LiTTLE CHERiNE Book 02 - post107
I put my fingers to her chin. “It sounds to me like you are truly loved my little Lua.”
967
We arrived in Sandton on the roof of the mall. The girls now saw the sense of my suggestion. We did all our shopping, bought a few suitcases and found our bus waiting for us. We arrived at our hotel still in high spirits and my girls were so eager to show the sights to those who had not been there before that we could not relax in our rooms. It seems everyone had bought a camera and an endless supply of films.
Solomon said to me, “I am continually amazed at the amount of energy placed into nonessential entertainment.”
“Entertainment is not nonessential Solomon. If people live their lives without it, their spirits wilt. The body of man needs nourishment, but so do the mind and spirit.”
“Sex does not provide for all three?”
“It does. So does the teasing you see the girls and I indulging in. Now that I think of it, in our family we hardly ever play the power, or domination games other families play. But even though we keep each other amused, we still go to cinema, watch videos, go out for meals and to dance. We need our interaction with friends and we either have visitors every day or we go to visit. We need to keep our brains stimulated
A simple question Solomon. Since coming here, with all that you have experienced, have you not felt your mind come alive?”
“It has filled my time with many questions. Every answer seems to bring new questions.”
“Let me add to your knowledge of us. Apart from the entertainment we’ve talked about, there is another kind. If there is no danger, no death, what meaning does life have? We are an extremely short lived race. I believe the average life span is in the seventies. Seventy years Solomon, such a tiny amount of time you would not even notice it. You would think that with us having such a short time we would treasure each second and avoid any possibility of losing our lives.
968
This is the weird thing - we need the danger. Some will take part in highly dangerous sports; others will go to fight wars that mean nothing to them. Most of the needs for danger though are met in symbolic ways. Riding on a roller-coaster stimulates the responses from our body without a high degree of danger. Men and women will work hard at jobs they hate so as to earn enough money (potential energy to you) so that they can buy food, clothing, heating for winter, schooling for their children and of course a little entertainment.
Then they come to a place like this and they feel challenged. They risk the money they need in a gamble, trusting their abilities or hoping luck will favour them. They lose their money and suffer the rest of the month. They will tell you, someone has to win and it could be them. They totally ignore the true chances of them being a winner.
If I have two hundred dollars to waste or spend on entertainment and use it to gamble, it is not going to cause me or my family distress if I lose. If I take the money I need to buy food for my girls and lose it, I face a catastrophe. You would not believe how many people do that every day.
We are a race that court danger and death and yet will fight to the extremes to stay alive. That is why I wanted you to stay with us in our bodies. As you get used to the body, as hunger causes you discomfort, sex gives you pleasure, you begin to care for your body. Then you may start to understand us, or at least understand what is puzzling about us within the context of who we are - not just in line with how Sparklers think.
Look there, at that pool of water. Do you see that trough with water running in it and the adults and children who are sliding down it? Listen to how they are screaming. Using logic they know they are not in danger. The falling movements are awakening instincts that shriek out in their minds, ‘danger, I may die or be badly hurt’. The body releases chemicals to stimulate the speed of thought and their reactions. That is what they are looking for and enjoy.” I grinned. “Time for us to do our own courting. Let’s go have some fun at the casino.”
To a certain extent I was lying. With Gianni along, I was hoping we could bring the odds into our favour. His instant calculations and Cherinian memory should work in our favour. I was putting up the money and his family will get half the winnings, if we win.
I let him walk around getting the feel of how it all works while I had some fun with my girls. They did not like craps and found blackjack boring. They wanted instant and fast results. Most of them ended up playing the slots. Wendy, Cherine and Dommi stuck with me. We found an empty table of roulette where all of us could sit. I bought chips for each of us and we began to play.
I tend to be cautious and do not throw my chips all over the table. Cherine played on fewer numbers, but covered them heavily. Wendy was not really interested, but played by scattering her chips, trying to at least win back her stake. Dommi had spent years watching her father so she was more like me. She watched the numbers that had come and tried to calculate a pattern which would show her more or less where the ball is likely to fall. That only works for as long as the same croupier is spinning the wheel.
We all lost at different speeds. The occasional wins were not going to keep us in the game for long. Cherine lost her chips and took a few of mine and put them on a number. I slapped her hand. She lost anyway, so she did not complain and sat back relaxing, watching us also lose. Her eyes had half-closed when she whispered in my mind, ‘eight is next’. I played along and put a chip on it also.
Eight came up.
As I got my pile I split it and gave her half. She ignored it and as I placed my bets she sent me ‘eight again’. My chip was still on it so I left it alone.
Eight came up.
The back of my scalp prickled. I slowly put a few bets, waiting for her. ‘Three’. I put two chips on three. It came.
Soon all the Cherinians were standing around our table. I played another nine rounds, winning on the number Cherine gave me. She opened her eyes and sat up.
“I’ve had enough. Can we go?”
969
The money we had made was not much, but it felt good. It felt even more wonderful to us that our girl had opened another door in her mind. The Tasso family had also won, their share almost equivalent to a month’s expenses for them so it was a good time to leave. Gathering just outside the casino entrance, we left for our party.
We’d booked a conference hall and I’d asked that we be served and then during our speeches we be left alone. They set up a bar for us and I signed for whatever they said they had stocked it with.
As we ate and joked and danced to the band, the younger members started making requests. They were asked for a ballad, a powerful song and I thought they sang it quite well. Wendy suddenly spoke up.
“They did that wrong!”
“Go show them!” the other girls told her. Not shy, she got up and stopped them in their next song. She chatted to the singer a while. He disagreed with what she said so she told the band what changes she wants and took the mike.
From a great song that was already a hit all over the world came a song that if recorded would have become an all time best seller. Even when the band faltered she did not let them spoil it for her, her voice covering their mistakes.
“Now do you agree?” The singer nodded.
“Then get up here and sing it with me. The next time you can do it on your own. I kept my voice within your range, so you can do it.”
The poor singer looked terrified, he had never sung this way before. They did their duet with her leading him, showing him how to improve. She then ordered him to sing it again and she returned to her seat. He sang and though he was no Wendy, he suddenly found he has a powerful tool and by the end of the song he stood there looking stunned.
He left the stand and came to Wendy. “Who are you, I’ve never heard of you. Where do you sing?”
“I am not a singer, I only sing for my family and friends.”
“You do not know what you have done for me! If I sing that song your way in a recording studio, I will get a contract immediately. How can I thank you?”
“By listening to how you sing. Explore the possibilities of the song, do not just accept what the songwriter gave you.”
He managed to get her to agree to sing another song. Impishly she asked them to play a children’s song, instructing the band to improvise and follow her. There was no way the poor singer would be able to emulate her rendition. Her song soared above the clouds and sank into the deepest bowels of the earth. She was the music and the singer and she lost us our band. They would not sing for us after that. They did put recorded music for us before leaving, so it at least gave us the privacy we wanted.
I got Cherine to ensure we had total electronic privacy (she blanked a secret camera and mike, without destroying it) and the protector enclosed our sounds within the room. I tinkled my knife against my glass until I had everyone’s attention and stood up.
“Good evening ladies and gentlemen, well, that is how I am supposed to start, but I cannot see any gentlemen here. I’ll start over with something safer. My friends, I am very glad to have you all with us tonight. For all of us this date is very important.
It is now the 25th of March. As you will recall, we chose this day to celebrate as our day of the Cherinians. Our anniversary. I am certain that in the future there will be long speeches for you to endure, but for today I want to keep it very short.
We are perhaps the youngest species in the universe. Some may consider that we came into existence when Cherine and I got together. I prefer to believe we came into existence the day she was born. I ask that you all raise your glasses and drink a toast to Cherine, the day she was born and equally importantly, a toast to her mother and father who gave us this wonderful gift of magic. Cherine, if your father could have been here tonight, he would have been very proud of you. Three cheers.”
970
They cheered her and stood up and drank to her.
“That was the beginning as I said. The road from that beginning to this day has not been an easy one. It would have been far easier if Cherine had used the intuition women are supposed to have and had chosen a more dependable man. I caused her and Dominique years of agony as I fought to adjust myself to what I saw as being necessarily the new ways. I died a number of times. Many women will fight for their man, even if he leaves them they may chase after him and get him back. My Cherine went one step further. Even when I chose death, she chased after me and brought me back. When this girl gets her claws into you, there is no escape.
Slowly we have grown as a group. We made a terrible error and fought a war that did not need to be fought. I am happy that we did not lose one Cherinian, but I am still shamed by the deaths we caused the Sparklers. I would ask that you all decide on a date of remembrance of how we slaughtered over two hundred million souls. We must never allow this to happen again.
Thanks to the initiative shown by the Sparklers, the war ended and we today have with us the one we have named Solomon. Solomon is truly a rare person. With all we did, he had the greatness to see past all our mistakes and take us in as friends.
We have been shown by my protector that time does not end. Somewhere very far in the future, time finds its tail and starts over - at least, that is what we think it does. I hope it means we all get a chance to do things the right way next time - there would be no point in everything being repeated endlessly in the same fashion. I make the following wish. I hope that when we reach that tail, our friends the Sparklers will still be there by the side of mankind as our friends. Both older and wiser, but still friends. I ask you to raise your glasses and toast our friend.”
I gave them just enough time for a sip. “Before Sam was conceived, as I am sure you are all tired of being told, her soul had the bad taste to come back and visit us from the future, probably for the pleasure of glorying over how primitive a Robert I am. I tried to fish out of her what the future held for us; hoping for something to comfort us through the dark days we are sure to find ahead of us. Again she showed bad taste, preferring to obey the Robert of her time and refused. Two good things, no three, came out of her visit. The first was personal. For her mother to be, for my wives and myself, we cannot begin to describe our joy at meeting her, at seeing what a wonderful daughter we would have. She has since then made up for her lapses by loving me and choosing me as her husband. The second - why are you all laughing, that was not a joke!” I had to stop until they quietened.
“The second, as I was trying to say, was that despite what that idiot in the future ordered, her coming was a comfort. At times that I would despair, I would remember her coming and know that even if I cannot see the solution, there must be one. Would we have found the solutions if she had not come? Was there a first Robert who had to do it without that comfort? Who knows and who cares. I just am grateful I have had the picture of her bright soul in my heart to carry me through. The third, because of her birth, we had our first visit by Ordinx. He had no name then for us, except that of ‘friend to be of Samantha’.
That name opened the doors to my heart which would have been closed out of fear. Not many of you know what a close friend he has become. Not only of Samantha, but of all Cherinians. He has stood by me and helped us through difficult situations. I include Ordinx and his people in my earlier wish and ask that you raise your glasses to the toast, ‘May your people be with us at the tail, a friend of Man and Sparkler and friends of Samantha.’
I promised to be short, but I am enjoying trying to get you all drunk. I’ll keep on going until none of you can stand up for another toast.
We are a very strange people. I do not believe there has ever been before a nation created by love and existing for love. As we grow in numbers I find that my heart grows so as to fit you all in. I feel this in you too. I thank you all for being such special people and I ask that you raise your glasses in a final toast, please drink a toast to yourselves and your fellow Cherinians. May love grow within your hearts forever.”
Αλέξανδρος Ζήνον Ευσταθίου
(Alexander Zenon Eustace)29th November, 2018
* posted on Steemit: 29th November, 2018
@nikosnitza
If you wish to have your name added above, I would be honoured.
Anarotieme an oi eksogioinoi katalavoun giati aresei o kindinos stous anthropouse..
I Wendy "edose resta sto tragoudi" opos leme stin Ellada...
Poli esiodokso brisko ton Robert... Gia na doume to that ginei...
Pistevo oti opoios politismos, apo opoio planiti, endiaferthi gia taksidia se allous planites, tha prepei na ehoun tin idia adynamia gia to kindyno. Otan thelame na ftiaksoume tin proti atomiki vomva, orismenoi epistimones legane oti moli gine i proti ekriksi, tha tinaksoume olo ton planiti mas. To riskarame.
Etsi tha prepei na einai gia olous, oti alla enstinkta kai na ehoune. Hmmm...tora pou to eipa afto - Argotera tha gnoriseis anthopous apo allo planiti pou i dynami tous einai o tromeros fovos tous...kai katigoroune ton Robert oti ferthike san ehthros, san kakos anthropos, epeidi edose kako paradeigma sta paidia tous me to tharos tou.
:)
Exeis apolito dikio....