Robbie stood at her side with a bemused expression on his face. We could tell it was something else, not their appearance that caused it, but he would not allow us to see, asking us to wait for afterwards when we are alone.
3281
All others, friends, family and aliens kept their distance. Cherine walked up to Latreia.
“Latreia, Robert, look at each other.” They did so and Cherine waited. Robbie tentatively reached out and his fingers softly ran down her arm and then touched her cheek. She gazed back at him, but all we could feel was a trembling of fear that fluttered around within her mind. We held our breaths, was she going to bungle it?
“You did not answer me Roberto.” We felt a sick hollow fear within her at her words.
“You demand an answer first?”
“I need to know.”
Robbie turned away from her. “I’m sorry Cherine. Relax, we’re not linking.”
“What the hell is wrong.” Cherine asked. Tasso also took a step forward in his anxiety.
Robbie turned to Latreia. “Love is never conditional, every one of us in this family give ourselves totally. Go live your life whichever way you want, but it will not be with us.”
“I choose then to take none. I will live my life alone. Will you help me get back to my time or must I stay here in the past?”
“Of course I’ll take you back.”
“Then do so now please.”
“Stop!!” Cherine stepped forward, her anger obvious. “Robert, you will tell us now what is going on.”
“Privately Cherine.”
*She asked me whether she can make love once with her family, saying she can make herself a virgin again. She wants them to feel they have a part of her. I told her many of my wives have married us without being virgins, if that is what she wanted she should have done so before the wedding day. She insists that after the wedding she wants the first night with them. To be honest, I was too upset to reply and told her you girls will afterwards.*
*That was cowardly!*
*Perhaps. I was angry and knew if I reacted as I wanted to, we’d have to cancel the wedding. Carrying her here I calmed down, thinking what she had wanted was due to her age and she must have seen how childish she was being. Apparently I was mistaken.*
*You should not have brought her. It was dishonest of you. She must have thought you were agreeing. I have to go to her, she is absolutely miserable. She feels she has dishonoured her mother’s family.*
*Tell her, not in our eyes Cherine. She was brave to ask.*
“Latreia, before you leave, I want a word with you alone please.”
She stood as if defiant, but we can all feel the terror in her. She holds Cherine very high on a pedestal and feels she will die if Cherine tells her she was wrong. Steeling herself she looked Cherine in the eyes. “Okay.” They moved away for privacy.
“Robert has explained to us. Latreia, you request is very unusual and it can only be interpreted one way. You do not love us as much as your family. We came here for a wedding. Why don’t you marry them?”
We heard her heart cry out in protest and knew Cherine was wrong. Despite her despair, she forced herself to meet Cherine’s eyes. “I will do as you say. I would have preferred to remain alone, love is not for me - but you are right, it will take away some of their shame.”
3282
Robbie jumped to them. “She will not marry them Cherine. Latreia, our wedding is postponed, not cancelled. I’m taking you and your family to an alternate world. Spend time with them, make love if that is what you want. I will return within a week for your final answer.”
“That is generous of Robert, Latreia. His wives stand by him on his decision. Go with our love.”
Robbie took them and arranged a bungalow for them at our favourite romantic spot in Cyprus, away from all towns and by the beach. He jumped to another reality and returned to them a week later.
“Where is Latreia?”
“Walking on the beach, we were not certain what time you will arrive and she needed to be alone for a while. She has explained to us Roberto. It was not something we’d asked of her.”
“I would have known if you had. I took some time to also walk by myself and think. She is not the one to blame. We are. We placed her in an impossible position. She has lived and bonded with you, but the knowledge that she can be our love, our wife, opened her heart to us. She is torn by two loves. You know how it was with Dommi and I before Cherine came? Latreia’s position is far worse than Dommi’s was. She bravely made a decision and though it was unorthodox, it was as a child thinks. The way she stood up against my anger, that was done as an adult. I am pleased with her.”
There was a lot of bullshit in what he said, but his concern was for the family. He’d sensed Latreia had already said her farewells to them, either to marry us or be alone. He does not want them suffering guilt, thanks to their conservative and old fashioned values. Indeed, none of us see any reason for shame. Latreia is a unique girl and it will teach us a lot having to adjust ourselves for her to fit in seamlessly with us.
Robbie jumped to the beach and sat on the sand waiting for her to reach him. She stood in front of him, her fingers twisting each other behind her back.
“They told me you do not wish to marry them.”
“I think the idea shocked my grandparents.”
“All you had to answer was yes, now I have to ask, is that why you are leaving them?”
“No. I decided either I am with you or else I stay alone. To stay with them, even to marry them, it will not be right or honest. I’d spend the rest of my life regretting it. That would be a punishment for them. Only I should be punished, not them.”
He looked up at her, his face sad. “The right answer for you was the wrong one for me. Latreia, why is it you have not said once your decision is because of your love for us?”
“You know it is a fact, I can feel you sensing my emotions. Why state the obvious? I thought you wanted to know my thoughts about my family, thoughts I hold to me and which you cannot monitor.”
“I feel you love us, but we still need the words my little darling. Are you the precursor to Cherinians of the future?”
“My grandfather does not like words of love being used all the time. He may have influenced me. If you require words, I’m certain that with time I will adjust to your ways.”
Poor Robbie wondered, how can a Cherinian sound like a robot trying to be a human? He was also worried, she is linked as a Cherinian, her birthright. To be linked within our circle, become family, she has to tug at our heartstrings; how will she do that talking the way she does?
I’m missing something, he told himself, it is as if she is an alien and I do not understand her. Can Sam? (he expects my gift, as they call it, for aliens to work with her?). He decided to chance it.
“You should know by now that the decision is not mine. The girls have to feel love for you, their love has to help pull you into our circle. We will return to collect them. I think we all need some time alone with you.” He grinned, a sort of sly grin. “This is turning into the strangest wedding ever. And here it was that I thought bringing you to the past will be strange enough.” A flicker of a smile was all the response he got. Taking her hand they walked back to her family. They chose a secluded spot and he brought them all back to us. He opened his mind so that we can privately see what occurred.
*She does not need an alien-lover to understand her Robert. She needs empathy. Let Cherine lead us.*
3283
We arranged with an alternate Elia to use their apartment in London and again we deserted our guests who by now were more intent on their own discussions, dancing, eating and drinking. It was very polite of them.
Since Cherine told us to go see a movie or do some window shopping, we made the sacrifice for Robbie’s sake and went window shopping.
Cherine was very gentle with Latreia. She assumed the age of about twenty as she decided being a child herself will not inspire confidence in her. Going to the kitchen she jumped from there to a side street near Harrods and returned with a number of little boxes of pastries, sandwiches and milkshakes. She spread out the feast with a look of naughty pleasure and catching Latreia’s eye winked.
“No reason why we should not enjoy ourselves. Climb in, whatever is your favourite you better grab, I get greedy with pastries. Mind you, I prefer the ones in Athens. In this country they don’t have much taste, they are all sweet and that’s about it. I love the way chocolate pastries taste like chocolate at home. Try this one…you see? Hardly tastes like chocolate.”
It took a while, but Latreia relaxed and when Cherine started to gently fish for information Latreia hardly realised it and opened up to her. She told Cherine an anecdote, something her twin brother did that had the whole family in an uproar and Cherine laughed. She leant over and kissed her cheek.
“I bet you gave him the idea.” She grinned. “I get the feeling you have quite a naughty streak to you. I hate boring people who have no sense of humour.”
“What are you going to do to me?”
“That depends on you. What will you like me to do?”
“Uh, nothing.”
“Fine.” She shrugged. “It would have been more fun to do something.”
“Like what?”
“Mmm, how about if I changed you into a dragon and sent you out onto the street? You’d definitely be on CNN tonight.”
Latreia looked at her seriously. “What colour?”
“Green, red?”
“No. Gold.”
“Oh dear! That will upset Robert. He loves reading a set of science fiction stories about dragons on a planet called Pern. The dragons are of different colours and sizes. The top females are called queens and the males that may mate with a queen are bronze. He’ll think we are trying to best him by being gold.”
“Cherine, are you going to go into my mind?”
“What do I know about minds? My gifts are empathy and love. Actually, all the emotions, but love is my favourite. Things like minds I leave for the brainy ones, you know, Sam, Robert…and so on. If the mind is sick we prefer to use Dommi. Do you want me to call one of them?”
“No. I just hate it when people try to trick me into doing something.”
“I’ve got an idea. I think you would be good with minds. You come into mine and look around. Then you can relax, since you will know exactly how I plan to trick you.”
“Is this a trick?”
“Latreia, I can be stubborn and a pain in the arse, as Robert says, but I am not tricky. Answer your questions for yourself by checking me out. You know that coming into my mind and looking through my memories does not open you to me. Inviting you into my mind is a compliment. It means I trust you.”
3284
“No. I don’t want to.” She shook her head to emphasise her refusal.
“You are afraid I will expect you to show me the same trust if you accept? Latreia, I’m not interested in entering your mind. What I will want to do afterwards is go to the void with you and dance. I’d like to kiss exchange. Tasting your love will be a wonderful gift to me.”
I suppose Cherine was banking on Latreia relaxing and after being in her mind and dancing, her soul bloated with love, she’d invite Cherine into her mind. I had some reservations as to the likelihood of it happening, but kept them to myself - just as all of us kept hidden our amusement when Cherine claimed she is not tricky, I’m surprised she did not out and out claim she does not like to manipulate.
This happens to be one void where we have not found the Sparklers and Anadir yet. The two of them, but especially Latreia, felt uncomfortable. Latreia had never before seen the void empty and dark like this and she drew closer to Cherine for comfort. Cherine thought of all the love she has in her life and used that to create the sweetest possible motes. In the beginning Latreia had difficulty in sending any motes of love to Cherine. As a reaction to the strangely lifeless void she was pulling herself inwards, only her faint anxiety being emoted. Cherine understood and was patient. She gently wrapped herself around Latreia and cradled her within a cocoon of warm tender love. Latreia had never had this done to her and she forgot her fear. It was not unexpected by Cherine when she found the motes being emitted by Latreia had the feel or taste of a baby. After all, she is only six months old in Normal terms.
“Will you mind if I am the first my love, before our darling Robert does?” She laid her on the couch and kneeling before it she brought her face down to breathe in her delicate aroma. Latreia moaned and squirmed and her first orgasm with our part of the family burst upon her. Latreia felt so warm and loved she released a slight golden shower.
They lay upon the couch, Latreia at peace within her arms, lying upon her breasts. It was a moment of delightful contentment that brought them closer to each other, some of her defences relaxing as she revelled in the love she felt from Cherine. It was decided Robbie and us will go to a movie after all, though I doubt our minds will be on it as our attention remained focussed on the two and the wonderful feelings they were emoting. Robbie suggested to Cherine that they have the night to themselves and we return the next day. The month of May should have been warmer, but this year the seasons were a little mixed up and it was chilly. The tropics felt like a good choice.
This was the first time ever any of us had initiated sex with another girl and I think all of us were a little bit in shock. The least disturbed was Robbie, but then I’ve seen on the internet that men pay to see photos of women making love to each other. Not that I can understand it, I feel no interest in seeing men having sex with each other.
In the morning Latreia aged herself to about nine so that she can do things for herself. Cherine put the tv on as they ate breakfast.
“Cherine, do all the girls do that?”
“Sex? No, not between us, not if Robert is not part of it.”
“How was he part of it last night?”
Cherine giggled. “He wasn’t.”
3285
Latreia sat eating, her face thoughtful. “It was specially for me?”
“It might have started that way, you know how sensitive I am to needs in others, but it soon became for both of us. Do you mind?”
“Uh-huh, it was nice.” She fiddled with her food for a while. “Only my mother, Agapi, is like you. She enjoys sex. I think Klo does, but is afraid to show it.”
“So many years! Latreia, as far as I know, your family is the only one that still has problems with the changes in our way of life.”
“Ochi, pappou Alki and your mother also.”
Cherine laughed. “You’re right. They weaselled their way out of that one. They can’t do so with their own babies though.”
“Can you be the baby one time?”
“I love doing that, it feels wonderful.”
“Cherine, I love my mother’s family and especially her, but I think I’m glad I decided not to stay with them.”
“That is what I need to understand love. Did you decide or did your heart decide for you?”
“Both.”
Cherine was silent for a while. “If you get dressed we can go do some shopping.”
After lunch Latreia dozed off. Cherine jumped to us.
“I’m not ready yet Robert. Her mind is still closed to me. I sense the love is there, but I cannot link her alone. She has to open up to all of us.”
“I can’t believe the modesty of Tasso is entirely to blame.”
“Not just modesty. They grew up in a poorer area where people are more religious and cling to tradition. As an infant she will also have sensed their hidden feelings.”
“You take your time love, we’re enjoying the beach and as you know the food is great.”
“I’m missing all of you.”
Cherine had no plan of attack, so to speak. She acted natural, talked without trying to steer the conversation in any particular direction, more interested in exploring Latreia’s attitudes and thoughts as she was prepared to verbalise them. Even Themi has not come up with a good explanation of why it is what is verbalised is not the same in all ways to the ways we think. We hardly ever surprise ourselves by our thoughts whereas our words often do. Speaking seems to tap the subconscious and sometimes by speaking our ideas out loud we see they are wrong or flawed in some way. Since Cherine is able to sense the finer nuances of emotion as Latreia spoke, she was able to learn more about Latreia than the sweet innocent girl realised.
When they were both tired, Cherine yawned and stretched. “We better get some sleep. You can use Dommi’s bedroom, I’ll use Nicko’s.”
“Can’t I sleep with you?”
“Can we do that tomorrow night? You know how many of us share a bedroom, it is a luxury to have one night to myself and we are both tired after last night.” She gave her a naughty smile and Latreia relaxed and smiled back.
We could not see that Cherine was getting anywhere the next day. She showed London to Latreia, letting her spend as much time as she wanted at the spots she liked. She can feel Latreia trying to monitor her so that she does not ask to stay longer at any particular place than Cherine wants to.
3286
Cherine watched her attitude to buskers and beggars. “Don’t pity them Latreia, it is a lifestyle most of them choose. Many of them live with the hope that some grand music talent scout or head of a recording studio will hear them and sign them up to produce a CD.”
“Does it happen?”
“It may have, a few times, but I suppose their chances are lower than you picking a winning number for the lottery.”
“Can I try?”
“Sure.”
As Latreia sat with pen and a few lottery slips, Cherine sensed all emotion disappear. Latreia was not emoting at all. Cherine stretched her gifts trying hard to sense something, but was not successful. Suddenly Latreia returned to normal and quickly wrote down her numbers. Cherine wanted to see if it will happen again and told her to fill out a second one. Latreia thought it was unnecessary, but did so to humour Cherine. This time there was no absence of emotion. Cherine made a note of what numbers she’d entered on the first voucher.
Back at the flat she spoke out aloud. “Robert, bring the girls back, I want to jump forward in time.”
We first made our arrangements for the bungalow to be kept for us and leaving the few clothes we’d bought we jumped. Soon as we were at the date Cherine wanted, we made to leave.
“Wait. Let’s all have a meal together.”
“Latreia, do you know why Cherine suggested we eat out?” Robbie asked. “She knows I get great pleasure in being seen with so many beautiful girls. All the great lovers, the tall very handsome men, they look at me, see the girls openly showing their love for miserable little me and a) it puzzles them as to what my girls see in me and b) they cannot understand how I manage to have so many girls love me without them getting jealous of each other. I do not know which question of the two bothers them most.”
She knew he was mainly making fun of himself, but only stared at him seriously. “Can I ask a question? Roberto, have you ever let any of them go out alone with thirty men so that other women can also feel jealous of them?”
“They haven’t asked. I suppose now that you’ve suggested it they will. What about you Latreia, will you ask?”
“I don’t know. It depends.”
“On what?” She did not reply, only smiling to herself. At least she’d managed to get Robbie curious and he kept watching her, mostly out of the corner of his eye, but she knew it and reacted by being amused. Robbie hates feeling anyone is laughing at him. As he says, with us he does not mind. If he does something foolish and we laugh, he knows our laughter is not meant to be hurtful in any way. He felt she was laughing at him and it prickled his ego, but also made her an object of interest. Since he became the protector, he has not had many people laugh at him. Even strangers sense or see something in his eyes that makes them either try to avoid him or they are cautious. That little Latreia who did not have the comfort of being his family yet loved one - what do I call it? She has not spent much time with us as daughter, is not a lover or wife, but I cannot deny she is family and a loved one. Well, you know what I mean, that she can or will dare to secretly laugh at him piqued his interest. That she had Cherine giving her hand a squeeze now and then under the table in encouragement might have helped her dare it.
*It does not matter how much you love her Cherine, you do not give her the nod if you do not feel she can love all of us the same way.*
*You are being unreasonable Robert. We only have one person to decide to love or not while you demand she loves all of us!? If she but loves a few of us, the others will be loved. What I need to feel to give her the nod is her love for you. Without that it will not work.*
His eyes crinkled in amusement. *Why, because I’m the only male?*
*Don’t be deliberately stupid Robert. You know that for all of us you come first. How can she fit in if she loves me or one of the others more than she loves you?*
3287
Gilli said with a smile in her ‘voice’. *Maybe he will feel challenged and have to woo her?*
Robbie thought she was being funny, but Cherine was not amused. *Gilli! You’ve found the answer! Damn but we’ve been so stupid!! You too Robert, no, especially you!*
We saw what Cherine was getting at, but since Robbie refused to, it had to be spelled out for him.
*Since her birth, how much has she seen of us Robert? What right do we have to expect love from her? Why, because you are Robert the leader of the Cherinians? Because you are her father? We’ve done nothing to win her heart and yet we expect her to be devoted to us? Gilli is right. Not only you, we all have to woo her. That means we have to get to know her and she must get to know us without any pressure on her to make a decision. If we have to stay here a year we do so. Agreed?*
*You’re already that fond of her?* He asked gently.
*She is part of our family, the circle; Robert, we will all love her, she and we just need time to find it out.*
We don’t have a resident guru to dispute any statements by Cherine, so we accepted her verdict. I had to ask, *Have you noticed how she will ignore the conversation you are having with her and go straight to the point she is most concerned about?*
Cherine sent us a grin. *It can be disconcerting, but I decided I like that quality in her. Most of you let the rest of us mislead you far too easily - especially Robert.*
*Do you mean I allow you all to mislead me or that I do the misleading more than all of you?*
*Hmm, now that I think of it, I guess both are equally true. I wonder what that says about you?*
*I lay the blame for both conditions on you - with a first wife like you, how could I be otherwise?*
We’d degenerated into a teasing mode between the two of them. Our mind-speak did not mean we left Latreia alone to her own thoughts. We are fully capable by now of carrying on two conversations simultaneously (almost). I’ll add in a totally useless and irrelevant bit of information. In some of Robbie’s books that deal with telepathy, the author presents telepathy in an impossible manner. He’ll write out pages of conversation by mind-speak and then claim it all happened within a couple of seconds. Telepathy does not increase the speed with which we can communicate or understand such communications, not in that sense. The mind only ‘listens’ to words one at a time, whether sent telepathically or verbally. It speeds it up only in the sense that far less details may be required and there are less misunderstandings - similar in a way to speed-reading.
We’d finished our meal when Latreia asked to be excused. We are so used to having the ability to protect ourselves that we think of all Cherinians as being the same. She had to enter a short corridor leading to both the Gents and Ladies. A man came out of the Gents door and seeing Latreia alone blocked the passage. He was drunk and a boor, not dangerous, but the type who likes to use his size to intimidate by implied threat. The type who sticks his face too close to yours, uses words that might mean you are going to be attacked, but if you try to repeat the words to any authority, they make you sound stupid or cowardly. I cannot understand such men, why they get pleasure in causing fear in other men, but seeing this man do it to a girl of ten made our blood boil. Robbie was instantly alert, but ordered us not to interfere.
Latreia has not had any experience of adults like him and was exceedingly polite and did not seem to realise there was anything threatening about him. Her lack of fear, the fact that she was obviously a foreigner and probably her frail beauty misled him and he took it a stage further, stretching out his hand to touch her, maybe he wanted to give her a shaking. He was determined to see her afraid. She took a step back.
“If you don’t leave me alone I’ll have to get rid of you. Please let me by, I have to go to the toilet.”
He leered at her. “That’s a good idea, I’ll take you.” Again he tried to touch her and suddenly he was not there anymore. We all looked at each other in surprise while she calmly went to the Ladies.
“Where did you send him?”
“To the bridge where Cherine took me to see the river and big buildings - the parliament.”
3288
“We better pay and get out of here.”
Robbie was not in a mood for finding cabs or walking. He took us to a tiny street that was deserted for that moment and we jumped home.
“Have you ever done that before Latreia? Sent someone else somewhere without taking them yourself?”
“No.”
“But you threatened to do so before you did it. How did you know you can?”
“I don’t understand. If I can jump and take things with, what is the difference, why would I have to go with him, I didn’t want to be with him.”
“Sam, send me somewhere.”
“How?”
“Exactly. Latreia, can you show…Cherine?”
“You want her to come into my mind?”
“No. Forget it, I wasn’t thinking. Sorry.”
“I don’t mind, I just can’t see why she has to see from my mind. All she has to do is want you to be where she is going to send you.”
“The same as when we jump?”
She looked pleased. “Yes.”
“Try it Sam.”
“Will the protector watch over you if I bungle it?”
“What are you afraid of? Either you will succeed or else I won’t move from here.”
“Who says? What if I can send you, but the sending…fades away as you get further from me and you never arrive?”
“You’re worrying for nothing. Try it Sam.”
“No. It is silly to risk you and anyway, it will not prove anything. Even if you do not do it deliberately, you will be helping me so as to make sure you do arrive there. I have a better idea. Let’s see if it works.”
I concentrated on my green bikini and imagined it jumping to me. It slapped me in the face and fell to my feet. Robbie laughed at my shock and then closed his eyes in concentration. A book fell at his feet.
“You got that from our own home in our own time!?”
He was smirking, all he still needed to do was stretch his arm around and pat himself on his back, he was so pleased with himself. Soon everyone was trying it, the room filling up with all kinds of objects. After I’d tried it a few times and Robbie was busy experimenting, trying to perfect his skill, I sent him to our bungalow. He was back pretty fast, irritated for a moment and then he smiled. “You did it.”
“Yeah, I had to do it like that, you know, when you were busy doing something else, so that you don’t help me.”
“Girls, nobody is allowed to do this to any Cherinian. Ever! As for Normals, only if absolutely necessary and it is safe and will not expose us. If you are threatened and your only other course of action is to use a gift that betrays what we are, this might be a safer way of using our gifts. Just act as surprised as everyone else. Always try to jump the person as close to where you are as you can.”
3289
He turned to Latreia and gave her a small bow. “It is considered by many an honour when they bring a new gift to the Cherinians. If there is honour in it, then I would say you have earned a greater honour than normal. Jumping started early in the flowering of our gifts and for all these years not one of us used our brains. You have unfolded the gift, showing us a different aspect of it that we had not thought of. Well done Latreia - and tell your mother and her family of my words. They share in the honour.”
Latreia stood proudly, but there was a glint of tears in her eyes. She turned to Cherine, but Robbie took hold of her hands.
“No my sweet daughter. You are a strange person, just like others say of me. It is time the two of us get to understand each other. The others will stay here and you and I will go for a holiday.” He smiled gently. “You’ll find me a much nicer person than I’ve been these few days.” He must have sensed something. “I promise not to touch you.”
With great trepidation she let him take her to the Seychelles.
Like an explosion of colours and shapes, something awoke within her. It was as if some part of her had been dormant, waiting for just such beauty. Robbie had to take a back seat to her love for the bright colours, the water that glows and the soft white beaches. She’d stare at a small group of palms and it was as if they were posing only for her, showing her how the different ways they curve towards and away from each other for the sole purpose of creating lines, shapes and empty spaces that feel like windows to some heavenly world within the bright blue of the sky.
She exclaimed over shells and pebbles, pulled out rotting vegetation from the water whenever she found any and laid their blubbery waxen blades in swirls across the sand. The joy in her was fierce and stole her reserve so that she would grab at Robbie, ask if he saw this shape or the combination of those colours and though he started off bemused by all this extravaganza of beauty she tried to convey to his eyes, his own talent and love for beauty soon had him seeing the world through her eyes. Everything was forgotten but the discovery of a brand new world, so it caught him off-guard when he took her to ‘his’ rock to stare at the starlight and her soft voice came from the velvety darkness.
“Did you mean it about wanting us to get to know each other?”
“Yes.”
“Are you going to try to trick me like Cherine did?”
“How did she do that?”
“She tried to make me want her to come into my mind. I did want to, but I also didn’t. Does that make sense or am I being silly?”
“Not silly Latreia mou. Usually when we want something but also don’t, it is because we fear. It will be interesting to hear what it was you feared.”
“Do you fear anything?”
“Oh God! Where should I start? You know of course what my biggest fear is?”
“No.”
“Let’s leave that one for last then. A few smaller fears. I expect to wake up one day and see in the eyes of all those I love that they feel I fooled them, blinded them somehow and now that they can see me as I truly am, they’ve realised there never was anything worth loving in me.”
“That is not your big fear?”
“Okay, I’ll tell you. My biggest fear is that something happens and I am not there to save one person I love. To even lose one will kill me. I am the protector and my sole reason for existing is to keep them safe and see to it that all Cherinians do not take the countless wrong paths the future will bring.”
“That is silly.”
He shifted, half turning to her, but then looked down at the sea. “Why is it silly?”
3290
“You put everything the wrong way around. Your sole reason for existing should be to love and part of the love should then be your need to protect and guide. You said it the other way around.”
“So I did. Latreia, you are right. How is it you come after twenty years and twist everything so that we see things we took for granted in a new light? Were you born wise?”
“Are you…do you tease me because you fear my words are right or because you are amused that a baby says she does not see as you do?”
“After Sam, I think you must be the scariest baby I’ve met.”
“Sam? Not Cherine?”
“No, Sam. As a baby she waged a war against me. I could not help thinking, give her another six months and she’ll be stronger than I. It may be that she is, or it may be that she is not. It no longer matters, our hearts are as one.”
“Tasso, he says, not with words if you know what I mean. I am the father. I am the husband. You will obey me, I will be the sun in your life, and he is for all of them. Even for me a little. He does not have to say, ‘I am strong’ or make everyone look up at him by making them love him. We all just think he is important and we must take care of him. Do you know why?”
“Yes. Because he is the weakest.” She looked over at his silhouette, startled.
“You knew it?”
“In many ways, it is probably the same for me, love.”
“In what ways?”
“That is for you to work out. You’ll probably change your mind a few times before you settle on the right answers.”
“You said I should have made love to them and then come to you. That was wrong. I would not have been honest if I had, and yet you got angry with me. Why?”
“Why will the one way be honest and not the other?”
She shrugged. “It is so. You cannot see it? Roberto, I am not meeting you as an adult who had a long history to excuse her. I am only six months old. When should I have told my grandfather to take me? My brother and uncles, when should they have? Whenever they felt like it?"
“You are trying to make some point that is not clear to me. Not when they wanted Latreia, only when you were ready for them.”
“Ahh.” She was pleased. “You do see!”
He did not, but did not want to say so. He sent us a question mark and we sent him back our refusal to help. He has the answer, he has just not listened properly. The moon crept over the horizon and because it was already late it was silvery and lit their world, bringing the stars from the skies to dance on the waves. They sat silently enjoying the view. After a long time he sighed.
“Damn those girls. Latreia, you sounded so pleased at the thought that I understood, that I did not have the heart to admit I did not. I asked the girls to help me out, but they refused. They only said I should listen to what you say.”
He could now see her face and was struck by how lovely her smile is. “Maybe they are right, but maybe they are also wrong. Have you looked in your own heart?”
“Damn it girl,” he said with laughter and love in his voice, “I’m no good at this sort of thing. You have to take me by the hand and lead me to the answer.”
I like to think it was at that moment she began to understand what we meant, the words of Cherine acquiring the first glimmer of meaning for her.
“Roberto, why did you stay away? Why could I only see you whenever my mother brought me to you?” He heard the pain she was trying to hide and his heart melted.
I hope you enjoy reading this story of fantasy, adventure and love - and should some of it be true for our reality, I hope you will love our Cherine.
Αλέξανδρος Ζήνον Ευσταθίου
(Alexander Zenon Eustace)29th November, 2019
- posted: 29th November, 2019
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@steemchiller as my sole 100% beneficiary - so please upvote for him. With my SP being worth such a little, it is all I can do to reward him for the wonderful work he does for all of us with his https://steemworld.org/