Little Cherine Book 08 - BPost046
“Do you agree to the price. We can talk afterwards if you agree.”“Why are they so frightened?”
“Agreed, depending on what the conditions are.”
5351
“You will be gentle and undertake not to hurt them. No penetration, front or rear except for a finger and you will not take their virginity. If you are able to convince them without pressuring them to take the head of your penis in their mouths you will not try to force more in and you will withdraw when you are about to ejaculate. Use the girls you already have if you need girl flesh for ejaculating. One further thing and this is not negotiable, I will be present at all times. For the week, you and your companions will stay on my farm, you cannot have four girls staying here, it would be too obvious and I will not have my daughters humiliated.”
I still could not sense her. Both Dommi and Cherine agreed there is something strange about her and that I must find out the truth before acting. I had to test her, in the hope that the shock would break her hold on her emoting.
“How much to buy one of them. Either, though I might prefer the younger one.”
“Not for a million. Forget it.”
“If I am to live on your farm I will soon know your name. I am Robert.”
“Call me Hilda. I must have cash in advance.”
“That is not how it works Hilda. One thousand per day with three at the end. Do you take me for a fool? Once you have the money you will change your mind, secure in the knowledge that I cannot make a fuss.”
Something seeped through from her and her shoulders sagged slightly, as if giving up a tiny hope she’d had. My mind took a different direction. I had to get her talking instead of dictating to me.
“You say they are innocents. How do I know? Why should I believe this is the first time?”
“You will be able to tell. They only know what I told them this morning.”
“You really are their mother? What of their father, does he agree to this?”
“He is dead.”
“Recently?”
“Nearly a year ago. My car is at the hotel parking. Get your luggage and meet us there.” Abruptly she called to her daughters and they left.
“What now? I must admit I am not much the wiser, she will not bend enough to make conversation.”
“Go to the farm Robert.”
“How? I do not have any money. She will demand at least the first thousand.”
My practical and sometimes amoral Cherine replied. “We’ll steal some from a bank vault.”
“No. I have a better idea. Come girls, grab your towels, we must pack.”
As we prepared ourselves I told them what I had in mind. When we arrived they were already waiting in the car, the faces of the two children white and strained and we could see they had been crying.
“The first thousand before you get in.” I handed over a piece of paper and she examined it carefully. “Get in.”
We drove for about ten miles before I saw there were no other people to see us. “Can you please stop for two minutes. One of my girls gets car sick. Let her walk about for two minutes and she’ll be okay.”
She glanced in the mirror at the girls and then stopped. The instant she did I turned and touched my two girls hands. We jumped, with the car.
She sat in shock, not bothering to stop her girls from screaming, while I explained.
5352
“Hilda, your worst nightmare has come true. I am Robert Teller and this is our spaceship world Freddie. I am considered by billions of people and by myself a protector of children. Syrina, take the girls to the taverna for an ice cream while I talk to their mother.” When she did not protest I knew she had broken. “Get out of the car please. This here is our home, come in for a drink and to explain yourself.”
I thought I was speaking gently, but her look was one of pure terror. Like a robot she obeyed.
“Whiskey with ice? Please take a seat.”
Her voice was a whisper. “What are you going to do to us?” I walked over with her glass, arm outstretched. She ignored it. “Please, do what you will with me, but do not harm my girls.”
“Nobody will be harmed if you tell me the truth.”
“There is not much to tell. When my husband died I found out that we had no cash and he had debts - from playing cards. I had a good crop coming in so the bank gave me an extension. Three weeks ago we had a locust plague and my crop is gone.” She looked down at her twisting fingers and then her eyes focussed on the glass of whiskey, but she did not even sip it. “I am Dutch, married to a German. I cannot return to my country and what future would I or my kids have in Germany?
I have only survived this long because the women were sympathetic. If I took to prostitution they would fear for their husbands and turn against me. The manager of your hotel is a paedophile. He only abuses black children and it is rumoured that some of them have died. He knows of my predicament and offered me five hundred Deutsche Mark for a weekend with my one daughter. I have turned him down a number of times.
I came to the hotel yesterday to meet some people who were offering to buy a share in my farm. They know I’m a hard worker and get the best crop per hectare in the area. They told me they had changed their minds and explained that the aliens are threatening to send us back to Germany. They said it made sense they keep their cash as life will be very hard back home with so many Germans forced to return.
When they left, the manager came to gloat, certain I would give in. When I refused, he told me, taunting me I think, about you and suggested that since you appear to be a connoisseur of girl flesh you might pay for both girls enough to save the farm. It was he who suggested I offer one week.
I fought the idea for an hour, but the alternative, what is it? To become a prostitute in Germany? What of my children? They too would end up as prostitutes. My only hope was to save the farm. I asked a waiter and he told me you were on the beach with your two girls. I watched you for a while and saw what looked like a sensitive young man who is an artist and, so it seemed, was loved by the girls you had bought. I hardened my heart and came to you. The rest you know.”
“How did you think it would affect your daughters? They would have the one week with me and forget? What if I was not as nice as you thought?”
“I asked myself the same questions, but I was too terrified to try and answer them. All I could do was hope and stay with my girls through the week. As for the future, I told myself I would make them forget.” She shrugged. “Don’t ask me how, I don’t know. I think I thought I would by showing them how much I love them.”
*Dommi, what would you have done in her place?*
*I don’t know. Perhaps the same? None of us know how we will act under such stressful conditions.*
“You are going to keep my daughters here?”
“Perhaps. If I see no alternative.”
“Will you have sex with them?”
“What for? I have fifty wives.”
“My husband would have been unfaithful if he had a hundred.”
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“No. I will not have sex with them. Nor will anyone else until they are mature enough to understand what they are doing. Hilda, relax, both you and your girls are safe here. I need time to think, so have your drink or walk around the garden. I’ll come to you when I am ready.” I jumped to the taverna.
“Careful. The girls are terrified.”
I sat by them. “You know those things your mother told you would happen? They won’t. Enjoy your…”
“But we will lose our farm!” The elder girl began to cry.
Desperately I searched for an answer. “Does your mother know anything about growing coffee?”
“I don’t think so.”
“What is her favourite, what does she love to grow?”
“Vegetables and flowers.”
“We don’t need flowers, but fresh vegetables would be nice. How would you like to live here with your mother on a farm of your own? We’ll lend it to your mother for as long as she needs it.”
Hilda saw me return and came to me. I pointed at a bench and she sat down. “I have tried to be fair, but however I look at it, I do not find what you tried to do acceptable. Your daughters we can help, my wives have agreed to enter their minds and excise their memories of what you told them.
What you told me about having to become a prostitute is utter nonsense. There are farms in Germany and I’m certain you could have found a job. If you had to wash dishes in a restaurant to provide for your children, then you should have accepted that as a solution. Hilda, there are always solutions, but destroying the future of your children is not an option.” She nodded, her face a picture of utter misery and despair.
“I am very angry, not just with you, but with myself and the position you have put me in. I cannot punish you as I should because of your children and I cannot help you save your farm since I do not have local money. Even if I had, I would not. I refuse to reward you for taking the decision you did.”
“I understand. What will you do?”
I lit a cigarette and walked up and down, my eyes staring into the distance. “That is the problem. I could allow you to stay here long enough to learn about us and then send you back, but keep them here. You would know what future awaits them and would leave happy in the knowledge they will lead full and happy lives. Here they will be helped to achieve whatever potential they have, but you would never see them again.”
It was working! Her block was crumbling and her emotions were lashing me.
“Dommi, no, Marian, please come to me looking your real age.” I introduced them. “Hilda, I have to be certain that you only told me the truth. We will not do what I’m about to ask of you if you do not agree. We must look in your mind to see your thoughts. It is the only way I can be certain.” I softened my tone. “It would not have been right of me to see your memories. As a woman Marian will understand you better while also confirming to me or not as to the veracity of what you told me. Will you allow her to see your memories?”
“I will not look at any of your other memories, only what happened these last days.”
She was trembling so much she could hardly ask me, “If I don’t agree?”
“I’ll take you back and you’ll never see your daughters again.”
“Robert, you are going about this the wrong way. She is terrified of us and it would be unpleasant for both of us if I enter her mind now. Give her a couple of days to learn about us first.”
“Hilda, my apologies, I stand corrected. Part of the reason I am in a hurry is because I’m concerned that if you stay away from the farm for days you might return to find everything stolen. If you wish to wait I do not mind.”
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“Please.”
“Is there anything of value that could be stolen?”
“Yes. Only of sentimental value, but I would be sad to lose them. I would like to have them for my girls if you are going to take them away from me.”
“Marian, would you come with, I am not certain I could jump us with the car.”
“A pity.” She smiled. “Everyone was excited about having it here.”
“I don’t want it in Freddie.”
We jumped back to the spot we’d left from and Hilda drove us to her farm. As we pulled in by her house I shook my head at Marian. We were both impressed. The house was nothing special, but Hilda had put a lot of effort into creating a lovely garden. Hilda switched off the engine, but stayed in her seat, afraid to make a move without my permission. I softly touched her shoulder.
“Hilda, the money would not have saved your farm, the locals will throw all of you out of their country. I suggest you collect what you want and then phone the bank to let them know you are abandoning the farm to them. Marian will help you if you wish, do you mind if I take a walk around the garden?”
“I checked her vegetable garden. The girls were right, she has a green thumb.”
Alki asked, “Why are you still terrorising her Roberto?”
“It is all I have available as punishment for what she tried to do.” I smiled at him. “I guess she will make me pay later on.”
“We’ll help her.” Cherine cheerfully offered.
“You are a mother, how can you side with her?”
Cherine said, “Robert, you are forgetting something. You showed her she had alternatives, but how often have you discovered that while you have the problem you cannot think of alternatives? Anyway, she had the good sense to offer her daughters to you and not the hotel manager. You are not going to let him get away with what he has been doing, are you?”
“No. I will send him to our penal world after I’ve checked he has done what he is accused of.”
My fierce little cub stood up to me with her hands curled into tiny fists. “And how do you plan to do that, by going back in time?”
“Yes.”
“And if he molested, abused and killed the children, you will take him to the prison world? You will not fly into a rage?”
My face must have turned into a gaunt mask. “I cannot promise that.” Alki stood up and placed his hand on her shoulder, silently showing he supported her. “What do you expect me to do? Imprison him because Hilda heard a rumour?”
“No. Robert, you will take me with.” I noticed that Alki pulled his hand back.
“No. Take me with.”
“Alki mou, if I have a choice, Cherine or you, I’d take Cherine. You are an innocent and would not be able to handle what we see if the allegations are true. Cherine at least has seen it before, even if it was only in my mind. I’ll not take anyone.”
“Do you think that seeing it in your mind is any less immediate or painful than the reality? I’m coming with.”
“Don’t do this to me Cherine.”
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“Let me go with you then.”
“No Henry, not you, not any of you. You don’t believe me, but I tell you, the memories will haunt you and kill some of the goodness in you.”
Sam angered me. She stood up. “Who wants to go with. Any more volunteers?”
“Samantha!” Everyone was standing up, including all my loves.
“Don’t you Samantha me! We will all come with. It’s about time everybody wakes up a little.” She softened and I saw her fear. “Robert, you must allow this. When the day comes that we have to go in hiding, it is important that those who come with us do so because they understand you and what drives you. If seeing what children suffer kills some of the goodness in you, how do you expect them to empathise with your needs as a protector if they have not also seen? They must come so that they make their decision one day as adults who know the truth.”
Upon hearing her the rest stood up, not only Terrans but our alien friends also and I was surrounded by some very determined minds. I was still angry with Samantha, but at least I understood now why she did it and had to admit she was right - it just hurt so much to think of what it will do to them.
“Diana, you will stay here and you are not to share with anyone afterwards until our child is born and is also old enough to endure this with you.” Luckily ( or unluckily) no one else was pregnant or expecting to be soon.
I was trembling so I first had a coffee and three cigarettes while they all remained standing, waiting. I took my Gilli in my arms, for she comes of a world that does not know of brutality and was the most vulnerable, and we jumped. From Earth I became the void.
Allan has pointed out that you might be asking why I did not satisfy myself as to the truth of the allegations by looking in the mind of the accused. We dare not, especially if he is innocent. We must never do that. It will lead to things far worse. We only do so if we secure permission first and even then, we only ask if we consider the person a potential Cherinian - as with Hilda.
As the void, I carried them sealed within my energies as we raced through time, following the man. When we saw him carrying a small body we jumped further back in time and then allowed time to flow normally. We watched as he abducted the child, a young boy, hid him, bound him painfully in a position so that he could rape him and force him to perform fellatio. We watched as he got his pleasure from torturing the boy and then killed him. I sped off against time again, determined to be witness to every child.
Three children back (two boys and one girl) I recognised the boy. It was the son of the local John. If I had not the responsibility for all those I carried, I would have gone berserk. Raging and weeping in my soul I returned deeper and deeper into his past. I was not the only one distressed to find out he had begun raping children when he was only fifteen years old. Apart from children he paid for, we counted a total of twenty two children raped and tortured and five killed over the years.
We returned to our present and without caring who noticed I touched the man and jumped to our prison world. Viciously I let go of him from five metres high and he smashed his ankle.
Most of the prisoners ran away, but a group of four stayed. I sent to them what we had seen and included with the memories the pain and terror of the children.
I could not take them all back to Freddie. Not as we were feeling now. I sped off across the ocean until I saw another island and landed. As I let go their bodies, Cherine left hers and was almost instantly within me. My girls were quick to understand and followed her.
*Please, get out. I need time alone.*
*You want us to suffer on our own? Daddy, you are our strength, please help us, we are in pain.* Manipulated by Angelica, there was nothing I could do, I had to stay and share with them.
Only one good came out of it. I let go the bitterness I’d felt that John had been party to the torture of our Syrina.
5356
Once we had recovered well enough to think sanely I began the second stage. Back on their world I returned the children in new bodies. Where we could not find their parents we took them to Freddie with us. In Germany I left it to our Hettie to explain to the parents as they found it almost impossible to accept that their child has been returned, years later, at the age they were then. In Africa I asked Roula to handle the parents, knowing how much it would mean to her. I only appeared for John’s son.
“Do you see that I understand you now? Let us consider the past forgotten, for we both have our child back. I hope you grow to become a friend of the Cherinians.”
Eddie is a very proud and happy young man, even though I sense he appreciates the irony. All the Hettie’s have become fervent Cherinians and any resentment some of them felt at having to accept me as leader has evaporated. Our Hettie decided to reward me with a kiss. Before doing so she altered her body age to an eight year old and I must say, she is a stunner. She still giggles about my reaction to her. I’m glad, for it has fully restored her self confidence and we are now really friends. My loves, especially Cherine, were bemused for a while, not quite certain how to take it.
It was time to wrap up the case of Hilda. In some ways our experiences had left me inclined to be sterner in my judgement of her and I told her so.
“You are extremely lucky that you approached me and not some other man. Your daughters are the ones who would have paid for your foolishness and cowardice. Hilda, today is the last time we ever speak about it. From hereon you must put it in your past and leave it there. I regret that we will not be able to take the memories from your daughters because you and they will be staying in Freddie until we get back to our own reality and this is a world of telepaths, I cannot make everyone forget. In our world we can set you up in Holland with your own small farm so that you become self-sufficient.
I have a proposal to make. We are presently importing our fruit and vegetables from Earth. Would you like to start a vegetable farm for us? There is plenty of land and you will have Cherinian assistants as we do not allow tractors or other polluting machinery in Freddie. Your girls will be educated the same way mine are, through our computers. Our girls will help them.
Before you decide to accept, I have to give you a warning. We are travelling through space, time and realities and I cannot guarantee that we will not come across a hostile species that is capable of destroying Freddie. I do not consider it a real risk, but it does remain a possibility.”
She had many questions and I decided she was too ignorant to make a decision. I asked the girls to do a telling for all our guests. Meli made certain our loving was seen for the sweetness it is to my loves and I, and now the whole population is amused at my expense. The day after the telling, the two daughters of Hilda came to me in the taverna and publicly asked me to have sex with them as their mother had told them I would in Dar. They complained it was not fair when I said I would not. At least Hilda has agreed to stay and start our vegetable farm. My girls are taking bets that she will ask to stay here when we return to our Earth.
It is amazing how quickly time has passed! Eddie and Hettie are acting on their own in our negotiations with the governments and rarely trouble me anymore. I stay aware of what they do and I’m very pleased with their Cherinian way of handling it.
My comment about time passing was because of Diana. Syrina and I have had a number of nights on our own and she has turned out to be a very passionate girl, but has abandoned her independent ways of thinking in one way. Before we’d made love she usually kept herself either as an eleven year old or a baby. Now she has mimicked the other girls and usually looks about seven or eight. Teasingly she told me that with only one of me and so many of them, each girl has to do whatever she can to make certain I cannot resist them.
My family, close friends and alternates of family and friends all want to come to Meli’s world to celebrate the conception of our child. This means we will total close to a thousand. That is without taking into account the Anadir and Sparklers. Other species are coming in Terran-projected bodies.
Only Diana, Syrina and I will be there in our real bodies.
5357
When we arrived I deposited my body on the grass, returned to the void and then back to my body. As I opened my eyes I looked into the eyes of Candy. I pulled her to me for a kiss.
“I told Diana to sit here, but she wouldn’t.”
I gave her a tender smile. “How could she, this is your job.”
As I sat up, my hand on the grass to lift myself, I felt something, a weight. It was a backpack. I saw a second one was being fitted on Diana’s back. I kept quiet, if Meli has chosen this for us she must have her reasons, but I did wonder, for Diana is not the kind of girl who enjoys roughing it and has never shown much interest in sports of any kind (remember, she was created as my ideal girl).
Meli was an eighteen year old, dressed in white with silver trimmings, a strange looking bracelet on her wrist and those white flowers she loves in her dark hair.
She pointed. “To catch the moon you must travel that way. Leave lesser than you return in all ways.”
Diana smiled and took my hand. As we walked away she softly murmured, “What a strange blessing.”
We walked for an hour or so and then stopped for a while by a stream. As I knelt on the bank and leant over I saw a rock underwater with a message inscribed on it. ‘I’ll sing to you while you sleep and the past will flow away’.
“Are we to presume that her messages have a meaning?”
“When she speaks or writes, every word is with meaning. Sometimes with two or three.” She sipped the water I handed her. “Mmm, it tastes good.”
I drank my fill and then looked around. “It is nice being in a world where I don’t have to be on my guard all the time. It’s lovely and cool here.”
“Can you sit against the tree so that I can rest my head on your legs for a few minutes?” I complied and she was soon fast asleep. I’m not used to feeling so relaxed and before I knew it I was falling asleep.
When I woke up I was lying on my side. I instantly knew that I was lying on grass and wondered about that. The day had ended and it was growing dark. I decided I must have gone for a walk in a park and fallen asleep. I patted my pocket and felt for my apartment key. I searched all my pockets and then felt around in the grass. No key.
As I stood up I saw a girl asleep close by. Puzzled and worried that I would have to find a locksmith to open my flat, I searched for something familiar in my surroundings. It did not take me long to realise that this could not be a Greek park. The growth reminded me more of Nairobi. The sky was almost dark and though there was no sprinkling of starlight yet, there was one bright star shining. That must be Venus I told myself.
“Where am I? Who are you?”
“Robert Teller. If you don’t remember either, then we are lost.”
Even in the dusky twilight I saw she is extraordinarily beautiful. Too young for me, maybe eleven or twelve, but I envied the young man who will be loved by her someday. That thought reminded me of Dommi and the pain was sharp for a moment. My love in the arms of another man, his filthy disgusting penis inside her, I could not bear the images and shut them away again.
“I’m Diana…could I also be a Teller?”
“It depends, what do you have to tell?”
“I can’t remember my surname!”
“That’s okay, I was not going to grant you an overdraft anyway.”
“You’re a banker?”
5358
I grinned, knowing I was upsetting her with my corny humour. “I’m an artist. Computer graphics. I work in Greece. Do you know in which country we are?”
“I’m also from Greece!” She was quick to find an answer. “We must have been part of a group tour. My parents must be worried.”
I could not picture myself signing up for a group tour. Maybe Alki had paid for it and I’d not wanted to appear ungrateful?
“Which way shall we go?”
“Maybe we should follow that star?”
“That star is going to swing across the sky and we’ll end up back here.”
“It’s better than just waiting here.”
“Look! Two backpacks, they must be ours.” She looked dismayed. “I hate hiking and camping. My parents must have forced me to come.”
“There could be another explanation.” She waited. I knew I would be rebuffed, but it would be worth it just to see her face. “We must have met somewhere and fallen in love. The only way to be together and alone sometimes was for you to convince your parents to bring you on a tour.”
She took her first good look of me and in a small voice said, “I don’t think so.” I had to grin at the look in her eyes.
“I don’t think so either Diana. Come, let’s follow your star.”
It took her all of five minutes to come up with her parry but I forgave her because of her youth. “When does your star rise Robert? Is it more dependable?”
“Mine has set. It is the closest star to us.”
“The sun? That’s cheating!”
An hour passed and we talked as we walked. I was pleased that she kept up with me (I’m a fast walker) without complaining and I was delighted by her quick mind, wit and courage. She did not cry or moan as most of the girls her age would have. We fell silent for a while and I stole quick glimpses of her now and then. I’d been caught unprepared by a revolutionary thought. I respected her. I’d never imagined a kid would earn my respect. But she had, by not going into a panic or crying and making an effort to deal with the facts as they are.
“Where do you live in Greece?”
“Aghia Paraskevi. And you?”
“Kolonaki. A small apartment.”
“I’ve been to the square. I did not think much of it.”
“Kolonaki is more than the square. You have to know how to look, but if you are observant you’ll discover some wonderful restaurants. I don’t know much about Aghia Paraskevi. Are you close to the American College?”
“No, more towards Kifissia.”
“I wish I had the money to stay there. I love Kefalari.” I was flooded by memories of Dommi and I and fell silent.
“Are you sad? Did I say something?”
“No, you are a wonderful companion. I was hit by some memories I’d rather forget.”
“I wonder if I have any sad memories. I wish I could remember.”
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I put my hand to her shoulder and turned her towards me. “Don’t. Sad memories are not fun to have.”
As we entered a small clearing a cloud covered Diana’s star. We took that as a sign that we should stop and sleep. We ate some nutty bread and cheese, found a small pot with raspberries in our bags and then we chose our spots for sleeping. The sky was darker than I have ever seen it, but the trees and shrubs gave a slight phosphorescent glow that gave our skins a pale green tinge. I waited until I thought Diana was asleep and moved to rest my back against a tree trunk while I kept an eye open for snakes or predators. I had no trouble staying awake, accustomed as I’ve become to sleepless nights over these last months. I thought of my Dominique and rehashed every conversation I could recall, to try and find where I had gone wrong.
It was close to morning when Diana stirred. “Why are you looking at me?”
“I’m not. I’m looking over you and out for you.”
“Just make sure you are not looking at me.” She sat up. “I know one thing for certain. I belong to one man only. I wish I could remember him.”
“You mean you already know him?”
“How could I have lived one day without loving him?” I hid my smile at the image of her loving a man as a baby. I had not realised she was such a romantic.
“I promise.”
“You must also sleep.”
“When you wake up in the morning I’ll sleep a couple of hours. I’m used to being up all night. You are safe Diana, go back to sleep.”
By noon we’d walked for three hours and though it had been an easy walk, Diana was worried about her parents. We had not come across any serpents and even the insect world seemed to be benign, not one mosquito or fly to irritate us. I felt responsible for Diana so I was on the lookout for dangerous animals, but it felt as if we were walking in a park. I caught the thought that on this world nature has concentrated on beauty. I stopped walking, in shock. I know that it is impossible for any tropical area to exist without a large number of dangerous animals, insects and plants while this area was too close to the idealised for it to be real. Abducted by aliens? Did that explain why neither of us could recall how we had arrived here?
“What is wrong?” Diana was alarmed by my facial expression.
I quickly made up an excuse. “I just remembered I had an important job to do for a major client and I don’t think I did it. If my company loses them I’ll be fired.” I saw her alarm change to sympathy for my imaginary predicament. I smiled wryly. Perhaps not so imaginary if I am absent without leave. Even tolerant Alki must have his limits.
Doubly on the alert for signs that I had guessed right, I must have made Diana feel uneasy. As we walked she stayed closer to me and as we passed though an area dimmed by the trees shutting out the light from above, her hand timidly took hold of mine. We came to a clearing and we saw that the land was lower on the other side of it, for we were looking at a sea of treetops.
“Let’s have lunch.” After eating, our packs were lighter. I repacked everything so that she would carry much less. Diana wandered off to find a bush to hide behind.
“Robert, come take a look at this.”
I stared at the tree. Reddish to almost brown egg-shaped fruit hung all over it. The small tree also had white blossoms, the next crop of fruit already growing.
“Are they poisonous?”
“No. The fruit are tamarillos. Diana, this is a South American plant. We can’t be in South America.”
“Why not?”
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“We are north of the equator.”
“Maybe somebody ate a fruit and dropped some seeds.”
“Whatever the explanation, let’s eat as many as we can. We better live off the land whenever we can or else we’ll finish our food.” Luckily she enjoyed the taste.
We stood at the outer edge of the clearing. The slope of thirty to forty metres was not dangerously sharp, but it was covered in a carpet of grass that looked slippery. I took Diana’s hand.
“Careful, if we slip we could slam into those tree trunks down there and hurt ourselves.”
Gingerly we took our first step down. It was like stepping onto grease and we slid. I just had time to pull her to me and holding her before me I curled up to protect her from the impact at the bottom. All I could do was hope I did not smash my back into a tree trunk.
“Wee! That was fun!”
Grumpily I looked up at the slope. “That was a one way trip. You weren’t hurt?”
“No.” Impulsively she kissed my cheek. “Thank you for trying to save me.”
Something about this girl was getting to me and I felt ashamed. When I only held her hand as we walked, without me looking at her, I felt more protective than anything, as an adult should. With her in my arms I had not felt that way when her soft lips touched me. Quickly I let her go and stood up.
“Which way, straight ahead, left or right?”
“It’s just trees, anyway we go!”
“Shall we continue in the direction we’ve been walking, straight ahead?”
She did not protest so I concentrated on straightening her back pack to minimise friction and sensed a movement. Diana gasped. A brown face, male with a wispy beard and a bump on his forehead that looked like a worn away horn, was staring at us from among the leaves.
“Turn, turn, turn away
for there dragons come to play!”
“Who are you? What do you mean, there are no dragons in real life.” He did not answer, only staring at us with round inquisitive eyes. I dashed towards him, but he was gone and lost in the sea of green and I realised I would never find him.
“Shall we turn right?” I asked Diana.
“Turn, turn, turn away,
or forever there you'll stay!”
Again he refused to answer my questions. I took a chance, hoping it would not frighten Diana. “Have we been abducted by aliens? This is not Earth is it?” No answer. Diana did not say anything, but her little hand crept into mine. “Fine, we’ll turn left then.”
“Oh turn, turn, turn away
who knows what waits this way!”
“I’ve had enough of your nonsense, it’s not helping us at all. Diana?”
“Why was it different?”
“What?”
“His little poem.”
I thought about it. She was right. I decided it might be a clue and made up my mind. “We’ll turn left then.”
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)8th February, 2020
- posted: 8th February, 2020
If you wish to read from an earlier book, from Book 01 to Book 07, use this link button to open the LC Book Index:
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