise and feel what we felt at the time. I hope you will listen to them and find it a thing of beauty so that you join us and become Cherinians. Apostoli, there will be no pressure on you and your daughters to join us, you must want it with all your heart. Meli, will you take over?”

For the second time that day all sat through the long tale and both Meli and Wendy found different words and images and it was all new to all of us again. Because of the two girls, their protected upbringing, the story was less open about the sexual side of it and all the horrors of Richard and my killing of him. They did not avoid those parts, they just lent more of their magic to the parts that brought a sense of wonder.

It was getting late and I sensed the father needed to return to his club and yet it was important he stay. He was still dazed and trying to digest all he had heard, so I chose this moment to ask him to stay.

“Do you not have someone else to run the club for you tonight? It is important you stay here for a few more hours.” His daughters pleaded with him so he made a phone call and confirmed he would stay.

“There is much of beauty in what I heard, but there is also much that shocked me. I am torn in two.”

“We all understand. Please do not make any decisions yet, allow us to show you what this would mean to your daughters and yourself.”

“You really are able to live for so long? My daughters too, they will live for hundreds of years? Never have to fear any sickness or accident?”

“Your daughters and yourself. Apostoli, you heard in the story how I lean on Cherine. If she does not tell me the person we wish to invite is a good person, we do not invite them. She gave her consent for you to join us a long time ago, but I have been very busy as you heard, so I delayed until last night.

You should now be taken to the void so that you and your daughters can exchange with us. Then whatever you decide, whether to join us or not, at least your souls will be safe. I am certain you will be captivated by the beauty of your daughters souls. However, for this once I would like to deviate from our normal procedure and take you first to see the world of Meli. Please do not worry, before you leave here we will go dancing and then you will never need to fear for your daughters.

By the way, my healer is already working on your prostrate and a few other small problems, by the time you leave here you will be in full health - your daughters too.”

Sam first let Ordinx know we are about to leave and then we all went to the world of Meli.

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

Αλέξανδρος Ζήνον Ευσταθίου

(Alexander Zenon Eustace)
^{21st July, 2019}

* posted on Steemit: 21st July, 2019



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