LiTTLE CHERiNE Book 03 - post070

As I walked on the street I kept them out of my mind and they soon left me alone. I went to the local coffee shop and got one of their bitter coffees, diplo (double) as the owner knew I wanted it. I needed to give Claudia time without me there.

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1615

I knew that she does not worry or feel fear that I think her nasty. I knew she had, as is usual for that age, exaggerated her fears and I wanted to teach her that doing so can in turn hurt those she loves. To be effective, she has to think of myself thinking of myself as being as bad as that man. My sweet Claudia is being manipulated by me, but it may force her to confront herself and hopefully grow up a little.

A young man, about five years older than my real age brought his drink over.

“Do you mind if I join you?”

The owner rushed over. “This is my son. He is a musician.”

“Glad to meet you. Please sit with me, I’d enjoy some company. Where do you play?”

“At a taverna past Ekali. You should come there sometime to hear us.”

“Is the food good?”

He laughed. “When you listen to us you will not notice. Actually the food is good. The prices are also reasonable, they do not get tourists so they have to keep the prices low to suit the pockets of their customers.”

“I think your father under-charges, his prices are too low.”

He nodded earnestly. “He has told me that you come with your family and friends and he gets afraid they will not have enough food for all of you.”

“When we come, we come for the company, a drink and something to nibble on. Even if he just gave us bread, olives and cheese we would not complain. What is important is that he makes us feel welcome and never pressurises us to order.” I looked at his face and laughed. “Let me guess, you have had arguments with him, telling him he should use those tactics to get his customers to order and spend more?”

Red-faced but determined, he answered, “Yes.”

“I think he would lose his regulars and he would lose us. Every restaurant or taverna has its good points and its bad ones. The food here is reasonable, but not good enough to justify the tactics you wish him to use. People come here because they know they will get value and can spend just what they can afford.”

I turned the subject to his music. He told me he tries to earn extra money by teaching, but his real love is in writing music. He brought out an old guitar and played a piece for me. It sounded as if he were trying to turn bouzouki into classical music - it has been done by others and very well too. His efforts did not ‘speak’ to me, but I complimented him and tried to encourage him to further efforts. The more we talked the clearer it became that he has the education and the wish, but his mind is too small, locked in by blinkers he himself keeps in place. He does not know how to let go and allow the music to come to him - he is trying to force it out of himself.

The chat helped pass the time and I now have another face to greet whenever I come out. I like that. It makes me feel as if this place is my home when I am greeted and can greet with a smile a lot of known faces. I can never fully become part of the community as a stranger, a non-Greek, but I do not expect to or even want to; I just appreciate having a circle of friendly faces that smile and greet me - it will be sufficient.

Judging enough time had passed I returned home.

“Robert, we decided to cancel this court thing. It was a silly idea.”

“To cancel you need my agreement. Why do you want to cancel Dommi?”

“It has opened too many wounds we had not expected.” I felt her answer was not honest and just stared at her, not letting her eyes escape mine.

“Shit!! Damn it Roberto, why can’t you just let things be?”

“Don’t want to. Tell me the real reason.”

1616

“We broke the rules! You satisfied!!” She made to leave. I put my hand on her shoulder and pulled her back, pulling her to me. She buried her face in my shoulder. I caressed her hair.

“Speak to me Dommi. You know I will not be angry.” She shook her head against my shoulder.

“Robert, it was me. I cheated. I broke your privacy sign and checked on you when you were out.”

“Cherine! How did you get Dommi to protect you?”

“She did it because she was worried about you. Please don’t be angry Robert.”

“I’m not. Cherine come here.” She came till she was standing right in front of me. “Put out your hand.” She did so and I slapped my hand across hers softly. “There! Don’t do it again.” I gave her a wink and she grinned.

Dommi pulled back from me. “I saw that! Robert…”

“Shh, love we are a family. All of us are bound to make mistakes now and then. Those that are made out of love are easy to forgive.”

“Like you calling us girls?”

“Maybe. You girls have to decide on that.”

“We never minded until you spoke about it to everyone.”

“Guess what Dommi? I knew it. That is why I said guilty, but innocent. You want me to stop?”

“No. None of us do.”

“I’m glad. In my heart all of you will always be my girls, even a thousand years from now.”

“Maybe by then we will be flattered to be called your girls.”

“What about your other charges?”

“We had to make some up. It seemed silly to have a court case for just the one thing.”

“Can we discuss them? The charge that I say you do not obey me is true. It is also true that when we are facing a crisis I expect, demand obedience if you want me to be the leader. I never said anything without it being out of fondness and love. I never said anything to demean any of you. So, guilty and innocent. What puzzled me is your charge that I am not honest with you.”

“You aren’t Robert, but then none of us are.”

“I’m not interested in examining you, I want to know why I am not.”

“Jo told us how you wanted me to come with you and that it should have been me. Because the twins wanted to come you did not want to hurt them and took them. In that way you sometimes are not honest.”

“Does what you want never change? Yes I did want you. When the twins eagerly jumped in, I wanted them. What is dishonest about that? Even if I had not, what I wanted was not important enough to justify my hurting my babies. Any father would have done the same. That is what being a family is all about. I guess in a way guilty and innocent again.”

“The innocent cancels out the guilty then.”

“Pity, I was looking forward to the court case. Would have been a nice challenge pitting my wits against all of you.”

Cherine pulled a face. “It might be better then we cancelled. You would have made us all look stupid.”

I tilted my head as I asked her, “Would I have Cherine? Really?”

1617

Dommi laughed and hit my shoulder with her fist - she’s picked that up from Claudia, except that she often punches harder than my sweet claw does. “You were going to let us win!”

I took her fist and kissed it. “After I’d had my fun and once Claudia had learnt her lesson. Since Cherine checked on my mind and, I presume, told you what I was thinking, I need to know Claudia, was I wrong?”

“No. I’m sorry.”

Cherine tried to change the subject. “I think Laura is the happiest of all of us that we cancelled.”

“She did not enjoy it?” I felt my eyes were twinkling, betraying my amusement.

“Robert, it may sound silly after all that happened and it is getting late, but can we go to Kefalari?”

“Dommi? Is there a reason?”

“Smaragda phoned, asked if we could meet her there. I told her you had work and we might not be able to.”

I turned to the pack of them. “You want to go, do you like her?”

“If you do not look in her mind it is not easy to.”

“Wendy! What do you think you should do about it? After all, I have made reparations and no longer feel guilty, so you do not need to do it for me. We only go if you want to see her.”

Wendy said, “I would like to free the girl inside her so that we can like her if we want to.”

“Have I told you that you are a pretty wonderful bunch?” My heart swelled with so much love that I seemed to be out of my body, touching and becoming a part of each of them for a moment.

“That was lovely, how did you do it Robbie?” They had all stopped, staring at me with a joy and love that was wonderful to see.

“I have no idea Candy. Feels like it was a new gift. Shall we try it again later? That is if you want to go now.”

We found her there with her parents. I groaned inwardly, I would now have to sit with them and be the grown up, instead of being with my loves.

“Mr Teller, the magic show you put on was incredible. It is not only Smaragda who has not been able to stop talking about it.”

“Call him Roberto dear. You don’t see how he winces every time you call him Mr Teller?” his wife joked.

“Thanks. Kostandino, half the trick is in making people think they see what they see.”

“How can I think I see what I see?”

I laughed. “Okay, I phrased it badly. I see Smaragda carries her toy dog with her!”

“Oh yes, she keeps waiting for it to move.”

I chuckled in response and raised an eyebrow, “Shall I?”

“You do that sitting from here and I’ll know that you have paranormal powers. Is that why Themi is part of your group of friends? I wondered when I heard he resigned from the university.”

“Not because of the reason you think. He found a boy in a mental institution who had been very badly treated. When it turned out that the boy was not insane he became very upset. It made him decide he should devote his time and skills to helping those in need.”

“Yes, Themi would, he has a very soft heart. I hear he has daughters and a baby boy?”

1618

“Daughters?”

“I think their names are Laura and Samantha?”

“Where did you hear that?”

He waved his hand casually. “I don’t remember, this sort of thing gets around.”

I’d seen Cherine frown and shake her head negatively and I felt a chill go down my spine. I kept my face from showing the change, but I was now wary of him.

“I know he adopted a little boy. Never heard about a second daughter though. I see him often enough that I would know if he did.” - Samantha is my daughter, not his. I decided a talk with Themi is necessary - but later decided it is not; I'm glad he is that proud of her

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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)
^{2ndt October, 2019}

* posted on PALNet - Steemit - WEKU - CreativeCoin: 2nd October, 2019

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