“True. But we have to decide for ourselves and make our own rules. We cannot say, it is a new world, so we do whatever we want to.”
Wendy asked, genuinely puzzled, “Why not Robbie?”
“Because we are human beings. To do otherwise Wendy would be a step back. We would become animals. Sorry to say this love, but if we did not, we would become like your father. He did not have rules, did just what he wanted.” At the mention of her father she had paled, prompting all the girls to cluster around her, to hold her. She shook her head at them and crawled over onto my lap.
They did not need her gesture of solidarity with me to understand. Maybe the wee ones found this a difficult lesson to accept, but they had the memories and experiences of too many people in them to be the normal amoral babies they may have felt like being.
“Next time Robbie?” I sensed she is the tender one of the two, despite her wild gypsy looks.
“Soon as it is right for us Tina, right for all of us. But, yes, we all know it will happen. Maybe after our next dance?” I stood up and taking the two by their hands I pulled them off the bed. “Come stand here where we all can see you…tell me, did you project…well whatever, is this what you will look like?”
“You like it?” Tina twirled, raising her arms over her head. Rosie giggled and also slowly turned.
“Cherine, Dominique? I cannot believe you gave me two such beautiful daughters.” My voice was low and husky with desire, their sweet bodies tempting me to break my own rules. I ran my hands over the silky shoulders of Tina and then Rosie.
“Can you get on your knees Robbie?” Rosie asked, “You are too tall.”
As I knelt in front of them, Rosie came and with her hands on either side of my face kissed me. An electric thrill shot through me.
I pulled back. “Cherine, your baby is going to be real competition to you. Look at her bump, her tiny flower.” Cherine did not wait for a second invitation. Actually they all moved in, including Tina. I got out of the way and gave them time to look.
I pulled Tina to me, staring into her eyes. “May I?” I felt something strange about her, something fey. With her dark hair bursting in tumbles all over she looked like a gypsy girl - wild.
Suddenly shy, abashed, she looked down. “I’m not special like Rosie.”
“Spoken like your mothers’ daughter.” I pulled her chin up. “Thank goodness none of you are the same. You each have that something special of your own. With Dommi as your mother, you’ve got to be something really special.”
She suddenly pressed herself to me. “I love you daddy.”
As I squatted she hugged me. I held her tight, treasuring the moment, the sweetness. If she was feeling so daughterly, I thought, I would rather not take it any further, I also need this. Let this moment be of a father and daughter just being close and filled with love.
She has a warm suntan and is the same olive-golden colour Dommi gets from the sun.
I took hold of myself. I could feel my babies were getting tired. I sensed they already had their own healers, but even their healers could not keep this form for them for much longer. They will need another few weeks for their healers to become stronger. I moved out of the way for the others to give her a bit of love and see her exotic beauty. Cherine breathed in deeply and her eyes glowed at me. She too sensed the magic of our girl.
Dommi sat by her daughter Tina, running her hand softly over her, awed by her creation, the possibility of her baby being this delightful wild beauty. She picked her up in her arms and cradled her to her bosom. “Ach kori mou, koroula mou. Koritsaki mou (my little girl)...”
I placed Rosie in Cherine’s arms with a light kiss of thanks and love. Rosie was slightly larger than her mother in size, though slighter.
“We’ve had our introduction my daughters. I’ll be waiting for you.” Tina was being smothered, but Rosie turned to look at me and smiled with a twinkle of mischief in her eyes even as they transformed, shrank back into our little babies.
The babies were soon fast asleep, exhausted by their first metamorphosis and we sat quietly, just staring at them. We were all in a strange mood
“Awesome. This day was way too much. Awesome.”
I was filled with unbelieving wonder. “I still can’t believe what the wee ones told us. I was so sure I was just projecting an image, with sensory and tactile…I actually was a little girl, the little Dommi for you Cherine!”
“Yuk.”
“Yuk what baby? You do not like the idea of my having been little Dommi?”
“All those people you made us into. Those big hairy Greeks, I really was one!”
Dommi chimed in, “Nai, yuk, he made me into my brother!”
I stuck out my tongue at them. “You think that was bad, I’ve been an elderly hobo and a dog!! Don’t forget that cat thing we did.”
To Cherine, what we were saying was like a game, so she said, “Yuk! I don’t think I should let you touch me again.”
I can also play, “I was wondering about that. I suppose the worst for you was being me. Yuk or double yuk again?”
“Are you fishing for compliments?” Cherine was laughing, her voice bubbly. She rolled over into my arms. “That will live in my memory forever. Thank you Robert, I know how much you wanted to be the one with little Dommi. I love you very much.”
“Ditto baby.”
“Please, not ‘ditto’. Just say it.”
“Okay. I love you.”
“That’s it? ‘Okay, I love you’? Is that all!!”
“Dommi, when I married the two of you, you promised not to start acting like wives. Listen to her, she is talking to me just like an old married woman.”
“Why Roberto? Because there was no heart in your ‘okay I love you’? Is it okay for you to act like a long-married husband?”
Wendy tried to tease, “Robbie, when are you going to marry me so that I can also talk to you like a wife?”
“Et tu Brutus? I’ve not been showing you the love you need?”
“I was just teasing Robbie!” She looked distressed.
I chuckled. “Wendy love, you want to tease, don’t be so sensitive. Have the guts to carry it through. Of course I know you were teasing. Actually, I think you were only partly teasing. You want to know when we can have our ceremony? Will it really make a big difference?”
“You said Alki has to be my daddy. Now I am nothing to you.” The moment she said it, she looked scared.
“Nothing! Nothing!!”
“Take it easy Robert. She really is speaking from the heart.”
“You girls really are an abnormal bunch. It was bad enough with Cherine. Now a seven year old is desperate to get married!! Have I really done the right thing with you girls?”
Cherine earnestly explained, “My friend, Maria-Elena, she would not want to marry you.” She paused, reconsidering. “Well, not now. Maybe if she danced with you, got to know what your love is like. Anyway, we are not like her Robert. Before any of us, except Dommi, met you, we were not normal girls. We cannot be like her. Does it upset you?”
“In a way yes. For a child not to be a child, it means there is still pain in them.”
Dommi was emoting her mothering love, to me! - trying to soothe me. “Not pain Roberto, just experience. You have healed their pains. You are the shield that protects them. But they need your love, just like I do.”
“I had no experiences. I just love him. Am I a child Dommi?”
Dominique put her arm around her. “Yes Diana, you are a child, a very special child. Are you unhappy…”
“No. I was just wondering. I love making love with Robbie and I’m a child.”
Cherine asked, “Robert, can we be serious a moment? I want to know when we can go dancing again. We haven’t been for too long.”
“I was waiting for our babies to be ready. If you mums think they are, we can go. I think Diana and I are ready now.”
“Robert, our babies have been dancing with us from long before they were born, of course they are ready.” Dommi nodded her agreement.
“In that case, why don’t we organise a big dance. We get Tasso and family, Alki and Themi with theirs. Of course Maria and Kosta. Dommi, can you get Natalie. I would like to see some circles form, help them to create their own Kaleidoscope Worlds.”
“Can’t we take Pavlo with”
“And then Cherine? If he joins a circle, what do we do? Hide him from his parents? Afterwards, who gives him the sex he needs if he does not join a circle?”
“I’m sorry. I keep forgetting. I’m worried about losing him.”
“He has danced with us. We did exchange with him. Anything happens to him love, he would be collected by us, you know that the protector is permanently aware of the void and will sense him.”
For those readers who have not understood, when they speak using telepathy, what they say is enclosed within stars, and the thoughts exchanged are in italic.
e.g *Hi, I bet you are wishing you could read thoughts.*?
I hope you enjoy reading this story of fantasy, adventure and love. Yes, most of all, always of empathy and love.
