Little Cherine Book 02 - BPost007
“Yes. Look at my hand.” I held it up for her to see. I projected it into the face of a cat, it opened it’s mouth and hissed. I reverted it back to a hand. She stared, her face suddenly pale. She shook her head and laughed.
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“That was clever. How did you hypnotise me so fast?”
“I did not. You really did see the head of a cat.”
“If I did, then you are a very good illusionist.”
“You really are going to give me a hard time aren’t you?” I grinned at her. “What would convince you?”
“You are right. I look for a logical explanation. You would have to do something that could not be explained in any way.”
“That is…hold on, maybe I can do it. Let’s go and sit on those rocks. I want to tell you a story.”
She gave a delighted laugh, her eyes crinkling up. “You are going to convince me by telling me a story!” She squeezed the arm of Socrati. “I like your friend Soc, he has a sense of humour.”
I changed the names, but told her about Cherine and I and how we developed and of the others who joined us. About the dancing, the healers and of our jumping. I felt that was enough.
“This healer. It can heal others too?”
“Anyone.”
“Of what.”
“From a scratch to cancer, or Aids.”
“You are serious? You expect me to believe you?”
The only thing I had on me was a cheap ballpoint pen. I took it, showed it to her, let her prod and feel it until she was convinced it really is a ballpoint pen. As I took it from her, not giving myself time to think about it, I slammed it through my other hand that was resting on a rock. She screamed and as the blood welled up she looked as if she would faint. I held up the hand and she saw the blood and tip of the pen sticking out of my palm.
“Sonja, examine it please. Do not take too long, it is rather painful.” She could hardly bear to look, but I saw her horror as the blood spattered all over as I waved my hand, a drop landing on her jeans. She rubbed at it and saw the smear on her finger.
“Would you grab the pen and pull it out, that way you will feel it really is in my hand.” She refused, so I slowly pulled it out. She could see the skin raising slightly as it was pulled. Once it was out I made her examine it again.
“If I can heal this within, say ten seconds, would that convince you?” She nodded.
She saw the wound close and I wiped the blood away with my finger, she winced as I did that; then she saw the scar was gone. I walked over to the sea and washed my hand. As I held it in front of her face, showing her the palm too, I thought I had convinced her.
“I read about people like you. They said in a magazine article that the American army is experimenting, trying to find out how they heal so fast.”
“God! Socrati, are you sure? She will be impossible!” I saw the flash of anger on her face and decided I had to distract her. She was still trying to get rid of the stain on her jeans.
“Cher baby, get rid of the blood on her jeans please.” As she pulled her finger away she looked down and saw it fade away. Her face paled.
“That was real!! You really have these gifts!”
“You said you do not scream and run.” That stiffened her back. “Good. You are truly remarkable. I go through the pain of stabbing my hand and you get convinced by a drop of blood being removed from your jeans!”
We talked a fairly long time, the girls helping me out. I saw she was almost not convinced again, having begun to explain it all away in her mind.
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“It is rather hot. I think some fruit and a coffee would do wonders for me. How about we go to Paphos for a change.”
“That is on the other side of the island! We can get fruit here.”
“It would be nice to sit at the old harbour, a different environment. It would only take a second or two. Come on. If jumping there does not convince you, I warn you Sonja, then I give up.”
We jumped, all of us arriving at the flat. She had a fit of hysterics and then cried for a long time. Once we had calmed her down, I found her totally convinced now. I went into a lot more detail. She slowly began to respond, ask questions.
“Sonja, it is important you understand, deep down in your heart, the key to our gifts is the ability to feel, to empathise. If I can feel your pain, your happiness, your love or hate, and you can feel all that in me, are we then not as one? Our strength comes from our love for each other. The love we are able to feel, you would not believe is possible. It is more magical than jumping here was. Would you like to feel what such love is like?” She nodded, her eyes wide, with disbelief or fear.
Cherine took the love I sent her and sent it to Rosie and back to me; as it grew between the three of us it reached a point where we felt our devotion to each other was far above anything a normal human could feel. Cherine sent it to Sonja. Her look turned to one of rapture. I let her enjoy it for as long as I could.
“That was the love Cherine, Rosie and I feel for each other.”
“My god, that was impossible. No heart can feel like that.”
“I told you love was the best part. Will you now stop fearing us?”
“How can I fear anyone who can feel such feelings?” She began to weep. “Why did you do that? It was not fair, I do not have these gifts. To make me feel that, to spend the rest of my life remembering it. No man could make me feel like that. It was cruel.”
“I can see why Socrati is in love with you. You are different.”
“You should not have said that Robbie. It was his to say.”
“Socrati, I am sorry. She is right, I was stupid.”
*You are a mean bugger, you did that on purpose.* *Yes, he would not have told her.* *You think she did not know?*
“Sonja, if you decide to trust us, believe in our good intentions, you too could have these gifts, become a part of something unbelievably beautiful. Will you give us a chance?”
“You can really do this, take someone ordinary like me and do it?”
“We all started off like you. This girl here, Cherine, she is the only one who was born with the talent. She started us off. Actually, Socrati was also born with the gift, but he only joined us recently. He grew up with the fear that he was cursed.”
“I would do anything, anything to feel that love again.”
I explained about the dancing, of how she would become part of us by exchanging motes, that we called it exchange kissing. I explained about the effects of this, how her life would be extended. It was all too much for her to believe.
“I would like you to meet Cherine and Rosie as they really are. Sonja, Rosie is only a baby and Cherine is ten years old. Watch them so that you know it is no trick.” She gasped as they changed. Cherine picked up little Rosie and cuddled her, smiling at us.
“Cherine, send her your feeling of love for Rosie.” She did so and Sonja began to cry.
“It is the truth. How could something so wonderful happen to me!”
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“Because you were loved. Feel that blind silly love and know how you are seen.” Cherine took the love out of Socrati and sent it to her. She could feel this love was different, feel the adoration he felt for her. She stared at him in wonder, a look of love growing in her own eyes.
“I do not deserve that Soc.”
“Close your eyes. Relax and respond when I call you. Do not try to help, just imagine you are coming to me.”
When she saw us as souls, we saw the fear. I soothed her, Rosie danced around her, her baby laughter a joy to hear within her and she touched her, exchange kissing, letting her taste her pure love. We then kept away from her, letting the two of them shyly dance with each other until they found the courage to soul-kiss, give to each other of their love. I let them continue until they blazed with love and wanted to meld. The protector pulled them apart and I sent them back to their bodies.
“You have a very beautiful soul Sonja. I am glad Socrati found you, giving us a new and wonderful person to love. I have to warn you about something. My healer is already inside you. Whatever it finds needs repairing it will heal. A side effect of this will be rejuvenation. Do you know what that means? You will get younger again. Just like Socrati did. Give yourself time to get to know him, to love him for the person he is, without questions about his age. He still fears you will not want him soon, that you shall tire of him. Give him the confidence that you really love him and he will open up and tell you all. You could not have found a more beautiful heart to love you. We have guests coming tonight, so we have to go. I will return tomorrow to take you back to your hotel.”
We left them, took Britta home and returned to find all the girls waiting for us, their hearts full of the joy we feel when bringing in a new person. There was an atmosphere of celebration that stayed even after they had calmed down.
“That was horrible Robbie. How could you stab your hand like that?”
“You think that was horrible! I’ll tell you what was horrible. That she still would not believe and then because Cherine gets rid of a stain, she believes. Made a mockery of the pain I went through.” They all laughed at me
We had not expected all the Cherinians to turn up, so I warned them and collected Socrati and Sonja, for them to be a part of the experience - also it would be a good time for everyone to meet our latest linked member, Sonja. When Savva arrived, he found us all waiting anxiously. I first introduced Sonja to everyone. I was very pleased to see Laura had come this time, Though I had not said anything nor allowed my thoughts to betray me, it had upset me when she had not come for our two broadcasts the previous week, the only one absent. I asked Savva to get up and speak. He stood, so as to be certain we all hear him.
“I have brought with me the latest statistics. The results are in two columns. The first is the average for a five day period, the second is the actual. I regret I cannot give anyone a copy and would ask you all to keep this…what am I saying, none of you are going to run around talking about this! I am sorry, force of habit.” We all chuckled.
“Suicides, average, none. Actual, none - the average would be too small to be worth taking into account. Of course, if this were to last for three months or more then it would become significant. Petty crime (εγκλήματα μικροπρεπείς). Twenty six. Actual, two. Both apprehended and had come into the area from elsewhere. Serious felony. Burglary and so on. Eight. Actual. One. We do not know identity yet. Rape, murder or attempted. Less than one. Actual, none reported.
There are a number of other cases we normally handle. Fights, at home, at bars and so on. Those fluctuate wildly. With hot weather, as we had, people tend to be more irritable. I will exclude those from the traffic, as the flow through is too high. Average, taken with a pinch of salt, is about thirty seven. Actual was eight. I was able to ascertain that three of those were not in the area on the two nights of the broadcasts. The results sound astounding, but please keep in mind that the averages are just that. We have weeks when everything becomes quiet. If we are able to repeat this and have the same results three times running, then our experiment will have proven to be a huge success - and I start to worry about finding a new job.” We all laughed and clapped.
“Savva, that was wonderful. I would be happy to repeat this as often as you like. I would prefer though that we wait, allow the averages to return and then broadcast again. If we are successful enough times, I have a worry, the opposite of that which you mentioned. I fear that your senior officers will decide you are doing something to cause this decline in crime and transfer you to another area.”
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“To do that they would have to promote me, and I am too close to retirement for it to be approved, as it means they would also have to raise my pension. It may not be a bad thing to try for it though, the higher my position the more useful I could be for the group.”
Tasso spoke, “I agree with Savva, I think we should concentrate on helping him. Roberto, you have seen how many times you needed help. It would be good to have him as close to the top as we can manage.”
The girls showed me that I scowled at everyone. “We are creating history here for a new kind of society. I see the practical benefits, but something about doing this leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I was hoping we could leave some of the evils of the past in the past. On this matter the security of all of us could be affected so I will not lay down the law. I think we should vote on this. My circle is by far the largest and a vote per person would not be fair, though I can assure you my young ladies would not vote my way blindly, they are very much prone to making up their own minds. Despite my qualifiers, I suggest that each circle have one vote. You decide within your circle who will vote and use the majority vote within your circle as the deciding one. Does that seem fair?”
“I vote that we do not vote.”
“Your motion comes second on the agenda Alki. We can…”
Elia interrupted, “Your motion was not seconded Robert, so if his is, yours comes second. I second the motion by Alki.”
Alki got to his feet. We all could see that he was not amused. “I am very upset. You all heard what happens once we start playing corporate politics (εταιρική πολιτική). I personally have never disputed that Roberto is our leader, if not in name, then in fact. Right or wrong, whatever I thought at the time, I accepted his decisions. I do not like this motion. It will create a precedent that will affect all of us. So I vote that we all agree that there will be no voting, ever! For as long as Roberto has our trust, respect and love, he makes the decisions and we live with them. Does anyone oppose my motion?”
“Does that mean we have to do whatever Robert says?”
“Yes Cherine.”
“Oh boy!!” The little imp got them laughing. It seemed everyone agreed with Alki, so I let it drop. Cherine sent me another ‘nice try’ and a smilie.
Wing stood up. “May I bring up something else?”
“Of course.”
“Up to now, each and every one of us has been linked by Cherine thanks to Robert. As we grow this will begin to snowball. At which point do we all have the right to bring in new people?”
“There is no need to discuss it Wing. If you, or anyone else has the ability to do so, you are welcome to. Keep in mind that I am not the one who decides who joins us. I think you will each be able to confirm that at the time you joined, I had Cherine with me. Before deciding to confide in any one of you, that includes, right from the beginning, Dominique and Alki, I first had to get the thumbs up from her. If she felt you were trustworthy and souls we would want to share our dancing with, then I invited you. If you have anyone with her ability, please go ahead.”
“You have set an impossible target for us. Even you do not have her ability.”
“We do have a second person. Socrati is a natural born, same as Cherine. Use him to first vet your prospective candidates. Do you agree Cherine?”
“Yes. I think that soon there will be a third person able to decide also.”
I put up my hand at the reaction to her comment. “Since she did not name the third person it means she does not feel it is time yet. Please do not ask who it is. Now, if business is over, I suggest we celebrate by going for a good Greek supper to celebrate. We have some people here from other countries who might enjoy trying the local dishes. Sorry, I phrased that badly, I am inviting you all as my guests.”
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At the taverna I sat with Elia and his wife on my one side and Charlie on the other. Jonathan sat next to Charlie. I soon found that Elia and Charlie were carrying on a conversation across me, with Jonathan trying to join in. I got up and changed seats to make it easier for them. Since I had been more or less declared leader I found myself forced to be sociable and trying to talk to everyone. This went completely against my nature and I hated it. All I wanted was to be with my girls. They sensed it and soon had moved themselves so that they surrounded me. I saw that Laura had included herself in this ring, and gave a wry grin.
Agapi came and stood behind me with Lua. “Are we going to be allowed to join you, or is this an exclusive gathering?” They made space for the two girls and it was not long before others had joined and I found myself circulating again. I talked too much and ate and drank too much. I was secretly relieved when most of our guests left.
Sonja asked to speak to me. We moved to a separate table. “Robert, I have a problem. I need to stay with Socrati, I could not even imagine living apart from him. However, I am still studying at University. I would hate to drop my studies - I really love doing what I am doing. How can I solve this? It is impossible, I have to give up one or the other.”
“Move here to Greece, stay with us for a few days. Socrati can come with. The girls will concentrate on teaching you. Once you have your own healer, they can teach you to jump. Then you can move back to Cyprus. You could jump each morning to Oslo, attend university and jump back. Would that solve your problem?”
She nodded, not trusting herself to speak, trying to control the tears. “You make everything sound so simple. Thank you Robert. Soc did say you would find the easiest solution.”
“Thank god you have a very practical head. I love the way you carried on finding arguments to explain away everything I did. At least with you I do not have the danger of being put on a pedestal. Keep on questioning me Sonja. That is the gift you bring to our group.”
Back home, as I got ready for bed, Dommi climbed into me. “How dare you tell her she must keep on questioning everything you say or do! Only we, your family and circle have the right to do so.”
“What I told her does reflect a worry I have loves. Some of them are hero-worshipping me, as if I can do no wrong. Alki unfortunately is encouraging that. It is bad for me, as a person. It is also bad for them. At some point they will see that I have feet of clay and will turn bitter, as if I let them down. If Sonja looks up to me, it will be only because I still deserve it. That is what I would want from everyone.”
Meli said, “I think that if we still want to discuss this, we should do so tomorrow night. Robert has to get up early tomorrow, to be with Maria and Kosta for the birth of Nafsika.”
We were at the clinic by six. It did not surprise me to find Alki and Marian there already. Savva brought his wife, kissed Maria and left for work. Soon the others were coming in. Maria and Kosta had been thoughtful. They had set up an urn for coffees, platters of ‘bomba’ (sandwiches) and some miniature pastries. I climbed into the tiny chocolate eclairs while there were still some; my little ones would clean the plates of sweets very quickly I knew.
“How can you eat that stuff so early in the morning?”
“Hi mum. Anything with chocolate I can eat at any time of the day or night. I am a chocoholic.”
“Then I better have a talk with that healer of yours.”
I grinned at her, enjoying her mothering me. “It won’t do you much good. I have converted it into a chocoholic too.”
“You are overseeing the birth?”
“Not me mum, the healer. Did you come to help?”
“Of course. You think I would trust you to handle a birth? Who would cut the cord?”
“As long as it is not me, I really don’t care who it is.”
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She stopped and looked at me closely. “God you can sound so...so…lacking in empathy sometimes! Just like you do with Laura.” She turned and walked off. I guessed she had been looking for an excuse to slip that comment in. I was surprised when Laura came over to me, her face sympathetic.
“Mum having a go at you again?”
“Yup. After this is over, would you join me, just the two of us. We can go for a baked Alaska.”
“For a baked Alaska I would risk it. See you then.” She walked off, leaving me staring at her. The girls wisely kept quiet, pretending they had not heard.
Jonathan said, “You have been very careful with Nafsika I see. Made sure she did not get fond of you.”
“You’re damn right I did.”
“It seems you went a bit overboard I hear. Why?”
“I hope I did not Jonathan. The girls tease me that I have a ‘little-girl magnet’. What we are all going through is so new and strange and so many of the circles have difficulty with the idea of incest. I cannot judge them, but it does make life difficult for me. The foetus is able to feel the abhorrence from before birth. When we dance in the void, they taste the love I have for my children, my inability to see them hurt, and next thing I find is that I have been chosen. It makes me look as if I am some kind of habitual child molester, or that I am trying to take away everybody’s kids. All I ever wanted was my Cherine and Dominique. Then Wendy happened and I could not imagine life without her. Then Diana. And so it has gone on.”
“I see you tactfully stopped before getting to the name of my daughter. Since joining you in your experiments, my sense of empathy has grown. Robert, I can feel her joy, I can even feel her misery at your refusing to make her what she thinks of as ‘your woman’. I am overwhelmed by the love she feels for you. It is hard for me, I still need time to adjust to the new ways, but I would like you to at least know that I no longer resent you. I have heard about your weakness, how pain in any of your girls tears at you. I do not like the idea, no, I hate the idea! If however you do end up making her ‘your woman’ I will know that it was something that had to happen. Oh Robert, why couldn’t this have happened five years from now!” His anguish lanced through me and I trembled in agony. Cherine was instantly at my side.
“Who told you my Robert only feels the pain of children! Uncle Jonathan, you are tearing him up.”
“Oh god!!” He turned to walk away even as Cherine sent his pain back to him, making him feel what I was going through. He staggered and I quickly grabbed him, calling out to Cherine to stop it.
“I’m sorry Jonathan. That was naughty of Cherine.”
His forehead was drenched in sweat as he stared at me with a sudden feeling of understanding and wonder. “She did the right thing. God, I never realised what you go through. You are able to feel all of us, our pains?”
“If I am responsible, then yes.”
“My wife was right. I thought, because she is Greek and shows her emotions, that she was wrong to say our daughter could not have found a better man to love her. I was so angry, I nearly hated her for that. Not my little girl, I thought. Not yet! I was wrong, there is no right or wrong in this. She has found the right man. If she is to really live so many hundreds of years, she has found the best companion and lover.” He was now holding me up as I gave in to the welter of emotions that tore at me and wept.
“It seems that whenever there is a celebration or a birth, Roberto discovers a way to find pain. Have you truly forgotten little Nafsika, Roberto mou?”
“No Alki, I have not. Even she should see my tears as a fine welcome.” Despite my words, I pulled myself together and went to Maria who had already positioned herself on the bed.
“Maria, my healer has been with you constantly since yesterday. It says all is fine. My mother is here to help as a midwife (μαία) and I promise not to let your patients know that their doctor used a midwife.”
“I am glad to see you are back to being your own crazy self. You were broadcasting so strongly your distress I was worried about you.”
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When Nafsika came into our world I was there and I even allowed myself to hold her as I sent my love. She stared back into my eyes without a smile. I gave her cheek a kiss and returned her. I left them all with Maria and took my sister for a talk.
“Why doesn’t the fire melt the ice-cream?”
“I think the meringue insulates it, anyway, the flame does not last for long.”
She swung her feet as she pretended to immerse herself in eating her ice cream and then she asked, her voice not betraying any anxiety. “What did you want to talk about?”
“Laura, you have felt my love for you from before your birth. Do not insult that love by playing games with me.”
“Is that what I was doing? You were the one who insisted we do not talk about what is hurting me. Now I am insulting your love?”
I shrugged. “Okay, have it your way. I’m sad to see you have matured yourself because of me. What shall we discuss. The weather is too boring a subject. It is either hot or hotter.”
“Sometimes when you are clever enough to have an answer for everything, you do not have an answer for anything.”
“That was too clever for a child of your age, despite everything. Okay, were you talking about me or yourself?”
Ruefully she admitted, “I heard daddy say that to a student. I guess to both of us, if I understand the saying correctly.”
“Do you know what a suntan bed is?”
“I’ve seen it in a tv ad.”
“Sometimes I wish I could be a little soul, in the shape of a ball and have all my loves form a shell all around me so that I could spend my whole life bathing in that love as if I were on a suntan bed.”
She could not prevent me from feeling her hurt. “But you would not want me to be part of that shell.”
“I think there would be a very lovely part of the shell that would be made up of your love. I somehow imagine it as being a tropical blue sky colour.”
Bravely she confronted me, “I feel that you are still holding me away from you, but the way you are talking is making me hope again. What is real Robbie?”
“That I love you? That is real, you know that. That you should become my wife? That scares me.”
“You scared of my Irish temper?” She grinned to hide the racing of her heart.
“And how!!” I grinned back. “Damn it, that was unfair, you made me send you a heart-full of love just when I am trying to ‘hold back’ as you said.”
She did not reply, but I felt the dismay within her, so I told her, “I did not come here to turn you away. Nor did I come here to make you my lover. I need to discuss this with you. To either help you see why I fear, or else for me to accept our love as being inevitable. Are you strong enough to help me?”
She looked me directly in the eyes. “Not really. If you were afraid you are going to hurt me, I would be. Your fear is of what other people will think of you. I cannot help you with that.”
“I see. Themi has been talking with you about this.”
“He explained it to me.”
“What is his answer to our situation?”
She slammed shut her emoting. “I won’t tell you.”
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“Knowing him, I would say he probably told you to give me the time I need to mature a little.”
She laughed, a bright giggly laugh. “Will you take long?”
“Let me ask you something else. If you joined our circle, it would mean you would become my wife. It would mean I, no, we would make love. Your naked body to my naked body. You would end up having my babies. Does none of this upset you? You do not have any feelings of disgust, that the father of your children would also be their uncle?”
“Does it mean I would also be their auntie?”
“I suppose so.”
“Good, then we could love them two times as much.”
“You and your arithmetic!!”
“Daddy says the whole world, every atom is based on arithmetic.”
“I think love is not.”
“Of course it is. You need one plus one to have love.”
“Some people I know are only capable of loving the one, they do not need the plus one.”
“That is unnatural. See? It proves I am right.”
“Another one!”
She looked at me puzzled, “What other one?”
“Another little girl who is going to argue me into circles till I lose. I have to find one not clever enough to make me look so stupid.”
“I think you are stupid.” I stared back, shocked at her brutal honesty. “You always let the girls win so that they feel clever. That is stupid.”
I grinned. “There are a lot of men who collect beautiful girls like a butterfly collection. What matters is how lovely they are. They do not care about the girls, about how they feel or what they think. For the first time I am beginning to wonder if they are not after all the clever ones.”
She allowed herself a tiny smile. “Should you be saying things like that to a future wife of yours?”
“You decided you won?”
“Silly! I did from the day you fell in love with me. That is why I said future. Someday you will give in and let me love you the way you love me.”
I opened my mouth to answer, but the answer became superfluous. We both felt the circle expand, pulling her in, making her one with us.
She burst into tears and I picked her up off her chair and put her on my lap. I held her until she stopped shivering and crying. She held to me tightly and heard my heart thumping away madly. Cherine sent her the joy of all the girls, the deep warm love they feel for her. I think she even felt the kisses they sent me as they thanked me. What a bunch of crazy girls, thanking me for bringing in another female. I wondered when will they wake up and force me to bring another man in. I hope it will not be too soon, I love having them all to myself, however much they might overwhelm me at times.
A thought came to me and I burst out laughing. At her questioning look I told her the truth. “I suddenly had an image of my father. Of what he would have thought of me taking you as my bride. I almost wish I could meet him, just to see the shock and disgust.”
“You must really hate him.”
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“No. Not really. He was so anti joy, anti love, anti all that makes life beautiful. The love of all of you, my love for all of you, it is so perfect, such a complete circle of everything he hated, that his disgust, his disapproval, would be the highest praise for that lonely heartbroken child he abandoned.” I knew the answer, but it still was a worry to me. “Our mum, she was brought up in such a strict catholic manner. After my father abandoned her all she had was you and her religion. Then she lost you and religion became her only balm. How can she accept that her son and daughter are lovers.”
“She told me it was worrying you. She showed me her heart. Robert, you have become her religion. You have not taken the opinions of cruel men, who had no feelings or weaknesses and made them dogma of your life. You have taken everything Jesus preached and made it real. She sees this, your loving me and other children, as something she has difficulty in understanding, but because she trusts you, she has accepted it. Please do not become ashamed of me.”
Her plea and fear was so real it hurt but also touched me, making my love and need to protect her even stronger. I realised she is right, she has seen through to the core of me. Never again I vowed and banished that shame forever. I will only feel pride and humility that my lovely sister Laura loves me.
“I felt that and had to come and see who it was this time, which lovely young beauty you have entrapped.”
“Niko!! Shit! You gave me a heart attack!”
“Much good that would do, your healer would just fix you again. You are Laura?” She nodded shyly, still startled by his appearance.
“Your sister Robert!?” He sat down. “What of your mother?”
“No thanks, she is too old for me. Though Dommi did suggest we make her ten years old.”
“I have never met anyone so unbelievably greedy and decadent. You just have to have every beautiful girl you see and you really don’t care if she is your sister or not.”
“I just discovered a few minutes ago Niko, the exact same truth. I love her with all my heart.”
“What is the point of arguing the validity of that with you. You are re-writing all the laws of mankind. Just be careful Robert. Don’t begin to think you can do anything you want.”
“You know I do not. I think it is more to the point that love does whatever it wants with me. Do you realise that apart from Cherine, your sister and Wendy, all the others, even my daughters, they were brought in by my girls loving them?”
“I swear I am not going to fall in love with a girl under twenty - and you will never be allowed to make her a ten year old. Though the way you are going it seems you are specialising in infants now.” He felt the stab his words wounded me with. He had meant them in a half joking manner and had not been deliberate in his hurting me, so I tried to bury it.
“My Robert, you felt two pains today and two miracles happened. Have you space in your heart for some more love?”
I looked up at Cherine and she saw the alarm. She laughed, “I meant me silly, not a new girl.”
Meli ignored our byplay and in a sort of rapture, she softly told us, “I’m happy. Today another white star was added to my world.”
“Meli mou, I hope you all still feel that way in the years to come. You are becoming too many for me to be able to give each of you the time and love you each deserve. I cannot say I would give up one of you, but sometimes I wish I had put my foot down long ago.”
“If you had Robert, your foot would have landed in…manure.”
“For the first time Cherine love, you managed to take a stab at me without it being clever or witty.”
“And for the first time you managed to put me down. I’m going to miss my old Robert.”
Despite her feelings I grinned at her. “You are just being melodramatic, nothing has changed.”
770
“No, it has! You are right, we all end up missing you a little.”
“Already? We haven’t even started with Laura, Bernie and the twins. Not to forget your friend Em-e.”
“Can’t we get your healer to take your tissue sample and make a second Robert? Then if you divide yourself, like you did in the void, we could have two of you to share.”
“Not a good idea Wendy. I don’t love myself very much at the best of times. I would end up hating myself.”
“I bet this is the first time anyone made that joke.”
Dommi took my hand in hers, massaging my fingers and I sat back, closing my eyes, like a cat being petted. “Tell us Robert, what is really bothering you.”
“Come on love, not today. Let’s just relax and be happy having each other to love.”
“Bullshit. Tell us or you will spoil the day for all of us.”
“It is Alki and Marian. Some of the others too, but they are my biggest worry.”
“Whatever for?”
“When we started bringing in others, at the time of Tasso and his family, I started making a list of the Circles. We were number one. Alki and Marian, number two. Then Tasso and family, number three. We are now at number ten.
When Alki and Marian could not meld with Meli and then Bernie, I began to worry. They need a third person to create their own World. You can see from us that a variety of people brings into the Circle a variety of gifts. It helps each Circle become a stronger and viable unit. The two people we love the most are still not viable. If anything happened to them they could end up in separate Worlds. Not that I would let that happen. Still, I may not be around to help,” I gave a wry grin, “to force the I of each World to give them up to us.”
My practical Dommi scolded me, “As usual you are borrowing trouble. You should not be worrying Robert, you should be planning. What do we do to make them viable. Where do we find a third person they could both love.”
Tina suggested, “Sounds to me like the only place would be an orphanage.”
“Not much chance Tina. More couples looking for babies than… hold it. Do you think Alki would mind if the child is not Greek?”
Dommi asked, “What are you thinking of?”
“I have been seeing some distressing things on the internet. Children in Iraq. With all the bombings, there are I don’t know how many orphans. Other places - since the break-up of the Soviet Union, there is growing misery and poverty in many of the countries. Take the Ukraine for instance. I read, I cannot say for sure that it is true, that some orphanages, because the government cannot afford to support them, are hiring out the better looking kids for films and photos for the child sex sites to use the money to feed the kids. If it is so, probably you would find that most of that money ends up in the pockets of those running the orphanages. Scenes I have seen have sometimes made me wish our gifts were different, that I could find those monsters and kill every one of them.
I cannot understand the human animal. No other creature would treat its young this way. Not that all the horror pictures come only from those countries or other poor ones. Many are from the United States and Europe also. I have had to block off that part of my mind from all of you, for it would sicken you. Think of thousands of Wendy’s out there with thousands of Richards. If we could save any child that misery…”
Dommi’s eyes filled. “God!! I did not know. This is terrible, what can we do?”
“I do not know. I see the love and how my loves are pampered and I am happy, but these things, they eat away at my soul. Remember when I got into a panic, wanting us to grow into the millions immediately? I hid from all of you that part of the reason was some of this horror I had come across. I really was hoping to find a way to stop it as soon as possible.”
Αλέξανδρος Ζήνον Ευσταθίου
(Alexander Zenon Eustace)29th April, 2019
* posted on Steemit: 29th April, 2019
@nikosnitza
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