Little Cherine Book 01 - BPost060

Thanks to Samantha I realised something impossible had occurred - the knife had come forward in time with me! How does time justify its absence in the past?






Previous Post 059


611

“Can I join you?”

I laughed. “You need to ask? Don’t you know by now that I love taking showers with tiny underage girls?”

She slipped into my arms. “I wish I was tinier just for you. Why didn’t you go back in time and get me when I was smaller?”

“I think I found you at the right time - the right time for you to be able to love me too.”

She looked up at me, with big eyes. “Robbie, we are having showers more often than we are making love.”

“What are you doing?”

“I said I wanted to taste your blood. It is salty, but doesn’t taste as nice.”

“Jesus!! That is yukky!”

“You said that nothing which is done with love is yukky.”

“Claudia, do me a favour will you?” She nodded. “It is bad enough having Cherine show me up for the dunce I am. Don’t make a habit of it also please.”

*Are you trying to make me feel guilty? *

*Cherine, this is a private conversation. Bug off!*

Claudia sat on the bathroom stool while I dried her off.

“Robbie, I feel very tired. Can you use your healer to make me feel awake again?”

“This has been a long and hectic night. It is almost four in the morning and I’ve had some rather stressful experiences. Would you mind if we both sleep? We still have lots of time love. As a matter of fact, we will take all the time we want.”

She was over-tired and moaned, but I held her tightly and she soon drifted off. I felt her breath, a small warm feather on my chest and lay there enjoying my happiness, the feeling of being loved so unconditionally. I knew it will not last forever, she will turn into an adult, with other considerations affecting her love for me, forcing me also to grow up a little, but at least for now, I have the kind of love a child gives and it is very special. I did not allow myself to think of the farce the evening had turned into and slowly sank into my own dreams.


We woke up late, had room service bring us an English breakfast, as they call it, with extra toast and coffee. As we settled back on the bed, our stomachs full and our hearts at peace, the phone rang. Curious I picked it up.

“You have decided to stay an extra day or two?”

“Yes.”

“You are only doing so because you are chicken, you are scared to return and face us.”

“Yes.”

Dommi laughed and then I sensed her turn serious again. “Make it special for both of you Roberto. Don’t worry about Wendy, she is getting a lot of love from us, but she is also learning to grow up a bit.”

“Not too much my love. I want her as she is…”


612

“Don’t be silly Roberto. She has to.”

I sighed. “I know, it just…I mean, I wish it was not necessary. Thank you Dommi - and do me a favour, give number one a kiss from me, I was rather abrupt with her last night.”

As I closed the phone Claudia threw herself onto me. “You really mean that? We are going to stay longer?”

“That is right. We are also going to have to revise our plans - about making love at four this afternoon I mean.”

“You are going to do it now?” Her voice was breathless and husky.

“No, I meant, since we have more time now, maybe we could do it tomorrow at four...”

“You are trying to make me angry so that I hit you and then you never talk to me again, isn’t it?” She pummelled my chest with her little fists gently, in mock anger.

Tenderly our kisses began and as our bodies intertwined and rubbed against each other the passions awakened in both of us. When we had both reached that moment of nirvana and returned to a relaxed lethargic mood, Claudia turned towards me and I knew she was going to speak about what had been on her mind.

“Can you tell me now what last night was all about? If it does not upset you.”

I caressed her as I thought and her whole body give a little shiver, but she took a grip on herself.

“Are you going to explain?”

“Yes. Might as well practice my arguments of defence before I face the jury.” She waited while I marshalled my thoughts.

“I have done everything I could think of to help Wendy get over what her father did to her. I broke my own ‘golden’ rule, I killed him, hoping it would help her stop fearing his return. Sorry, I lie. The main reason I killed him was out of anger. I was furious at the hurt and damage he caused her. Claudia, she is such a special and precious part of my life. I tried a few unorthodox things and even Themi felt I had helped her.

I did not expect her to forget, I’m neither that stupid, nor that insensitive. Her kind of pain can never be forgotten, it is bound to linger and re-surface at odd moments, however deeply it is buried in love and with happy memories. But I had so hoped that she has found a new life with us, with me. I had hoped that our obvious devotion and love would become an anchor, the seed for her to grow from, with love and trust in others again, so that the power of the pain fades, remembered, but no longer the carrier of her directly felt past anguish and fears. I’m trying to find words to explain how I felt, Claudia, but I don’t think I can.

Your idea to get her to sing last night, it was brilliant. I listened and felt despair. I became convinced she would never cross the barrier he has built around her, the one of fear and mistrust of love. I heard too the love she has for me and it only added to the pain in me. If with her love for me and the love she can actually feel in me, she still fears love will turn away from her again, what do I do, how do I fight her fears?

I did not think. I did not plan what I did. I could not have. As far as I knew it was impossible to travel back in time. Desperation to solve this, to see her a happy girl again drove me blindly, so that I was compelled to do something. Without really knowing what I was to attempt, I did it. Once I found myself in the past, with Wendy and her mother, I realised what had driven me. It was to save her mother and her by killing the father before he could destroy them both. That way she could grow up with the love of her mother.

I know love, you are thinking, if I had succeeded she would never have been a part of us. We would have lost our Wendy. She would not have been with us, but she still would have existed, the main difference being that she would have been ignorant of what she lost, all she would know of is her mother, their love and she would have grown up a normal girl. If her mother did what was right, she would have also believed her dead father had loved her. I still feel very angry and bitter that my protector refused to help me. It actually seemed to prefer to allow him to kill me.”


613

“Robbie, they all heard you. Cherine asks, can she come for a few minutes?”

I was feeling too dispirited to object. “I suppose so.”

Cherine sat on the bed, running her hand up and down my leg.

“Robert, do not be angry with your protector. It was protecting Wendy. I think you forgot, if you had succeeded, Wendy would not be a part of us. If she died she would really be dead. It felt her soul was more important.”

“Shit! I really screwed up!…Cherine, do you remember when her father came to the house and I talked with him? Do you remember what he muttered, something about it being crazy? It didn’t make sense at the time, but I think he was remembering me from the time I attacked him. Thank God, it means I have not forced us into a different future.” I turned to Claudia, “Let this be a lesson for you. Do not ever put your trust in me. Be like Cherine, use your own brains, which thank god, you have more of than I do.”

“I think the only thing I don’t like about you Robbie is the way you put yourself down. If we make a mistake, you have a dozen excuses for us, but you never forgive yourself…” Cherine clambered across me and kissed Claudia. She laughed and turned to me.

“This one really likes to speak without dressing up what she has to say.”

“Yeah! Guess I’ll have to put up with it cause she really is great in bed.”

“Robert love, the only reason you put up with both of us is because we love you so much.” She gave me that big ‘Cherine’ grin. “We are all still very upset with you. We heard what you said and we maybe understand, but, it was stupid. You do not have the right to take Wendy away from us without asking us. She has problems and we will work at solving them, we do not give up on her Robert. Never!”

Chastened I had nothing to say. Claudia sensed my feelings and became angry. “Cherine, I was wrong to let you come. Look at him. You have spoiled my weekend with him. You could have waited until we returned, damn it!”

“You’re right, I’m sorry. I came here to help but got carried away. Robert, please?”

“It’s okay love. The truth can hurt at times, but I prefer you the way you are. Will you lie down by me, on this side, so that I can hold the two of you for a few minutes?”


Once Cherine was gone I lay looking at Claudia, without feeling I can do or say anything more. She wanted to put her arms around me, but I sat up. I was too deflated to feel up to being the man she wanted.

“Can we take a breather love? Go for a walk or something?” Mutely she got up and went to the bathroom.

Meli appeared. She had a naughty grin as she kissed me hello. “I came to ask for your help Robbie. I am trying to write a story and there are some bits I can’t do by myself.”

“I’m no good at writing love. Okay, what bits are these that your fertile imagination can’t handle?”

“The sexy parts. I’m not good at writing the pornographic pieces.”

“Meli! What the hell are you doing writing that kind of story. You are still a baby!”

“Will you help?” Claudia had come back into the room and was listening. She turned to Claudia. “Maybe I made a mistake, I should have asked you. I mean, if he writes the sexy bits in the same way he does them in real life, my readers would get bored and dump the book. Whenever things start to get interesting, he either wants to stop for a chocolate, or to talk. Talk! He just loves talking!”

There is too much a sense of innocent joy in Meli for anyone to be hurt by anything she says. I knew she was just pulling my leg so I tried to hide the way I felt. But I was at a vulnerable moment when a joke like this was bound to backfire and hurt me. It is amazing how finely tuned to me Claudia has become. I saw in her eyes that she had picked up my feelings. Not only the lowering of my self-esteem, but also my need that my Meli not be hurt. The sparks in her eyes faded and gently she asked Meli to leave her questions for later - and to make sure no one else comes either. Meli had been back home for minutes before she became aware of the possibility of the damage she may have caused, so well had Claudia handled it.


614

We wandered amongst the Sunday crowd at the old port and finally chose a place that seemed to be the meeting place for the young of Paphos. Just as I love the presence of children, so do I enjoy being surrounded by young people, though many of them, even at sixteen, seem to be more cynical than I recall being. I ordered a cappuccino while Claudia had an artificial and watery strawberry milkshake.

“I think you made a mistake bringing me into your group or circle. Robbie, you already have too many females. You really can’t handle that many can you? I mean the teasing part, they all love teasing you. I’m surprised you haven’t had enough by now.”

“You have it the wrong way sweetheart, I can’t have enough. If even one of them said something so as to hurt me, without love, I do not know if I could handle it. But sharing a link as we all do and feeling the love...”

I stopped as a young girl paused by our table. I half remembered seeing her at some time when we were wandering around town, coming out of a school with a friend of hers. I had noticed her for not only was she pretty, but she seemed to give off a feeling of being a person who light-heartedly enjoys her youth and good looks. It saddened me to see how she has mutilated herself, her lovely body, with a number of piercings. Curious at her obvious wish to speak to me, I looked at her with a smile.

“Can I help you?”

“Are you Robert?”

Now I was truly mystified. How did she know my name. She was obviously a Cypriot and her English was fairly heavily accented. For a moment I wondered whether she had seen me in Athens, but I sensed she has not met me before.

“Yes.”

“Is this Cherine?”

“No. Where do you know of me from? I do not recall ever meeting you.”

She was delighted. “Oh I know about you. And about Cherine and Dominique. This one I do not know. She must be one of your other girls - is she the one from Sweden?”

It was difficult to take offence or get frightened. She was almost hugging herself with the joy of her secret. Without wishing to, I smiled back at her. I could sense she does not have any gifts. “Go on, tell us, how do you know about us?”

“Maybe I too have a secret eh? I know you through somebody else, but I am not allowed to say his name. He told me you rented a flat here, but he told me it is a secret. I promise I won’t tell anyone…you are not going to write about meeting me in your diary, are you?…It doesn’t really matter, I suppose.”

“What is your name?” I was trying to pick up from her thoughts some information, but it was impossible. Her mind was jumping too fast from this to that and all I could catch were disjointed glimpses and sense her amusement at her success in causing me discomfort, at being a woman of mystery.

“If I tell you, will you keep it a secret too?”

Before I could reply, a young man, obviously in the army, called out to her, “Estella, ella tora. Prepei na figo se ligo (come, I have to leave soon).”

“I guess your name is not a secret after all. Your boyfriend?”

“Yes. I must go.” As the girl was about to leave with her boyfriend she stooped and whispered in Claudia’s ear and left. Before I could ask anymore questions, she was gone without a goodbye.


615

“Robert, what are you going to do? How does she know about you?”

“For some reason I’m not worried love. She seems a little bit flighty, you know, scatterbrained, but I sense no evil in her. She will not be a threat, though I am very curious about how she knows about us. I could not pick up any sense of her sharing our gifts. What did she tell you, did she give you any clues?” It was a puzzle, but I wanted to shelve it, determined to solve it later. Claudia was disturbed however and could not relax.

“She told me not to worry, she will not even tell her boyfriend about us. She wants me to say hello to Cherine for her.”

“There is a certain sense of familiarity in that. Damn! I really have to find out now.” A thought struck me. “I wonder. Could it have been Andrea? Or Britta.”

“No.” She answered flatly. “They would not betray you. They both think of you as some sort of god. Especially after you brought all the girls back to life.” She laughed. “They certainly would not betray you to a girl like her, I don’t see how anyone could trust her with a secret.”

“Mankind has never hesitated to betray their gods. But you are right, it was not them. Estella my girl, I am going to find out what your secret is.” I was more worried about who this person who has told her about us is - he must have gifts of his own. It does not automatically mean he must be categorised as a danger, just that he is a person of interest.


Dommi was convinced I was not worried because Estella is a young and pretty girl. She claimed I was thinking with my balls instead of my brains. I was very surprised when Cherine took my side. She told us that the girl means no harm, that I am right, she is ‘nice’. I thought to myself, with amusement, ‘well Estella, whoever you are, you have just been given the “kiss of death”, you have been called “nice”.’ I had a feeling she would not like being called ‘nice’, that her self image is more along the lines of ‘femme fatale’. Cherine however is always right. She is nice, with the innocent heart of a child.

It had been an interesting diversion, helping me regain some of my equilibrium, but I still felt ‘down’. The knowledge that I had acted so stupidly, nearly costing us my Wendy, was tearing away at my self-confidence. I suppose I had thought I am incapable of doing anything to harm my girls, I had begun to think of myself as infallible - which is always a dangerous state of mind to be in.

I am conditioned to react to anything of this sort by trying to withdraw, but I have learnt the folly of that and was trying to find a more balanced way of handling my failure, even though the steel band I spoke of earlier was slowly, bit by bit, unravelling. Under these conditions I was not in a very amorous mood. Claudia did not sulk, it was more as if she were studying me, waiting to see how I will react, how I will solve my problem.

“I wish we had changed you, made you just a bit older. I really would have liked to have you hug me.”

She left her seat and came and sat on my lap, her arms around my neck. “Why are all of you so afraid of showing you love each other? You are worse than the Scandinavians. Nobody will think it strange that I hug you Robbie. Lots of kids love older people; their brothers, parents, uncles…and I love you.”

I squeezed her and kissed her cheek. “I nearly cost you your best friend, but you still love me?”

“Are you feeling sorry for yourself Robbie? I never liked people who feel sorry for themselves.”

“You are going to be worse than Cherine. With you around I am going to be forced to walk the straight and narrow.”

“What is that?”

“Ask the girls.” I tried a change of tack. “How about we get out of here?”

“You still want to visit my sister?”


616

“No, one tactless Swedish girl at a time please.”

She almost reacted to that. I could see her restrain herself, though I knew I might have been better off having her hit me. Like Cherine, I guess she does not forget and forgive easily.

“Claudia, can we return home please? I promise we will return, how about Thursday we come back and stay until Sunday night. Hopefully all will be better by then. Wendy is on my mind, I feel I need to be with her.”

“I was wondering when you would tell me. Thursday?”

“Yes love.”


They were all waiting for us. Claudia disappeared into the mob of girls while I stood, uncertain as to what they were going to do or say. I saw Wendy give Claudia a hug and she came over to me.

“Can we go to my studio?”

“Nobody going to climb into me first? Not even Dommi?”

“Please Robbie?”

We took the old fashioned route. We actually climbed up the stairs. She closed the door behind us. I turned to her just in time for me to be able to put my arms around her as she threw herself at me. I picked her up and she hugged herself to me tightly, a sudden storm of sobbing shaking her.

I had expected accusations; I had expected to be made to feel small and stupid. This however was the worst. I had no words to comfort her. All I could do was hold on while I found myself adopting the motions one makes when comforting a baby. Slowly her sobs ebbed and she clung to me, her face hidden between my shoulder and neck.

“Robbie, can I come into you?”

“You want to come into my mind?”

“Please.”

I made myself as comfortable as I could on her one chair and holding her, opened up to her. I did not know whether I was doing the right thing, letting her see for herself. I felt her as she examined my feelings and memories.

I waited with baited breath as I felt her return to her own mind. She pulled back and looked up at me. Her eyes were two dark pools and her face was solemn. “Your mind is like my songs. It always speaks to me and it is beautiful. How can you love me so much?”

“How can I not? My own little Wendy.”

“You lied to me Robbie. All of you did, especially Cherine.”

“?”

“She told me never to be afraid, that you can never lose. That you will always protect us. You lost the fight with my…dad. He would have killed you if you had not come back.”

It was easy to understand how she had misunderstood. “It is not me who protects, I am not a fighter and I am quite weak. I spent a lifetime of being beaten up at school. It is my protector that watches over you. It refused to help me with your dad.”

“No, I do not like your protector. It did not just refuse to help you, it slowed you down on purpose, to make sure he won. It would have let him kill you. I hate it!!”


617

I recognised the truth in what she said. It had hindered, slowed me down. With my ability to flicker through time and space, I should have killed him, however slow my reactions. Anger flared up in me for a moment. Common sense won.

“Be grateful it did love. I had to learn a lesson. The agony of that knife entering my guts, slicing me up, I promise - it taught me a lot. First of all, it taught me to think first next time. Second, I broke my own most important rule. The first time I killed him, that was bad enough, but at least I did it to protect you and there was justification for my unreasoning anger. This time I went to kill a man for crimes he had not committed yet. That was wrong.”

Suddenly I was back in the lounge facing a sea of extremely angry faces.

“God you can be stupid!!” Dommi shouted at me. I just stared, knocked off balance by the sudden jump and change.

Cherine came up to me. Her face was a tight mask of anger. “How can you be so stupid Robert! If you had killed him you would have saved her mother’s life. How can that be evil? What you did was very wrong - but only because you did not show Wendy the respect of asking her, giving her the choice.”

It was my gentle Meli who came to me, her hand guided me to a seat. She sat by me.

“Robbie mou, we all understand. You are an adult and you are the protector. At times you feel you must make the decisions because we are either children or babies. Robbie, none of us are living the lives of children or babies. When you have to take a decision to protect us, you must do so and if we are angry or hurt that you did not ask us, it is our problem to deal with.

But this time Wendy was not in danger. You lashed out, it was like you needed to erupt out of your skin from the pain and anger and you did, you found a way to travel in time and tried to kill the cause of the pain. You were not protecting, so the protector did not help you. Wendy is right. We are all very angry that it nearly had you killed. But it was also right.”

I was astounded to sense that none of my loves disagreed with her - about my doing what must be done, regardless of their feelings.

Wendy was still sitting on my lap. She suddenly turned and gave them all a huge grin. “Well it worked. He let me into his mind and I saw.” She stared at all the puzzled faces. “I know I am the least pretty of all of you. I could not understand why he would love me when he has you. Claudia, his mind, his heart, it was full of love for me. It was real. His love was so strong he could not bear to see me cry. He fought without his protector, again and again, for me!!”

Cherine began to laugh. She gave me a quick kiss and I saw a glow in her eyes that lifted my spirits like nothing else had.

“Dommi, can’t you see? This is our Robert. Even when he messes up, he does it for us. Somehow, even when he does the wrong thing, it turns out to have been the right thing to help us. Look inside Wendy. Feel how she is better now. Do you think she would have been better if he had come and held her, told her he loves her? That stupid wonk of a heart he has, the pain he felt because a little girl cried, his anger, his craziness, it all helped show Wendy how she is loved. Wow! I almost wish he had done it for me…I just wish he didn’t have to scare the blubbedy-blub out of us all by getting the knife stuck into him. I felt that pain!!”

Things went crazy for me for a while. My little cub had come to my defence and she made everything right for me. I still have to spend some time thinking and learning from my mistakes, but at least my loved ones all opened their hearts of love to me again. They wanted to go dancing and I played stupid and told them to all become at least eighteen; I cannot take a bunch of kids and babies to a disco. I really wanted the gayety of having fun, not the intensity of our real dancing, however wonderful it is. It turned into a wonderful evening of supper and dancing and my bevy (συντροφιά) of beauties making me the proudest man alive - not that I know any dead men who are prouder. I made sure I showed my appreciation that night, even though I felt strange having a bunch of teenagers in my bed. I teased them that it should be illegal for grown up girls to make love with a paedophile, that they should be found guilty of statutory rape and they laughingly agreed with me, claiming I have the mind and intelligence of a little boy, but did not change back to little girls until the morning.



618

The next day I was in a good mood for work. I managed to do more in that one day than I usually have done in a week during the last half year. I used my server program to send everything over to Alki and called the girls in. Being in a mood to get things done, I decided to tackle what has been on my mind for a while. I had brought in the girls for a ‘powwow’.

“We need to start organising ourselves. I have decided that we are discovering that a lot we, or I, thought were true, are not really so. I want to call a ‘MGM’. Instead of an AGM, ‘annual general meeting’ as big companies do, we make it a monthly one. It is not necessary for everyone to come, but at least one person from each family circle, even those which are not fully formed yet must come. We can all find out what new developments there have been, examine new ways of looking at things and new rules we have to set for ourselves.

It is important we set rules that we all follow as a group. If we do not and each group makes their own rules, the world will soon learn about us and we’ll be hunted by those who fear mutations - or, because they believe Man was made in the image of God, they’ll see us as abominations (βδέλυγμα) who must be wiped off the face of our planet. I want our decisions, our rules to be made jointly, as one group, not each circle making their own, since, if something goes wrong, we will have to fight as a group.”

Dommi pulled a face, the distaste at my suggestion obvious. “I do not agree Roberto. I have spent years watching my father. Apart from his shipping interests, he has shares and is a Director in some public companies. Those board meetings never get anything done and even with us, soon there will be more politics being played, juggling for positions of strength, back-biting, than work and good being done. They are all happy to listen to you, they see you as the leader. Leave it at that.”

“Dommi, a Greek woman telling me not to opt for democracy? To be a despot?” I half-teased.

“Yes. Most definitely. I do not have the same beliefs you have in the inherent goodness of man. Nor in their commonsense. Roberto, when you have a formula that is successful, do not mess with it. Changes should only be made as necessary.”

“But love, all of you will agree, I have made so many mistakes. So many things I saw as being part of our new gifts turned out to be wrong.”

“You are missing the point, Roberto mou, at least you laid ground rules. That is important. Equally important is that you are the first to admit when you are wrong - often before any of us have realised it. Do you think a committee will be equally willing to admit their errors?”

They were all against me. Somehow Alki and Marian got dragged into it. They listened to my arguments and what the girls had to say. What I think was the most important to me was the attitude of the babies, since they are not so much a part of the old ways. It was stunning to find that not one of them agreed with me. I had hoped they would be more idealistic and back me on my decision.


Alki took his turn and explained how he feels. “Roberto, do you think I am not a staunch believer in democracy? Do you see me advocating democracy in my business? Do you really think my businesses would be as successful if they were run by men and women who use doublespeak (διγλωσσία) so as to avoid responsibility when they are wrong, blaming the market or the workers for their mistakes?

We all know the socialist attitude, that the workers are also entitled to be part of the decision-making. They claim that, as I risk my capital, so their livelihood is at risk. Bullshit! If they had the kind of mentality it takes to create and successfully run a business, they would be running their own, not working for me. If I employ an electrician, I do not tell him how to do his job, I employed him because he is an expert, or at least proficient (εντριβής) at doing his job - just as I am at doing mine. Dominique is right. You have a formula which has proven to be successful, leave it alone.”

He surprised me by adding, “Roberto mou, you maybe do not realise that all of us admire you. Not because you are always right, but because you are always the first to see when you are not right, and say so, even if it embarrasses you. You never hesitate to ask for advice. You have no thirst for power, no vanity to be pampered to. I would not like to see this change. I would not even trust myself on such a committee, for with all the best of intentions, I would respond to the others and their ambitions and my ambition would soon be driving me to jockey for more power.”


619

“Alki, you do not agree with the theories of Alexander the Great? When he was conquering the known world, his enlightened views on how he should deal with those he conquered earned him their loyalty. For instance, as he conquered Persian cities, he developed a philosophy he named omonoia, hoping to turn the Persians from enemies of the Greeks to friends. In each State, he allowed them self-rule because he was influenced by Athens and their Democracy.” Despite the serious conversation, I could not help grinning as I told them, “The Persian king, Darius III remained Alexander’s enemy until the day he died, and yet, his own mother, Sisygambis, when she was offered help to escape from Alexander, to be returned to her son, refused and gave her allegiance to Alexander because she admired him - I suppose you could say it was as Marian did with me, because of…” I ducked as she threw a pillow at me.

The moment the laughter died out, Dommi told me with all the force of her conviction, “Forget about your theories and Alexander, we choose our leader, not you - and we have chosen you!”

Thoroughly squelched I capitulated. Cherine could not resist taking a dig at me. I suppose she was recalling the time I forced her to take over. She whispered in my mind ‘nice try’ and sent me a mischievous grin across the room. Sam’s serious eyes were boring into me and I wondered what she was thinking - she was keeping her thoughts to herself.


I realised that my talk of Alexander the Great had been leading my thoughts in an important direction. “Dommi, I’ll ask you to indulge me for a moment, for I have something else to say about Alexander. According to the history book I read, until he reached Persia, Alexander lived and fought alongside his soldiers and they were devoted to him. Once he had conquered most of Persia, he adopted Persian clothing and demanded his officers bend their knee to him. Later, in India, he declared himself a son of the gods, and expected to be idolised by his soldiers. They rebelled and he had to use various tricks to keep them in line. Reading what I just mentioned, keeping in mind his previous theories about harmony and friendship rather than dictatorship, I felt sad at how such a great man could go wrong. He already was adored by his men, officers and soldiers, he did not need to try to elevate himself. These thoughts helped or led me to formulating a rule I wish us to live under.

Nobody who is linked and gains gifts from the link is to ever use his or her gifts for ruling others, whether any linked persons or what I will call the non-gifted from now on, the Normals. This rule applies to all of us, including Cherine and myself. Misuse of our gifts means they are then no longer gifts, just powers, and it is the duty of all of us to fight and stop that person, even should that person be adored by us or of our own family. Our gifts are for helping and protecting others, not for ruling them.”

Samantha said, “I hope we don’t make too many rules Robert, I don’t like rules. I prefer we each make rules for ourselves, according to what we think is important. For instance, I have a rule I made for myself. I must not demand that others always honour their commitments to me, I may only expect and hope they will. However, I do demand that I always honour all my promises and commitments to others.”

Alki nodded, “I am happy to live my life according to these two rules.” Everyone else quickly confirmed their agreements.

I added, “I’m not certain my thoughts qualify as a new set of rules, but I’ve been thinking about privacy - as it should apply to telepathic people. I’m still in the process of developing my beliefs, but I’ll give you the gist of how I hope we’ll evolve.

I’ll start off from the point of view of how I see it should be within our family. If everyone agrees I’m on the right path, we can then generalise the rules.

Our love is high-lighted by our gifts so that it feels, for each of us, not only as if we have reached a deeper understanding of each other than any other lovers have throughout the history of our world, but that our closeness and openness keeps growing, so that with every passing day we are bonding ever more tightly. Part of this closeness comes from our ability to sense and share our emotions and thoughts, which means we also know each other better than any other person has ever known another.

A lot of what we are experiencing is not only unique, but also unbelievably beautiful. There is something incredibly liberating about knowing that you have seen into the depths of my mind and memories and still love me - even those parts of me I have reason to feel ashamed of. I have sensed you each feel the same way.


620

All that I have just spoken of is blinding us as to the direction we are travelling in. We are not growing our love; if we are not careful, what we have done is find a new way to kill love and destroy the human part of our souls.”

I paused, expecting questions, but they only stared at me, not even Cherine seeking to peek at my mind.

“Alki, as you know, we have evolved small courtesies required because of our gifts. They are only courtesies and are not rules of behaviour - for instance, if I wish to speak with one of my loves in privacy, the others will respect my request…unless they think they have a reason for listening in. We humans have a marvellous capacity for creating exceptions to every rule and I hate the reward and punishment system, so let us first examine why I claimed our gifts are a danger to us and then we can discuss whether and how we should implement our decisions.”

Alki asked me, “You still intend centering the discussion around the issue of privacy?”

“Yes. First off, I feel we should examine what privacy means. Alki, to you, Marian and Dommi, the word does not have the same meaning it does to those who are younger and I’m not talking about those with our gifts, I am talking about the entire world. Here are a few dictionary definitions:

a) privacy:
* The quality of being secluded from the presence or view of others
* The condition of being concealed or hidden
b) reclusiveness:
* Preference for seclusion or isolation
c) confidentiality:
* Discretion in keeping secret information

The word ‘privacy’ does not have some absolute, uniform meaning; it largely depends on our customs, traditions and personalities - including the media brain-washing by our governments, who wish us to consider it normal that they have the right to take away or water down our right to privacy. For this discussion, let’s keep our analysis restricted to those who are linked and have gifts.

For instance, I consider all sexual activity with a loved one as being highly personal - and thus, private, to the point where my loves consider it a prudish obsession…yet, if I am making love to or with one of them, I have never felt my other loves should not share - but I would strongly object to anyone else sharing from or with us, even indirectly.

I thought I should clarify the above, so that it is understood it is not that particular kind of privacy I fear we are sacrificing. However, it is because of our wish and even need to share such intimate moments with those who are part of our circle, that we are losing sight of the importance of other forms of privacy.

I should begin by examining what we mean when we speak of our family being a circle. A circle does not just depend on love for its existence - for example, Marian and Cherine love each other a lot and yet, they are not part of the same circle. Perhaps sex has something to do with a circle forming and maybe intention, the desire for two people or more to be one, is another - actually, sex is also part of the second reason. At least with sex, the desire to be one is achieved in a healthy manner, by the two becoming one in the child they create.

When we first danced together as souls, we were in danger of becoming one. Luckily the truth about such oneness was self-evident…achieving it is the death of love. The same need also drives us to come to know each other down to the last subatomic grain of knowledge and understanding of the other.

We have already tried to come closer by opening ourselves, especially Cherine and I. Cherine will not agree with me, but it was lucky that we were the first, for she has a very strong survival instinct - which I regret to say I do not have. When we came to know each other in detail, without her realising what her instincts were forcing on her, Cherine, so as to survive as Cherine - so as to be able to continue loving me as much as she does, changed in tiny ways, each change, difference, like kinetic energy, forcing a gap between us, a gap I like to think of as mystery…which, as we all know, is part of the magic of the other which helps keep us fascinated by each other, which in turn helps to keep love not only alive, but also eternally evolving. I saw the changes in you, Cherine, thanks to Samantha - I’ll explain why in a while.



Next Post 061

I hope you enjoy reading this story of fantasy, adventure and love.




Αλέξανδρος Ζήνον Ευσταθίου
(Alexander Zenon Eustace)
15th April, 2019

* posted on Steemit: 15th April, 2019



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