“You are not dead! I saw your shot body on television.”
“It has been healed. Please let the world know that we are not at war with your world. We were attacked by someone from our reality, not yours. If you can make the broadcast on the BBC, our spaceship Freddie will re-broadcast it all over the world.”
“They came to protect my family. Those shot have been healed and they do not bear a grudge, they understand the panic the policemen felt.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” He gave that wry smile he’s so well known for. “After their warnings that I must stop interfering, I expect the government to call for a vote to abolish the monarchy.”
Robert smiled. “Samantha solved that problem long ago - we’ll insist the public vote to abolish the monarchy. Us British hate anyone giving us orders, so it should ensure they do not.”
Apart from the love we showed our Alki, the heroes of the day are the Akiards. What impressed us was not that they saved us, but that, even as the policemen shot at them, they did not retaliate. I was not the only one to tease isi-mi in a way that would show how much she is loved, all the girls did. I found a moment to speak to Angelica alone. “Why didn’t you use your magic, did the blocking of our minds affect your abilities?”
“I could only use them once I could see him. Too much happened too fast for me to do anything after he entered the house.”
“Good, I’m glad.”
“You’re glad!? I don’t understand.”
“What is important is that you can use your magic if your Cherinian gifts are blocked. It might be wise we pretend you could not.” She nodded, but I felt she was happier now, not blaming herself anymore. I pulled her to me for a hug, my heart flooding hers with love.
“Robert, the man is called Steven McFarle. He is not well educated and we find his intelligence is fairly low - according to the average of your species. He is not capable of examining a problem in depth and honestly thought that once he has you at his mercy he would not be in danger, he totally ignored Freddie and all of us. Another point that illustrates how muddy his thinking is, he planned to make you his prisoners, age you so that you have no physical strength and then call for Campbell to destroy your souls. In his imagination, he decided Campbell would be so impressed and grateful that he’d make him his top officer. Only once he had you, did he realise he had a tiger by the tail. To call Campbell he would have to leave, which meant you would be free again.”
“He was not sent by Campbell?”
“As far as we can determine we do not think so. The plan was too crude and badly thought out.”
Robbie grinned. “What do you suggest we do with him - should we pass him on to Campbell as a gift?” We kidded around a bit but our heart was not in it. Knowing we have to burn shut his powers is not something we enjoy. As Arthur once said, those who fight us do not have to comply with our rules, but we do. What he did not mention is that our hearts are also affected; they rejoice at the thought of destroying us while we mourn when we have to permanently block their minds. At least they can be born with their powers in their next lives - we do not attack the soul in any way. The Sparklers keep tabs on them and try to influence who they will be born as, hopefully becoming part of a loving family.
We insisted she head the team and worked non-stop on it with her. We used three presenters - Goldi, Diana and Dimi. By the time dawn was breaking over Europe, we had patched something together that used footage from damaged worlds with before and after scenes. Pictures of anti gravity machines and the uses they could be put to. Solar energy panels almost sensitive enough to recharge by starlight and power stations lying idle. We showed nuclear missiles being launched and thrown out into space by Robbie while we explained what was happening. We showed hospitals full of patients, showed people being healed and then showed the same hospital almost empty. Our three presenters took turns and Meli wrote the script, using subtly worded explanations that would touch emotions. It was no work of art, but now that we’ve thought of it, we’ll take the time to produce the best video we can for future uses.
Before airing it, we showed it to Robbie. He nodded, pleased, and then he frowned. “You make no mention of renegade mutants. If you want to paint a picture of what having Cherinians will mean to them, surely we must present the drawbacks also?”
Meli made us laugh. “Not yet, this is a Hollywood feel-good movie. You can mention the problems later on.”
“That’s not honest!”
“Robert, we’re wooing them. Facing reality only comes after the wedding.”
We added a piece to our video. We showed what happened to the world where their Cherine linked everyone and explained why it caused such devastation and made clear only potential Cherinians will be linked.
The stations complained when we hijacked their air space, but the videos went a long way towards calming everyone and many were now excited about the world we promise them. We explained we will be gone for one day, but that we will return. Freddie moved into the void and we jumped back one year - the first of three hundred. We’d originally thought of jumping five years at a time but then it was pointed out that either Robert or Cherine could have died as infants. Strictly speaking, even one year was too much but there is a limit on what we can do. As it is, the Sparklers will have to search through entire world populations three hundred times. Luckily the populations grow smaller and smaller as we return in time. The Sparklers and Spartans came to an arrangement and they took alternative years as their populations are too large to both be needed each time. As we returned in time both groups kept a mental map of where souls they recognise are, just in case we need to find them. It was exciting for us finding the souls of our loves and friends, knowing those we can help become part of us without having to split for the new Teller family. For the first twenty days we stopped a full day each time. Thereafter we spent less and less time in each year. Seventy four days later we had covered one hundred years without finding either Robbie or Cherine and we were becoming depressed. If this is an alternate reality, surely it should have split with all the souls?
In 1894 we found Cherine’s soul! She is an old man living in Italy. We waited until he died and the void was full of excited souls waiting to greet him when he arrived. There was a comic side to it that brought some light relief. He was a devout Catholic and it took some time to convince him we are speaking the truth. Cherine decided to share the memories of her last three lives with him. He was awestruck by her, but he was determined not to be a girl. He is very old fashioned, has a low opinion of females and is determined to be born a male - and is just as stubborn as our Cherine is. We can’t leave because of that. If he’d agreed, Cherine would have given a cell and created a body for him. We do not want to respect his decision and allow the Sparklers to create a temporary male body for him as it will only reinforce his attitude. Finally we had to enclose him within stasis to return in time for Robert.
As Robert (John) grew weaker, close to death, we sensed he was terrified of death. Cherine aged herself to a twenty five year old and jumped to his side. With exclamations of terror his family made way for her. She took his hand in hers as he stared up at her with rheumy eyes, not quite comprehending what was happening. He is a big man, at least six foot tall and broad, but disease has wasted him to a skeleton.
“John my love, do not be afraid, death is not the end. You will be born again and I will be your wife and love.” She smiled at him. “You’ll even be an artist again and your paintings will be collected and owned by museums all over the world. You will have a daughter called Jade and she will be taught by you and she’ll grow to make you proud for she will be considered one of the best artists ever!”
He was fascinated by her and by willpower concentrated on her until his mind seemed to grow bright and lucid again. He asked her questions and to convince him she spoke the truth she entered his mind and exchange kissed. As he sighed and let go, Cherine left her body to be with him in the void. Robbie used his healer to create a body and John became Robert. Dommi took his hand in hers and they jumped back to Cherine who was trying to explain to his family.
His widow, daughter, son in law and grandson were in shock and grieving. Robert, in appearance about twenty, took his wife’s hand in his. “They spoke truly my little mouse, death is not the end. Do you remember when your brother died how you cried to me that you could not believe such a wonderful mind and heart no longer exists? He does exist my love, he has been reborn, as will be true for you, our daughter and everyone else.” He brought her withered hand to his lips and we felt his deep love for her. “I’ll never forget you my love.”
Since we are softies what followed should not be unexpected. Cherine, with eyes darker but tender as she took his widow’s hand, led her out into the garden. “Could you love him in his new body? Is he still the man you love?”
“He’s so young!”
“If you can love him, you’ll also be young.”
She bent her head in thought. “It will take some getting used to, he is so small.”
“Not in his heart.”
Her hand was trembling as she looked into Cherine’s eyes. “You told him you would be husband and wife. Are you offering to give him up for me?”
“You better find somewhere to sit, I have a strange story to tell you.” She sent her healer to strengthen her and clear her mind. They went to the lounge and Cherine brought her some tea and then talked to her for three hours while we kept the rest of the family away from them.
Cherine looked up. “Robert, join us please.” Robbie jumped to her. “All the family are good people Robert, I want to take them all with.”
“You have understood that his Cherine will be a child and his greatest love?”
“I think so.”
“That will be enough for me Robert.”
“You will share your bed with a child and love her too?”
“After all you have shown me? My soul may go to hell, but I will.”
“Would you like to explain to your family what future awaits them?”
“I’m still too shaken and struggling to understand, they will not believe me.” She gave a little smile. “They’ll think I’ve lost my mind from grief.”
Robbie grinned. “Shall we all go to Freddie?” Cherine nodded. She gave her hand and as the old woman stood up, she hugged her, kissed her cheek and jumped. We jumped the rest of them, leaving the old body to be dealt with later.
We gave them time to get used to the miracle they are now a part of before sending our healers to make their mother/grandmother Joanna young again. Once she is linked she can choose her age but for now, sensing and seeing the love of her strange lover/husband is enough for her. We waited two weeks for them to have this special time to adjust and enjoy their love.
“We’d like to do a telling for you, but we have a problem. The person who is the soul of Cherine refuses to be a girl. He comes from a culture where men are important, not women.”
Robert was curious, so Robbie shared with him our conversations with the soul. He was amused and made jokes about it. Empathia came up with a suggestion. “Why don’t we take him out of stasis and let Samantha host him? After the telling he will not feel that bad about being a girl anymore.”
“No way! You host him. Your mind is trickier than mine, you’ll end up making him feel how special it is being a girl - with me he’ll just feel sorry for me, thinking I should have been a man.” Giving them an excuse to tease me was a small price to pay for convincing Empathia. It worked. It does mean that she has to sleep on her own and do without any loving for as long as the telling takes. (Empathia: She tricked me! I should have realised when she said I was trickier. She hates being teased about not being fully female, even though she is, so I was doubly foolish to fall for it.) Actually, it’s not that I hate it, as Empathia said, I just find it sad that so many still think that if a female is intelligent she has male tendencies - that she is a man in a woman’s body!
We wanted the telling to be as detailed as possible and we split it up into four hour sessions with an interval, so it has taken five weeks. During this time Empathia has been acting increasingly oddly, as if Vittorio is affecting her. She started concentrating her attention on Diana, to her bewilderment. She could not say she did not want Empathia to always sit next to her, or to hold her hand or whisper honeyed words about how beautiful she is, but she was uneasy and grabbed every opportunity to sit sandwiched between Robbie and Cherine. We were at home after a tiring episode of the telling, with emotions still running high when Empathia took Diana’s hand as we were about to go to bed.
“Sleep with me tonight.” Her lust could be felt by all so there was no mistaking the intention of her request. Diana pulled away.
“I can’t, not while you have him in you.”
Empathia shimmered and changed into a male version of herself. “Why shouldn’t you, I’m still your wife.” She turned to Candy, “Will you love me?”
“Empathia, meet me in the void.”
“You’re right, you should not have to spend all the time with Vittorio sharing with you, we’ve also missed you.”
She half closed her eyes, either thinking deeply or communing with Vittorio. “Alright. He says he would have preferred to be with, it will not be the same sharing afterwards as it would be sharing directly, but he understands - he would not share his woman with you either. It is a matter of honour.”
Robbie had placed himself in a very hard place. If Empathia is playing a trick on us and we fall for it, she scores points big time. If she is not and we refuse her, apart from how she and we would feel, it would show that we are insensitive.
“Robert, let them come together. Vittorio might enjoy having a man make love to him.” Whatever points Empathia scores, Cassie has scored far higher. We controlled our laughter, keeping our faces only interested.
“It’s okay, I can wait.” She changed back to a seven year old girl and went off to her bedroom, looking dejected. Robbie gave us a helpless look and by the time she entered her room he was waiting in there for her. We felt her explosion of love for him. She blocked off Vittorio and they made love for hours. We did not sleep until we felt them dozing off and in all our minds, it was Robbie who had scored the most points.
Once the telling was over and we had shared a golden circle of love with everyone in Freddie, Robbie asked Empathia to allow Vittorio to take over and they walked off by themselves.
“We’re going to the void tonight. I want Solomon to help you see your previous lives.”
Suspiciously, “What for?”
“Aren’t you curious? You are right, I do have a reason. Vittorio, if we had allowed you to die and go to the void on your own, you would not have had a say as to the sex of the foetus your soul would have been sent to. You could have been sent anywhere on Earth and even sent off to another planet to be born of a different species. Seeing your previous lives, some of them as a female, I hope will make it clear to you that the sex of your next life is not important. If you were anyone else I would have split your soul as we did for Ahní and Zenon. However, you are basically the soul of Cherine and you are likely to grow with time and become as her - especially if you are linked. No world can have two Cherines - especially not if one of them is a male. You’ve not had the previous lives my Cherine had, so your gift might not be empathy. I dare not risk it.
For you to make a decision you must have all the facts. If you agree, what I intend doing is painting into your soul the memories of the last two lives my Cherine lived. I’m hoping they will help your soul grow in the same direction so that your gift is empathy.” He called out, “Sam.” I jumped to them. “Enter Empathia’s mind and ask Le’sase to explain what it will be like for him.”
Le’sase can be passionate about learning, but otherwise he is mostly sweet and calm. From sharing with me he knew it was not enough to be logical, he had to address the fears of Vittorio that were mostly emotional. As part of his persuasion tactics he shared with him so that he could see what it would be like for him. As a result of that he saw some of my life and thought processes.
“The little one shows me I will not be dead.”
“It is true.”
“I shall never have a life of my own again?”
We felt the despair in his voice. “I have no choice.”
My heart melted. He is a good man, even if he is rather archaic in his opinions and I empathised with how he felt. The problem is that Robbie is right, he could grow into a threat we could not fight - how could we fight a Cherine? I asked dad by telepathy a question. He asked our Cherine. She agreed.
“Samantha has asked a favour for you and it has been granted on behalf of the Cherine you will be. Before I tell you, think of this - your Cherine will live thousands or millions of years. Multiply what is offered by that. For three days every year, you will be allowed to become Vittorio again, with the male body you had. There will be certain conditions. The body you use will look as you remember it, but it will be Cherine’s body. You must respect that fact and that she is married and not have sex. Is that acceptable?”
He grimaced and smiled. “I have not had sex for many years, perhaps she should remember to give me the body of an old man. I accept.”
We first took Robert (John the artist) to the void and using the painter, Solomon transferred a copy of Robbie’s memories from his two previous lives. The transfer was as complete as possible, not only starting from day of birth, but from the day the soul entered the foetus. They were not treated as two separate ‘paintings’ but as a continuation of the one to the other, including the unpleasant experience of transfer from the void. John’s dominant personality was submerged during the painter transfers so that it would not view them as being ‘secondhand’ memories. Once the process was completed, John’s personality was half awoken so that it could become part of the next transfer. Solomon transferred all the memories of Robbie, from before birth until the end of the first year after meeting Cherine. Thereafter the memories were edited so that he would not keenly miss those of us he’ll never have in his family. Once the process was over he was left in a dream state to heal and merge the two personalities without the automatic resistance his personae as John would have fought. Anxiously we watched as he awoke. He was silent for a long time.
*I am still John but also Robert! I recall myself and still love my family, but I have grown, become more than I was. Where is my Cherine, has she been born? What about my Dommi and Wendy?* His confusion was natural as he had a year of Cherine in his memories. We explained and exchange kissed with him. The next day, just after Cherine was put to sleep, we temporarily blocked his memories of Cherine and Wendy and everything else back to the age of six.
Cherine was ‘born’. First we added the two previous lives in the same manner we’d used with Robert and then added Cherine to the eve of her meeting Robert. By that I mean we limited the memories to the time she went to Greece with her mother, then moved them to the Sparklers World where Athens, from Piraeus to Kefalari existed in readiness for them. She slept in her bed, without Robert waiting in his apartment below. The Sparklers jumped their World to another reality to give us time to find Dominique and Alki. We also had to split a Marian from ours.
This is where things get confusing. We could not use Alki from the time of Jina, he is far too young. Dominique at that time is not born, but the Sparklers had identified her soul and it seemed she was following the same previous incarnation our Dommi lived. We jumped to the future when Alki will be the right age and Dommi about six. Robert was sent to the same school as Nicko, predisposed to becoming friends. He did not have the early sexual experience with Dommi but they became very close. He went to work for Alki who’d been led into having the same kind of web business.
For once everything worked out well and Robert loved his Dommi and went through the agony of seeing her love another. By the time we put him to sleep when we moved all of them to the Sparkler world he was bitter and hurting. By this time Marian had split, but was not exactly as Marian had been. She was hard and selfish but not to the same extreme. She could not pretend to be as nasty so we built in a tendency to be ‘unreasonable’ at times.
“Good morning, do you speak English?”
“Yes. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be here.”
“Why? Are you afraid I’m a monster and I’ll eat you?”
She was surprised by his teasing and grinned. “Yes, you’re the monster of the jungle.” He looked at the half-dead prickly plants and yellow lawn and laughed.
“You’re just what the doctor ordered, I’m supposed to paint something imaginative, but my own imagination seems to have dried up. Can you help?”
“What must I do?”
“Is it too early for a coke? I’m sorry, I don’t stock fruit juices.” He gestured for her to enter his apartment.
“I can’t come in, I don’t know you.”
“Oops, sorry, I’m Robert Teller. I pretend to be an artist and I’ve fooled some people into believing I am.” He grinned. “I may be a monster but I’ve had all my teeth pulled out.” He pulled his lips in over his teeth and showed her his open mouth. She giggled.
“I’m Cherine.”
“I’m Robert the monster or Robert the artist…you are Cherine the…?”
“Just Cherine.”
He shook his head. “Uh-huh, you’ve got to be Cherine the something. I know, Cherine the weird because you like monsters.”
Almost without her realising it, she entered his apartment and followed him to the kitchen where he gave her a coke. He switched on his computer and showed her some of his paintings and a few of the web sites he’s made.
“The company I have to make a web site for sells pipes and valves and other boring stuff. Any ideas on how to make it interesting?” She shook her head. “Fine! That makes two of us. What do you say we go sit in the jungle and talk? Maybe we’ll be lucky and see some monkeys while we get to know each other.” He switched off and as he led her to the door he asked her, “Tell me one thing you hate the most and then I’ll tell you.”
“You first.”
“Mmm, spaghetti and mince.”
“Beetroot.”
He rubbed his hands gleefully, “Great! If someone serves us spaghetti and mince with beetroot, I’ll take your beetroot and you can eat my spaghetti.”
“I also hate boiled carrots.”
“Can’t help you there, so do I. Let’s try what we love, you first this time.”
“If it’s chocolate, but I really love mini chocolate eclairs.”
“What’s that?”
“You don’t know!? Tell you what, let’s go ask your parents if you’re allowed to come to the square with me and I’ll buy you some, you’ll love them. What’s wrong?”
“My mother is at work.” She hesitated. “My father is dead.”
“I’m sorry, I guess you must miss him a lot. Tell you what, since I can’t take you, will you wait here while I go bring some? Would you also like some fruit juice?”
“He was always good with children.” Joanna proudly mumbled softly to us.
Robbie grinned, “Well, he’s made a better start than I did.”
He taught her how to play FreeCell and while she played he walked over to a coffee shop in the square. They took his order and he looked around, surprised that he had forgotten how many people throughout the day spend hours at the patisseries. When he got home he saw from the screen and her guilty start that she was scrolling through his documents. He gave her a smile.
“I got them, just a moment while I put them on a dish.” By the time he made coffee and returned to her she was playing FreeCell again. From the first delicious bite Cherine was hooked. Once she saw she is allowed to eat as many as she wants she stuffed herself, slowing down on the fifth and forcing herself to eat a sixth. He grinned at her. “You’ll get a bellyache and your mother will blame me. Leave some for later.”
They talked and he wormed out of her details of her life that made him pause and think. Because she lives in an apartment above him he’d presumed they are fairly well off. What he learnt showed the opposite. “I’d like to meet your mother.”
“Why?” she was uneasy all of a sudden.
“Because I want you to baby-sit me and I need her permission. How much will I have to pay you per month?” She forgot her fear and laughed.
Robert did not like the hard look her mother gave him as she opened the door. “Good evening, I’m Robert Teller, I live downstairs.”
She gave her hand, “So my daughter tells me. Come in.” She brought him a cup of tea and they indulged in the kind of chitchat strangers use for sussing each other out. Cherine sat silently, her eyes mostly turned on him. Robert made a mistake, mistaking her politeness for friendliness.
He gave Marian a grin. “So, it has been decided by Cherine and I that I am Robert the monster and she is Cherine the weird - weird because she likes monsters. What are you, Marian the…?”
She found his humour too familiar and was offended. “I do not play childish games Mr Teller.”
He reddened. “I’m sorry. Living the life of an artist does tend to make me too casual.”
“Artist? An artist who can afford to live in this area? You must be successful, not that I recall seeing anything by you.”
“I’ve prostituted my talent, I design web sites.”
Cherine’s mouth was dry from her anxiety as she sensed her mother. “He showed me some of his pictures mum, they’re sort of funny, I mean, strange.”
“There is enough food for her in our kitchen Mr Teller. As for being safe, it would only be safe if I trust you. My impression is that artists are not famous for being trustworthy.”
“Only in some ways Mrs Blake. No artist I know would harm a child.” He was mentally squirming, not certain of how to handle Marian and he found the way Cherine was staring at him disconcerting. “Why don’t you allow me to invite you out for supper and you can grill me while we eat.” We chuckled, touched that this Robert has the same weakness for playing with words.
Since coming to Greece they had not eaten out because she could not afford it and she was not in the mood to cook, so she agreed. She sensed his awkwardness and relented slightly. “I’m Marian the mother. As a single parent I can’t afford to be anything more than that. Would you give us half an hour to change?”
The next morning he was not surprised to see her through his window and opened the door. “I’m not certain she gave us permission to keep on meeting like this. Did you see any newspaper reporters on your way here?”
“No, why?”
“If they write in the newspapers about our secret meetings and your mother reads about it we’ll be in big trouble.”
“I told her I would visit you.”
“Oh! That was brave of you - she scares me.”
She giggled. “She doesn’t like people who try to be funny.”
“Try!? I thought I was very funny.”
He kept her in a good mood, teasing her until she teased him back. The first time she felt she was being daring, but when she saw his reaction she felt free to let her cheekiness surface. It was almost past lunchtime when he remembered.
“Unlike your efficient mother, I have nothing to eat in my kitchen. Let’s go to the square.”
She had never sat in a restaurant with white linen and silverware and was quiet. He leaned over as if to confide something and poked a finger into her side. He laughed at the affronted look on her face. “That’s better! It looked like you were going to be prim and proper and that is boring. I prefer weird girls for company.”
“Why? Do you mean I’m a…freak?” He sensed a tenseness beneath her voice.
“A freak! No sweetheart, you’d really have to impress me to be a freak. I love freaks, but they are so rare. I wish the world had more freaks, but I guess I’ll have to make do with weird.”
“You like freaks!”
“I love them. In some ways I’m a freak - all artists are.”
Back in the apartment he made a coffee and lit a cigarette. She noticed he was staring at the sketches of a girl.
“Is she your wife?”
“What? Who?” He realised she’d seen him staring at the sketches. “No. sorry, I’ve been rude.” His thoughts were still centered around Dommi, seeing her parents had brought the memories back too vividly. He lost himself in his misery again. Cherine felt his emoting battering at her and she tried to send calming feelings but it did not work, his mind was too closed within itself and he was affecting her.
“Do you really like freaks?”
He noticed her anxious look and tried to smile. “Yes, I love them.”
“But what if a freak killed someone?”
“I’d want to ask the freak why. If he or she had a good reason, I could still like her. Why, do you know any freaks?”
“Yes, I mean no.” Tears filled her eyes.
He moved to the sofa, next to her, and took her hands in his. Gently he asked, “Who told you that you’re a freak?”
“Daddy.”
He picked her up, placed her on his lap and wound his arms around, giving her the comfort and time she needed to let go her pain. She rested her head against his chest, amazed at how safe he made her feel. She listened to his steady heartbeat and it soothed her. She sent to him her feelings of love. They were the uncomplicated feelings of a child who has found an adult who cares for her, but they affected him and as he tightened his arms about her he felt his heart opening to her. Amazed and thirsty for his feelings she absorbed them and sent them back so strongly that they stunned him.
It felt so right to be rubbing her thighs, she was so tiny and perfect. She enjoyed the feeling of his hand massaging her and without realising it sent to him how she wanted his hand to move. As it brushed against the edge of her panties and he felt how big her mound is he came to, shocked at his instant erection. He pulled his hand away and she sighed and relaxed against him again. Uncomfortable at the thought she might feel him under her he worried what her reaction would be. She hardly noticed it, for his distress quickly deflated him.
“Why did he say you are a freak? Was he maybe teasing you?” She shook her head but refused to answer. He kissed the top of her head and changed the subject. She was just beginning to regain her confidence and tease him when there was a knock on the door.
“Kyrie Alki! Is something wrong?”
“You British, you have no sense of hospitality. You do not say welcome? Oh, I see you have company.”
“Come in. Cherine, this is my boss Mr Georgiades.”
He gave his hand, “Call me Alki. Cherine eh? Is that an English name?”
“I don’t know.” She smiled, liking his emoting.
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