Little Cherine Book 06 - BPost046

“We fear he will stop loving us.”

He looked at Dommi and then back at Candy. “I think not.”

Previous: Book 06 - Post 045

3951

Dommi spoke firmly. “It was wrong of you to ask and wrong of Theresa to show you. You have had to face an alien pain you were never meant to by your nature. We cannot undo what has happened, but we can try to heal you. Come back with us?”

He did not reply and Candy softly cried. “Robert is not like those men, no Cherinian man is.”

“He comes from a world of such men Candy, the seed lies within him.”

“There is no species apart from the Sparklers that is unable to kill and hurt. What seeds exist in us are not what counts Iziko. Only which ones we cultivate.”

He nodded his agreement with Dommi. “I will return.”

Soon as they returned, Dommi grabbed me and asked for privacy. “Sam, you said you would get rid of the photos in the diary by encrypting them, the ones Robert put in. Get rid of them now.”

“Arthur has to Dommi. It will not help if only I do.”

“Then tell him to do so immediately.”

There you are Arthur, I had not been writing because of Estella, but I’ve brought the diary up to date for your sake. Will you do as Dommi asks please?

Robbie had it out with Allan and we returned to collect the local Allan, his brothers and sister and parents. The father is elderly, but we can see and feel that he is special and when younger again will be very handsome. What with nephews, nieces and so on, we built a separate village for them.

We’ve done as Arthur wanted, but I will not be trying to chat with him again. He said, himself, some time ago, it is a waste of time trying to help those who have no wish to help themselves. He should have added it is also a waste of time and an ache trying to love those who do not love themselves.

(Allan: Say something you idiot. You’ve hurt our Sam because she cares for you!)

Allan was not paying attention and did not realise Arthur changed the prophesy - he did not use his chat font, so it has changed. What does the change mean? How am I supposed to fight? Does he really think I would not if I could think of a way to do so?

3952

Bringing everyone to Freddie was the easy part. Robbie has placed everyone in stasis. Only his little dark-eyed angel has woken up. She was so happy to see a face she knows. Theresa made her own age be the same as when she was taken and now her little friend stays close to her. Theresa will not allow us to heal her and washes her panties for her.

Theresa allowed me to see her thoughts and has invited me to share for the sake of the diary.

She wants Perikli to heal her, but she says, not yet. Gradually every day she is finding reasons to leave Kirra (as Theresa renamed her) for longer and longer with Perikli. She is still frightened of him and is waiting for him to pull her panties off or make her suck him. Ten minutes with her breaks his heart and his fierce scowl then frightens her. Theresa is not worried about it, she says Kirra is hungering for a father’s love and she will open up to him with time.

We are travelling to the teams Robbie is to collect for terraforming the destroyed Terra. Yes, I know, after saying we must not heal Terra first, Robbie gave in because of us and the popular demand by all the species. It would not have been nice of us to refuse them when they are being so big-hearted and loving towards us.

Freddie is really going to get crowded soon. Well, the nineteen had wanted to see Robbie save a whole planet. They forgot that when we collect our teams we will have to first bring back the species of the planet they healed. We will not be bringing back the whole population, but still, the numbers will be impressive. The Inguel will study the planet and estimate how many it can support without suffering too much damage again and those we bring back will have food machines. We have realised that pollution by their wastes is the biggest problem and it is a pity we can’t put their wastes into the food machines and turn it into something useful.

A couple of hours have passed since I wrote the above, as I was abducted. As I finished the paragraph, Robbie came in with a number of laughing girls.

“Another shitty idea Sam?”

“What?”

Laughing he picked me up and swung me onto his shoulders. He jumped to the scientists and told them what I’d written and asked if food machines can be adapted. They asked what we would want the waste converted to. Robbie suggested clean water and a natural biological fertiliser - a rich natural loam. The last will have to be adapted to each planet. Robbie then took us to the taverna where he proudly told everyone about my idea. I was embarrassed because, though I’d written the words, I’d not been thinking of actually doing it and felt he deserved the praise, not me.

Soon as we arrived, Kinytians dashed off to dead planets within the solar system and when they returned they carried what would have been shiploads of pipes. The adapted food machines were attached to them and the girls built halls that stretched for hundreds of metres to house the returning population.

This was not a pretty world and the life forms, sentient or otherwise, are ugly to us. As they woke up and looked around, they seemed to understand the situation immediately and went about gathering materials and making alterations to the buildings.

Robbie managed to make one of them watch him and when it understood the principle of the food machines it walked away. It did teach others of its kind and one of them came to stand by Robbie. He tried to communicate with it, but since he had no more marvels to show it, he was soon abandoned. He rose into the air and entered the platform we were watching from. Cherine had the cheekiest look you can imagine and Robbie stopped frowning and laughed.

We stayed to watch them transforming all we’d prepared for them and Robbie decided we might as well return the rest of their people now. We did so and without any kind of notice being paid to us, we left.

“Did they have an advanced civilisation at the time they were attacked?”

“No.”

“I thought not. I doubt they are fully sentient, not in the way we think of sentience. They have a limited practical ability and almost no imagination or creativity.”

3953

“What will happen when their food machines break down?”

“They will probably revert to their old systems. I would not bother returning here for a few thousand years.”

Alki and Nicko were grinning at each other. Nicko asked, “Well Robert, how did it feel not being thanked and worshipped?”

He grinned back. “Just a small thank you would have been appreciated, otherwise I’m happy.”

Nicko could not resist asking, “No little females of theirs fell in love with you?” That was more hilarious than just writing about it seems - you would have had to see their females.

“We don’t even have a name for them!” Cassie complained.

“I’m surprised the fire-world thought they were worth attacking.” Rosie said with a grin.

“Girls, come on, just because they did not show appreciation we don’t have to get catty. Think up a name for them.”

“The Dants.”

“Dants? Okay.” Robbie was not happy with the name, but Jade was not letting him see why she chose the name. By the time he’d realised it stood for ‘Dumb Ants’ it was too late. He knows she is going to giggle every time we use the name. We collected the Kinytians and Inguel, their ships, trees and workshops and left.

When they were told about the cause of death of Terra it upset them, but they asked he arrive there a hundred years after the war. The Kinytians went to Terra on their own, made their analysis and returned. They chose to speak through Chantel.

“We found long-life radioactive materials all over the planet. If you do not wish to wait a million years we will have to scrub the planet.”

“Can you do that?”

“Yes. It would be easier to terraform another planet for these people.”

“I have my reasons for wishing to repair this planet, if you agree.”

“Give us five hundred years and return for us to report. Robert, we have not handled this kind of problem before and we can only try.”

“Thank you.” He sat pensively staring at a screen, the planet below us a dirty colour, covered entirely in clouds with lightning flashing everywhere. A storm that must have been terrible caused a disturbance and for a short period we saw the land below it. Dommi cried out and grief was felt by many of us. As if the planet wanted to remind us why it needed our help, we had seen Greece, or what there is of it now. I wept for my Athens and the glory of the Parthenon that is no more. Robbie sighed and shut his eyes.

As the void he went to Earth (yes, Earth, our mother world, not just Terra, this is an emotional moment) and beneath the clouds he battled with the energies. Suddenly he took form in Freddie and called to Chantel, “Send me one Kinytian, I need advice.” Soon as he had wrapped it within him he disappeared.

Alki said to me, “We must not allow this to happen to our Athens. If he must interfere then we do so.” I nodded, knowing we will.

Robbie was gone for days. We took turns keeping his body healthy, unable to animate it as we did not know when he will need to return.

As he opened his eyes, he told us, “I tried removing the radioactivity from an area, but I was not successful. The energy being emitted is the result of action at atomic levels which I cannot affect. We have to find a way to stop that action.”

3954

We were all shaken. When Robbie gets the way he was when he left, he always manages what he set out to do. This is his first failure. We were too depressed to help much with suggestions. Hours later Athia said, “What you described sounds like Terra has cancer.”

He nodded and then stared at her, lost in thought. “Do you think that could work?” He came to. “Girls, friends, your healers please.”

Cherine stopped us. “No Robert. First you eat and sleep. Give your body time to recover and then you can try it.”

“Please Cherine. I promise not to stay for long, let me try even one tiny spot so that we know whether we can. I cannot rest without knowing.”

“I’ll come with then.”

The next day the healer of Alki returned and he shouted with joy. “It worked! They are healing Athens.” He burst into tears.

That evening Robbie and Cherine returned and our healers felt exhausted to us. Ignoring the condition his body is in, Robbie drank a beer and smoked, his face alight and his emoting filling everyone with his joy. Kyria Maria brought him a thick underdone steak with chips and salad and he ate it like a starving man does. He sipped at his third bottle of beer, carefully put down the bottle, pushed his plate away and folding his arms on the table his head dropped and he fell asleep. We let the Sparklers take him and lay him out on our bed. Without an apology we all jumped home and we insisted Cherine and Dommi lie next to him and all went to sleep.

When Robbie and Cherine had returned they had been exultant because of their success. The next morning he was gloomy. Everyone was depressed as they listened to him. “It is a slow process and costs the healers. They must return to their bodies often to renew themselves. We have thousands of healers on Freddie but we need millions. Tens of millions.”

Less than four months later the Kinytians announced the planet is healed of the poisonous radiations and the rest they can repair over a few thousand years. I have not been writing these months because Freddie kept on jumping forward in time by a week and we needed all our concentration and energy to help our healers recover. Dancing in the void helped the healers, but made us miserable as Robbie was not with.

We thought Freddie would now jump forward to the date Terra will be habitable again, but first we waited until Robbie had recovered and then he insisted he has a job to do as the void. He wants to find the Sparklers and Anadir. He was persuaded to take with him four of the eight and six of the nineteen, plus Solomon and Ordinx. He decided he wants at least one of us with to keep him aware of our love and took Elpida and Lucy.

One day, while waiting, I asked for privacy and went to my waterfall. I swam in the pool, lay on my towel until the warmth had dried me, snoozed a little and then went to my hiding hole behind the curtain of water. I made myself comfortable and let my mind roam, searching for what was bothering me.

3955

Any person is bound to have many details of things that should not have been said, that should not have been heard or done in their mind. I dismissed most of them as they swam up to cry for my attention. I nearly missed it when it came floating by. I stopped it, examined it and wondered. Why had Arthur added to the prophesy, what does he know about prophesying, what did his words mean? I put it aside for thinking on later and went back through the diary, examining the last chats. It became apparent something is wrong. Ever since he wrote of his fear of dying, of his family being harmed, he has not been the personality that charmed me and made me love him. I saw I have been thoughtless, not thinking of what it means to be a Normal and living with the fears he does. I do not think he is bitter because of me, something else is making him unhappy. Is his life a mess, is he desperate? Did he believe in us and hope we would find him and he has now lost hope? Has he decided he is crazy and I am just a figment of his imagination?

I thought of his situation from his side, how he must see it. He asked us to collect him and what does he hear we try to do? We set Lynda the task of looking for him a couple of hours each day and then moan to him that she cannot. I would not be convinced I was really wanted if I was in his place. His anger with Allan, does he suspect that Allan is trying to hinder or discourage us from finding him? So many questions, so many blind spots I’ve allowed. Estella would have been more loyal, I thought, and I wept deep inside at the thoughts that must be going through his mind. I recalled my nasty words and his answer to Allan; he did not ask that I show I care for him, he demanded I try to help myself so that I can be his friend. It is amazing how an insight can change the meaning of so many words.

‘Okay Arthur,’ I said to myself, ‘perhaps there is more we could do to find you. I do not know what, but we will. Now, what is it you expect me to do about my loop? What did you mean with those extra words, how could it be that I never came? Are you disputing I came from the future? Somehow I do not think so. What then? Are you saying we have interpreted where I came from incorrectly? You’ve set me a strange puzzle and since I know you love me, you think I will find the answer. Oh Arthur, if only you’d let me know you see some kind of hope for me and however intricate your puzzle I’ll keep at it.’

For a while it was as if Arthur was somewhere just out of sight, as if his voice was trying to reach me. I tried with all my heart to reach for him, to send at least my love, so as to give him whatever comfort he’d find in it, but it was as if the void stole it all so that he could not feel me.

When I left the waterfall I did not jump home immediately. I walked for a long time, allowing the beauty of the wild country surrounding me to colour my mind and bring it back to life. I’d decided to reach the brow of a low hill and then jump home. As I did and I saw miles of trees, grass and bush, I realised something. I’d been asking Arthur to offer me some kind of hope, when he has already done just that. Those words, the puzzle, why else would he give them to me? With my heart floating among the clouds I jumped home to many arms that ached to hold me. Arthur, you crotchety old bastard, I love you - and thanks.

I bare my soul and he plays at being a dictionary? Not just crotchety, cantankerous too! Happy now?

Robbie came back feeling a little depressed as he’d not found what he was looking for. He stayed away from the Unation Worlds, but knowing they are there and can soon be companions and helping the Cherinians of this Terra, helped make him patient. He says that through the thousands and millions of years that we will be visiting this reality, he is certain he’ll find both the Sparklers and Anadir. The ten alien guests he took with are in awe of him and we heard later that they got into a philosophical debate as to what the definition of the word ‘god’ is. They have no intention of calling Robbie a god, as they’ve seen what he did to Ordinx and are afraid he might do something worse next time and if we cannot bring him back they will be responsible for his death.

Freddie jumped a thousand years, the report asked for about ten thousand so we jumped again. Many Terrans had tears in their eyes when the planet appeared on our screens. The Kinytians and Inguel arrived in Freddie to report success. There are many new animals (mutations) but nothing that is likely to be a threat to Man.

I doubt any of the twenty seven slept in a bed during the next weeks. Every time they could go on a platform with Robbie they did so, as we jumped back to a time, months before the war and the healers collected tissue samples for Robbie to hold in stasis. Then as the missiles exploded and life was extinguished on the planet, Sparklers collected the souls. The Anadir and Sparklers helping could not all fit in Freddie, filling the other half also, and Robbie expanded a field of energy outside to carry them all with us through time. On their arrival Robbie releases tissue and the souls that belong to those bodies are joined to them.

3956

The population of Terra was about fourteen billion. On examination it turned out that over half of them had died past their fiftieth birthday. We discussed the ethics of it, but necessity has to assume a large part of the responsibility. We did not bring them back and have allowed the Sparklers to hold them for sending to be born as new personalities. With the Sparklers not causing pain, many of them may recall their previous life. The Sparklers do not mind waiting here for a few thousand years if needed. Of the remaining seven billion, we found that over two and a half billion cannot become Cherinians within their lifetime, so we also left them with the Sparklers. Returning four and a half billion (a large percentage of them still children) to a planet that has no cities, roads, ships and so on will make life very difficult for them, but we had no other choices.

We still had all those we’d collected earlier in stasis near Freddie. We cannot just release them back on their home world. It is important we coax, cajole, manipulate and open their hearts and minds and send them back as Cherinians. It was decided that those of us who have an alternate among them should take responsibility for them. Those who belong to our family have the same duty, but they have the rest of the family to fall back on for help.

Robbie set Eddie free first, keeping his mind blocked. He forced him to listen to our Eddie and Hettie without allowing him to do anything foolish. When they decided it was safe Robbie released the block, and now able to share minds with his alter ego he became a convert. He helped with Hettie. Before releasing her, Robbie had to lift her high above the ground so that the frozen residue of her old attack does not cause any harm. Waking up a thousand metres above the surface was a shock and gave her Eddie time to talk to her before she tried anything.

For those of you of the past and those of the future, neither of you can know what sweetness there is in finding the person you love as they were originally and feeling their hearts and minds blossom all over again. Which of us for instance could bear not to be part of our pappou Alki? What a continuous struggle it was to avoid linking or bonding to any of them! That was the bitter part of the sweet, but we all treasured those moments. Only when friends and family outside of our circle had finished did we awaken Cherine. We let her family and Robert stay asleep.

Only our Cherine, also as an eight year old, and her Dominique and Aganthi were allowed to be with. Our Robbie is in the mind of our Cherine, sharing directly, and the rest of us shared through our link, also able to sense everything as if her body were ours. Perhaps, in certain instances, we could even sense more clearly than Robbie, but he could not bear to stay away.

“Where am I, how did I get here? Where is my daddy?” She did not immediately recognise herself in our Cherine.

Dominique who was about eighteen tried to soothe her. “Don’t be afraid koukla mou, your daddy is sleeping. We have some magic to show you and then you can sleep again if you want.”

She was staring at Cherine by now and pulled away from Dominique, as if her presence slightly frightened her - not surprising, since she is foreign to her with her Greek looks and ways.

Cherine gave a cheeky grin. “You’ve guessed who I am?”

“You look like me! But you are not me, I am.”

“That’s right sweetheart. I’m like a sister, even if you don’t have a sister yet. I’ve been worried about you and came to help you.”

“I don’t need your help.” she answered proudly.

“You do Cherine. You have a secret, a funny way of sometimes feeling what other people feel. That is a very special gift you have, but you did not look after it and it is sort of sleeping. I want to help you wake it up.”

“No!” She balled up her fists and Cherine grinned.

“I’m going to sit next to you because I want to show you something.” She did so without being told to stay away, as Cher had wanted her to. “Look at your knees, you have two scars. You also have that ugly scar above your ankle. You have some other small scars on your arms. You like to run and play games and every now and then you fall and hurt yourself. I bet you would like to grow up and be the prettiest girl in the world, but with all the scars you will have by then, I don’t think you will feel very pretty. How would you like your scars to disappear?”

3957

“I saw that on telly. Doctors cut you and take away the scars. No thank you!” She shook her head.

“Look at me Cherine, see, my legs are clean, no scars. I don’t have any scars anywhere. With a little bit of magic I can make all your scars disappear also. It won’t hurt, I promise.”

Affronted she replied, “I’m not scared!”

“How could you be, you are a Cherine. Look at your scars and say bye-bye to them as they disappear.”

When they were gone she examined herself. “That was neat! How did you do that?”

“It is part of our gift. I know your gift frightens you, but…”

“It does not! It’s just silly. It makes me cry when someone else is crying. Everyone will think I’m a crybaby.”

“That is the bad side of it. Let me show you how good it can be.” Cherine took the love in herself for us, used our love for her and soon she had a tiny ring of golden light swirling around her. She kept it as weak as she could and sent it to Cher. With a beauteous rapt ecstasy she allowed it to fill her. Knowing she would be mellowed now, Cherine asked her if she would like to hear a story. She told her what an alternate reality is and then launched into the story of her life. She was now talking to an audience of three, the other two just as fascinated. She told of what her life had been like from a baby, the pains and joys of her gift, of her father finding out and she reached the part where her father left them. Cher had tightened her lips, but Cherine was engrossed in her telling, forgetting to monitor Cher, so it was a shock when Cher screamed that she is a liar, her daddy would never leave her, and she struck Cherine in the face.

*You messed that up love. You forgot how loyal you are. Careful how you react now.* She accepted Robbie’s admonishment and sat still, trying to work out how she should react, what would touch Cher? She thought of bringing her into her mind and showing her, but she realised there is a danger of Cher loving and fixating on our Robbie.

Inside, Cher was cowering, expecting retribution, and she could sense that our Cher is far more powerful, so had good reason to be afraid, but on the outside she glared at Cherine. Cherine thought of how insulated Cher has grown up compared to herself and of how she is going to have to teach her about pain and tears rolled down her cheeks. Despite her gift being stunted, Cher felt her sorrow and said in a plaintive voice, as if trying to justify to herself her violence, “My daddy would not leave me.”

Cherine nodded, agreeing. “Your daddy wouldn’t, but mine did. That is not what is hurting me Cherine. What I did is what hurts. Try to let yourself feel me and I’ll send to you how I felt.” She went deep into her own mind and brought out the little girl at the moment of her pain. Her call to her father, the anguish of a child betrayed hit every Cherinian in Freddie.

Almost unable to control himself her father appeared. Soon as he saw her he realised and kneeling before her he put his arms around her. “Shh, love, I’m here.”

“Tell her dad, she won’t believe me.”

His face sad, he did so. “I was very unhappy Cherine so I told her mother I was leaving. When Cherine returned from school, her mother told her and she sent out what you just felt. I was driving and when I felt her calling me with so much pain, I turned the car without looking so as to return to her. Another car was coming towards me and it hit me. I died within a couple of hours. My baby has carried the pain of feeling she killed me ever since then, even though she used her gifts to bring me back.”

With a wrench Cher realised this was not her father. She cried, “I want my daddy.”

Robbie told Cherine, *Take her to him my love. Seeing him will calm her. Poor Marian, she was right. You were fixated on your father, a real little daddy’s girl.*

*No wonder she loved you Robert, she needed a daddy.* Marian sent, getting her revenge for his comment. He took the sting out of it by agreeing with her. Cherine took her hand and they went to the next bedroom where the parents lay asleep, still in stasis. Cherine held on to her hand tightly so that she does not get close to them.

“You must not touch them Cherine. They won’t wake up until it is morning. As you can see, they are both here with you. Now we must go back so that I can do some more magic for you.”

3958

When the healer had rid her of her scars, it had also brought her body to its peak health. It meant she was also able to think more clearly now.

“I’m sorry I hit you. If your daddy died, how did you make him alive again? I can’t do that!”

“That is not a gift of mine Cherine. You first have to meet your own Robert and love him. Only then will you be strong enough. He is a remarkable man. There is no one else like him for any Cherine. Did I tell you there are millions of Cherines?” She explained about alternate realities again, being more careful to make her understand how small changes created them.

*Robert, Dommi, what do I do? I want to let her see in my mind the day I met Robert, but I’m afraid she will love him.*

Robbie sent her a grin. *Don’t. She does not need me, she has her daddy. You can show her, but it won’t mean anything yet.*

Dommi agreed with him. *She is a child, she is not as you were, your gift had matured you.*

*What do I do then? She must love her Robert!*

*Just become her friend. Forget about me for the time being. Tell her about Freddie. Let her see our world while Dommi and I wake her parents and explain what they must do. Her father is the key, only he can make her love her Robert. Be prepared for her pain love. She will have to suffer.* We all realised what Robbie intended asking her father to do and wept along with Cherine for her poor innocent sweet alter Cherine.

*No Robert. She must love Dominique first.*

*Work on that then.*

All work on Freddie has come to a stop. Everyone is sharing, some linked to others who are linked to others and so on. Everyone want to feel, experience and be a part of the birth of a new Cherine. Many hearts are troubled, a feeling that it is not right to manipulate a child this way, fighting their joy that there will be another Cherine to strengthen all Cherinians.

“We have a problem. For her Dominique to make her love her, she needs Cherinian gifts. She cannot become a Cherinian until her Cherine links her.”

“I don’t think so Marian. The gifts our Dommi has are a part of her original personality.”

Because it was on her mind, Meli complained, “We have a large number of people we should be doing a storytelling for, but others who must not be part of it yet.”

Luigi was concerned. “All of you, the family, seem to have a vague idea that you must recreate the conditions under which you linked and loved each other. There is no way you can achieve that and keeping all the children who are traumatised as they are is sickening everyone. Especially Theresa.”

“They are right Luigi. I healed Aganthi and now she sticks to me, sees me as her ‘angel’. Roberto should have stopped me.”

We are stumped. Arthur, can’t you just write that they all linked and went back to their Terra to live happy lives and let it be so for them?

3959

I’m glad. Arthur, if Samuel could have a Robert (Thina), maybe you can have a Samantha?

It seems I scared him off. Robbie promised that as soon as we finish what we are doing to help the people of Haven and Shiyra, he will go to that warp in space to try and work out any clues it may hold for finding Arthur. Robbie was sweet, he said, if I want to, he will not object to my creating a Samantha for Arthur. I guess he’ll feel that way until Arthur angers him again. I gave a special hug to Allan - my way of hugging Arthur.

It may have been because of the discussion, but we decided to wake up the local Allan (we better choose another name, it is getting too confusing. I’ll call him Arnie for now). He is the only one we’ve found up to now who has not been writing our story. He was excited to hear about Arthur and begged to read the story. He has spent his life working as an Accountant, bored out of his skull, as he put it. His only pleasures were reading SF and Fantasy. His only affairs have been with adult women and he has little knowledge of the murky world of child molesters. He laughed when he told us that he is considered the failure of the family and is looking forward to them finding out that some copy of him is special. Robbie has taken to him and is treating him as a brother.

Arnie suggested we ask Arthur to spend a specific time each day meditating and trying to hear us or Lynda. Will you do that for us Arthur?

Robbie told Arnie how he is thinking of bonding Cher to her Robert. He thinks the parents might not agree, but says it is worth a try.

Cherine took Cher out of the house for her to see Freddie. She explained to her what she is seeing, but I think the whole concept is too huge for her to grasp. Asimi came to her and that excited her. She kept on stroking Asimi so she was allowed to go for a ride and to have a private chat. She returned with a crush for Asimi. Asimi says the feeling is mutual.

Cher is only able to relate to specifics, she is too young to understand the total concept and that means she will not open up. Cherine took her back to her bed and made her feel sleepy.

“It is a pity you told her about your father Cherine. She will blame you now.”

“I will try to guide her emotions so that she empathises with what I went through and identifies with me. It does mean she will bond, but then so have other Cherines.”

Robbie smiled, “My baby Cherine?” He smiled again as she pretended to pout. “You’ll always be my baby Cherine to me.”

Tim looked at the various Cherines. “I don’t know, if it had been me, I don’t think I could have resisted jumping from reality to reality to collect all the Cherines for myself.”

3960

Robbie laughed. “If you had one you would not have dared.” Cherine pinched his thigh, but she was also amused.

Eric and Marian woke to a miracle. They tried to listen to us, but their eyes stayed on all the Cherines, overcome by seeing her at so many ages. After they were told about the gift of Cherine and that all they see came out of that, it was time to tell them how it all began.

The girls did a telling with Jade projecting images so fast it was sometimes like watching a badly disjointed movie. This time the story began from a time before her father left. When her father left and Cherine was told, the other Marian looked at her husband a moment, but remained concentrated on the story. They were distressed seeing Cherine suffer and Marian hid her face when she heard our Marian blame Cherine. They watched in awe as their little girl struggled to bring back her father from the void. Somehow the girls made us all feel the void eating away at her soul.

Their arrival in Greece was explained and from then onward the story was told and projected mostly from Cherine’s viewpoint. They felt how she sensed someone she had to meet. They watched as she went to his garden and he appeared to talk to her. When they got to the point where Robbie first made gentle love to Cherine, they were shocked. They watched as Cherine tried using her gifts to force Robbie to penetrate her and not believing their senses they watched him die. The story ended after Wendy became part of the family and Robbie killed Richard.

It took a while for them to recover to the point where they could ask intelligent questions.

“Why doesn’t our Cherine have the gift? I presume all these do?”

“Yes. Your Cherine does, but something discouraged her from using it and she has mostly blocked it off.”

Marian asked, “Can she wait until she is at least fifteen before her gift is unblocked and she loves…her Robert?”

“Meli, please?”

They watched the effect of a Robert and Cherine not loving each other until she was almost an adult. They saw how even now they are still stunted because of that in many ways.

“There are other examples. If you wish for them to be as we are, they must love each other from now.”

“Can you make them love each other?”

“No. We are exceedingly lucky in that they both have a Dominique who is already aching to love them both. The problem is how do we manipulate them so that two unnatural things happen. An adult falls in love with a child and a child falls in love with an adult, an adult she does not know or feel the same need my Cherine did to know.”

Eric nodded, his eyes wary. “You have a plan?”

“Not something you will like.”

“I thought so. What is it?”

They were both so angry they would not talk to us for two days. They called us all degenerates and much more. Other Erics and Marians tried talking to them, but they were also rebuffed angrily. We were getting worried, the sleepers are all in stasis, but we feel bad about it. There also is the question, do we have a right to do this to them if the parents do not agree?

“Robert, we have to take a gamble. Sol, will you help us, whether you agree we are right or not?”

“You want us to create Kolonaki?”

“Yes.”

“For any other child we would refuse, Cherine. This child, we will bear the guilt.”

“Not just the child Sol. Robert too.”

Next [Book 06] - Post 047

I hope you enjoy reading this story of fantasy, adventure and love - and should some of it be true for our reality, I hope you will love our Cherine.

Αλέξανδρος Ζήνον Ευσταθίου

(Alexander Zenon Eustace)

^{17th December, 2019}

• posted: 17th December, 2019
  
  
  
  
  

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