If I thought I would die if I were to lose her before, then now it is a certainty. . . . .
1201
I wonder if in some alternate world there is a Robert who never met his Cherine. I can picture his life. A man who never learnt how to love Dommi. A man who perhaps settled for a relationship with some woman, without the passion of love to fill his heart. An empty sterile life while he keeps himself locked within a bitter seed that he thinks of as memories. Perhaps his only redemption would be if he has children. If he has children, whoever his woman is, I know he would love them above all else in his life. Somehow I find it impossible to imagine such a Robert; the coming together of Cherine and I seems to be the coming together of two souls who are one in every way and we must be destined to love each other in every possible world.
The only one who is active and fully alive with purpose is Alki. Selling most of his businesses has given him a new flow of energy as he drives himself to find new ways to grow their wealth beyond any figures that would make sense to me.
Cherine is spending more and more hours studying. She says not having the girls around has helped her concentrate on learning and she shows a truly voracious appetite for knowledge. If the other girls follow her example I am going to end up the dunce of the family. It would make me very proud.
Enough of this. I see the sun is shining and I would like to take Cherine and Alki to sit in the square and enjoy the hustle and bustle of the café society while we have our coffee or sweet.
What a weird feeling!
We were enjoying ourselves and our teasing of each other when my protector made me notice a young man sitting a few tables away from us. I tried to sense his mind, but there was nothing. I was getting concerned when he got up and came over to us. His introduction of himself stunned us and brought everything to a new realisation, making real what we had only known.
“You are Robert and you are Cherine? I apologise, it took a while to recognise you, I am not used to the small differences of human shapes in this material world. I am of the Anadir come here for you.”
“Welcome then. It is always good to meet those of your worlds. You have a name?”
He laughed. “Ordinx has warned us to choose names suitable to this world. I tried to speak my name but this body is not made for such sounds. You would forgive me if I give a shortened name? I think you would appreciate the humour of it’s sound. Abratt.”
“A brat?”
“No Cherine, Abratt. I knew it would give rise to amusement.”
He sat with us a short while and then moved on to sit amongst different crowds. Meeting him had made it all suddenly too real and our mood changed. We returned home, chastened by the thought of millions like him tirelessly walking the cities searching out our enemies. What a lucky people we Cherinians are to have such friends.
“Cherine, it is about time we visit Mama Josephine. Then I want just the two of us to dance. A long slow dance so that I am filled with your motes.” We lay on our bed, our bodies against each other, so that the first thing either of us would see on opening our eyes would be the other.
“Before we dance Robert, can you take me with you where you become the void? I want to feel how it is being the size of a universe.”
“I’ll take you my love, but you will not get to feel it. I think our minds are incapable of sensing something so vast. The only way to get a feel for the size is to transfer my point of view from where I am to the edge of what I can sense, then keep on repeating my moves to the farthest edge. I have not tried it to any great extent - I’m afraid of losing my home point.”
“How far can you sense, further than our own solar system?”
“Much further. My home point of view includes the total galaxy and a couple of other galaxies in all directions.”
1202
“That is not far!! I want to feel it.”
I smiled. “Your wish is my command.”
“Is it possible…”
“Ask me love.”
“Is it possible to go to other solar systems, to see other planets?”
“That is a strange question for you to be asking, you’ve been to the void and seen our own planet. What do you see?”
“Oh!” She was disappointed. “All we can see from there is the energy of the souls and the planet.”
“Also the effects of the gravity. Didn’t you notice the moon and our sun and other planets?”
“I never really thought about it.” She thought about it, so I waited. Her eyes widened. “Robert, you are not telling me all the truth, why? Don’t you want to take me to other planets?”
“Now what are you talking about?”
“Since you can, as the void, come to Earth?” I sat up, shocked at my own stupidity.
“I didn’t think of it! Cherine if I had, I would have gone to Mars and a couple of our own planets, the idea has always fascinated me.”
“Because of your science fiction?”
“The other way around love, because I was fascinated, bewitched you might say, by the concept of a multitude of civilisations out there, of finding life and ideas alien to us, I read science fiction. My girl, how about we visit Jupiter. It is a fascinating planet. Scientists still do not understand it and I doubt that mankind will find a way to go beneath or deeply into the gas cover. Just to go into the red spot would be amazing. It is huge, you could lose our planet in it. The forces of energy tearing around in there should be quite a sight!”
“Do you think there is any life there?”
“I still find it difficult to tell what are the energies of a planet and those of life. One storm with lightning is more powerful than all the life on Earth, in energy.”
“Can’t we ask a Sparkler to come with us? They can tell when there is life.”
“Another bright idea! You are certainly growing into a clever girl. Hold it, I think we both forgot one thing. We can’t take a Sparkler with us, I do not want to lose Aganthi and Irene.”
“What do you mean? Oh Robert, you promised to never show them how to become the void!! I’m sorry, I didn’t think of that.” She had flushed with pleasure when I’d been impressed by her thinking and was now chagrined at her forgetting something so important.
“I forgot too my love. I’m not trying to play the adult with you, but I have to say this. However brilliant you grow up to be, always remember that you cannot know everything, nor can you help forgetting things. You know how I always refuse to make fixed plans, I have found time after time that my plan would have been wrong because of information I already had. It is not only the unknown that is dangerous, it is our own fallibility that is more dangerous.”
“What a pity Sparklers don’t have eyes, then we could tell it to close it’s eyes.” I laughed at the delightful childishness of her remark. Of one thing I am certain of in my life. For however long I live, I will always want to be surrounded by children.
“You know that Solomon likes you more than Ordinx does. He even made you a Sparkler, Ordinx did not.”
“I don’t think Ordinx has the right to make me an honorary Sparkler, love.” She tapped me on the chest in exasperation. “Ordinx I think feels more strongly attached to Sam. I don’t blame him, she dotes on him.”
1203
“If he could know they will be friends and come to us when she was born, why couldn’t he warn us about the spider?”
“Maybe their friendship is something so special to him that he could foresee it. Just like I can foresee something and make a prediction.”
“What?”
“That I am certain the way we are carrying on, the sun will rise before we get to the void.”
“Oh that! We can go whenever we want. Talking is also important Robert.”
“Spoken like a wife. Sorry, don’t hit me, I agree with you.”
She made a face. “When you are in this kind of mood it may be better we don’t talk. Let’s go.”
“I said I’m sorry love. We have so much to worry about all the time we tend to forget about laughing. You haven’t teased me for so long, I miss it.”
“I don’t know why, you always lose out.”
“It also helps to stop me from getting a swollen head. I think we should make it a rule, every time I am successful or right about something, you have to tease me.”
“I don’t need an excuse, just an opportunity. How can I tease you when you are worrying about us.”
“Tease me…Cherine, I have a feeling I have forgotten something and it could cause us huge problems.”
“I just realised, you are not fighting a battle with the spider! You are just teasing him. That is why you treat it like a game so often.”
“I suppose that must be what infuriates him. People hate not being taken seriously.”
“You don’t.”
“You are very wrong love. Many of the things others take seriously I don’t. I do have things that I do take seriously about myself - most of them have to do with what kind of person I am. My greatest fear is that one day you, the girls and maybe the other Cherinians, will turn around and say, how could we love that kind of man?”
“I’ll always love you, whatever kind you are.”
“You keep my heart swollen with love all the time love; don’t also help to swell my ego. Come, we better go now.”
We arrived and this time I stopped, giving us time to admire and enjoy the view. When we had only had our Kaleidoscope World, it had seemed a thing of impossible beauty, a miracle that drew the eye to it. The colours, the vibrant quality of life in what we had thought of as a place of death had made it overwhelming. Now beyond it were what seemed to us countless other Worlds, those of the Anadir and some of the magic in our eyes, in the way we saw our World, was lost. Still, the sight of that multitude of Worlds is in beauty far above anything that can be imagined on Earth.
Like a pretty girl going to a party may put on sparkling makeup (it was popular a while ago), the beauty of all the Worlds is brought to life by the glow and magic of the Sparklers. To see what looks like tiny green and yellow suns and know that each one of them is a sentient being would be like seeing the whole population of Earth in the incandescent glow of their souls.
Perhaps, because we did not dance nor go to our World, Solomon came to see if we were in need. Cherine explained to him why we were staying without movement, the way she put it across to him made it sound as if the greatest beauty was the sight of the galaxy of Sparklers. He was silent for a while.
*You are right, all this, even in the way I perceive it, is truly harmonious and beautiful. We are pleased that the sight of us fills you with such a sense of pleasure and that you are able to see beauty in us. For too long has the sight of us only filled others with a sickening dread.*
1204
*The day will come Solomon, when the sight of your people will be welcomed as a source of hope and life. You are already on the road to attaining that.*
*Why have you come here?*
We explained. Cherine told him about her wish to travel to other planets, other solar systems, to see the beauties of other worlds. She admitted she had asked me to bring a Sparkler with as I did not have the ability to differentiate between the energy of a soul and the energies unleashed by natural causes on a planet.
*Cherine, we gave that gift to Robert long ago. If he has not used it, then it is our fault for not explaining to him. The green motes, as you call them, they are for communicating with us in the void, but they also are able to identify the energies of life.*
He showed me how and it opened a new world of delight for me. I made Cherine come into my mind and share the sight with me.
*Solomon, I thank you. Are there any other uses to this? I ask before I end up making a fool of myself again.*
*Not directly for you. You know where we are. For us though, they help us to always know where you are - when you are in this reality!*
*Does that include the world of Meli?*
*No.*
*A pity, though I’m certain it means something. At the least it means that her worlds are in another reality. I wish she could give me a hint of how I am supposed to bring them into this reality.*
*It is the way of all life Robert. The leaders have to find their own ways. Are you intending to attack tomorrow? We are very close to the number of the enemy identified that you requested.*
*No. I am not ready.*
*What do you mean Robert, not ready in what way?*
*Not ready to destroy so many talents my love. Think how you would feel, how empty you would be with all your gifts stolen from you. If I had to go out and do it myself it may have been easier. To know that all it requires is for me to speak one word, that is the terrifying part, love. It means I sit and think instead of doing and the empathy part of us has the time to torment me.*
*It is good that you do not do this with joy Robert. It saddens me that you must be tormented, but also pleases me, for it means you are still the Robert we first met.*
We left to visit Adam and Josephine.
Robert and Cherine have come to visit and I have taken the memories since their last visit. The knowledge they share with me helps me grow and I can now sense that I am doing something wrong. I am trying to be the Adam that Robert named me, but something is lacking. I have shown Robert my disquiet and he has promised to give time to my problem. He was amused to see that I no longer think of myself as the “I” nor think of him as a ‘part’. He says there is hope for me yet! He still infuriates me when he say things like that!
We left Adam to stew in his own ‘juices’ and visited Mama Josephine.
“Still spending your time talking to the dolphin people?”
“It has been a time of great excitement for them Robert. They have given birth to their first young.”
“What! I did not know Meli had given them the ability to procreate! How many?”
“Five. They each had one child.”
“Each Mamá Jo? But who is the daddy then?”
1205
“They all are the daddies and mummies Cherine. This was not a wise thing for Meli to do. They will overrun this World soon, they have no enemies to keep their numbers down and they all take great joy in sex and in having young ones.”
I left the two of them to talk and walked off by myself, my thoughts troubled. Not by what Meli had done, she will have to find a way to correct the problem and she is imaginative enough to do so. What worried me is that I am beginning to have doubts about myself, the actions I have taken, changes I am causing.
I had never been aware that doing the right thing can be so wrong, and I could not see what was the right thing to do to correct the wrong I will be the cause of. This is a problem that requires a philosopher, not an artist. Perhaps a theologian too, for they are used to thinking in these terms, trying to reconcile the irreconcilable
When I returned, the two of them saw I still was not in a talkative mood and carried the conversation by themselves. Underneath the bright chatter I sensed a growing fondness between them. When the time came for us to leave, Josephine put her huge hand on my arm.
“Robert, there are times when it is not only important what is right and what is wrong, but that action is taken.”
“Do you know what you are saying to me Jo?”
She grinned, “As I told you before, I never have a clue what I am talking about. It was just something you needed to be told so as to find your own way."
“You and your clues are going to be the death of me!” She laughed and shooed us off, making us leave.
*If you don’t want to dance Robert, I’ll understand.*
*Before we do, I have a promise to keep. Come my love, join with me.*
I, we, became the void.
I formed a spear of energy and we went to Earth. I showed her our bodies lying together waiting for us and then we took a fast tour around the world. She soon figured out how to see in human terms what I was showing her and enjoyed herself. I shot us out to the void again.
The most impressive display of matter and energy at this short distance is our own sun, so I took her there first. As we came close, my darling for the first time became afraid. To her the energies beating at us were terrifying. Having control of all energy in the void, besides which this seemed but a trifle, I knew we were not in danger and soothed her. I shielded her and we dove down towards the surface and rode on ghostly waves of energy till we tired of it and flew to visit the planets I’d wanted to see.
We got to Mars at a time when there was a huge dust cloud blowing across the surface. It was not so much the dust we could see, but more obvious to us was the energy that was causing the dust to ride the surface like a gauze across the face of a harem girl. I told her the planet was shy and she laughed at my fancy, within my mind.
The healer called on me, reminding me of the time, in earthly terms, that we had been absent, and that we had to return soon. I decided to skip the tour as I still wanted to dance with my love. We returned to the state of being guests of the void and began our dance.
I started off by dancing at a distance from her, circling her I left a trail of motes that spiralled in to her, just a few and distant from each other, a taste to tantalise her only. It was like a courtship, with me using the wiles of a woman. I would dip in to her and as she would reach for me I’d dance out of reach, leaving a few motes behind, as a woman leaves her scent. She wised up and revolved around herself spraying out motes in all directions for me to taste. The tastes she sent me were not the usual Cherine taste of love, but the taste of the love of a child. I stopped my teasing dance and flew in to her, gentle and tender. As I revolved around her I spread myself until I was a cloak of love that surrounded and held my beloved.
1206
There was no sense of time, we just dissolved until there was no definite line where I was Robert and she was Cherine, and yet we did not meld and become one, our centers kept out of each other. We seemed to lie in a limbo created out of love and all those other sweet emotions that accompany love. It was one of those moments when our hearts were able to talk to each other and become one and part of each other. There was such a joy and sweetness in being of Cherine that Robert did not matter at all, or if he did, it was only for the purpose of knowing and loving her. As I felt, so did my sweet Cherine, valuing only what is of her Robert and her love for me. That we both felt the same way is probably what saved us from giving in to our yearnings and becoming one.
When some internal clock within me began the unwinding and separation, there was no cry of despair, of yearning. We just drifted apart, lost in our elation at having known such love, such closeness to each other.
Cherine called out to me that it was time for us to return and I rushed to my body for the sake of the pleasure of seeing her small body lying within reach of my arms. Our eyes opened at the same time and gazed at each other, dark and liquid with the emotions that still burned within us. The touch of her fingers on my cheek were a fire that brought an eruption of need to hold and be held within this world by her and I saw it was the same for her. She slid into my arms and as I held her, I felt how perfectly she fits.
Not all passion or lust is the same, not when it is fuelled by such a strong love. It was as if the touching and caressing were but incidental to the fires raging within us and as I entered her sweet body, the heat and softness were no more than the dream of coming home to where I belonged. We could not stop the movements of our bodies as they reached for each other, pounded at each other in opposition to our needs of keeping these glorious sensations and feelings alive for an eternity. Even as the tightness in our groins heralded the inevitable closeness of the death of this fire, the quenching in ecstasy of our needs, we clung on, trying to last one more second. She was not the water that put out the fire blazing in me, she was the fire that tore me apart in a scream of impossible searing pleasure, and fire to fire, our minds alight in each other as our hearts were, we collapsed as our bodies drained themselves in that pointless drive to fill her with my seed and to receive that seed and create a further part of love for us to share. If I felt regret at the pointlessness of our accomplishment, in her it was a cry that burned and tore at my heart.
We drew energy from wherever the healer gets it and made love another two times before we could return to the gentle tender holding of each other, the soft ways of thanking the other body and heart for the loving received. Content, holding the memories of our love and loving of this day and night, we fell asleep in each other’s arms, her sweet breath gentle upon my skin.
Ignoring the fact that Alki was on the telephone, Cherine ran to him crying out, “Pappou, Robert took me surfing on the sun.” He quickly closed the phone, his face alarmed.
“The sun! What are you talking about kori mou?”
She told him what we had done and he listened with a face torn between disbelief and wonder. He could not understand how our souls would not get burned by the fierce energies of the sun. I toyed with telling him that the fierce energies of the sun were as nothing compared to what we had just experienced in our own bedroom, but decided not to embarrass him. I explained we had not gone there as souls, but as the void.
“You say you become the void, I’ve heard it a number of times, but I do not understand what you mean. How can you become nothing.”
“We call it the void Alki because we do not have the senses to see it as it is. The void is mostly made up of a myriad kinds of energies. When I am the void I see the sun, the heart of our sun, as a cold empty place filled with matter. However hot, whether matter, liquid or gas, it is cold compared to the energies that exist in the void. Another way of putting it is to say the void is the parent and the sun is the child.”
“And you become the parent?”
“That is how I perceive it. What actually happens I cannot say. But if I am able to control, to direct energies where I wish, if I am not the void, then I am something pretty close to being it - or at least a part of it.”
“Pappou! The void is an artist!!”
“It was about time that death became a bit more artistic.” He answered her with a laugh. His eyes were not laughing though as they searched my face.
1207
I changed the subject. “Solomon says they have about two hundred. I told him I cannot attack yet.”
He shook himself to bring himself back to earth. “You cannot Roberto? What is it now?”
I did not need to answer, Cherine repeated our conversation for him, so I quickly got myself a coffee.
“I was getting worried about the two of you. You have been in your bedroom for two nights and a day. Once I felt you return I was relieved and could go to sleep.”
“You could feel us Alki?”
“Don’t worry, soon as I felt you return and knew you were both well, I closed my mind to give you privacy.”
“It was not necessary Alki. For you to have felt our love for each other would have only have made it even more of a miracle and complete.”
“Pappou, I have something to say to Robert and it may hurt him. Will you help me please?”
“He has done something wrong?”
“No pappou, he has been too wonderful. It makes me afraid. I know he wants to be like we were yesterday soon as he can take me to dance again. We mustn’t do it. Robert, if we do, it will make it impossible for Dommi and all the girls. They will feel that they could never make you feel that way and it would spoil our love. We must leave space for them.”
“My love, there is always space for them. You are wrong you know, each in their own way could feel something like that. I could for each of them and each one would be special and unique, as it was for us.”
“You can Robert, I can’t. I’m saying there must be space in my heart to love them. You make it difficult, for all I want to think of is you.”
What a lovely backhanded compliment! I have come to understand that what they say about me is true, that they are not the same. I often feel like shouting, open your eyes, see, it is so much more beautiful this way, and though there is no point to my doing so, I keep trying.
“You say it is a gift I have my love. Can’t you look inside me and take the gift for yourself?”
“I’m not sure I want to. I like loving you more specially than anyone else.”
I could see in her mind and realised she does not understand and therefore fears what this gift could do to her. When the mind has such unreasoning fears there is no point in pushing, in trying to make the other understand. I just hope she will some day come to want the gift.
“Over four years and you two talk and look at each other as if you have just fallen in love!”
“Every time I see or think of her Alki. She is my little miracle.”
“Why are you so worried about taking away the powers of our enemies, I mean considering they are trying to kill us.”
“In the old days they would sometimes blind their enemy so that he could never rise against them again. We would consider it barbaric today. What I would be doing is similar. I would rather have my gifts than my eyes.”
“There is a difference Robert. We enjoy our gifts, they give us happiness and make it possible for us to help others. The only way they use their powers is to hurt other people to get what they want.”
“Cherine is right. Roberto, if you meet a man who has the strength of Hercules and uses his strength to hurt and get his own way regardless of the cost to others, if you have the ability to take away his strength, would you not do so?”
1208
“Perhaps. Okay, I would. Alki, you have been very slow in acquiring the gifts of others, I was surprised when you agreed to share slivers of your soul. I am not reprimanding or complaining, just trying to make a point. Those few gifts you have acquired, would you not do anything to keep them? Haven’t they made a dramatic change in how you perceive others, yourself and the world? Why presume that they do not feel the same way.”
Alki firmly replied, “I do not. I do not care how they will feel Roberto - only how their victims feel, despite the gift of Cherine. They have abused what should have been gifts and they do not deserve to keep them. Everything is a matter of choice Robert, even empathy. You are choosing to feel empathy for our enemies, while I prefer to feel empathy for our Cherinians and all their future victims.”
“Valid. If there was some way I could take their powers until they have learnt a little of empathy and humility, I would do so gladly. Unfortunately, it would be permanent.”
Cherine exclaimed, “How can you say that Robert! It is nonsense. What is our biggest problem in getting more Cherinians? We have to be careful who we tell. They will already know! What is to stop us from going back to them and giving them gifts. The ones that will make them like us. Love. Empathy. Healing.”
I stared at her in delight. The relief that poured through me was felt by them and Alki leaned over and gave her a kiss.
“It is time, you want to come with?” I felt them follow as I went to call for Ordinx.
*It is time Ordinx. Tell your people to begin the shutting off of those minds, to take away the powers of our enemies. There is one thing though that is important they also do.*
I explained and he radiated with his pleasure as I said, *Please ask them to make note of the names of their victims, where they live or work.*
*I think both my people and the Sparklers will find the job more palatable now. Cherine, your idea is one of compassion and has earned you our respect once again.*
It was amusing to see her soul give off an aural equivalent of a blush. Ordinx promised that he and Solomon would visit us soon.
As soon as we returned, Cherine told me, “He was wrong, it was not compassion. It was only my need to find a way to make you happy.”
Alki did not succeed in hiding his grin. “You will excuse me? It is month end and I have to make sure all the rents and so on are paid for all our missing friends.”
I let Alki use my office so that we would not disturb him. I pulled out my brushes and a new canvas and told Cherine, “I think I am going to make a gift for Ordinx.”
“You will make him a painting? How can he take it with him?”
“In his memory love. Maybe also someday when he has a world of his own to go to. I thought he might appreciate having a portrait of Sam.”
“Wow! That’s a cool idea! You know what Robert, you could paint a picture of Meli and give it to Daniel, he would love it.”
“Perhaps he would prefer a painting of his daughter.”
“Why not both then?”
“You want to keep me busy painting, I see.” I laughed at her transparent effort.
“You are always happier when you are working.”
I nodded. “I’ll do the paintings for Daniel in his world, that way he can have them!”
I was planning on a picture of Sam with her everyday clothes, but then I saw her in my mind, standing with her arms out and I had to paint it. The hours passed without me noticing them.
I cannot guess at the colours he sees best, nor what his tastes are, but I had noticed what he looks at the longest while on Earth and I just hoped it was not because he saw the colours as something gaudy or offensive.
1209
The normal landline telephone rang and I picked it up.
“Mr Teller?” The caller had a Cypriot accent and it took me a few seconds to remember it.
“Mr Petsas?”
“I see you remember me. I hope you and your lovely wife are well?”
“We are surviving.”
“So I hear. I have been approached to act as a mediator.”
“I do not mean to be offensive, but I could not think of a worse choice.”
“That makes me the best choice Mr Teller. They were looking for someone who would not favour you.”
“The converse though would not be true. I would have to presume that you do indeed favour them.”
“Your presumptions do not concern me Mr Teller, all I need to know is whether you agree.”
“Tell them they have made a very good choice. For me that is. You rub me the wrong way Mr Petsas and I will not feel any need to be polite, as I would have if they had chosen more wisely. Do you have a message for me?”
“They said they will give me instructions once you have agreed. You are a foolish young man to go up against such powerful people.”
“Failure decides who is foolish.” I closed the phone.
“Robert, why did you talk to that man?”
“The spider asked him to be the go-between. They have just made a mistake by choosing someone I dislike and don’t trust, it will only make me be more careful - and difficult. I think our Cypriot friend is due for a big surprise. He is looking forward to gloating at our expense and it will be very difficult for him to stomach having to negotiate their surrender.”
Alki gave a wolfish grin. “I think our enemy is the type of person who shoots the messenger.” Soon as he said it, he realised from my expression what I was thinking. “Oh no Roberto, not him too? He is not your responsibility.”
“Pappou I’m just glad he loves to eat meat or else he would become the protector of allthe animals.”
“Are you calling the Cherinians animals, Cherine?”
“Do not answer him Cherine, you were not that subtle!”
“I will say this once only. Every single human being is a Cherinian, or at least is potentially so.”
“Not that Petsas!”
“Maybe, but let him prove it, not us.”
Alki shook his head. “Cherine, you know the story of the wolf who put on a sheepskin so as to get amongst the sheep to eat them? Our Roberto is a sheep putting on a wolf-skin to go amongst the wolves.”
“He’s going to eat them all Pappou.”
I said, “Not he, Cherine. We. This is our battle, not just mine. Without help I would not win.”
Her eyes widened, “He thinks we are helping him!”
“My love, you are. I could not attack, but you showed me the way. Is that not helping? The battles are not fought and won or lost just on the battlefields. If I have a weakness and you turn it into a strength, then that strength and victory comes from you.”
1210
“I bet you pappou, by the end he will make everyone believe they won this war for him.”
I think he was teasing me when he told her, “If he thought we would believe him koroula mou, he would not be saying these things.”
These days alone with her were starting to work their magic, it was a glorious feeling to hear her teasing me again. I let the banter continue as it stopped them from worrying about what must be happening out there at this moment. It was late evening when Solomon and Ordinx arrived.
“I have news for you Robert. We have identified close to five hundred. As our people identify someone, they keep a watch on them and that way we have been led to others. The powers of about one hundred and sixty have been disabled. Not one of them have reported the fact yet.”
“The people of both of you have performed a miracle, please pass on our thanks. I think I can speak for all the Cherinians when I say we are in your debt.”
Solomon answered, “Please do not speak of debts when ours hang so heavily upon our shoulders.”
Alki asked, his voice puzzled, “Solomon, how is it that you are able to use our idioms. I cannot imagine your people having shoulders.”
“At our first meeting with Robert, when he allowed us to go through his mind, one of our first tasks was to learn the language. In the beginning most of it did not make sense to us, but since coming to Earth and living in a human body they are becoming a little clearer.”
“Speaking of bodies, these that you have ‘created’, do they see, hear, taste and feel as did the two which we lent you the first time?”
“We have modelled these on those.”
“In that case, Ordinx, I have prepared a gift for you. Would you come see it?”
He stood in front of the painting, puzzled so I explained. “I know that you cannot take it with you, at least, not now. I have painted your friend Sam for you, and this portrait of her belongs to you. For the time being you will have to be content with carrying the memory of it.”
“I understood that. I am trying to understand the symbolic nuances.”
“What symbolism?”
“The two obvious ones are the pose, her arms stretched out. The second is your choice of colour.”
“The first is meant to show her as she is, a girl with her heart and arms open, welcoming strangers as friends.” I did not want to give my real reason, in case I’d made a mistake. “The second, I did not paint any symbolic meaning into it, it was just the colour I felt suited her.”
“I was right then, it does symbolise something. Could it have been you were alluding to her practical nature, the way she keeps her feet on the ground - as you say it?”
“She is starting to acquire or exhibit some of my crazy traits and yet despite that, I would say you are right. She tends to understand best what makes sense.”
“She is a disappointment then to you?”
“Good god! What could have given you that idea. No Ordinx, I am extremely proud of her.”
“It is good then. I will keep this portrait in my mind and treasure it there.”
“Once you move to a world of Meli’s we will find a way to bring it there to you.”
Αλέξανδρος Ζήνον Ευσταθίου
(Alexander Zenon Eustace)22nd June, 2019
- posted on Steemit: 22nd June, 2019