LiTTLE CHERiNE Book 02 - post056
“They got it from her. She has a small brother and a sister. They also have it. We cannot let the kids die, but I refuse to help the parents.”
“Good!!”
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I thought of the pictures and echoed her sentiments with satisfaction, as if I were punishing the parents of those poor children too.
Though I had suffered shock (from a strong sense of empathy) the previous evening, I was resilient enough by today to soon not need the healer for my body - though I wish I had one for my mind too. It was at about ten that evening that my healer returned to report she is healthy now. I instructed it to spend time with her daily, to try to rejuvenate her, regress her body to an earlier age so that it will more truly reflect the age of her mind and emotions.
Her face shows her heritage. Any Greek would recognise her origin, the colouring and the features of her face give her away. The perfect health she now has makes her glow. Only the narrowing of her eyes in constant suspicion, the hardness that sometimes shows through, speaks of a life no child should have to live.
I told her she is now healthy. I explained what had been wrong with her. “Aganthi, your little brother and sister, they have the same illness because your father has been raping both of them. We will save them too. I will not help your parents. They must pay for what they have done.”
She sat with head bowed for a time. “Will you take my brother and sister away from them also?”
“We have to or else your father will just re-infect them.”
“Please do. Then after that you must let me return to my parents.”
“Whatever for.”
“If I do not go, they will die of hunger, they cannot find work. I must look after them.”
“And have your father infect you again? Have him beat you and sell you to…” I could not end my sentence as I stared at her in disbelief. There was no way she could have understood she would never again know a day of sickness.
“I have to. They are my parents.”
I have been humbled by a girl off the streets, uneducated and hardened as she was. She humbled all of us. Suddenly it was as if something had snapped, broken, been shattered within Wendy. She collapsed to her knees, her whole body shaking as she sobbed. Aganthi was like lightning, by her side, holding her. It took many seconds for me to understand.
I, we, owe Aganthi; we will be in debt to her for as long as we love Wendy and that means, forever.
“Aganthi.” She looked up, her eyes swimming with tears. “You have won for your parents a reprieve. They will be given an income, enough to live comfortably without you or the other kids being sacrificed. We owe you that at least.”
“I will not have to work for it?”
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“Nothing in life is free Aganthi. You come from the streets where life is hard, you learnt that long ago.” She nodded, lowering her head again. “Listen to me carefully. This is the price you will have to pay. You will have to stay and allow us to learn from you. To learn of that amazing heart you have. You will have to stay and allow us to spend a long life loving you. You will have to stay and learn all our secrets and become as we are and use the gifts you are given only for good, for spreading our gifts and teaching other locked hearts how to love. Will you pay the price and be sister to my daughters and wives?”
She wept, huddled with Wendy. When she stood up there was a pride to her bearing as she came and stood in front of me.
“You have forgotten to ask that I love you.”
“Not forgotten my Albanian flower. Love can never be demanded, not even earned. Either you will love us or you will not. Either will not change how we feel about you.”
“I was going to steal from you last night and run away.”
“Of course you were. That is why I left my money on the table here for you to take if you needed to do so.”
“And you still want to love me?”
There was no need for an answer. She looked down at me, her eyes shining with something new she had found within her. “Then you were right. You are the most stupid man in the world. I will pay your price.”
I did not need Cherine to send. I could feel love fearfully blossom in her and it caught at me and the circle snapped wider, pulling her in. She is truly gifted, for she felt it and fell to her knees in a rapture as our love poured into her.
Days later I sat with Nicko. We were chatting about various things, just enjoying each others’ company. He gave a little self-conscious laugh. “What happened this time Robert? With so many beautiful girls, what made you take in this Albanian? Running out of lovely girls?”
“Nicko, pretend you are coming into my mind, seeing what I see. Just pretend.”
Soon as he was in, I let him see and feel everything to do with Aganthi. When I sent him back to his mind he sat silent for a very long time.
“You are right Robert. She has humbled me too. How could you do this to me? Now I also will see nothing but beauty in her.”
My friend is learning. He will soon also find love, I know.
“We now have three boys and no circle to take them in. What are we going to do?”
“Do not worry Cherine. Haven’t you realised that we are not in control? I do not know how, but they have their place. When we find it we will wonder why we could not see it before.”
“Who is in control then?”
“I wish I knew. Remember that friend of Estella? Maybe he is. What if we are like Daniel, living in a world of his mind?”
“Then why doesn’t he come to us?”
“Maybe he does not know how.”
“Can’t we go to him then, to show him?”
I laughed. “He probably fears you, knowing how you would bully him.”
She shook her head. “If he made us, then he loves me very much.”
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“How do you know?”
“He gave you to me to love.”
“It is just a theory of mine love, not even a very good possibility. Don’t get carried away. I’ve been wondering, let’s say he lives somewhere on our world, but far from us. How then do we explain what is happening? I have read a number of articles by writers I thought are cuckoo, who suggest that there is a gestalt over-mind*. In other words, to try and illustrate the theory, think of the over-mind as an ocean. People, each person, is the tip of a wave. It rises for a while and then sinks back - but whether high as a wave or flattened out, it remains at all times a part of the ocean. What if our friend has a talent of his own, enabling him to sense the ocean and somehow, by some freak of his dreams, of what he craves to find in his life, the ocean allows him to sense us directly - or indirectly, through the diary? * ‘gestalt over-mind’ is a theory that all the minds on Earth meet in a different dimension and become one, becoming the Over-mind. For instance, someone writes a song in America, and almost at the same time, another person in England writes a song that is almost exactly the same.
It would be natural for him to think he has created us and the truth is, I don’t know enough to say he is wrong or right - just that I find it improbable, less likely than my first theory of the over-mind. However, think of this. If he created and controls us, guiding the direction our lives are taking, why did he make me so silly, such a softie, so suicidal and weak if my loves are hurt. No sane writer would want his hero to be like me.”
“Maybe he made you like that because it is how he is.”
“If he is and he does not have a Cherine in his life, he must be a very lonely man. He could not live with anything less.”
Αλέξανδρος Ζήνον Ευσταθίου
(Alexander Zenon Eustace)8th October, 2018
* posted on Steemit: 8th October, 2018
@nikosnitza
If you wish to have your name added above, I would be honoured.
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I provided, in the story, an explanation of the word gestalt, but the description/explanation, was mine.
Here is another, from a site that provides definitions:
It is an important word that is rarely used. For instance, each nation, their traditions, customs and beliefs form a gestalt, for example: Greeks have a greek gestalt.
Only if we can see it clearly, do we realise how important it is that all people preserve their own national gestalt, while slowly evolving as we learn of other points of view - without them being forced on us. Using force never achieves good, all it does is destroy what good exists, without replacing it with any other kind of beneficial philosophy, for the gestalt is destroyed and it cannot be repaired within one or two generations.
Hold on to what you have, from wherever you are, so as to gift your children with something unique, while also helping them feel they belong and are a part of their society.
Sto telos tou post nomizw anaferese se sena???? E???? :))))
Nai. Nomizo oti i Cherine pairnei tin sizitisi sta sovara, alla o Robert me peirazi - horis na kseri gia sigoura. Kanei kai ena megalo lathos, alla tha mathei tin alitheia argotera.
I eksigisi gia tin leksi gestalt, sta comments, voithise?
nai boithise!! :)))
dwse kai mia eksigisi sta ellinika... giati ta mayra grammata mesa sto post o katalava kalitera apo to comment
Sou apintisa, edosa tin eksigisi sta Ellinika, alla den to evala san apantisi se sena. Tha hreiasti na anoiksis to post gia na to deis - sorry....
nai to deida ki exw graspei idi!!! :)))