LiTTLE CHERiNE Book 02 - post209

His sense of humour came to the fore. “You must be a very brave man to marry seventeen women. Maybe you are a saint after all.”

Previous Post 208

1235

“They are, not me. They put up with all my weaknesses and even now wait for me with only love in their hearts. I miss them very much.”

“Why are you on the road then, why not return home?”

“I cannot, it is not time yet. They are watched by friends, so will be alright for as long as I am gone.”

“I have been thinking of what happened with the boy. I think you played a game with us.”

“Sylvestro, you asked why I walk alone, suffering in the cold, half the time starving. It is not so as to play games. I wish to teach, remind people of how important love and compassion are. Did I do well yesterday?”

“They were all in church this morning to give thanks to God for sending you and to plead with Him to keep you safe. For the first time that I can remember, my uncle had his arm around my cousin. I think they will be a strong family now.”

“Yes, love is our only strength. May I bum a cigarette?”

He laughed. “Bum, that is the part of the body we sit on? Why do you want to bum a cigarette?”

Later on he was in a more reflective mood. “What you said to me about the family of the criminals? Here we do not have the kind of criminals you find in the cities. But sometimes the season has not been good, a family are in despair and the man tries to steal. It is easy to feel compassion for the family and we try to get our social services to help them. I think what you spoke of is what a policeman would see in the cities.”

“Perhaps. I think you miss the point though. In the old days, especially in the small towns and villages, everyone was his brother’s keeper. If a family lost the father, the neighbours would help the wife and children. Now, we have social services. This means neighbours no longer feel the need to care for each other. Now we have hundreds of forms to be filled in, the applicant must be thoroughly humiliated by having to prove how desperate their plight is and then, if some piece of red tape has not been forgotten, if some civil servants is not feeling a petty viciousness, they may receive help. I do not care for the new ways Sylvestro. They may be necessary, but they are not the right answer either.

What I was saying to you yesterday is different. If you feel compassion for such a family in need and give the little you can, you are enriched by your giving and they are also, for they feel they are not alone, that there are people out there who care. How do you compare that to how social services makes them feel? Haven’t you also lost out?”

1236

“The world has become too big for us to help them all.”

“How many people are sick or dying right now, every second. Should I not help any then?”

If I stayed an extra day or two with him it was not for the food or the mattress and blankets that made sleep a pleasure instead of an agony as I waited for the morning. It was because I felt that in this almost brutal looking man is the heart of a Cherinian and I wanted to start him thinking in ways that will make him be more receptive to us when the time comes.

The morning he was to take me far out of town I saw him fighting within himself. “Ask me Sylvestro.”

“Do you see everything Robert? I have two questions I need to ask. The first is, will I ever see you again?”

“I do not know. I have not been entirely open with you. I have enemies, powerful people who see my gifts as a threat to them and when they find me they will probably kill me. It is the main reason I left my family. If I cannot return, I ask one thing of you. A girl will come to you and tell you she is my love. She will ask you to listen to a story - it will be the story of our love and of the gifts we wish to bring to the world. Listen to her with an open heart and mind. She will not be lying to you, however impossible it all may sound. What is your second question?”

“It is a request. I hesitate for I feel I do not have the right to ask.”

“In that case you may.”

“There is a family in our little town, they are good people, but there is a great sadness in them. They have a child and she is dying. It is a slow and painful death. Could you help?”

“Would they allow you to take the child without them coming also?”

“I will ask.”

“Then do so. This one is for you Sylvestro. I want you to spend years seeing that child grow up and know that it is because of the tenderness in your heart that the child lives.”

His faith in me was so strong that he left with tears wetting his cheeks. He returned with a small girl wrapped in a blanket. I looked into her black olive shaped eyes and saw the pain and my heart ached for the small twisted body. She lay on his sofa without moving, only her eyes following me. I leant over and kissed her thin face and sat down.

“You may take her back Sylvestro, the healing will go with her. I will not be able to leave today, it will take many hours for her to be healed. Do not tell the parents, they will see her getting better and rejoice, thinking it is a miracle. That is good, we all need a miracle or two in our lives.”

The healer had immediately relieved her of the pain and he saw it as he looked into her eyes. Gently he wrapped her up again and carried her out. Seeing her had brought back my own pain, my longing and need for my own little girls and I spent the day sitting alone thinking of them.

Sylvestro paid her a visit just before returning that evening and he told me her body has already straightened out and she even asked for food. Her parents had kissed his hands in gratitude and he had felt shamed that he could not tell them that it was I who had done this. I saw he found it difficult to know how to be in my presence. Our easy camaraderie built up over the last few days had dissolved to be replaced by a feeling of awe.

I took pains to become an irreverent wine-drinking joker and managed to get him to laugh, but even as he did, I saw he had been too deeply touched.

The next morning he drove me about sixty kilometres towards Rome. I had him drop me off in the middle of nowhere, far out of any town. He sat looking at me as I gathered my things. He passed to me a packet of cigarettes.

“Robert, this girl…”

1237

“Her name is Cherine.”

“She will say she is your love?”

“Yes.”

“How old is she?”

“She may come to you in her real age or as a woman in her twenties.”

His eyes widened but he accepted it. “What is her real age?”

“Almost twelve, but she should look about nine.”

His face paled. I gave a sad laugh. “I should have told you that last night, it would have stopped you from treating me with so much awe. Sylvestro, I fell in love with her when she was eight and she had my daughter before she was ten. Do not judge us before you meet her. We are not normal people.”

“That you did not need to say!!”

I got out of the car. He leant out of his window, “Robert, what you said about having seventeen wives. It was true?”

I smiled and waved as I walked away without answering. A few minutes later I heard him drive off, doing a U-turn back towards his home.

A few days later I walked into Rome. Just for the sake of old memories I walked to Via Venetto. I could not even sit to have a coffee, it was too expensive and I would not have been allowed to anyway, unshaved and dirty as I was, I looked more like a hobo. I walked away from the grand hotels, following the road as it went downhill. I passed by some night clubs safely as they were not interested in getting people like me to enter. Further down I saw a shop with shirts that looked rugged but cheap and thought about using some of my cash to buy one - I’d found in my roll some cash from Sylvestro.

As I stood there, a skinny little girl of about twelve, her blonde hair hanging to her waist sidled up to me. “You want a good time? Only fifty dollars.”

My heart broke. I kept back the tears, they would only frighten her away. “I need a plate of food more than a good time. Would the fifty dollars buy me a plate of spaghetti?”

“I’ll cook it for you. You will see I am a good cook.”

I let her lead me off into some back streets. I pulled out the money and gave it to her. “This is all the money I have so there is no need for you to trick me. All I ask is for the food you promised and maybe your company while I eat. Agreed?”

She looked at me, her eyes enormous. She came to a decision and turned at the next corner.

“Come, we go this way.” (“Thank you Aganthi” I thought to myself.)

She took me up to the apartment where she stayed. There was a bit of a screaming match with a woman I assumed was her mother, but she showed me a dirty and tattered couch to sit on and went to the kitchenette. Nearly half an hour later she brought me a plate of over-cooked spaghetti swimming in oil and ketchup. I could hardly bear to eat it, but did so with a smile on my face and complimented her.

“The woman, your mother I suppose, does she understand English?”

“No.”

“Your English is good, where did you learn it?”

“I had to, for my work you know.”

“How long have you been working ?”

“Nearly two years.” she answered proudly.

1238

I know the world is like this, I just do not understand why I have to keep seeing this side of it. I mean, most people never see this side of life. I asked her name and she said Helena, I knew she was lying but it did not matter.

“This work Helena, it never makes you sick?”

“No. I always wash afterwards. One of the older girls told me it is the only way.”

“No Helena, it is not. You must make the men wear condoms, you know, those rubber things they wear for having sex without making the girl pregnant?”

“Some men do, some do not. I cannot stop them, I need the money.”

I sent the healer to her. I knew it was a waste of time, if she was not sick or is healed she will soon be sick. There is nothing I can do, she has a clear picture in her mind of how life is and I cannot change it. I felt the last note I had in my pocket. I gave it to her.

“This is my last money. I’m giving it to you because you are such a sweet and lovely girl. I want you to use it to buy yourself whatever you want, chocolates or anything else you want, but never can.”

She stared at me suspiciously. “You do not want to fuck me? I am good.”

“I’m sure you are. No, I don’t want to, I’d rather remember you like this, a lovely girl who gave me a great meal and talked with me.”

Next Post 210

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

Αλέξανδρος Ζήνον Ευσταθίου

(Alexander Zenon Eustace)
^{2nd April, 2019}

* posted on Steemit: 2nd April, 2019



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