Little Cherine Book 01 - BPost045

Meli pretended to be unaware of my interest, but I saw her and Cherine exchange amused glances and she gave me a couple of sly looks out of the corners of her eyes. Still, she is very much a daddy’s girl and everyone can sense how she adores him.

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461

They had prepared a lovely supper on the balcony which prompted Alki to reminisce about the time I kept knocking the girls and myself out. Wendy, Diana, Marian and the ‘babies’ wanted to know about it so Alki gave his version of what had happened. Dommi was blushing furiously as he told of how she was sent off to decide and my misunderstanding when she packed her suitcase. They were shocked when he told them of Cherine’s reaction and the catastrophic effect on me. Cherine began to weep and her mother held her tightly.

“Meli, now I understand what you meant about me looking inside myself. Cherine is not to blame, my own terror has been the cause of her fear!”

Talking about the past had suddenly reminded me of my terror at her death, at my feelings as I held her bloody corpse in my arms and thought I had lost her. This brought understanding, which I explained to the others. The effect of my disclosure was most apparent on my sweet Cherine.

“I was blaming you, getting irritated while you, poor thing, you were only reacting to the fear in me. How can I apologise to you my love. I was really nasty I know.” She was in my arms so fast she knocked the breath out of me. I felt the trembling in her slight body as I held her and tears were in my eyes as she finally raised her wet face to me for a kiss. A barrier I had not even realised existed, that I had erected between us, fell away and I slipped out, visiting her in her mind. The joy that scintillated from her as we mingled, our motes kissing and exchanging our love, made her so beautiful it broke my heart. Teardrops of my love flew from me to find their home within her.

When we returned to the room we found it hushed, all of them staring at us, even the ‘babies’ were stunned. We could not understand why.

“You two do not know what happened do you?”

“No Alki. We know what we shared, but why are you all so affected? Did you manage to sense us?”

Dommi asked, “You thought you went to her mind Robert? Cherine, you thought you went to his mind?” We both nodded, realisation dawning.

“You met here, we could see both of you. God you were so beautiful!”

It did not take long for the room to be filled with the glow forms of all the girls as they experimented. Alki, Marian and I wept as we watched. Their beauty was a magic not meant to be seen by human eyes. They were tearing at us, filling us with so much love it hurt.

As they began to drift back to their own bodies I felt myself being called. I responded, thinking it was one of my girls. As I joined her, floating by her side I saw it was Meli. Fear stabbed through me. The attraction was too strong, I must not link, she cannot belong to our circle - I must not spoil the circle she belongs to.

Urgently I pulled back into my body, in time to see her lonely beauty glowing before she too returned to her body. I buried my face in Cherine’s hair. I felt stunned while also ashamed and just wanted to get out of there.

“What is going on? I sense I am the only one who does not know.” I wished the ground would open and swallow me as Alki asked his question. I prayed no one would answer him.

“Robert is mortified to find he is attracted to our daughter.”

Alki roared with laughter. I felt Cherine caressing my back as she held me, sensitive to the feelings I was drowning in. Something made me peep and I found the eyes of Meli on me - they were filled with tears.

“Alki, how could you!” He turned and saw his daughter and regretted his laughter.

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“Meli mou, I was not laughing at you, just at Robert.”

“That is true Meli, for some reason your father thinks I am a bit of a joke. He is always laughing at me.”

“You must admit you do give me good reason to laugh at you.”

I ignored him and got up, lifting Cherine so that she stayed glued to me. I went to Meli and put out my hand to her. She just stared for a moment and then took it.

“I still find it difficult to be so open Meli. I keep forgetting everyone can sense my feelings, even read my mind. Do you know why I was afraid?”

“Yes.”

“Was I wrong? I might have been, I do not know. Our gifts are still new for us. We do not know what can or will happen in all situations. So I get afraid if I think something may happen that should not. Can you understand that?”

As she nodded, Cherine mumbled against my chest, “It won’t.”

“What is that my love?”

“You were afraid for nothing. You will see when we go dancing. You are allowed to love anyone you want Robert, it does not mean they will automatically become part of our circle - unless they are meant to.” As Cherine spoke I saw Alki blanch. He had not thought it through, had laughed at my embarrassment without realising why I was afraid. The sudden fear he felt at losing his little girl was sweet revenge for me. Meli saw this (in me) and gave me a shy grin.

I knelt so as to be at her level, Cherine standing with her arm around my neck.

“Meli, you are as sweet as your name. My reaction to you was not deliberate, my body betrayed me. But I feel that you are going to be a very close friend, not just the sister of my Cherine and daughter of my best friends.” I had felt we are amazingly open to each other, which explains why I spoke as I did.

Cherine giggled. I pulled back to look at her.

“What!? At least you did not say she is ‘special’.” She giggled again. “Meli, Robert can really bullshit when he wants to. His body did not betray him, he is always saying that sex is in the mind. I think he really wants to make love to you, but he is afraid you might become too important to him, that you might be pulled into our circle, especially because I love you also. He does not know you already belong to a circle.” She looked up at me. “I am sorry Robert, it is not all your fault. You also felt that way because all of us, but specially me, we love her.”

“Are you sure?” I was subdued, still afraid.

“You are worried, what Alki will think, but something else is frightening you. Are you afraid that if you can be attracted to a girl outside our circle it means we could also be attracted to a man?” I nodded, blushing, chagrined by how transparent I was.

“Don’t worry about Alki, he has been attracted to us a long time,” I threw him a look and saw him blush, “I also keep telling you, you do not have to worry about us. We might care about others, like I care about Pavlo, but I would never ever want to make love with him. You would also have to want to love him before we would.”

“Then why do I?”

I was surprised that she did have an answer. “Robert, we brought extra clothes with us for the three babies to wear when they projected. When they first appeared at their present age they were nude. I saw Meli and wanted to hug her, she looked so sweet. The other girls felt the same and that helped make you want her. Remember how you told us about incest, that a hug of a brother or sister, of a parent, though not sexual is in a way erotic? You did not have a chance did you?”

463

“You make me feel bad Cherine, I should have explained this to Robert.” Dommi was smiling fondly at her, belying her own words, while I could also sense that something was amusing her.

*Cherine, I appreciate your intention to help me, but it was at the cost of embarrassing Alki. That was not right. How do we fix it?* Without answering, just a brief glance into my eyes, she unwrapped herself from me and went to Alki.

“I am sorry pappou. I was not thinking, I did not say that to embarrass you. What you felt, I thought we all knew. Us girls all did and we do not mind because we also feel attracted to you. It isn’t bad of us is it?”

Marian saw through her, but her eyes were soft as she put her hand over the hand of Alki. “She is right love. There is nothing wrong in appreciating beauty or even wanting it. What matters is how we handle our feelings. You were and always are a perfect gentleman - something very rare I think among Greek men.” she added wryly.

With Meli in hand I went to Alki. “Seeing how much I love you, I am surprised the girls haven’t seduced you yet. Friends?”

He got up and hugged me, emoting like a father, despite the fact that he is beginning to look more like a brother. I decided it was a good time for us to return to our Cyprus hotel, while I was ahead.

A couple of days later, I had changed the car but not my attitude, still wanting to explore the hidden parts of Cyprus. We had taken a turn off from the main road and did not know where we were going, just driving. As we came to the outskirts of a little village surrounded by vineyards, we saw a cemetery. Not for any reason I could think of, Dommi stopped. We took a walk around the small cemetery.

“Look girls. If you take the year of birth off the date of death, this man died at over 102 years old. And this one, look, he died 98 years old.” Dommi was fascinated and it was strange. It seemed most deaths in this village had been at over eighty, the oldest dying at one hundred and eight. We got to the newer gravestones. Here the deaths were at fifty to seventy.

“That is weird. We keep getting told the lifespan has increased over the last hundred years, but here it is the opposite.”

When we parked in the village we walked down the one street it had, wanting to find a place to buy cold drinks. I was amazed that they do not have even one shop. An old woman all in black, with a black scarf over her head, sitting on a straw and wood chair, needles flashing as she made lace, welcomed us to her village. Dommi thanked her for us.

“Aah, eiste kalamarades. Kalos orisate (welcome).” In Cyprus, the Cypriots call the Greeks ‘kalamarades’, a nickname from the old days when Greece sent teachers to them; teachers used the feather quills of the time which were called ‘kalamari’ - a bit of useless information of the kind that fascinates me. It conjures images of a time long gone that has a certain (almost nostalgic) appeal to me - not that I would want to have lived then, I like the time I’m in.

The old woman insisted we sit in her front yard for a cool drink. She brought out home-made lemon juice for the girls and small coffees with cold water and a little plate with ‘glyko’ for Dommi and I. I let the girls taste the sweet made out of grapes and they loved it. The old lady brought some more out for them. She fussed over the babies and insisted they be put inside the house where it was cool. Her husband sat with us, not speaking or paying us any attention after he greeted us.

Dommi explained to her how we had been puzzled by the cemetery and the change in the lifespan over the last thirty years or so.

“My husband is ninety seven. He is blind but still healthy. The village is only inhabited by old people now. All the young ones, they moved to the big towns. The deaths of the younger ones, those are the ones who went to town. There they eat meat every day and foods out of tins, and because they want cars and televisions and whatever their neighbours have, they die young. Here we still live the old way. Beans and lentils. Lots of onions, garlic, our own pure olive oil, not the bottled stuff you get in shops. And of course lots of olives and fruit.” She shook her head sadly. “Life has changed and we miss our children. What can we do. Come I must show your man, foreigners are always interested in this.”

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She took us into her house; it was built of stone and the roof had a lawn of wild grass growing on it - she explained the soil and grass keep the house cool in Summer and warm in Winter - plus it feeds their goat. She led me to the back wall and I saw metal clamps and chains.

“When the Turks occupied our country, before they gave us to the English, they used this house as their prison. Here they put our young men. Look here, you can still see the young Greek blood they spilt when torturing them, trying to force them to become Muslims.” She shook her head in sadness. “I leave it like this so that future generations will remember, but they are not interested. They prefer to look at their televisions and forget our history, the pain of their fathers and grandfathers. But the ghosts of those who suffered here, they will not go away.”

When we left she gave us a bottle of her home-made grape sweet and following the example of Dommi we all kissed her cheek. I called her ‘grandmother’ and told her I had some of her peoples’ blood in me from my mothers side. I also told her I would always remember her and her warm heart.

After some comments about how fantastic the old lady was, we drove past vineyards in silence for a while. Cherine was sitting in front with Dommi, she turned to me. “Do you remember you once said to me I had to grow, if not my body then my mind. That just the little things of living day by day would mature me. Today I can see what you meant. I’m really glad you brought us to Cyprus Robert, these people are so different to anything I’ve known before.”

The next day we decided to ‘jump’ to Israel. As we arrived I wondered how the security obsessed people of this country would react if they knew how easily we had entered without them being aware of it. If, in the future, more and more people can teleport, will they give up on trying to control who visits, or will they develop systems to block teleporters from coming to their country? Okay, I tried to ‘invent’ what kind of systems they could use, but the answer was too easy - all they have to do is have cameras connected to computers with teleportation arrival (sudden appearance) software placed all over their country. Since they do have a government, it means it is bound to happen anyway, so that they can control their own people.

We walked into Tel Aviv and took a tour bus to Haifa. On the way we stopped at a diamond cutting workshop. We were shown around and I could not resist it, I bought a beautiful stone, clear without any flaws and perfectly cut, for Dommi - it is so rarely I can think of doing something special for her. I promised to have it set for her in a ring of her choice back in Greece. To sell me the diamond they needed my passport. It was too late to back out, so I gave it to them, explaining that the separate sheet of paper with the immigration stamp I had forgotten in my briefcase back at our hotel. They accepted my explanation as most visitors do not have their passports stamped in case they should want to travel to an Arab country. They pointed out I must make sure I keep the paper in my passport otherwise it could cause us problems if the police ask for it. I realised the information of my purchase of the diamond will be sent on to the Israeli security department - and they will be puzzled as they will not find a record of my entering the country since my last visit and departure. It made me realise again how careful we have to be. For a few days I worried, imagining their security agents investigating me. It is a real worry, since we cannot stand such an investigation without our strangeness being exposed.

Haifa was interesting. Especially once we had taken a taxi up to the old part, away from the port. We walked around just enjoying the different atmosphere and smells of their restaurants. We sat at an outdoor café and had ice cream, then walked till we found ourselves alone and jumped back to our hotel room.

Dommi shook her head. “I cannot believe we went to Israel and did not go to Bethlehem or Jerusalem, we did not see the river Jordan or the Dead Sea. All we did is buy a diamond, look at shops, have an ice cream and return.”

465

“You want to see the biblical places love?” She agreed. “Fine, so we go again, whenever you want.”

Apart from swimming and seeing the underground Tomb of Kings next to Paphos, we took a short drive to a tiny village called Emba. I had hoped that as it is closer to the foothills, it might have something of interest. I had hoped in vain, but we did not leave without something interesting to remember the day.

As we walked around, eating our ice creams on a stick, we passed by a house with a big gate, blocking the small garden. An old man who looked as if he is starving to death stood by the gate. His rheumy eyes met mine and I saw amusement. I stopped to nod a greeting and offered him a small smile.

“You are English?” I confirmed it and showed my surprise that he could speak English. “Come inside, the children can sit in the shade and eat some grapes - I have one vine, but it grows the sweetest grapes in Cyprus.” He went in and returned with a knife and plastic bowl and handing them over to Dommi, he almost ordered her to cut some grapes for them to eat. For me he brought a glass of wine and some halloumi, a few olives and a couple of slices of horiatiko (village) bread.

“I am Stathis. In the old days, which is when I was born, I learnt English because I did not wish to work in the fields. I come from a good family and my father was well educated, so I learnt English and the ways the British like to keep accounts. I became an oikonomos, which could be said to mean I was Steward - but I was more of a treasurer for the village. As I said, it happened in the old days, and at that time, if you became an oikonomos, then people named you Oiconomou, and so it is that I became Stathis…or, Efstathios Oiconomou.” He grinned and I thought he looked like a naughty skeleton. “There is a man of Emba who has some olive trees, a few sheep and many katsikes (goats). He really loves his female katsikes and if this were the old times, he would be known as Kyrios Katsikas.” He chortled with amusement and was pleased that I ‘caught’ his allusion and also chuckled.

He pressed a beer on me and since my loves were sharing from me and enjoying themselves (and the grapes were sweet and they had started on their third bunch of grapes), I accepted the bottle. He looked at the gate and back at me. “You want to know why this is the only house with such a big gate?” I nodded. “I married a woman because she was handsome and strong and she gave me thirteen children, twelve boys and one girl. Only three boys lived to grow into men and they have left Cyprus to make money. Later, they asked us to go to them, but I realised that if I stay, I will be alone, without my wife, so I refused to leave, but sent her to look after them. It is what they mean when they say the sins of the father are passed on to the sons?” The girls pretended they were not amused when I gave a surprised laugh, but I could sense them secretly chortling.

His eyes dimmed with a sadness that feels as if it comes from his soul. “It is said all men want sons. Because I only had one, the death of my daughter, when she was fourteen, saddened me the most. The sons who died, when the priest told me our God had called them to him, I did not complain. But when he used the same words at the death of my daughter, I grew angry and waited until he was at the kafeneion so that I could ask my question of him and his God in front of everyone. I asked, when our children are born, is it not said they are a blessing and we must thank God for the gift? He nodded and spoke with that wise air priests use, and said I spoke correctly. I then asked, if God takes our children so that they die before the parents, it must then be the opposite of a blessing and I wanted to know, are their deaths then curses from our God - and is He cursing us our innocent children? He is not a well educated man and does not read books as I do, and needed time to think, for he knows I will not accept any answer like his friend Kyrios Katsikas would. I then told him that having and losing children are neither blessings nor curses, that they are only toys for a bored god to amuse himself with. I then stated that any god who is cruel enough to take the life of a child cannot be my god - and I publicly renounce him.” He looked as if his eyes were lost in examining images from the past. He shook his head and smiled. “It is why I am not welcome at the kafeneion and cannot invite you there.”

I leant forward. “Efstathio, as you see, I have daughters and the thought of them dying would cause grief to steal my reason. Tell me instead of the gate.”

“Roberto, for an Egglezos, you are a good man, listening to a foolish old man for so long. May I tell you another story which will also answer the question you asked? There is one day each year, when the fasting ends, when every door is opened to all who wish to visit and eat at your table. If you lived here, you would open your door to everyone?”

“I have not given it any thought, but I enjoy having visitors for a meal.”

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He nodded in agreement. “As do I - if I invite them. One year, on such a day, I closed the door and would not allow my wife to open it, for I knew that those who visit will be the ones I do not respect or like. As I told you, I thought my wife was a strong woman, but she was weak, she could not think for herself and it caused her more pain to have the neighbours say we do not respect our traditions than it caused her when she told everyone that it is I who is a crazy old man, impossible to live with. I refused to allow her to open the door and when a few drunken fools tried to open the door, ignoring my wishes, I decided I would place a big gate which I can lock with chains.” He looked me in the eyes. “What is the truth, Roberto?”

“I might be wrong, but I think you made an important mistake which cost you dearly. You are obviously a man who thinks for himself and is not a slave to the opinions of others - especially when they are not capable of thinking an original thought.” His eyes brightened. “A man like you should not have stayed in a village. You should have moved to a large town where people are more tolerant of those who are educated and find pleasure in thinking their own thoughts. There, I think, you would have met others whose company and friendship you would have enjoyed.”

The girls did not show it until we’d left, but at the end he had depressed them. Not because they felt he’d been wrong, but because he wasted his life, living without family to love him and friends to share their lives with him. The odd thing is that both they and I find that we like him.

I was pleased when Rosie made a comment about his education having turned him into a misfit so that he did not enjoy living with his fellow villagers. I of course grabbed the opportunity. “I hope all of you realise we are in danger of becoming just like him?”

Cherine asked, “You mean, because of our gifts?”

“Yes, we are developing at a fast pace in directions the rest of the world is not, so we’ll be stuck among people who do not care about others and life in general as we do - which will make us both vulnerable and lonely…that’s in the future, for now, we are going to have some fun.”

The next day we drove around the island, going to the other end, at Aghia Napa, where we saw dozens of windmills and the abandoned city of Famagusta in the distance, on the Turkish occupied side. We found a room and booked there for a night. The town streets and shops were full of mostly Scandinavian tourists, with lots of older teen girls who were definitely easy on my eyes. The girls, my younger ones, got jealous when they noticed my eyes kept returning to a Swedish girl of about seventeen. She was slim, her flat sun tanned belly bare, with pretty well formed breasts that were, I imagine, just the right size to fill my palm. Long, very long legs almost boyish in their slimness (I’ve seen American writers call such legs coltish, but it evokes the wrong kind of images in my mind J). What kept catching my attention was the unbelievable texture of her skin. The fact that she has deep honey long hair, green-brown eyes and is in total a dream girl was not the only reasons why I kept staring. I was truly entranced by her skin, so smooth and satiny, like a child’s. My girls were all convinced I found her fascinating because she has breasts. I promised to project them all with breasts, even the wee ones are welcome to join, and we’ll go to a disco and dance the night away. That meant we had to rush off for them to choose new clothes. Though what they wanted, to my mind should have been cheap, as they were nothing more than tiny strips of cloth, they cost the earth.

I was walking around with a stupid grin on my face and the girls were curious. For a while I pretended it is a secret and refused to explain.

“These guys, the Cypriot Casanovas in particular, they are going to go nuts when they see me with six of the most beautiful girls on the island. They won’t be able to figure out what such lovely girls see in me. Not that I can.” I modestly added. I missed the usual assurances such a statement earns me and tried to feel whether they are genuinely angry with me because of my open interest in the Swedish girl.

Dommi stopped walking and we all looked at her. With the two babies in her arms, she stood with a grave look on her face, looking very much like a too-young teenage wife. “Maybe we should split up. Roberto you take Diana with you so that you still have the prettiest girl with you. That way we all can find ourselves a handsome ‘friend’ for tonight.”

My heart dropped to my feet till I saw the spark of humour in her mind. “Fat chance. If I have to put up with all of you all day and night, then I have my moment of glory.”

467

“Put up with us!!” echoed around me as they all protested.

Dommi carried on sweetly. “But Roberto mou, if you only have Diana with you, maybe you can persuade that little Swedish girl to join you for a night of kinky fun. You won’t even notice that we are not with you.”

“Dommi how can you talk like that in front of the children. Anyway, I am sure she is not that stupid, why would she want to be with me when there are so many handsome and well built guys here. No, I’ll make do with you lot.”

In the middle of this teasing, which remained good-natured, Cherine tugged at my arm. Her face had that mysterious smile I’ve learnt often portends trouble for me and as I gazed at it in rapture they all stopped and looked at her.

“Tina and Rosie say we are not six for tonight.” She waited a second. “They told Meli what we are doing and she wants to join us.”

Chapter Fifty Seven

“Mum says it is okay, she can come.”

“And Alki?”

“He says you touch his daughter he is going to cut your balls off.”

I grinned. “That’s okay, I’ll just grow another lot, she’ll be worth it.”

She hit me. “Not funny.”

“I’m surprised Sam didn’t also decide to come.”

“She can’t leave her mummy now silly.”

“I was being sarcastic honey. Why do you all act as if I am some sex-crazed loony?” None of them answered me. “Oh come on! Surely that’s not how you girls see me?”

“I bet you would go for that Swedish girl if you could.”

“Is that what this is all about? I love this - you girls are for the first time ever, actually jealous. Oh I’m going to treasure this.”

Dommi said, with a sudden spark of real anger, “Jealous or not Roberto, you leave that tramp alone. She is not seventeen, she is fifteen and has already got syphilis. The way she is going she will probably have Aids soon.”

I felt the blood drain from my face. “That was not you speaking Dommi. How can you...”

“Just because she looks angelic Roberto, because she has long slim legs? You think that is what her heart is like?”

“No…I don’t know. She just looked so sweet.”

Cherine asked, but without any anger or jealousy, “You have no defences against beauty, have you Robert?” I sensed she had picked up that thought from Dommi.

“No Cherine, I don’t. I also find it difficult to turn my back on something like this. She is not much more than a child. How can we be so heartless as to just write her off with a ‘she will probably have Aids soon’?”

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I saw the sadness in Cherine’s eyes. “Dommi was not guessing Robert. She is going to screw with that Cypriot guy in the black shirt we saw with her. He is bitter, he knows he has Aids, he got it from a tourist and is trying to screw every foreigner he can for revenge.”

“Cherine, Dommi, I cannot sit back and let this happen. You go to our room to change for tonight while I take care of him.” I was angry with them, but more angry with the young guy. To deliberately destroy a life, a child! I was after blood.

Cherine grabbed my hand. “I’m not leaving you Robert. Anyway, you are not being fair. You did not look in his heart. He has been hurt. He was really in love with the girl who gave him Aids. Just before she left, in a very nasty way, she told him she has Aids. She had done it for revenge also.” Tears were in her eyes. “I keep forgetting how horrible some people can be.”

“Then you come with me, help me find him. Maybe we can turn this around.”

“He is at her room, they are getting ready to make love.”

“’Port us there. Now!”

“How? I’ve never been there - I can’t see where they are through her mind, I don’t know her well enough yet.”

“Is it far?”

“About three blocks.” She ran after me as I ran. I had to slow down for her to keep up so that she could show me where to go. I called on the healer to give us both the stamina. We got there in good time, but I knew they were already making love. As we stood outside their room my eyes must have showed my feelings for Cherine held me back.

“Not while you are angry Robert. Please?”

Hardly hearing her voice above the thunder of my rage, I used the protector to smash the door open. As I entered, I looked in their minds, ignoring my own rules.

“You happy now Andrea? You succeeded. You gave her Aids. You got your revenge eh? You do know she is only a child, just fifteen? By the way, Britta, you also gave him syphilis. Do you both reckon you are even now?” I stood over them shaking with anger. Cherine did not come in, staying at the door where she could see me, but they could not see her.

He looked at her angrily. “You got syphilis! You give me syphilis you bitch?” He turned on me. “Who the fuck you are?”

“I am the one who is going to show you what you did - both of you.”

He jumped up, launching himself at me, a blind rage driving him, the shock had been too much for him. My protector grabbed him and threw him back against the wall. After the thud he collapsed on the floor where he lay dazed. The girl had seen him being hurled from me without my touching him. She was now truly terrified.

“Get dressed, both of you. If you do not obey I will make you feel pain in parts of your body you did not know existed.” They both complied out of fear, though the trembling slowed them a little.

Without taking my eyes off the two of them, I asked Cherine, “Girlie. Get help if you have to, I want them and me sent to our landing beach.” I reached out and touched them.

Within a second we were there. Soon as he recovered from the shock, he tried to run, but his legs collapsed under him.

“Okay, I’ll start with you. And you,” I turned to the girl, “watch carefully. This is what is waiting for you too.”

469

My healer was primed and knew exactly what to do - not that it did not protest, for I had not explained my intentions, but I was inflexible and it yielded - but I was certain it would exact a price from me later, after all, it is a part of me and does not forgive coercion (ζόρισμα).

Time seemed to be compressed for them. As the disease ate into him, compounded now by the effects of syphilis, he turned into a skeleton and sores opened all over his body. I forced the girl to watch, paralysing her body so that she could not close her eyes or stop herself from hearing his screaming. My protector took over, thrusting at Cherine, gently throwing her back to be with the others so as not to see what I am doing. She instantly reappeared, her little fists by her side. I told it to leave her alone.

His cries of pain turned to despair as he felt himself dying. I kept him at that stage long enough for the nightmare to penetrate her numb mind also. I let him, as far as she could see, die in screams of agony. By now, Cherine, guessing my wishes, had linked them to each other and the girl felt his agony and then his death.

Cherine was badly shaken, thinking this was all really happening, but her trust in me did not waver.

“Now it is your turn.”

As I pointed at the girl, Cherine cried into my mind, pleading with me not to. I ordered her to keep the links between them open and restored him for Cherine to see, but not the girl. He lay without moving and I forced him to watch the girl.

“This is what you have condemned her to you bastard.”

She went through the whole procedure and by the time she was dying he was screaming, wanting to really die.

I restored them both. They stared at each other, unbelieving and in shock.

“You both listen carefully to me, or else I will get angry again. Britta, you were planning to go back home and leave him to suffer your disease. Now you can go knowing the suffering you condemned him to. You were not hallucinating or dreaming this. I showed you the real future. The pain, the agony he will go through.

Andrea. Your crime was far worse. You are much older, you sweet talked your way just to infect a child with Aids, knowing it will kill her. I hope seeing what you did gave you satisfaction. You will not have to imagine what she is going through. You have seen. She will suffer and die the way you saw, felt and hoped.”

Sternly I stared at them. “I hope you are both happy now. You have seen the fruits of your revenge.”

My only miscalculation for a while was the strongest impression and terror of what they are going to suffer, not what the other will go through. They sobbed.

“I will not suffer that way. I will kill myself.” She nodded, agreeing with him.

I sat away from them. Cherine joined me. There was no anger in her eyes, only a questioning look as she asked, “Was this right Robert?”

“I don’t know my love. If it works, yes, if not, then no. I’m hoping they are both still young enough for us to succeed.”

She was dragging her useless legs over the sand. When she reached him she began to hammer him with her fists. He covered his face, but did not resist. I began to hope.

Finally they had been through the whole gamut of their anger and terror. As she lay crying, close to him, he seemed to see her for the first time. We sensed the anguish he felt at the knowledge of what he has done. Cherine turned eyes brimming with tears to me.

470

“Britta, I am sorry. So sorry. There is nothing I can do to change what I did.” Haltingly he told her what had happened to him, why he had done this to her. She was too close to childhood and it is likely it would have made it difficult for her to understand his pain, but being linked she felt it in herself. An understanding of her own part in this finally matured her.

“Andrea, can you do one thing for me?”

“Anything I can.”

“Can you please kill me, soon as he lets us go - if he does. I do not want to suffer like…we did, I am afraid, but I am not brave enough to kill myself.”

He agreed and with this compact binding them and their link affecting them, he put his arms around her and held her to him, his anguished eyes turned to me. “If you have any pity, please tell me why you did this. You have made us suffer what we are to suffer anyway. Why not spare us going through it a second time, kill us now. I know you can.”

I crouched by them and touched them each gently. “You did not suffer what you will suffer anyway, Andrea, if you think so, it means you have not understood. I wished you to feel what the other will suffer, so that you know what you condemned each other to. As for killing; I cannot kill.” I sat staring out to the horizon. Their eyes turned to Cherine as she came up to me and put her hand on my shoulder. They looked back at me and saw I was looking at them both.

“You do not need to answer me. Just answer to yourselves. If this night were undone, you had the chance to re-live it, would you do again to the other what you did?” I saw from Cherine the answer in their hearts. Not out of fear of me (that was there), but as a result of realising how wrong they had been. “Andrea. You explained to her why you did this. Britta, you want to tell him why you did it, why you wanted revenge?” She shook her head in refusal.

“Then I shall have to. He must know why too, if his heart is to heal and forgive as you did...”

“No, I will tell him.” Ashamed, but determined to get it over with, she told him about the friend of her father, how she had a crush on him. Of the night he decided to seduce her when she was thirteen. Of how she thought he loved her and she felt so proud that an older man wanted her. Of her disillusion and pain when she discovered he had used her just as he used prostitutes to satisfy his own needs, infecting her. Shamed she had fled, coming to Cyprus. She felt sickened by the Cypriot boys who began to chase her and finally in anger and to get revenge at men, she decided to pass on the disease, make them suffer also. Since he was the one chasing her at that time, refusing to accept a ‘no’, she decided he would be the first.

The response of Andreas was gentle. “Britta. What you did was not so bad. I could have had a few injections and healed. I am the one who tried to kill you. Now, if I could, I would rather have killed myself first.”

“If I turn back time for you, will you do that?” His eager look, his feeling that there might be some form of miracle for his redemption, to undo his evil act, convinced me.

“I am sorry. There will be no discos for the two of you tonight. I am going to leave you both here for some hours. Get to know each other. Talk. At least it will pass the time. I am going to do something for both of you, but I will need you both to swear to me that you will not talk to others of this, that you will not betray me. While you wait here, I will be inside you, healing you both. When you see me again you will both be fully cured. No syphilis, no Aids.”

I felt Cherine crying with them as she put her arms around my neck from behind. The healer had been sent a while ago into them, into the girl first. It knew by now how to handle the diseases, Richard had been a good teacher for it.

Gently, softly, I spoke to my teary-eyed Cherine. “Time for us to leave girlie - we have a date to go dancing tonight…though I’m curious as to who you will be dancing with.” She gave me the smile I was hoping for.

Next Post 046

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

Αλέξανδρος Ζήνον Ευσταθίου

(Alexander Zenon Eustace)
^{4th April, 2019}

* posted on Steemit: 4th April, 2019



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