“...Me, I’d just confuse him. Why do you think my girls don’t want to grow up - living with me has confused them and they don’t know what they should be like as adults.” Feeling them, both Robbie and I made our excuses and left, barely managing to hide our amusement at the trouble he was in.
“Perikli cannot, not at this time, he is finding it hard to adjust to a life without the job that gives his life meaning. Campbell may or may not be suitable.”
“That’s a great help! What do you mean by ‘may or may not be’?”
“Are you that certain he is the man he shows he is?”
I was surprised that she still does not trust him, but I’ll examine that later, the problem of young Samuel was more urgent right now. “Haven, we can’t just leave the boy here, who do you think would be the best choice?”
“In some ways Richard would be a good choice, but he has certain disadvantages. What if their Robert and Cherine take him and he spends a week or two now and then with Richard?”
Her suggestion sounded reasonable, but it gave me a bad feeling. “They’ve already suffered too much, I can’t send them someone who could blow them up. We don’t know how stable he is Haven and I don’t want him growing up even more unsociable than he is already.”
We arrived at the taverna for supper that evening and found young Samuel sitting with Allan and his girls. There was a lot of laughter from their table and we realised that the girls were teasing Samuel and he was enjoying it. We were all very careful not to say anything, but we did wonder. The next day, Allan, his girls and young Samuel were absent until evening. When I met them the next day I was amused to hear a slight American burr in Jessie’s voice. I realised that Allan had also noticed and that it pleased him. They excused themselves and we did not see them for the rest of the day. By now we were all beginning to suspect something was being planned, but because of the comment by Allan (that upset his girls), we did not suspect what was really going on.
Robbie built a house for the farm-Cherine family close to the tropical forest, low on the foot of the mountain, but high enough for the growth to be lush. Cherine, Robert and Nitsa also have a home in one of the treehouses, but they prefer to stay in their mountain home so that Tippity and his girls feel comfortable about staying there - and about running off into the jungle whenever they feel like it. It also means that the chimps can visit us almost daily which I suspect is not seen as an advantage by Maria, as they ignore her orders (or forget them) and run around her kitchen and pantry. Once she thought of giving them bowls of fruit they spent more of their time outside with us. It did take us a while to work out that they do not like our toilets, so Robert showed Robbie what they are used to back in Greece and at their Duluti home and now they are happier.
In the evening, after supper, just as the family were about to jump back to their mountain home, Allan asked to visit them the next morning. A time was agreed, the two chimp girls let Nitsa take a hand while Tippity and the third girl placed theirs in Cherine’s hand and they jumped. Since Allan did not explain, nobody asked but many speculated.
As shared from Allan: A meeting had been agreed at nine in the morning and when Allan, his girls and young Samuel arrived, they saw a table with chairs had been set up on the lawn with bowls of fruit, cereals, eggs, bacon, toast and so on. Happily, Allan forgot about his usual coffee and toast and had some of everything, too busy enjoying himself to carry a conversation, so the girls took over. Once Allan sat back with his third coffee and a cigarette, the girls ended off what they’d been speaking about and looked at him. Samuel slowed down (he was still eating) and looked at Allan.
He grinned at Nitsa. “You see what a terrible thing it is being an adult? Everybody expects me to do all the talking when we get to the serious stuff. Would you like to do it for me?” She giggled and shook her head. Allan sighed. “Oh well, Cherine, I’m here to ask permission from the three of you, sorry, from the six of you, permission for my loves and I to move to your reality and live on your Earth for some years.”
“We’d be happy to…” Cherine started saying, when Robert cut in, “Why?”
“I thought the reason was obvious? We want to be family for Samuel until he no longer wants us around.”
“We didn’t want to take him away from what is familiar to him - and his home.”
“You know there are some Talents of the network who intend killing him. If he goes with you he’ll be safe until the Mansfields and we manage to take care of the problem this side.”
Allan turned to Samuel. “Would you mind coming to our reality?”
“Okay - I can return once I’m eighteen?”
“No.” Allan stared back at him without smiling. “You can leave whenever you want, whatever your age. Samuel, I do ask that you be fair. You are a teenager and if we are to be your family, there are bound to be moments we don’t see eye to eye. I want you to promise me that you will not leave for that reason. We are allowed to have disagreements and fight. If I feel that strongly about something that you disagree about, you must promise that you will stay to solve our argument - either by convincing me I’m wrong or by admitting you are.”
As Samuel promised, Robert laughed, hugging his girls to him. “Is our Allan crafty like you? What do you think Eleni and Jessie?”
Eleni grinned. “I think yours must be smarter - he managed to convince Samantha to become his psyhokori!”
Allan laughed. “The day he gets himself an Eleni and Jessie, that’s the day I’ll take my hat off to him.” He quickly added, to stop them jumping the gun, “The two of you splitting for him does not count.”
We have helped each Teller family make a start, with friends and those they need, like Alki and Nicko, almost a part of their family. Apart from the farm-Cherine reality, at the other realities, Freddie has appeared in their skies and we’ve negotiated treaties that should ensure the local Cherinians are not feared while also seeing to it that they each have their Mansfield family as their friends and allies. The poor have food machines and all are now healthy and our teams are staying behind to heal their planets. Their voids each has their own Sparkler nation with a Solomon. The rest we must leave to them, it is time we return to our own reality and homes.
Well, we do still have one small problem to take care of. When Arthur suddenly took over, wrote of the three Cherines and then relinquished our destiny back to us and we rushed off to help, we still had Craig in Freddie. It is time we decide how his future can be offered the opportunity of it being worth living.
Since his visit with the Meéjeiran, he has grown much stronger and is able to face those who hate him without obviously cringing. Despite his apparent self confidence, we know that having to face a crowd emoting the hatred they previously did will not be easy; with many using petty ways to make his life a constant misery it will become impossible, so we have to find a solution that affords him some quality of life.
The man he is now is not the man he was before he became ill, so we cannot look to his past for clues. At this time he is very much of a recluse and it is necessary that someone sees to it that he socialises in small groups of up to four persons. The problem filled the days and nights for Candy and she came up with a solution that pleased Craig but worried the rest of us. She asked Robbie to appoint him curator of our museum in Gnolat City. When she told us that Samuel and his family can see to it that he does not turn into a recluse, we felt she was offering on their behalf, which was wrong. Ataxia quickly corrected us, telling us Candy had asked her. Craig was asked to join us for supper, at our home, and over coffee Robbie told him of Candy’s suggestion. He shrugged and said he thought it was a good idea, which sort of deflated Candy as he had shown pleasure when she’d asked him in private. He seems to have had second thoughts and really does not seem pleased about it, but we’ve decided to let him try it as we are bound to return here within a few months and the only other alternative is to take him back to our reality - which would be a bad idea.
I said there was only one problem to deal with, but of course there are a number of them - such as Faiiis and his people. We do need to go home, so we’ll deal with those problems afterwards.
Home sweet home!
It is 8th of January, PC57 and Robbie has annoyed all of us. He deliberately saw to it that we arrived two days after his birthday, but at least he was careful to leave us enough time for arranging a party for Gilli’s birthday. We made a suggestion to Gilli and she was so thrilled about it that she was not very good about blocking off her excitement so we had to help her - which made Robbie suspicious. We kept it low key; that is, the party was held at home and only family (including some alternates Gilli is especially fond of) and close friends were invited. Luckily Efineh was with us, or else I would have invited Samuel and his family and there would have been too many of us.
There was very little about our party that was Cherinian. For any casual eye there was almost nothing to differentiate it from a birthday party among Normals. What was strange about the party was that it was split into three separate parties. First we celebrated Gilli’s birthday, then we celebrated the wedding anniversary of Gilli, Jade, Maria and Jodine. As I wrote the last sentence I realised there is definitely something Cherinian about what I wrote. After all, their wedding anniversary is our anniversary also since we are all married to each other. Since the first wedding anniversary, we have treated the anniversaries as ‘belonging’ to those who married the rest of the family on that, day but we all celebrate the fact that they became our wife/wives. In what we do there is an element that most women of our world would not like. As I said, we all celebrate the fact that they married all of us, but we also allow as to how it is important that they married Robbie - so we make certain they have some time alone with him so that he can fill their hearts with his love. Whatever anyone says about the way we treat our celebrating loves, I know for a fact that when it is my day of celebration, I would not want one single detail to be changed. As we’ve said before, over hundreds/thousands of years, much will change and it is likely our anniversaries will become a victim of those years, so it is important we ignore others and live our lives right now exactly as we want. I just hope the memories of today do not some day make me cry excessively for the past. Should I foolishly wish the opposite? We ended the party by having a birthday cake for Robbie.
The day after the party(ies), we had a party for Annavi, Ashia and Elpida. This party we had in the Sparkler World so that all the Anadir who wish to join us can do so in comfort. We’ve also planned for a big party in Freddie on the 19th of this month. Syrina and Julia have their birthdays on this date, but we are making a big thing of that day because of isi-mi-Metti. This is the date she was adopted by Robbie and us and we’ve never really celebrated it as we should have.
An underground cell in the monastery is always empty so that I can jump there. They have a camera mounted on the wall so they immediately know I am visiting, but I suspect they hardly bother to watch the screens, depending on the monks who sense me giving them a warning. I never leave the cell and before the Dalai Lama or some other dignitary arrives, a tray is brought with my favourite hot and cold drinks with the biscuits I love. I teased, just once, the Dalai Lama, complaining that by pampering me they are setting my spiritual growth back. He played along by giving me a lecture about how an advanced soul should not require the experiences of deprivations and suffering to grow; that I should accept comfort and some luxuries as tools that free me to concentrate on purifying my soul. I don’t think I’m likely to tease him again
The Dalai Lama asked, “Will you share the important experiences from this last trip?”
I smiled. “With pleasure, I have a set of edited memories ready for your monks to examine.” He did not pull a face, he looked totally at peace, but I felt his mind flinch. “It still upsets you that some of your monks are Cherinians?”
“You still see us as taking a shortcut that prevents the soul from evolving.”
With a smile and a glint in his eyes, he sat. “I am pleased, you have obviously set apart a greater amount of time than usual for us to teach you our philosophy.”
I laughed, accepting he’d won this round. “Perhaps someday…was anything felt during our absence?”
“Nothing - and it worries us.” I stopped smiling and looked at him, giving him the time to consider his words as he likes to do. “It is not natural for any life form not to use the powers of its mind - it too must have needs that require it to exercise gifts or powers for its own survival or comforts.”
“You’ve obviously taken into account the possibility that it is so powerful that it can disguise or block from us such exercises?”
He only answered, “Perhaps,” confusing me. “I do not know whether you have been told, but a small group of the alternates who can create bubbles of energy, they came to visit.” He felt that I had not known and paused, in case I wanted to say something. I poured myself some more cold drink and waited. “A few of them expressed an interest in our way of life and we encouraged them to ask questions by answering those they did ask. Since then an increasing number of them visit whenever Freddie is in our reality.”
I feel comfortable enough with him to sink into my thoughts when I want to, so I did so. He waited until I focussed on him again. “I wish to ask you for a favour. Can you arrange it that they do not meet the Cherinian monks and that if they do, they are not given answers to their questions from them? Almost all of them are Cherinians and if they are to adopt all or some of your philosophies, I’d prefer they find their own ways of matching and mixing the two worlds we represent. Once they have formed their own philosophies, then is the time for debates that hopefully will benefit them, your Cherinian monks and the rest of the Cherinians - even those of other species. They represent a unique opportunity for all of us to learn to think in new ways and we must not waste it.”
It is not often that I startle him in a nice way. He chuckled, his face alight with his smile. “And so it is that our Cherinian monks are to teach us something new?” I sensed that most of his amusement was an appreciation of the irony plus the effect he anticipates this news would have on his people.
When I was about to leave, I hesitated, wondered whether it would be wise of me to ask and then spoke before I could chicken out. “Next time you sense our mysterious friend, could you have one person send a message from me? He should tell it, him or her, that I wait with anticipation for the day I am allowed to open my heart to it.” Anyone else would probably have offered to qualify my message by adding ‘if it is friendly to us’. He only nodded in agreement as he lightly took both my hands in his for a moment. He let go and I jumped home.
February started with a flurry of snow and freezing winds in Athens, while in London the weather was quite nice. Alexis decided to visit a young adult friend in London, so she aged herself to about eighteen. Since her friend works, they met for a pub lunch and when her friend returned to her office, Alexis walked around aimlessly, just enjoying the feeling of being in London on her own. She entered Hyde Park and walked until she found herself close to the Serpentine. She saw an empty bench but preferred to sit by a tree, leaning against it as she closed her eyes. To the right of her was a bush with a bench on the other side. She was almost dozing when she sensed a man and woman settle on the bench.
There were no other people close by so the couple did not feel the need to keep their voices low. Being Normals, they did not even think of their emoting being sensed by others. Alexis should have left as she felt she was invading their privacy, but she was feeling stubborn. She reasoned that she had chosen her spot for privacy long before they arrived, so, in a sense, they were invading her privacy. Anyway, it did not seem likely that they would be spilling out any secrets as she sensed they were fencing verbally, neither opening to the other.
The woman was emoting a blunted ache that rarely she managed to heighten to a brief stab of dull pain. Alexis realised her pain was an old pain she’s grown accustomed to. What did intrigue her was that she also sensed that the male is the cause of the pain and yet the woman does not love him. Why was she with him and why was she trying to rekindle the pain she no longer felt? Nothing that was said explained the situation and twenty minutes later the woman left. As the man watched her walk away, he sank into an introspective mood that was tinged with a sadness that did not reach deeply enough to really disturb his heart.
“I am a Cherinian.”
“Don’t Cherinian ladies have names? I am Tom.”
“Alexis.” She looked at the buildings outside the park as she said, “I could not help hearing and sensing some of what the two of you broadcast. I could have teleported to give you your privacy, but I did not feel it was important to either of you and I was intrigued.”
“Alexis Teller?” She smiled and nodded. “Please excuse me, I’ve only seen pictures of you as an adolescent.” He smiled. “We piqued your curiosity?”
Alexis laughed. “Yes.”
“What did you sense from my wife?”
“I can’t tell you that!”
“To be honest, I’ll be surprised if you tell me you sensed any strong emotion. The years have stripped our emotions into ghosts of what they used to be. Even what you felt today only crops up every six months or so. Now that she’s confronted me she’ll revert to concentrating on living her life as she wants for a few months. Then she’ll gradually start to eye my philandering with annoyance - which she then will build up to anger so that she demands to meet me in the park once more for a confrontation. Fortunately, by the time she’s walked here, she’s lost the keen edge of her anger since she only wanted to make me acknowledge that anger by meeting her here. We talk, as you heard, and she leaves.” He grinned, but gave her a piercing look. “Does the synopsis satisfy your curiosity?”
“It doesn’t make sense. For instance, do you still live together?”
“Of course! Why else stay married?”
“Why do you have to meet here then. Why not have this discussion at home with the privacy it would ensure?”
“We tried that in the beginning. We both had to be far more hostile than we do when coming here because we were on home ground.”
Alexis found his answer a puzzle, but changed tack. “Are you in love with another woman or are you just unfaithful when the opportunity arises?”
“If I waited for opportunity…no, opportunity only asks that I make a small effort.”
“Why do you stay married then?”
“She is my protection. How could I have mistresses if I was not married? Those woman would also discover they have expectations of me which they do not have once they learn I am married. I married Annette when I was twenty years old…she was twenty four.” She sensed he was amused, enjoying laying it all out for her. “Is it allowed for me to be explicit or will your husband come hunting me?”
Primly, just like Robbie would, she answered, “You may be as explicit as you like - as long as you do so tastefully and avoid speaking crudely.”
“I found her exciting and did not mind that she was slightly older than me. To be honest, I like a woman to be close to my age or slightly older. She teased me that her friends all envied her finding a man younger than her to love her. We did a lot of teasing in that first year or so but then she did not laugh at mine anymore and when I thought she was teasing me it would turn out that she was being deadly serious. Within those same two years, her libido evaporated…no, it would be unfair to describe it that way. Her libido was replaced by a dislike of sex and all its messiness - as she so succinctly put it. It was quite a blow to my ego and I turned to friends and ale. One night I got drunk faster than usual and hit on a woman I knew. She took me home, sobered me to the point where she was assured I would or could perform and she literally blew my mind. I’d never had sex with a woman who loved sex and I left there thinking that is how most woman are and my darling wife had deprived me of all the splendours of sex.
“There has never been one woman that you felt drawn to, that you could have loved?”
“If there was, I would have steered clear of her.” He must have seen something in her eyes. “I do not expect to become a Cherinian during this life. Maybe I’ll find my soul mate in my next life and then become a Cherinian?”
She stood up. “If we are to consider the oriental attitude as reflecting some degree of truth, your next life is likely to be spent making up for this one. Only then is it likely you’ll be born with the sensitivity needed for you to become a Cherinian.”
His eyes widened with surprise. “You disapprove of my lifestyle! I had not realised any of the Teller family are that narrow minded!” He chuckled. “If what you say is true, then it means I am helping a lot of women grew sensitive so that they can become Cherinians in their next life.”
“You admit you are hurting the women?”
He came to his feet, still only showing amusement, but she could sense she’d pricked his ego. “A few of those women were or are Cherinians. Some of the women thought I used them and many thought they used me. The truth is, I have never bedded a woman who did not know why we were about to have sex.”
“That is a simplistic answer. Many must have projected the attitude you wanted while hoping they would find love.” She gazed at him with that direct childlike way so many of the girls in my family still have. “Perhaps it is true of you also, I wonder how well you know your own heart. Thank you for speaking so openly and I hope that whatever it is you truly want, that is what you find. Goodbye.”
I disagree with Arthur, I think future readers (on our side at least) should know the truth. Arthur has developed Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in both hands and writing makes his arms burn and his hands/wrists ache in the bones. Since he also suffers from arthritis in his hands, he can’t write more than he does each day and probably will write less if the pain worsens. He is determined to avoid medication and not go for surgery and is trying to use exercise to save his hands. He made us smile when he told us that he plays the song ‘In The Navy by The Village People’ for exercising to and suggested we play it and dance to it. What an oldie! Now, whenever we hear it we’ll think of him. Anyway, I offered to space out my writing and keep to only the stuff that is important, but he asked me to continue writing as I have up to now, but not to feel hurt when he misses any important events. His comments have not produced a flurry of effort to find him as everyone is already doing all they can. Can I write out a huge list of songs for you? Why? Do you think we’ll need them to think of you?
“I can see this diary producing serious problems for Samantha and all of us later on.” Jessie asked why. “Koukla mou, Sam does not treat Arthur with the respect his relationship to our universes demands. She doesn’t even show him the respect she would show her grandfather - as a matter of fact, she treats Alki with far more respect than she does Arthur. As with all secrets, someday this diary will find its way into the hands of the public and if Arthur is dead by then, there will be such an outcry about the way she spoke to him that we’ll never recover.”
Sam replied, pretending to take him seriously, “Arthur is my friend and he likes…”
“You mean you don’t like to show your friends respect? Am I your friend?”
She stared at him as if not certain how to answer (which had us silently in stitches). Just as he started to deflate, she said as sweetly as she could, “Of course you are.”
Mournfully he said, “Then why do you respect me…? You’ve never tried to hit me with a pillow.” Allan thinks that since he was rejuvenated he has also become super fast. He doesn’t stand a chance. Just goes to show that when he tries real hard, he does know how to make us happy.
I have not written for some days as we have been having some ‘wow’ arguments. I agreed with Arthur that the mysterious power cannot be him, so I kept it within the family only. Then some of my loves decided that it makes sense, that it has to be Arthur. They argued that there have been a number of calamities with people (including children) dying. It has not intervened even once to save other lives, only when the lives at risk are of our family. I’ve tried to imagine all kinds of convoluted theories to make it seem possible, but all the theories have serious flaws - it is not possible, not while Arthur is still alive and in his reality.
We did not carry the discussion out of the family; we did not even share with Alki or Allan. I know that none of my loves confided in anyone else, so it was a shock when we realised that others know of our argument. The Muyzith told others they do not think it could be Arthur, but that they are keeping an open mind. Allan is one hundred percent convinced it is not Arthur, while Dimi says he ‘hopes’ it is. As for me, all I can do now is hope the being, whoever it is, is not angered by the speculation.
The obvious answer that did not provide the ‘why’, was: “All souls have the ability”. Not only did that not answer the ‘why’ but it also did not explain why bodies/brains/minds that vary so greatly among species all have the same function/gift inbuilt.
I should have pretended that the answer was so obvious and the way you’d asked it was a red herring side-tracking us (me), making you responsible for us not winning. It would have been fun but not honest. Are your readers ready? Here goes: OBE
Out of body experiences - it is impossible for a soul to ‘fly’ into the void. We tend to do it in one step, from inside our body directly into the void, but even if we are flying in space, to go to the void we have to teleport there. That is why we always say we jumped to the void. Even for the soul to go to the new body, it teleports there. That opens new doors for us - if the calling of the body while still in formation can teleport the soul from the void to it without the soul having a clear picture of where it is going, we should be able to relax our rules about teleportation. Strictly speaking, only our souls have the ability to teleport, but for our bodies to be teleported from point a to point b, we would have to say our souls have the ability of telekinesis. Your question and the answer has resulted in the gift of telekinesis being added to the ‘everyone has it’ list and suddenly all Talents can do it. The nicest result of the theory though is not the ability to mentally move objects. It was only one further step for everyone to extrapolate that teleportation/telekinesis do not prove mutation, only the ability to use and control an ability that is available to all. Many now argue that all our gifts are essentially just a matter of attitude.
This winter has turned vicious. Cherinians, Ipohin and Campbellites got together to protect much of the northern hemisphere from the sudden storms lashing at us. Luckily ADFI and all aliens had not missed any opportunities to warn people that it could happen, that life will get harder before the effects of cleansing our planet soothe it. Robbie is acting nonchalant about the way it was done, but I’m not certain whether I should be as happy as I’m expected to be. When it was realised that some of the bad weather spots could cause immense destruction with loss of life, the groups that rushed to work together in protection of our people publicly asked us, the entire family and close friends, to stay at home and leave it to them. Just like the majority of the populations, we watched the awesome shields they used to fight the storms, splitting the bad weather into streams that soon lost their excessive speeds and power. More are expected, but the three groups have created a watchdog committee and they’ve promised to blunt the worst excesses of the storms. Robbie only muttered, to himself or to Cherine, ‘They think they are invulnerable,’ and disappeared into his office. He has been playing around with new ideas, trying them out on screen before wasting canvas and paint. At first he did not want Jade to watch, but then he changed his mind and she sits curled up on the sofa with a book and glances at the screen often enough for her to understand what he is trying to do. All she told us is that Robbie is trying to develop a technique that creates the right textures of objects he paints without him having to sit for hours painting each tiny detail in. I gather Jade does not think he’ll succeed unless he limits his efforts to one kind of texture at a time. Wendy asked her whether his success would not be like painting with numbers? Jade looked at her blankly until Dommi sent to her mind an example. The idea intrigued her and we lost Jade as she spent hours searching the web for more examples. Since it was unlikely she had an interest in using them as they were designed to be used, we surmised she must have thought of a more sophisticated way of applying the ‘game’ of painting by guided methods.
“Will you be experimenting with plants or animals?”
Maria-Elena shrugged like teenagers of her time used to, “Whatever.”
“I’m not being difficult love. If you only want to experiment on producing new strains of plants, the area you’ll need will be much less than what you’ll need for animals.”
She frowned. “For now, only plants, but maybe later we’ll need to add insects and small animals.”
“I’d rather give you less than you need and expand the area as required than commit too much land. Is that okay with all of you?” Happily they agreed and Robbie surprised them by jumping to Freddie immediately. They dashed off after him so as to watch as he prepared their niche for them. We realised he was being extra careful, taking more precautions than usual in preventing anything from there escaping or anything from our side sneaking in to spoil their experiments.
Claudia was not satisfied by what he did for them and asked that he provide them with an independent supply of water and recycling system. She flushed when she sensed how her caution pleased Robbie. When Robbie finished, the rest of us girls had big grins on our faces. It seemed so anti-climatic for the five of them, having to spend all day watching him create the niche and as soon as it is ready they have to return to Athens to get dressed for dining out at a posh restaurant. That was the last thing on their minds right then, but they cheerfully made plans to be up and working very early next morning. That is another good reason why I’m not too unhappy about not being part of their project - I love starting my day slowly.
Alki and Marian had also invited Jonathan, Percy and Eloise. Percy listened as we talked about the girl’s project and when she found a moment she softly asked her daughter what they were hoping to create - and would it be dangerous.
“We are not starting this with fixed targets in mind, mum, we just found our idea exciting as the possibilities could be limitless. Obviously we have to make a beginning so we’ve chosen a fairly easy experiment which will lead us into studying many other branches of science. Maybe our success or failure will inspire us with our next project?”
Once you are a Cherinian, Arthur, if I have a thought about you, the others sitting with us may not pick up my thought, but you will. Robbie was watching the earnest face of Em-e as she talked with her mother and his memories of her first days with us, his weakness that nearly killed him when he jumped to her; the strange wedding they had; Jonathan fighting their love, all those memories cascaded through him and thinking of all the joy she has brought our family, his heart flooded with love for her. Em-e started off by giggling, but as she felt his love for her flood him, she flushed and sat with head bent down to hide the tears in her eyes. Poor Percy could not work out what she had done to upset her daughter. Robbie sensed Percy and burst out in loud laughter. For a while Percy was angry, but once she understood, her own eyes seemed to glisten as she looked at Robbie. Jonathan of course, was oblivious to all that happened and continued talking to Luigi (who was not oblivious and was also touched).
Since I mentioned those golden days it might be relevant if I mention that the companies Robbie established for hiding our cells in were all sold years ago. They still hold our cells (we have to pay now) but we still keep a bank under our home and another inside the moon. The bank in Freddie is for the very unlikely possibility that something bad happens to all of us when we are on planet. We have kept the lunar bank secret, but too many people, mostly Talents, have been to visit the other caverns and they are still popular for experiencing low gravity, so I doubt they are as secret as we think they are.
From the high demand as of day one, it is obvious the tourist business with the world of the Kabetu is going to take off big time and there are waiting lists for all the scheduled trips over the next five years. Although the first tour departed some time ago, it was decided that the tours will take the same amount of time this end as they spend at their destination - otherwise the time spent there does not feel as ‘real’ when they get back. We need to leave quickly if we are to be gone before they return. The risks of a paradox are bad enough thanks to Vincent collecting Samuel from our future (when they return). We do know that Birshima and her mother will depart for their reality the instant they arrive and Samuel is also likely to take off (he is no longer with us and he did not share). It seems that when they return we will still have Campbell with us and some of our returns to Earth will be before we return Campbell to his tour so the Campbell who does return will stay away from us and the Campbell we have with us. It sounds complicated but as the story of our visit evolves I’m sure it will become easier to understand. However, I’ll admit, we’re all wondering why we’ll need to keep Campbell with us for such a prolonged time.
The word spread out about where we were going and we were flooded by requests from Cherinians, Ipohin and even Campbellites, to join us in Freddie. We joked about it, saying that Campbell and Kiris might sue us for damaging the business by bringing so many for free, but we did not refuse anyone. We are leaving in two days, on the 14th of September, PC58.
We had to teleport backwards in the fourth dimension, relative to our time, so that we’d arrive a few days before Campbell and his first group of tourists. As Freddie arrived in their void, Kiris and others sensed us and they jumped to Freddie. I had already changed to a Kabetu male and Niriki’s little face was ecstatic with joy when she saw I was Tsina. She sees my change for her as proof that I still love her…so that means I’ll have to continue changing for a long time. I love the way our hearts refuse to listen to logic most of the time.
