Little Cherine Book 09 - BPost003
“We have travelled widely throughout our galaxy and have studied a number of species. Watching the young being reared by parents has only reconfirmed for us the wisdom of our decision. Demanding to bring up your own children without the required training is selfish, done only for the pleasure you the parent obtain. If you consider the matter solely from the point of view of the child, you will have to agree with us.”
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5621
Haven nodded. “You did not mention another antisocial aspect of children being reared within families. They learn to think of themselves, both the children and the adults, as a unit with first loyalty to each other instead of to society and their species as a whole.”
“Exactly!”
“Has anyone on your planet died for love within the last five hundred years?”
“There might have been the odd death or two, but I do not recall any such occurrences.”
“Can your people hate? I’m talking about the kind of hate that eats at you until you are able to obliterate to the last trace the object of your feelings.”
“We are as human as you Haven, we love and we hate, but I doubt we go to either extreme. Surely that is far more healthy?”
“Healthy? Perhaps. It also means that none of you are truly alive. You are skimming upon the surface of life, never leaping for the stars or diving to experience the dark depths with all of its strangeness. I have one last question. Are there those who argue that your society would be healthier and more closely knit if mating were bred out of your instincts? Surely, having a mate and loving him would mean you are not totally devoted to all your people? Why not have experts study your genes and through artificial insemination create new generations that are of ideal health and mental abilities?”
“There are those who argue in favour of such changes, some more and others less extreme, but we are not ready for such dramatic alterations to our species. Who knows what the next five hundred years will bring.”
Haven turned to Cherine with a shrug of contempt. “They need you to save them from themselves. They are cowardly and are destined to turn into material equivalents of the Sparklers, as they were before meeting you. They will end up more like machines than the Kinytians ever were, and will lose their souls.”
Msito was enraged that a lower species would dare speak of her people with such contempt, but I held back, curious, wanting to see how she would handle her anger. She turned on Cherine.
“Are you in agreement with her?”
“No.” She paused and Msito almost felt vindicated. “I do not feel contempt as she does, our Haven expects more of us than most can achieve. I only feel sorry for you.”
“I will report this discussion and I am certain our withdrawal will be ordered. Should that happen, I suggest you leave immediately, before our people rise in anger and our leaders are forced to order an attack on you.”
‘Here we go again’ I thought to myself.
“With your ability to cloak your vessels and induce reality dreams that will incapacitate us, you are certain you could destroy us if you wished to?”
“We would not wish to do so.”
“I asked whether you believe you could.”
“Yes.”
5622
“A demonstration might then be necessary. Please communicate with your group and ask them to cloak your vessel as soon as we arrive there. We would prefer that at least some of you remain outside to see how we will unmask the ship.”
Robbie saw what I’d thought of and excusing himself jumped home and leaving his body returned as the void. None of them sensed him. We all gathered before their spaceship, about half a kilometre away from it.
“Please order your ship to cloak itself.”
“It has been done, it should disappear within seconds.” The seconds dragged by and became nearly two minutes. He communicated privately with those in the ship and we felt the bewilderment he was trying to hide. “The ship reports an unknown energy is surrounding it.”
“But it has cloaked itself?”
Reluctantly, “Yes.”
“I will float to about two hundred metres above it. Please order your ship to attack me with whatever weapons you choose.”
Before he could refuse, I was gone. He tried to argue with the others, but they held private their fear for me and insisted he do as I asked. After they had confirmed they would not be held responsible for damage to me or for my death, he gave the order. It took a while for those who were inside to obey.
For a second or two the spaceship disappeared as Robbie withdrew his energies to create a shell to contain whatever attack they were about to employ. The energy that was meant to shoot out towards me rebounded and filled the area within his shell. Quickly the ship stopped firing and I returned.
“It was not a good test, you used weapons that cannot affect beings with superior minds. Please unleash another dream on us, similar to the previous one if you like.”
“For what purpose?”
“Purely to illustrate how effective it can be.”
“Where is Robert? He must approve such an extreme action.”
“I am leader and approve it. He will not dispute my right to do so.”
Everyone quickly did as I’d asked of them and we waited. We would not have realised they’d done as I’d asked, if not for an unexpected turn. The Muyzith with us cried out and lurched, falling and scrambling to save themselves. The others in the ship must have observed that we were unaffected while their own people were not, so they cut the experiment short. I asked that everyone remains still and wait for the Muyzith to get to their feet without our help.
“The tests are over. Thank you for complying.”
“There is no defence against the dream sending! How did you resist it?”
“Resist it? We did not even sense it and only the effect on the non-Cherinians among us proved you had kept your word.”
“But, to resist the will of an entire planet of Muyzith, it is impossible!”
“Impossible for a Muyzith or a Cherinian?” We let them think about it as we returned to the taverna for refreshments. Robbie joined us there and his eyes were dark with worry as he stared at me for a moment.
Sint asked me, “Will you explain?”
5623
“Why I asked for the demonstrations and how we countered them?”
“Yes, both.”
“The answers have already been given to you in our telling. If you cannot see it, then I will explain in simpler terms.” I was being just a little bit nasty, but they have to learn to think of us as their equals, however brilliant and gifted they are. One of them came to the wrong conclusion, sending them into a panic and even I felt my face drained of all blood at the thought.
“You are like those creatures, you called them Teddies? If any power is used against you, you adapt?”
Our first panicky instinct was to deny even the possibility, but I retained some good sense and asked everyone to keep quiet. “You are on the right path, but came to the wrong conclusion. The ability we have I would hope you also still have.” I gave them a few seconds to wonder. “Would not any sapient creature use experience as a tool to learn how to safeguard itself and all those it loves? To us the answers were obvious. I regret to tell you that any kind of attack from your people from now onwards would be countered by us, only surprise and our ignorance of your abilities and intentions made your first tests effective. After all, we are Cherinians!”
“Sam!” Robbie protested at my arrogance.
“Aren’t we dad? Are we not made up of a variety of species and individuals, each with their own powers, gifts and unique perspective on life? Do we not all share souls, hearts and dreams? Where a power might be effective against Robert the protector, is it necessarily true it would be so against any of our Jesus friends or the Wirms, or the Elipians, or the Akiards? We are all one, part of what Cherine made us, but we are still individuals with our own gifts.
It is crucial that we help the Muyzith see the truth, for Msito has already foreseen that her people are too comfortable in their present philosophies for them to wish to join us. They must be made to understand that by joining us not only do they not lose anything but, where they have to adapt, they grow. Dare we leave behind such a marvellous species without helping them create their own Kaleidoscope Worlds?
I formally ask you Solomon, as representative of all the Sparklers, may the Muyzith come to your World, to marvel at the impossibility of it and then to learn of ours? They did not learn from our telling of the wonder of belonging to a World with all those you truly love. We owe it to them.”
“With pleasure Samantha, as souls or in their bodies, if Robert will bring them.”
“Meli, will you invite them to visit your world?” It had struck me by then, I’d realised that for some reason they all felt uncomfortable around Gillianth. She also agreed. In turn, I asked the Muyzith whether they accepted both invitations. They conferred and agreed.
They are too powerful for Robbie to risk taking them in their bodies to the Sparkler World. They are used to the void and found it confusing when we told them the Sparkler World is in the void, but simultaneously within Freddie. We met them in the void and led them back into Freddie. Tactically a mistake if they do not become our friends, but we will always be willing to take that kind of risk. We followed a Sparkler until we were in the centre of a cloud of them and entered their World.
To the Muyzith, it was an incredible place that stirred their scientific curiosity more than anything else. Solomon chose their bodies for them and they were not pleased to find themselves as young boys and girls. Not that we were that pleased with Solomon either, for he had made them beautiful.
We travelled in a platform and Robbie did not have to comment as the speed came close to that of light. They could not believe that two hours later we were still within Freddie (in a manner of speaking). They claim that our scientists might be able to imagine there is a mathematical explanation, but that it would not be possible for any scientist of any species, no matter how brilliant, to postulate in a meaningful and scientific manner, a set of formulas that would make sense to our minds. They insist that only creatures from another plane with additional dimensions would have brains capable of creating and understanding the mathematics. I hope our Normals prove them wrong, even if I should not be so species chauvinistic - I just hate it when anyone says anything is impossible.
5624
The Sparklers had deliberately hidden our Worlds when we arrived. As we stood on the ground again the sky suddenly exploded with our Worlds, plus a number of those of the Anadir. They were truly awed and when they met the entities, they did not act superior to them in any way. We took them to the emerald isle where the dolphins joyfully greeted them. Adam took them within himself and helped them discover/understand how having Worlds of their own would affect them.
They were a subdued bunch when we returned to our bodies. Maria now holds in stock refreshments provided by their ship and we had our coffees or cold drinks while they communed mind to mind. They did not do a good job of masking their emoting and we could feel they were disturbed and having disagreements between themselves. Robbie lit his second cigarette and leant back with a smile.
“Samantha, you are a really amazing little imp. I love it when you surprise me, but this time you outdid yourself. Are you really hoping to change them?”
“We already have dad.”
“Why Meli’s world? Haven’t they seen enough?”
I gave Diana a smile first. “Diana is an enigma to them, but they accept her as some sort of fairy tale, as if she does not truly exist and is only a projection created by us to amuse ourselves - or, they could believe Arthur created her for us to love. Gillian however makes them uncomfortable. For us to claim that she was created within the mind of Meli makes Meli a goddess, for they cannot create life. They also have a feeling it is not morally right for any species to create new sentient lifeforms.”
With irony, “Not even the Whites? You think that visiting her world will change their minds?”
“No, it will force them to re-think a lot of what they accept as true and that will gradually change them. For the better I hope.”
“If I was you, I would have first asked them for help with finding Arthur before risking alienating them.”
“They will help us dad, even should they decide they do not wish to ever see us again. They fear Arthur, but also want him here where he can be controlled. They have accepted that we are his favourites, their only hope of getting him here.”
“Your faith in Arthur is such that you would risk him being placed under their control?”
“No. My faith in you and Cherine is.”
“No my love, say your faith in all Cherinians.” He is right. All of us would stand by you. I noticed that the kids were listening, so I made up for my mistake.
“With the Akiards on our side I doubt anyone could beat us.”
“Me too.” Iona chimed in. Robbie laughed and agreed with her, her too.
The coming of the Muyzith has disturbed not only Sheena, but also all the Whites. They have no prior knowledge or memory of them, but their parents have explained what role the Muyzith played in their existence. Their unease has spread to Sheena, even though she does not understand why. She does not run around playing and clings to Robbie mostly. Me she tends to keep away from, because she sees I am with them most of the time.
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We had not taken any of the Iktrians (Darks or Whites) with us to the Sparkler World. We keenly felt it would be wrong not to take them to Meli’s world. Robbie loved the idea of Sheena enjoying herself there in her own body again, knowing what pleasure it would give her to show off to her parents and people and agreed to take them all in their bodies. Iona paired off with Sheena and babbled excitedly about where they are going and her experiences, mostly confusing poor Sheena since she had only been there in her real body. It did not really matter, for she implicitly trusts Robbie and her example gave the others the courage to allow Robbie to carry them.
None of the Muyzith are comfortable with me anymore and Dommi is not exactly what they need to feel, so we were happy to allow Tina, Irene and Elpida to call to them and bring them to meet us there.
This time we explained why they’d been brought here in Terran bodies and they felt easier about it and experimented, sensing the differences. Robbie was amused to see that they took great pains to avoid stepping on any of the little white flowers that seemed to have spread, in clumps, all over. We did not even hazard a guess as to whether they were being fastidious or polite. They enjoyed their walks among the trees, visited the town of the Gillians and then the unborn city. We had a picnic lunch below the waterfall and returned to the fields to meet the Anadir who live here. We were open and explained everything, even showing them how to fly. We then left them alone for them to enjoy themselves. Mostly they walked together discussing all they’d seen. It is strange how most humans are silly that way. They could have held their discussions back at home and spent their time trying to experience all they could. Instead, like Terran tourists with cameras, they wasted their brief stay analysing and making mental notes of what they’ve seen for analysing again when they return to their home planet.
Most of us, with the Akiard girls, jumped close to the ship and swam and played for a couple of hours, glad to be free to just enjoy ourselves for a while. The Akiard girls do not enjoy being in the water and they can’t float, unless they learn to use a gift, but playing with us where it was shallow, was a novel experience for them and they enjoyed themselves. Afterwards we lay or sat on the beach and enjoyed some girl talk with them, hopefully colouring their way of thinking.
We had not brought Sheena with as she clung to Robbie, so we were surprised when Robbie with Sheena and Iona arrived.
“The girls are feeling left out. Anybody want some coconut milk?” We got rid of him as soon as we could and then played games that both Sheena and Iona could play. With Iona, we did not have to let her win, even here she moves too quickly for us. Once Robbie was gone, Sheena agreed to take off her dress and at first kept on sending us pictures of how strange it felt to be running about in the nude. She soon forgot herself as we played. Children love to mimic others of the group and Sheena was not that alien that she did not. As we ran, chasing or evading each other, we would scream and laugh at near misses. We nearly stopped playing when Sheena screamed as Noelle nearly tagged her. After that, we made certain she was given many opportunities to scream.
It was time for us to return, but Wendy silently asked us to wait and pulling Sheena to her, she sat on the sand. She hummed a new tune and once we had lost ourselves in her music, she made the song take some turns until it became the tune she’d taught Sheena. In the middle of it she stopped and gestured for Sheena to join her. She carried on a while alone and then Sheena shyly and very softly joined her. Feeling our joy and admiration, it was not long before Wendy could let Sheena hum on her own. She must have been humming the song to herself silently all this time, for now she managed to keep to the tune.
Meli was overjoyed, just as all of us were, so she did something new. She took the soft sounds of Sheena and made them heard all over her world. An entire world stopped to listen to the sound of a child discovering herself and being happy.
We had no sooner returned to our bodies than the Muyzith gave us some quick apologies and Freddie let their spaceship out. They did not linger in space for their mothership, high-tailing it back home as fast as they could.
“What happened? None of us said anything to upset them, Samantha never even spoke to them.” Agapi was being serious, but it made us laugh.
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Robbie grabbed her, his hand softly caressing her bum, “Hmm, it is still just as gorgeous as I remember, a real little bubble-butt. Agapi mou, you are underestimating our Sammy, she doesn’t need to be anywhere near them to cause havoc.”
Having given them license to tease me, he sat back with a smile as he caressed Agapi, making her squirm as he lit tiny fires in her body.
“It was Melina’s world, the final straw that broke their backs.”
“What are you talking about Samuel?”
“I was just explaining to those who are feeling slow-witted today, what you meant. Their visit there forced them to believe your telling. Now they are faced with a number of terrible facts to carry back to their governments. They came here thinking we are a gifted group of aliens, hoping to enlist our help in identifying the growing threat they’ve been sensing for some time. They probably did not expect much of us, we could be the caretakers, janitors, keeping everything nice and tidy while they use their magnificent powers and minds to hunt out the danger they sensed.
Then Samantha gets uppity. You do a telling which they believe is based on some truth but boastful, highly exaggerated. Samantha gets uppity again, ridicules their powers with a trick or two and then takes them to visit the Sparklers World, they meet your entities and then you take them to Melina’s world.”
He grinned, ticking off on his fingers. “What have they discovered? Not just one terrible new power to fear, but a number of them. Let’s see; Robert who can become the void and carry matter through it. Cherine, the power they’d been ready to hunt out. Jesus with his magic and then, to top it all off, Melina with the ability to hold entire planets in her mind and people them with real people - one of them marrying and living here with Robert and his harem. Do you blame them for panicking?”
Robbie was amused and grinning. “I guess we are sort of scary. We must be doing something right though.”
“What do you mean?”
“As long as people like you can make fun of us, it means there is hope for us.” That shut Samuel up and he sat looking thoughtful.
The breakthrough by Wendy on Meli’s world was soon made evident again. Sheena now did not hesitate to try and verbalise, prattling almost non-stop and learning how to speak new words by the hour. We would have just enjoyed it, if not for the Whites and Darks. They tried to be close to her all the time, the whites watching her lips with fascination as they concentrated on how she spoke, their minds piercing hers, sometimes their pictures making her lose track of what she was saying. One of the Whites came to us the second day after our return from Meli’s world.
“I think I have learnt the song as sung by Wendy. Would you like to see it in the way we sing?”
We were eager, but we made him wait for that evening and let everyone know we would be having a musical show with our star being Caruso - as he was named by Luigi and Sylvestro.
Wendy insisted she would not sing during the first part of the show. She helped prepare Candy and Lua with a simple song and dance routine. She then planned for Caruso to sing, take a two-hour break with drinks, snacks and dance music and then a short performance by Caruso and her performing as a duet. We could feel Caruso was already regretting his indiscretion (the disclosure of his ability to sing with pictures) but he let Wendy commit them. Now that I think of it, I do not remember anyone ever saying ‘no’ to Wendy - I wish I had that gift of hers. (R: Not a ‘gift’ my love, just her natural sweetness.) (S: Are you saying I am not sweet?) (R: That was a predictable and facetious response love - lol, why not ask Arthur?)
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It is ironic, after writing the above this afternoon. Candy and Lua made plans of their own without forewarning Wendy - and it irritated her. They came up with the idea of roping in Jade to ‘picture’ their song. In the end, it turned out to be a good idea, but I’ll explain later.
After their performance, Caruso walked on to the stage with Wendy holding his hand. She stood next to him as he sang us his pictures. Some of us were better able to grasp what he was doing, but some, like me, just sat enjoying the beauty and mathematical sense of the pictures. Wendy must have sensed that a number of us had not succeeded in appreciating Caruso so she asked him to sing his song again with her. That was stunning! Even a musical dunce like me was moved to tears from the sheer beauty of it.
Never has an audience been so restless and impatient of an interval, hardly anyone dancing, mostly just drinking and wondering aloud at what Wendy has planned for us as a finale.
Everyone gathered by the platform and Freddie darkened the sky and the inner shields so that it was almost pitch black. Everyone was holding their breath, those who’ve experienced Wendy at her best realising something special is coming.
A strange lilting note rang out, echoing as if in a huge hall. As it began to fade away the next note began and then the next until they seemed to be scrambling in a joyous rush to be heard. Suddenly silence. A picture formed in the air above the platform and a teasing hint of notes could just barely be heard. As it grew louder, coming closer, the picture grew and changed as it grew and the music began to play with the pictures that flowed and danced. The feelings or impression which I thought at the time was only my own interpretation, was that of a sensitive human being facing dawn and joyously welcoming the new day with a heart confident that this will be the day the longing for love will be assuaged. Dreams that had tortured become playful and happy, washing away the grief of years of waiting. As the sun rose into the sky the song quietened, becoming a question, a memory of countless dawns like this one, a patient waiting for the miracle to happen. As darkness returned we were left with an aching longing that persisted long after the night had grown still and silent.
As Freddie allowed the shields to slightly brighten, the audience stared about and at each other, as if waiting for a gesture of love. Cherine began a golden circle of love so gently that we only gradually became aware of it. After we reached the peak and the gentle decrescendo left our hearts singing with blissful love, the lights went on and we saw Wendy and Caruso standing on the platform. They bowed to us and Wendy jumped them away.
Later, in our bedroom, Wendy pulled Candy and Jade to her and thanked them with kisses. Their performance had sparked an idea in her and she’d asked Jade to help make the pictures visible for everyone to physically see, not just in their minds. Where she had planned to have Caruso make pictures to a song she had written, she changed her mind and asked him to sing her a song so that she could interpret it with sound.
Arthur, have you ever loved someone so much that it was not necessary to make love? That all you wanted was to have your love and adoration of them soak through their pores and filling their hearts spill over into their future so that they will eternally know how much they have been loved? I am surprised that Wendy was able to survive a night of being loved that way by all of us. We ended up holding a baby Wendy and as she happily fell asleep on Robbie’s chest, we watched over her like adoring mothers.
We woke up to the sound/feeling of crying in our minds. Dommi was the first to work out what was happening and with an explosion of joy, she left her body. Urgently we all followed her into the mind of Sheena.
Sheena was in shock and terrified.
For the first time ever, she’d had an out of body experience, astrally projecting to the void. The strange dark place had convinced her she was lost or dead and would never see any of us again.
“Msito was right! It is not possible to have an OBE if you don’t have a soul.”
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Luigi asked me, “It is not possible for an intelligent mind to travel Samantha?”
“I…only through imagination Luigi, not to actually travel to the void.”
“You might be indulging in wishful thinking Sammoula mou.” Themi said. “What Luigi suggested should be reserved as a possibility. Last night was an experience that must have set many minds on fire with new dreams.”
“Not the void Themi. I can’t believe it.” I looked at Robbie and Cherine, silently pleading for them to back me up.
Robbie smiled, his face suffused with love as he held our little snow princess. “Be patient Sam, she will prove you right I’m certain.” He smiled at Themi. “I’m going to enjoy my wishful thinking.”
Nicholas, son of Tasso and Stella, plucked his courage to ask Robbie, “Can I ask you something theie (uncle)?”
“You have to ask for permission now? Have I been such a bad friend?”
He blushed and stammered. “I was wondering about the Wirms. Could my Wirm friend wish me to an Earth for a swim if I wanted?”
“If your friend wants to take you…Nicholas! I’ll be damned! I have been stupid! It was so obvious! Any of you could visit any place you want and return the same day if your Wirm friend is willing.”
“No Robert, you have not been stupid, it is Nicholas who has been brilliant.” His heart swelled at the praise from Cherine. “However, I doubt anyone will want to leave.”
“Why not love? As he said, he could go for a swim and return the same day.”
“Not if he chooses to return home. What if he goes, stays a few days and returns. We then have to note how many days he was there so that we delay our return or else there will be two of him there. Let’s say he goes to another Earth, you did notice he had already thought of it and said to ‘an’ Earth? What if he goes to an alternate Earth? We then have to keep notes of where he went and when. Multiply that by tens of thousands of us and even our computers will end up confused. We need to ask all of you not to do this except in an emergency.”
We felt Nicholas become deflated as Cherine talked. She smiled at him. “Your idea was brilliant and could someday save lives, I think you deserve a reward for thinking of it. Choose who you want to take with you and we’ll choose an alternate Earth that we will not be visiting within days of our last visit. Pappou will give you money for hotels and food. Happy now?”
Robbie asked him, “Is one week enough?” He nodded, his eyes shining. “Go to the Earth of our Samuel, Cherine and her family will link you temporarily so that you don’t get into trouble. Give them our love.”
Poor Nicholas could not refuse anyone he felt wanted to go with and he ended up with nearly two thousand. Alki sat glowering at Robbie.
“Where do you expect me to find that much money, you’ve already taken much of what I had here.”
Robbie burst out laughing. “We could give the local Alki a heart attack and ask him to fund them.”
Alki grinned. “I like that idea.”
“Vincent, could you give him advance notice?”
5629
“Dad. Can I go with? I’d like to see them, Samuel and the girls, I miss them.” My face fell. “I can’t go, the Muyzith could return at any time.”
Robbie found that so funny that Sheena had to get off his lap, her face bewildered. “If they hear you are not here, they just might quickly drop in to chat with us.” Soon everyone was trying to think up some sally to top the others teasing of me. Vincent gave me a wink so I went to him and he wrapped his arms about me.
“Samantha!” Ataxia ran to me and gave me a hug. “Dad, will be so glad to see you.” Even as she spoke the others were jumping home. As Samuel appeared I looked at him and thought, ‘I certainly make a handsome male’. The girls picked up on my thought and had a screaming fit of laughter, teasing me. Vincent jumped to Alki with a huge grin on his face. I was tempted to jump with him, but the way things are going, Alki would find something funny about me to laugh about.
The family decided we had to go to Kefalari as many others would want to see me. I first shared with them my memories, which placed a total damper on them. They sat with glazed faces as they went through my memories and their feelings of awe at certain moments gave me a rough guide as to what they were experiencing.
Though I am not really that fond of Baked Alaska, I had one just for old times sake. When Cherine, Dommi and Robert arrived, Claire rushed into my arms. She looked about ten or eleven. After I greeted the others, Claire sat by me and we visited each other’s minds. She happily confirmed that she is this age because it is the favourite of her father, making him blush.
They were all excited to hear that so many Cherinians would be visiting and promised they will spend time with them. Aleka ran her fingers through my hair and I smiled at her.
“Why is it that you feel so much like a mother to me? Can it be that you are secretly another Dommi?”
She laughed, blushing. “No, seeing you brings back so many precious memories.”
I hugged her. “My second family. I love you all.”
Dommi said, “It was wise of you to come Sam, you needed a break from your worries.”
Cherine just had to go and say, “She is a worry-wart, give her a few minutes and she’ll find something to worry about here.”
It must be my day for being teased by everyone.
Vincent timed our return so that a few hours would have passed, giving Nicholas and his ‘friends’ time to prepare for their departure. As we arrived, I sensed a great deal of excitement. I could sense everyone was bursting to tell me, but they waited for Robbie to be the first. I turned away from him, after meeting his eyes, and asked Gina.
“The Whites are using words! They have started to speak telepathically with words.”
I was puzzled. Why was I the only one who felt alarmed, as if something extraordinarily beautiful is about to be lost. Since I had allowed Gina to tell me the news, I looked to her for a question or answer. I got the question.
“What is wrong?”
“Luigi, do you see what worries me?”
“I admit I do not.”
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“With their extreme need for love and their love for the Darks, how will they communicate from now on? Are they going to lose their beautiful and picturesque way of speaking to each other and us? We would also be poorer. There is another reason we should worry, will the Whites drift apart and lose their identity as a new race?”
Manoli laughed at Robbie. “An empty victory, I’ll play a set of six with you, but you will not win a game.”
Candy happily explained to me, “Robert bet a set of tavli (games) with Manoli that you would immediately find something to worry about when you heard the news.”
I was amused, but put on a stern face as I spoke to Manoli, “The bet is cancelled, he cheated.”
He looked at Robbie who grimaced and then laughed. “How?”
“He’d thought of the downside also, but did not want to spoil it for everyone since there is no urgency and it is necessary that the Whites learn to use words for communicating. We already know that they are not able to communicate with many of our alien friends by the use of picture thoughts. If their eyes are different from ours, if their symbols for emotions are different, they do not understand the pictures.”
“Why are you worried then?”
“Thinking in pictures I presume is more of an effort than speaking a few words. How long before they forget how to use pictures?”
“Using words effectively and precisely seems to take more effort since none of us use our languages correctly.”
I ignored his implied rebuke, he has made it too often for it to dampen my spirit. “Samuel, his family and everyone else send their love. As for Alki’s reaction, I’ll leave it for Vincent to share with you the precise and colourful use of his language.” Alki was the first to laugh and it helped reduce the tension.
Meli had withdrawn after Robbie’s comment and apropos of nothing being said now, she explained her thoughts. “I disagree Robert, the use of our language is as it should be. The way in which each of us mangle it makes what is said unique and particular to the person, family, group or society. If we all applied what we know about grammar and only used words according to the exact meaning or nuance as set out in dictionaries, we would all become boring and our languages would become fossilised. Somewhat like your Mr Spock.”
“Spock is not boring! I thought he was one of the most interesting characters in the series.”
“Yes, I suppose you would.” He stared at her as he tried to work out what she meant, guessing it was not a flattering comment and becoming deflated. He suddenly laughed and grabbing for her swung her up to him.
“You little monkey, you had me going there for a second.”
“Oh my poor Robert, you really love to mishmash our beautiful English language - you were going there, where?”
Everyone has long since learnt to ignore us, or at least to pretend they are doing so, when we start fooling around between us. Freddie chose this moment to interrupt us. “A ship has left the planet and is headed in our direction.”
Robbie grinned. “Who would like to give them a dose of their own medicine?”
“It depends, what do you want to do?”
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)21st February, 2020
- posted: 21st February, 2020
If you wish to read from an earlier book, from Book 01 to Book 08, use this link button to open the LC Book Index:
