Little Cherine Book 02 - BPost017

My little warrior came back into my room and lay next to me, trying to draw courage from the warmth of my body.

Previous Post 016

861

Alki walked in and the grief he wore was a mask of anger on his face. “How dare you keep this a secret.”

“I did not dare not to. You have seen how I have hurt all of you by admitting the truth. Alki, patera, the truth? I could not face it myself. I kept hoping and lying to myself.”

He sat by me and taking my hand put it to his cheek. He held it for a long time and I felt him gather his strength; a general who had just lost a battle, he now began to plan.

“From now on there will be no further talk of money. Dominique will have a chequebook and credit card, she can draw all that is needed. If you have a wish to buy anything for you or your girls, you do so. You cannot make a dent in my fortune Roberto.

You will stop work immediately, like that web site you dislike; you will only do what will fill your heart. We promote Wing to world wide director, responsible for creating and operating all the cell-banks you want. I will see to all the business matters.

You will place back the blocks you had, so that you are not troubled by the little pains of your girls. Cherine, you will organise all the healers of every Cherinian to help his healer.

Samantha will handle all matters to do with the aliens. She will consult with Roberto and be his mouth when speaking to them. She will obey him and not make her own decisions. We have seen that every time we think Roberto is wrong, he is right, so she does not presume to know better.

Dominique, Roberto needs your mother love more than the children do. Be there for him.

I am calling a meeting of the Cherinians at my house so that he is not disturbed. They must all know the truth. We will all fight to keep him strong. He is needed here, however weak his body, as our guide, leader and friend - and I personally, as my son.

Cherine, kori mou, you will control your fear this time. You do him more damage than good with it.

I have a lot to organise now so I must leave. You all have my mobile (kinito) number, call me if I am needed, or else tell Marian, she can find me.”

Marian came in as if he had called her, which I suppose he had. “Agapi mou, you will come here, until I can get a good cook, and prepare them food that will strengthen Roberto. We can order from the restaurants for us. Dominique and Cherine have to look after him so you must help with the little ones.”

He kissed me on the cheek, kissed Marian and left.

Despite the attempted dampening of emotions by the girls, there was a storm of emotion and in self-defence I slid into a deep sleep. I slept most of the day and through the night. Over the next days I slid back into my old habits, sleeping half the day and up most of the night, reading, chatting with whoever was awake or using my Cherinian memories to re-live all those wonderful first months with my Cherine and then Dommi. It is strange how often when under stress I revert to those times. Perhaps I should call them my ‘healing’ time.

The idea of using all the healers had not worked. I think my healer found them more often a nuisance than a help. Otherwise we all obeyed Alki - even Cherine. My little girl has suddenly matured a lot, as have all my babies - and it grieves me. I am no longer in control of our circumstances and have to accept it as being part of life, the way things must be.

I found myself soaring at times, my energy a force that has me pacing throughout the house. At such times I take my girls for an ice cream or just a walk to window shop. Despite the offer by Alki, we are careful not to spend on trivialities. He knows me and soon guessed and scolded me again. He made all the girls promise to get whatever their hearts wish for, he is their pappou after all, isn’t he?

It was days away from the birthdays of my twins. Only days after that it was the birthday of Laura. I asked them to arrange one party for all of them and Dommi took me shopping. The party was a success, and since I was feeling well, they were able to forget themselves and run and play like the children they are. If only Cherine and Diana would. I called them to my side.

862

“I do not want another two adults. I’ve got Dommi and Alki and many more. To see you play and laugh, or giggle as children, that is the best medicine for me. To feel you forget yourselves, your worries, and become children will make me feel young again.” I was asking the impossible, but I hoped that by them pretending they would get carried away and enjoy themselves sometimes. It did work now and then.

Alki got the travel agents to change our tickets (or so he said). I wanted a warm tropical beach with sand as white as snow and coconut trees. We went to the Seychelles and Cherine returned to bring the girls over. They would spend most of the day with us, a couple of times the evening too and go home to let Cherine and I celebrate our love. We all fell in love with the islands.

The long walks, the short swims and lazing in the sun; the nights of warm tender loving, they all worked a miracle on me. Oddly, having Cherine appear as an adult when in public, boosted my good mood, for many men envied me.

Our second evening there, after our supper, I met a man when I went to the bar to order two Kahlua coffees with fresh cream. Although he was pretending to nurse his drink, I sensed he is keenly aware of everyone and critically analysing all the couples. He made way for me to place my order and I gave a small smile as I thanked him.

I had not expected him to speak to me, so I was caught by surprise when he commented, “Your lass is a far stronger personality than you are and an amazing beauty, I’m surprised she is with you. Been together for long?”

I thought to myself, screw you, and deliberately told him the truth as a lie, “Ever since she was eight years old.” Of course all my loves who were listening, choked up with laughter and had to share with the others. Cherine was careful to keep a straight face.

“Hmm, it sounds as if that is supposed to justify her being with you - to you.”

“You are uncommonly rude - is it sour grapes because you are alone, the only man here without a companion?”

As if he had not heard me, he turned with a smile and waved. I turned to look and saw a very attractive woman walking towards us from the main buildings of the hotel. She smiled and waved back.

The man turned to me. “I’m sorry? You were saying?”

I shook my head. “I’m sorry. You are excellent at being rude, whereas I know that whenever I try it I hash it up, ending with egg all over my face. I should not have tried.”

The woman arrived, kissed his cheek and said to me, “Hello, I’m Abigail. I’m glad you’ve kept him company in my absence, or else he would have been surrounded by man-eaters and I would’ve had to pull a tantrum to get rid of them.”

I saw my opportunity to pay him back, “I cannot believe that even a man like him would willingly risk losing a woman as lovely as you.”

She answered me by giving him an apologetic look. “I’m sorry love, I’d thought he was a friend of yours, but I can see he doesn’t know you at all.”

I don’t think my loves have ever witnessed such an odd conversation and were all listening, even Cherine was enjoying it - and I could sense she felt I am really going to end up with egg on my face.

I grinned and confided to the man, “I’d say that your lovely Abigail got the better of both of us - Abigail, I’m Robert.”

She gave me a speculative look, but I could also see amusement in her eyes. “I’ll take a wild guess that Don was busy insulting you just before I arrived.”

“Mm, I don’t think he achieved insulting status, he was mostly just rude - it reminded me of my schooldays…you know, the same casual unconcern about saying something that wounds the other, as long as he can feel he scored some telling cuts. Is it how he makes money?”

863

Don grinned. “Actually, the opposite. I earn fantastic rewards from expertly sugar-coating the truth, but it gets too much sometimes. I’m a ghost-writer, and unlike the popular impression, it means I have to turn some nasty people into virtuous and kindly saints. That’s me, now why don’t you tell us what happened to you? I had you pegged as the kind of man who hates confrontation - a smaller and more insignificant version of Clark Kent.”

I laughed. “You’ve got me to a T. I was like that until that woman, waiting for me at our table, fell in love with me and turned me into a Superman.” My loves were enjoying themselves, especially thanks to my word games - my way of speaking the truth while depending on their assumptions for them to assume I am not…I guess. I excused myself, collected the coffees, which were no longer hot, and returned to Cherine.

She took a sip and laughed as she asked me, “Was I supposed to join you so as to help you get the better of them?” One thing I love about Cherine as an adult, she is just as ticklish as she is as an eight year old. Luckily neither of us cares much about what others think of us (if I’m feeling she is safe) and we ended the evening with lots of laughter.

The next morning we got up early because Cherine wanted to swim before the sun gets too hot. As I usually do, I sat in the shade with my sketchpad and lost myself in the images I was creating, though I did glance at her very often. I sensed someone come towards me from behind, but could not be bothered to look around.

When people see me sketching at the beach, they expect to find me sketching coconut trees, white sands and sparkling seas, maybe with an odd swimmer and sailing boat. The person behind me came close enough to see what I was sketching, which was a scene from the unborn city in Meli’s world, as I imagine it will look once it is populated.

“You’re good! ’Morning Robert.”

“Good morning Don. You going for a swim?”

“Never after a night of dancing and drinking too much. May I join you?” As he asked, he sat.

I frowned as I struggled to correct a part of my sketch, not satisfied with anything other than achieving exactly what I want. I glanced up to see Cherine and turned to him with a sardonic smile. “That was exceedingly polite of you. Since you were asking for the next time, do I have to answer from now?”

He chuckled. “You’re not much good at cutting repartees, I get the feeling you are more interested in how you play with words and their meanings. After you left us last night, my wife and I watched you and your wife for at least an hour. I admit you puzzle me.”

“When people tell me that, I tell them that I also puzzle myself, usually pissing them off, but in this case I’m more interested in learning why I puzzle you.”

“I’d have to be brutally honest.” I sensed Cherine stop swimming and stare at us, worried that he is about to hurt me.

Partly answering her worry, I told him, “Go ahead, I have a feeling I’m going to enjoy this.”

“Your wife is a stunner and you don’t measure up to what women like her want or expect of their men. Are you filthy rich?”

“Not filthy.”

“We watched the two of you playing and we felt you were acting more like children than adults. Is it what attracts her to you?”

I shut the sketchpad, since it was obvious he intends to be around for a while. “What is it exactly that you want Don?”

He leant back, closing his eyes for a moment. “I first started writing when I was a teenager. My writing was shallow, contrived and filled with witticisms born out of the knowledge all teenagers have that they know everything and have seen truths nobody else has.”

864

I chuckled. “I know what you mean, my art reflected the same weaknesses. It’s just a part of the process of growing up…I enjoy it when I see it in teenagers of today. They are supposed to be so much smarter than we were because of them having computers, CNN, the internet, cell phones and so on, but I see that they aren’t. They don’t really use technology to empower themselves, to ask ‘why’ as often as they can; just seeking the same shallow level of entertainment teenagers of all ages have wanted throughout the history of mankind.”

He looked puzzled for a moment, then slightly smiled as he told me, “Can we get back to what I was talking about? It was important - I was talking about myself.” Cherine’s laugh could be heard by us and she created an image of a board in my mind, placed his and my name on it and gave his a tick. I thought it was unfair of her, she didn’t give me any ticks!

“I matured enough for my writing to improve and a few stories were printed in not very well known magazines. Some people think that maturing means we grow wiser. It is rarely so, we mostly exchange one set of beliefs for another and think this proves we are now wiser. Usually it only means we’ve learnt to be cynical. Then, through a family connection, I was offered the opportunity to ghost-write the life story of a local tycoon who believed that making lots of money made him a person whose life history should be preserved for posterity. I did not quite provide the flattering image he’d wanted and he refused to pay me. In the end it worked out okay, because, thanks to that experience, I learnt to do what I have been doing since then.

I’ve made learning about how people interact my main interest in life. I include relationships at the workplace and between family members and couples - whether married or not. I find that what I have learnt to see has made me more sensitive to nuances I did not notice before and it has turned me into a more perceptive writer.

If I am alone, as I was last night, I watch the couples I find interesting and try to sense the currents caused by the mixture of emotions - even the lack of them. I made the mistake of choosing you and your wife as one of the couples and you both refused to allow yourselves to be pinned or categorised according to my present ways of seeing people.”

Tongue in cheek, I asked, “Are you hoping that we’ll be willing to change, so as to fit your preconceptions?” I looked and saw his eyes were fixed on Cherine.

“I’ve been wondering who it is that is throwing all my theories into disarray. Your wife seems to be a normal person, so I suspect you are to blame. I’d like to learn more about the way you think, but I don’t think you’ll allow me to see, camouflaging yourself with elusive watered-down repartees.”

I let Cherine sense what I intended saying and since she did not object, I told him, first giving him a serious look so that he understands I am being honest, “Don, I’ll confide one truth and if it helps you evolve your theories in a way which is useful to you, I’ll feel it was worth giving up a bit of my privacy. I have just come out of a period which has lasted about a year, where my every day has been a fight to stay alive. Wife, family and friends helped pull me through.” I paused. “It is the reason I am here, we are hoping the sun and sea and a relaxed lifestyle will help me grow strong enough to survive. I would appreciate you keep this to yourself, I don’t need the whispers, pampering and funny looks I would get from the other guests.”

He provided me with the appropriate assurances - and I did not take the trouble to try and sense whether he means them, for such people often do mean them…until they provide themselves with sound reasons why they should not keep their word.

The next day I was feeling a bit wasted from the heat and stayed in our air-conditioned bungalow all day, a few of our loves joining us. At lunchtime Cherine went to the large thatch roof restaurant to choose from their buffet the various foods we want and then arrange for them to be delivered to us with lots of cold fruit juice.

While she waited for confirmation that the plates will be delivered exactly as we want (she had to wait so as to give a small bribe), Don introduced himself.

“Robert has shared with me, I know who you are.”

“Has he explained that the two of you puzzle me? He explained about his recent problems, but try as hard as I can, I cannot get what I sense from the two of you to agree with how you should be. Have his health problems affected you in ways I cannot guess?”

865

She stared at him until he felt uncomfortable and lowered his eyes. “I’ll tell you a truth for you to consider which, if you take it to heart and really try to understand what I say, could be of far more use to you as a writer than anything you learn about us. Don, if you had approached us with the intention of becoming our friend, without having to ask, you would have learnt all there is for you to know about us. Having done it the way you did was fun for Robert, for a while, but it means you’ll never get to know anything meaningful. You are an interesting person and I had a feeling that I could have liked your wife, so we have both lost because of your fear to let down your guard. Excuse me, I have to make arrangement for our meals to be delivered.”

When Cherine returned to the bungalow, she was given kisses by everyone, especially me, as I kept on butting in to steal another turn, making her laugh and her heart soar. I was certain that after her put-down we would not be meeting Don and Abigail again.

One day Cherine and I took a walk that was longer than usual. We felt a bit adventurous and wanted to see something natural, not part of the landscape prepared for tourists. We passed by a small village with children running to us and people waving. We responded, showing our pleasure and as we passed out the other side of the village we saw a hut. Standing in front of it was a woman, so dark in complexion that she was almost pure black. As we walked past the front of her home she gestured to us to come over. She had prepared two green coconuts for us to drink. Her concession to western ways were the straws.

“Sit in the shade under that tree and drink. Rest a little and then I will take a look at your man.”

We marvelled at her statement, since Cherine had changed to be in age not more than eight, and speculated what this could mean. What did she mean by saying she would take a look at me.

Since she did not come to us, Cherine dozed off in my arms and with the heat, I also fell asleep. When we awoke she was sitting in front of us. I was startled. My protector was watching out for us, how could she have approached us?

“When power comes to the young they are often foolish. Do not fear, your power recognised me. I have talked to it and see you have followed what we call the path of gods and death, you forgot the importance of life, of remaining a human.”

“You have not given or taken our names so I will call you mother. I do not forget I am a human. It is important to me. But yes, I have tortured my life.”

“It now tortures you.”

“Correct mother.”

“And you little one, you forgot you are human, you think of yourself as something else. A god?”

“How do you...”

“Cherine love, do not question. Just open yourself and be honest.”

“How can I? Where I should see her I see nothing.”

“That is reason enough to do as I say.”

“Where others see the body, the black of my skin, you search for the truth of the heart. Child, you must learn to see both. You wish to see my heart?…See that child, the girl that plays by that tree? Search her heart.”

The child turned, looked at us and ran away.

“You have seen? I am in the heart of all the children. Girl, you give too much of love, but forget that love has no meaning if you do not love yourself too. Your man,” She stopped and stared at me. “You have no understanding of yourself. You have given and you have taken in return. That is good. I see your soul is shared and the sharing strengthens you. With those where you share lies the answer for you. The future has spoken to you. It is your job to find the path to it.”

She sat silent, lost somewhere within herself. “I have given, now it will soon be your turn to take. Will you do that for me, or will I follow a different light?”

“You need to dance with us first.” Cherine looked up at me in shock. “Will you come now so that we may know you when you call to us?”

866

She closed her eyes and I pulled at her, bringing her to the void. Cherine joined us and we danced with her soul that was deep in colour and vibrant with a bright light. We exchanged and her taste became known to us.

She did not react to the Sparklers nor to Solomon and Ordinx to whom I sent a greeting.

*If this soul comes, will you hold her for us if we are not here?*

*She has a strong energy. It is more mature than yours. We will protect her for you, though you puzzle us*

*You are asking, why do I say you are wrong to collect souls and then ask you to collect those of my material world as they come to the void?*

*It is what troubles us.*

*My answer lies within my promise.*

We did not need to show her how to return.

“They will gather me?”

“If I am not there, yes. Only to hold until I can return. When I have understood your riddle and have the strength again, I will search to find you, whenever it is that you go there.”

Neither of us thanked the other. She got to her feet and walked away, not to her home, but off into the trees. Soon as she disappeared, Cherine jumped up.

“Now tell me what that was all about.”

“She gave both of us answers. Try to understand the part of her answer which was meant for you and let me find mine. I think she will be in our World soon and we will be blessed to have her. She will do more to mature our ‘I’ and give it depth than we could have.”

“What was all that about you finding the path to your future?”

“With your genius mind you need to ask? She was reminding me that the future spoke to us and I know that I exist there. Samantha.”

“Fucking Jesus!!”

“Cherine!” I could not be angry. If she was Wendy she would have been floating. It was as if her heart were screaming with the delight in her. She was like a little girl with ants in her pants, unable to stand still.

“I have to tell them Robert, I must. Please wait here.” She jumped and I sat down again and thought about the strange conversation. When I woke up again, I thought I had dreamt it. Would have, if not for the joy on my little loves’ face.

She grabbed my hand. “We must go, they are all waiting for you at our bungalow.”

“We know that the future is fluid, depending on decisions and actions we take now. The fact that I exist in the time Samantha came back to us from, shows it is possible. The woman gave us hints on where to find the answers.”

“You mean maybe you will still die?” Aganthi had but spoken the thought on all their minds.

I grinned at her. “You know me and you know death - of the two of us, who would you bet on?”

“Now you are selling me flowers.”

I laughed. “I’m going to bet on me. If I lose, then it means I am stupid.” I waited, but there was no response from Cherine. “I give you an opening and you keep quiet?”

“I cannot joke about this.”

867

I brought her fingers to my lips. “You must love. If we do not laugh and joke, then we become afraid. Fear paralyses the mind. Go on, say it.”

“No point to it now. Robert, what did she mean about me?”

“You have had too many clues for me to tell you. Use your brain.”

“I think that when he tells you to use your brains Cherine, it is because he does not know the answer.”

“Laura, you too? I’m glad, been a while since you took a dig at me.”

“I’m going back home Robbie. I want to tell mum and dad.”

“Tattle tale!” I grabbed a kiss and let her go.

Suddenly Em-e was feeling sad. Before I could ask I felt about half the girls also become sad.

“What...”

“They realised that if you expect to live, you are going to change your mind. They all wanted to have your babies.”

“It is their choice. Either they get me to stick around or they can have their babies.”

“You should not have said that Robert. They are only babies, they do not understand you are teasing.”

“You mean they would choose to have the babies!? Okay, sorry Dommi, but I am feeling so wonderful, I feel as if I could fly.” I stretched my hands up as if I were Superman and I rose fast, my fingers hitting the thatch roof. I hung there.

“Come on Wendy, let me down.”

“It wasn’t me Robbie.”

“Who was it?”

Aganthi smiled shyly.

“You Aganthi!? A new gift? Can you fly?”

“I cannot. You are not flying, I am holding you up.” She let me down. “I find that I can move things without touching them.” She lifted an ashtray, letting it hang in the air.

“At last, telekinesis, I had given up. You bring a lovely gift to us Aganthi. It makes us all richer.”

The pride at my praise that shone on her little face, it was more wonderful to me than her gift. At last she felt she was giving back and is truly a part of our family.

I teased the girls, “Dommi, I think you better take all our little monkeys back with you - before they escape and dash off into the jungle. We’ll be back after-tomorrow.”

I took my time, giving each a hug and soft loving kiss and then it was just Cherine and I again. I pulled her to me. “No more deep thoughts until we get home. I want my sexy baby, the nasty little imp who gives me her secret smile. Just love me Cherine, I need to feel loved by you.”

A little while later, “Robert?”

“Yes love?”

“Are we going to that new restaurant tonight.”

“If you like.”

“They don’t know me there. Can I come as a grown up - but a bit older than usual?”

“If you have suitable clothes, sure.”

868

I should have known she would pull a trick on me. She appeared as a woman of about forty. My gestures of love throughout the evening made me look like a toy-boy. She loved having turned the tables on me.

“You are as splendid as you were in my dream. There won’t be one man who will not be drawn to you. I hope you will still want me.”

“What for? You will be too busy loving all our great grandchildren.”

“Maybe, but to me you will always be my first and best.”

“To me you will always be my only.”

“Aren’t you curious as to how it would be to be with another man? I mean, to spend your whole life having only loved one could become boring for you.”

“True. ….If that one were not my Robert.”

At breakfast we were suddenly joined by Don and Abigail. Without asking, they sat at our table. As I wondered whether to be polite or ask them to leave, Abigail told us, “We were at the same hotel restaurant last night. You looked stunning, very mature, somehow,” she told Cherine.

Cherine kept calm. “Thank you, it was interesting.”

With an incredulous look, she asked, “The hotel dance?”

Cherine replied, “I think you were hinting that I looked older, so I was referring to that. I found it interesting. After all, most makeup kits try to make us look younger. It may not make much money, but I guess they’ll find it useful for theatre and movie productions.”

Abigail responded, both of them carefully watching us, maybe hoping to catch a betraying reaction. “I took some wonderful photos of you last night. I was thinking of taking them to town for ordering poster sized enlargements. I’ll make extra copies for you since you may need them for advertising your product. As for me, I’ll certainly find it interesting to study them in detail - I’d love to work out how the makeup creates the effects of ageing.”

As I have insinuated a number of times, there are a number of degrees or layers, to telepathy. I know that most literature dealing with telepathy claims that telepaths are inundated by the mental and even subconscious voices of non-telepaths - some of them driven insane by their inability to filter or restrict their mental eavesdropping to those they choose to spy on.

The only gift I know of that approximates that level of inundation (κατακλυσμός) is Cherine’s gift of empathy. Her ability has deepened, grown stronger, but luckily she is the only one who can sense the entire planet of humans and is able to suppress what she shares, limiting it when she can to those experiencing emotions of love, kindness and so on that she wants to share (I’ll admit to the worry that she still seems to be growing, her gift seems to be attempting to reach out even further and include those close to us, like the Anadir, in the void). The rest of us are thankfully limited to those in our immediate surroundings - the exception being the emoting of those we know and care for.

When in the presence of those we do not share minds with, whether Cherinians, Talents or not, we almost always stick to our self-imposed rule of taking care not to listen to their thoughts, even on those occasions when we are tempted for reasons of survival…well, most of the time when the situation is not of an extreme nature.

Luckily hearing the thoughts of most people is not something we enjoy, if you become a telepath, you’ll soon learn that most thinking runs in boring, mechanical and repetitious mode. It is very interesting to witness a mind reason its way to new truths, but even then, some of the steps are always skipped, for they were taken by the subconscious, which we cannot hear, and anyway, we would need to be given specific permission to listen in from within their mind.

However, because nearly all Normals broadcast their emoting indiscriminately (αδιακρίτως), and their emoting is affected by their thoughts, it is almost impossible for them to lie to us. It is a reason why we never play poker with Normals. We do not need to monitor the changes in the skin or the pupil of the eyes, so even a trained agent will betray his true thoughts.

869

What Abigail thought she would gain by lying - or bluffing us, if we wish to think of it in a more generous manner, I don’t know. We were extremely tempted to cut them off, walk away from them and demand they leave us alone, but there rarely is a good reason for taking such extreme steps - and we did have a reason for tolerating them up to this point. First of all, being a romantic, I enjoyed sensing their love for each other, which is real. The second reason has to do with their interest in us. We feel ‘wrong’ to them because they are slightly gifted. I’d love to link them, if only they were not so devious and even sadistic at times in their thinking. Such a pity and waste.

So as not to completely cut them off from us, I had to break our rules. I entered their minds and altered a few of their memories and thoughts about us, so that we only remain an interesting couple they met while on holiday.

I wrote the clues down next morning, in big bold letters.

Cherine protested, “She was wrong, you have insisted many times that we must stay one with the humans.”

“Maybe she is not wrong. I have been thinking as a Cherinian, saying we must not forget our origins, that we owe a debt to mankind. What she is saying is, that even if we are Cherinians, we are still human beings, part of mankind. If we forget that, then we will think we are better than them. She is right Cherine.”

“The second clue?”

“I have no idea. The only ones I share souls with are Diana and the twins. I do not see what they could do for me.”

“Write my clues down Robert.”

“She did not give you clues love, she gave you advice.”

“Then write it for me.”

“The first one is the same as yours.”

“Nearly. What is it that gods do not fear.”

870

After a while her eyes widened. “Death!!”

“Death and all that comes with it. The loss of loved ones is part of it too.”

“But I do fear death.”

“You do, though secretly in your heart you think I will solve this, that I can cheat death again. So you do not fear it as much as you did yesterday morning.”

“You mean I must fear?”

“No, but remember what it means to fear, for only then can you feel for others who do not have our powers. The fear of death governs their life, influences all their thoughts, while to us it only is a step to a new life.”

“The second clue. She means I depend only on my gifts.”

“That one puzzles me. Usually we are advised to see beneath the skin, not to be only influenced by beauty or ugliness of the body; to try and see the inner beauty. You already do that and she advises you to do the opposite.”

“No Robert. She is right! You used the word yourself. You said ‘only’! She is saying I must look at the body also.”

“If she meant that, then you would have all the reason in the world to stop loving me. I am certainly no Adonis. That advice would be too shallow for her to bother with. Maybe she means, when you judge the beauty of a soul you should remember that there is also a body. In other words, keep in mind that they are prone to the weaknesses of their body. A good person could get carried away by lust and do something evil. Something like that would make more sense.”

“You thought that up because you are afraid I will stop loving you!” Her cheeky grin gave an immediate lift to my spirits.

“Maybe you would, if not for one thing. That you would not let go of, whatever I look like.”

“Yeah? And what is that?”

“The love I feel for you. That you will never find elsewhere.” She flung herself onto me and it stopped the conversation for a few minutes.

“The third one is obvious.”

“We already know she does not speak of the obvious. Take your time and think about this one. Maybe there is something deeper, a lesson to be learnt.”

“Robert, your clue,” her voice was excited. “When you love someone, aren’t you sharing with them?”

“With those where you share lies the answer for you. You could be right. That widens it, with whom do I start?”

“With me?” she asked in a small voice.

“I always do my love. How could my answer lie in you. How could you be the key. Or anyone else? I was so certain the answer lies within myself. An idea. What if she meant my healer or protector?”

That made sense to her and she stopped to think about it.

“Forget it love. We have wasted enough of our precious time on this. Let’s take our last walk or swim and just enjoy being together.”

“I think this is the first time any of the others have felt jealous of me.”

“Not of you love, of having the opportunity to be alone, without sharing the one they love. We must go back to our weekends. I miss it too.”

“You are not going to start jumping are you?”

Next [Book 02] - Post 018

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

Αλέξανδρος Ζήνον Ευσταθίου

(Alexander Zenon Eustace)
^{11th May, 2019}

* posted on Steemit: 11th May, 2019



For those who wish to be notified of sequels
@nikosnitza

If you wish to have your name added above, I would be honoured.

The arthur.grafo Steemhost pages