“Are you hoping I will not so that you are proven right or do you really wish to see him stand again?”
1231
He looked at the boy and brought his lips to my ear, his voice a whisper and yet fierce, “You cure him if you can. I’ll take on me his pain.”
“Thank you. I need to go outside. He will be cured.” I pulled away from him and walked off with him following me.
I stood by the mother. “Tell her to give him about half an hour. Then she must go to her son and ask him to move his limbs. Then she must get him to stand and help him to come outside. Only then will her husband lose his own limbs. Sylvestro, will they mind if I lie down by the side of that water tank? I am tired and cold and need to sleep a little while.” Without waiting for an answer I went there and lay down, closing my eyes. I had explained to the healer what I wanted done and could only hope it would do as I’d asked. I fell asleep.
I was wakened by the shouting. I forced myself to get up and walked over. The young lad was standing, wrapped in a blanket and being held by his weeping mother. Soon as she saw me she rushed over and tried to grab my hands.
I spoke in a loud and angry voice. “Sylvestro, tell her to go thank her husband. When he was faced with the choice, he found the love within him and chose health for the boy. He cured him.”
This reminded them all and they turned to the man who, without so much as a whimper had collapsed to the ground. His wife knelt by his side and wept now for him. I waited about ten minutes and walked over.
“You are a very foolish man. You love the boy and yet you let the precious years of his childhood pass without showing him your love. You stole from him the love he needed, but you paid the ultimate price. You stole from yourself the pleasures of giving and receiving love. Why the pride and bitterness, did you not know from before that he was not of your loins, did you not love the mother and want her anyway?”
He did not answer, but the mother flung herself at me, clinging to my legs. Sylvestro explained. “She pleads that you let her be the one to pay the price, to let her husband stand again.”
“We are not playing games here Sylvestro. Now she pleads and I pass the pain on to her, then the son pleads and I pass it on back to him? He offered and now he bears the price.” I turned to the man on the ground. “Do you regret this?”
“No. He has a full life ahead of him, let him be.”
“I will, I had no intentions of doing otherwise.”
“Englishman, thank you. I was wrong about you.”
“More important is the fact that you were wrong about yourself. You would not let yourself see how much you loved him until now. Do you see the love now?”
“Si.”
“Then I take your pain and broken back upon myself. You may stand and walk again.” The healer released him and he felt the change and sat up, his face shocked.
“But...”
“I can take the pain and I can walk, do not worry. Sylvestro, your promise please?”
“I cannot, I am sorry. We cannot let you go without a meal and seeing that you sleep in a warm bed tonight. You must allow us to give something in return.”
“Sylvestro, if you do not keep your promise you know what will happen. By morning there will be hundreds of people here and I will not be allowed to leave. Your intentions are good, but I will have to pay the price.”
“I did not think, I apologise. Come.” He did not keep his promise. He took me to his home and insisted on feeding me and giving me his bed.
1232
“If you go on the road tonight they will find you in the morning. It is better you stay here a few days. Once the people have calmed down I will take you wherever you wish to go.”
The next evening as we sat in his kitchen eating, he poured me a second helping of wine. “I am glad to see that you eat food and drink wine just like anyone else. I was afraid you might be some kind of saint.”
“Saint!! Sylvestro, I am no saint. I am married and have children and I have made my share of mistakes.”
“Your wife, children, they are alone? Who cares for them?”
“Not wife Sylvestro, wives. I have seventeen wives - or they will be seventeen if I can return to marry the rest of them.”
I laughed at the shocked expression on his face. His sense of humour came to the fore. “You must be a very brave man to marry seventeen women. Maybe you are a saint after all.”
“They are, not me. They put up with all my weaknesses and even now wait for me with only love in their hearts. I miss them very much.”
“Why are you on the road then, why not return home?”
“I cannot, it is not time yet. They are watched by friends, so will be alright for as long as I am gone.”
“I have been thinking of what happened with the boy. I think you played a game with us.”
“Sylvestro, you asked why I walk alone, suffering in the cold, half the time starving. It is not so as to play games. I wish to teach, remind people of how important love and compassion are. Did I do well yesterday?”
“They were all in church this morning to give thanks to God for sending you and to plead with Him to keep you safe. For the first time that I can remember, my uncle had his arm around my cousin. I think they will be a strong family now.”
“Yes, love is our only strength. May I bum a cigarette?”
He laughed. “Bum, that is the part of the body we sit on? Why do you want to bum a cigarette?”
Later on he was in a more reflective mood. “What you said to me about the family of the criminals? Here we do not have the kind of criminals you find in the cities. But sometimes the season has not been good, a family are in despair and the man tries to steal. It is easy to feel compassion for the family and we try to get our social services to help them. I think what you spoke of is what a policeman would see in the cities.”
“Perhaps. I think you miss the point though. In the old days, especially in the small towns and villages, everyone was his brother’s keeper. If a family lost the father, the neighbours would help the wife and children, giving them the time they need to find a way to survive. Now, we have social services. This means neighbours no longer feel the need to care for each other. Now we have hundreds of forms to be filled in, the applicant must be thoroughly humiliated by having to prove how desperate their plight is and then, if some piece of red tape has not been forgotten, if some civil servants is not feeling a petty viciousness, they may receive help. Which means most of them never search for ways to survive with dignity. I do not care for the new ways Sylvestro. They may be necessary, but they are not the right answer either.
What I was saying to you yesterday is different. If you feel compassion for such a family in need and give the little you can, you are enriched by your giving and they are also, for they feel they are not alone, that there are people out there who care. How do you compare that to how social services makes them feel? Haven’t you also lost out?”
“The world has become too big for us to help them all.”
“How many people are sick or dying right now, every second. Should I not help any then?”
If I stayed an extra day or two with him it was not for the food or the mattress and blankets that made sleep a pleasure instead of an agony as I waited for the morning. It was because I felt that in this almost brutal looking man is the heart of a Cherinian and I wanted to start him thinking in ways that will make him be more receptive to us when the time comes.
1233
The morning he was to take me far out of town I saw him fighting within himself. “Ask me Sylvestro.”
“Do you see everything Robert? I have two questions I need to ask. The first is, will I ever see you again?”
“I do not know. I have not been entirely open with you. I have enemies, powerful people who see my gifts as a threat to them and when they find me they will probably kill me. It is the main reason I left my family. If I cannot return, I ask one thing of you. A girl will come to you and tell you she is my love. She will ask you to listen to a story - it will be the story of our love and of the gifts we wish to bring to the world. Listen to her with an open heart and mind. She will not be lying to you, however impossible it all may sound. What is your second question?”
“It is a request. I hesitate for I feel I do not have the right to ask.”
“In that case you may.”
“There is a family in our little town, they are good people, but there is a great sadness in them. They have a child and she is dying. It is a slow and painful death. Could you help?”
“Would they allow you to take the child without them coming also?”
“I will ask.”
“Then do so. This one is for you Sylvestro. I want you to spend years seeing that child grow up and know that it is because of the tenderness in your heart that the child lives.”
His faith in me was so strong that he left with tears wetting his cheeks. He returned with a small girl wrapped in a blanket. I looked into her black olive shaped eyes and saw the pain and my heart ached for the small twisted body. She lay on his sofa without moving, only her eyes following me. I leant over and kissed her thin face and sat down.
“You may take her back Sylvestro, the healing will go with her. I will not be able to leave today, it will take many hours for her to be healed. Do not tell the parents, they will see her getting better and rejoice, thinking it is a miracle. That is good, we all need a miracle or two in our lives.”
The healer had immediately relieved her of the pain and he saw it as he looked into her eyes. Gently he wrapped her up again and carried her out. Seeing her had brought back my own pain, my longing and need for my own little girls and I spent the day sitting alone thinking of them.
Sylvestro paid her a visit just before returning that evening and he told me her body has already straightened out and she even asked for food. Her parents had kissed his hands in gratitude and he had felt shamed that he could not tell them that it was I who had done this. I saw he found it difficult to know how to be in my presence. Our easy camaraderie built up over the last few days had dissolved to be replaced by a feeling of awe.
I took pains to become an irreverent wine-drinking joker and managed to get him to laugh, but even as he did, I saw he had been too deeply touched.
The next morning he drove me about sixty kilometres towards Rome. I had him drop me off in the middle of nowhere, far out of any town. He sat looking at me as I gathered my things. He passed to me a packet of cigarettes.
“Robert, this girl…”
“Her name is Cherine.”
“She will say she is your love?”
“Yes.”
“How old is she?”
“She may come to you in her real age or as a woman in her twenties.”
1234
His eyes widened but he accepted it. “What is her real age?”
“Almost twelve, but she should look about nine.”
His face paled. I gave a sad laugh. “I should have told you that last night, it would have stopped you from treating me with so much awe. Sylvestro, I fell in love with her when she was eight and she had my daughter before she was ten. Do not judge us before you meet her. We are not normal people.”
“That you did not need to say!!”
I got out of the car. He leant out of his window, “Robert, what you said about having seventeen wives. It was true?”
I smiled and waved as I walked away without answering. A few minutes later I heard him drive off, doing a U-turn back towards his home.
A few days later I walked into Rome. Just for the sake of old memories I walked to Via Venetto. I could not even sit to have a coffee, it was too expensive and I would not have been allowed to anyway, unshaved and dirty as I was, I looked more like a hobo. I walked away from the grand hotels, following the road as it went downhill. I passed by some night clubs safely as they were not interested in getting people like me to enter. Further down I saw a shop with shirts that looked rugged but cheap and thought about using some of my cash to buy one - I’d found in my roll some cash from Sylvestro.
As I stood there, a skinny little girl of about twelve, her blonde hair hanging to her waist sidled up to me. “You want a good time? Only fifty dollars.”
My heart broke. I kept back the tears, they would only frighten her away. “I need a plate of food more than a good time. Would the fifty dollars buy me a plate of spaghetti?”
“I’ll cook it for you. You will see I am a good cook.”
I let her lead me off into some back streets. I pulled out the money and gave it to her. “This is all the money I have so there is no need for you to trick me. All I ask is for the food you promised and maybe your company while I eat. Agreed?”
She looked at me, her eyes enormous. She came to a decision and turned at the next corner.
“Come, we go this way.” (“Thank you Aganthi” I thought to myself.)
She took me up to the apartment where she stayed. There was a bit of a screaming match with a woman I assumed was her mother, but she showed me a dirty and tattered couch to sit on and went to the kitchenette. Nearly half an hour later she brought me a plate of over-cooked spaghetti swimming in oil and ketchup. I could hardly bear to eat it, but did so with a smile on my face and complimented her.
“The woman, your mother I suppose, does she understand English?”
“No.”
“Your English is good, where did you learn it?”
“I had to, for my work you know.”
“How long have you been working ?”
“Nearly two years.” she answered proudly.
I know the world is like this, I just do not understand why I have to keep seeing this side of it. I mean, most people never see this side of life. I asked her name and she said Helena, I knew she was lying but it did not matter.
“This work Helena, it never makes you sick?”
“No. I always wash afterwards. One of the older girls told me it is the only way.”
“No Helena, it is not. You must make the men wear condoms, you know, those rubber things they wear for having sex without making the girl pregnant?”
1235
“Some men do, some do not. I cannot stop them, I need the money.”
I sent the healer to her. I knew it was a waste of time, if she was not sick or is healed she will soon be sick. There is nothing I can do, she has a clear picture in her mind of how life is and I cannot change it. I felt the last note I had in my pocket. I gave it to her.
“This is my last money. I’m giving it to you because you are such a sweet and lovely girl. I want you to use it to buy yourself whatever you want, chocolates or anything else you want, but never can.”
She stared at me suspiciously. “You do not want to fuck me? I am good.”
“I’m sure you are. No, I don’t want to, I’d rather remember you like this, a lovely girl who gave me a great meal and talked with me.”
“Are you American?”
“No, I’m English.”
“You tourists are strange. Not like the Italian men.”
I left there with a heavy heart. I knew she would not even take off the day, but would soon be back on the street hoping to make an extra few bucks. Without any money I could not stay in Rome so I began to walk, aiming to find one of the roads leading north and to the western side of Italy. I found the highway and was lucky enough to find a lift that took me over a hundred kilometres away.
It was almost dusk and I would soon have to get off the road and look for somewhere to sleep when a Mercedes Benz stopped by me. The man rolled down the window and put out his hand. He gave me a wad of money and grinned. “The one you call the spider says you amuse him. He says go have a proper meal, he does not want you to die. Maybe one of these days he can use you.” He laughed and drove off.
I let the money fall and the breeze blew it about.
Chapter Ninety Seven
I spent the night walking and trying to decide what to do. I suppose I had truly thought I was free of him and it was a shock to find out he is watching me, that he knows all I do. The thought that over-rode all others was my fear that he may find a way to use me against my loved ones. I considered killing myself, but it is not easy to do so. If one of my girls hurt me or I hurt them I want to die, but at the moment I did not want to die - I was more in the mood for fighting.
By morning I had walked a good distance and was exhausted. More than anything else I was thirsty. No cars or trucks stopped for me and I carried on walking, sitting every now and then. This day chose to be one of those winter days when the sun shines brightly and by ten o’clock I was suffering, dizzy from exhaustion and my thirst. I felt the healer fill me with energy even as I heard a vehicle stop by me. I saw it was the same man again, though this time he had another three men with him.
“Teller, I am here to teach you a lesson. Since you are not man enough to kill yourself, then you must learn to obey the Master. He told you to use the money for a meal, not to throw it away. You will obey and now you will find out what it means not to.”
As he was speaking a swarthy brute approached me and he grabbed hold of me before being ordered to. He pulled my head to his and whispered in my ear, “You know what I am Robert. He is using his powers now, do I take them? If I do they may kill you.”
“Hit me and then do it. Let them think I did it.” He hit me so that I fell, and he turned as if looking for instructions. The Sparkler within him latched on to the powers of the man and attacked, shutting his mind from them. He screamed, falling to his knees, his face grey.
“You bastard! You have killed me.”
“Not I. If your master decides to kill you, it is your fault for joining someone like him.”
“Kill him, I’ll pay whatever you want, just kill him!” he shouted in Italian.
1236
I could not even withdraw into my mind to avoid the pain. Finally I thought to call to the healer to shut off the pain. It did so and all I felt were the blows and kicks and the snapping of my bones. My man pretended to be part of it, though his blows were softened as he held back. He pushed the others away and felt my pulse and pulled my eyelid up.
“He is dying. No point in carrying on, we better get away before anyone sees us.”
The other two picked me up and threw me into the ditch alongside the road so that cars passing by would not see me. I heard car doors slam and they left. A long time later I heard a car pull up. It was the police, a truck driver passing by had seen my body and called them. While they waited for an ambulance they went through my things and found my passport.
I woke up in hospital and saw a policeman waiting by my side. “You are a lucky man, Mr Teller. The doctors say you should have been dead. Do you know who did this to you?”
“No.”
“We have contacted the British Consulate. They are trying to trace your family. Would you like to give me their address? You do have family?”
“I do, but I’d rather not have them know about this.”
“Someone has to pay all the medical expenses Mr Teller. This is not Britain and you are not Italian.”
“I understand. I have money, I’ll pay.” I gave him the name of my bank and asked they get a representative to bring me whatever needs my signature.
“I will need a statement and description of your attackers.”
“Later please.”
“The longer we delay the less chance we have of catching them.”
“I don’t care, later please, I need to sleep.” I closed my eyes, but I felt him watching me suspiciously. I drifted off, feeling as I did a bone moving within me, being put back in place. I ordered the healer to slow down, only do what is necessary to keep me alive. I needed time to stop and think.
The next day the police officer was back again. They had found my diary and thanks to my code they had become extremely suspicious. They wanted me to translate it back into English. I refused. “I’m in the IT industry. These are notes of my work and are confidential.”
“Nevertheless you will translate them. This may explain the attack on you.”
“Probably. I am sorry I cannot help you officer.”
“Your Consulate said they are sending someone to see you this afternoon. If you have not agreed to co-operate by then, I will have to advise them you are being held as a suspect.”
I laughed and winced. “Of what! Of beating myself up?”
“Far more serious than that Mr Teller, we believe you are here to spy on us as an agent of your government. If not for your government then for industrial espionage.” I felt the fingers of the spider in this, but kept the fear to myself. I refused to talk any further after telling him he was being ridiculous. I suppose my attitude did not do much to help my case.
“Mr Teller, I am from the British Consulate. You will be relieved to hear we have traced through your records your employer in Greece. He has already authorised transfer of funds to cover your costs here. He is also, through his own Embassy, arranging for your problem with the local authorities to be settled. He has confirmed that you are working for an IT company of his and have very confidential information that belongs to them.”
I stared up at this young woman who was trying to strike an officious pose. I could not help giving her a grin. “What is your name?”
1237
“Miss Howard.”
“I’m very glad to meet you Miss Howard. Tell me, since I am a British subject, are you allowed to relax and smile at me?”
“You do not seem to appreciate the seriousness of your situation.”
“I have just been attacked and beaten to a pulp and I do not appreciate it?”
She smiled at my wording. “It would seem you have some rather powerful friends in Greece Mr Teller. Apparently their Chief of Police has already been in contact with his opposite on this side, asking that you be protected as you are assisting your boss in a very large and confidential deal.”
“Good old Perikli. How soon will I be allowed to leave?”
“You are joking! The doctors say you will be in that bed for another month at least. I believe they were waiting to either find next of kin or for you to authorise an operation.”
“Permission not granted Miss Howard.”
“You do not even know yet why they need to operate!”
“It does not matter. According to my religion it is up to my body to repair itself. No operation.”
She sat down in apparent distress. “I must tell you that if you do not allow them to operate you are very likely going to die within the next few days.”
“Miss Howard, I am a betting man. I bet you that I will not die. If I do not, then you must take me out to supper with a good bottle of wine. If I lose the bet then I have to take you out to supper.”
She shook her head. “My brother is just like you. Why is it that all you computer boffins are so weird?”
“Perhaps because we belong to the future whereas most people are trying to hang on to the familiarity of the past.”
“I must tell him that one - I’m sure he will plagiarise it to death.” She smiled at the thought and became serious again. “Mr Teller, why will you not be more co-operative with the police and the doctors? You give vague descriptions of the men who attack you, claiming you did not even see their car. You refuse to let the doctors operate. Are you really hoping you will die?”
“Call me Robert. No, I want to live. If I tell you something in confidence, do you have to repeat it to the police? Okay then. The men who attacked me, they failed. If they belong to the corporate organisation I think they do, they will never be found. By now they are probably dead. As for my being treated. I am willing to agree that if the doctors examine me tomorrow morning and still see a need to operate, I will give my permission. Please come along, I’d like you here to see the consternation on their faces when they find I have healed.”
“I will be here to make sure you sign the consent form.”
“I would shake on that but it hurts too much. Do me a favour though?”
“What?”
“When you come tomorrow, please bring with you your smile. I know you leave it at home when going to work, but I am a very sick man and need all the smiles I can get so that I will heal faster.”
When the police officer returned it was obvious he had heard from his most senior officer who had heard from Perikli (I just realised, this means Perikli still holds his position). He was more friendly than aggressive.
“It still annoys me Mr Teller. You obviously know far more than you will admit.”
“Of course I do. Officer, we are talking here about a new development in the IT market. Think of Microsoft and multiply that fifty times. Do you think the importance of catching these men can compare?”
1238
“I should not say this then. You do realise that your book has been copied and there are experts working on it right now? They will break your code.”
“That does not worry me. I once estimated it would take all the computers in the world about a hundred years to do so. Once they crack the first layer, all they’ll find is part of a fantasy story. Beyond that they’ll not succeed.”
“I am a believer in men, not computers Mr Teller. A man might solve it.”
“I’ll grant you that. Our intuition seems to outperform any computer, of now or the known future.” I smiled. “I hope they enjoy my story.”
“I do not think I will be seeing you again. I hope you will agree to the operation tomorrow as Miss Howard promised.”
“If I need to. Officer, I hear so much about brutality of men in the police force. Why is it that every policeman I have met up to now has turned out to be nice?”
“Try us when you become a criminal Mr Teller.” He looked at me quizzically. “You are not a criminal are you?”
“My friends think I am crazy, but none have called me a criminal yet.”
He chuckled and gave his hand to me and shook mine gently, careful not to hurt me. “Goodbye Mr Teller. I am leaving my card by your bedside, if you need me, please do not hesitate to call me.”
I lay in bed that evening trying to call to Cherine, trying to find a way to go to the void. Nothing worked. I could not understand it. After all, we have taken many normal people to the void, so why couldn’t I do it? What about when I sleep and dream, was I being forced to stay within my body even then? I had been moved to a private room, so I was surprised to hear the door open just after the nurse had been to check on me. I saw it was a little girl. “Solomon! Nice to see you.”
“There has been much distress because of you Robert. When Ordinx heard that one of his men attacked you he was most upset.”
“Please tell him his man was wonderful. He had to play a part, something entirely alien to him I’m sure, and he did so remarkably well. He must please thank him for me.”
“We understood the reason Robert. It is the idea of any of us hurting you for any reason that is upsetting. Alki has told your family of what happened and they are all upset.”
“I was afraid of that. Please tell them I am well. The only reason I have kept myself ill was to avoid causing further suspicion - to tell the truth, it has also been pleasant lying here warm and looked after.”
“You could have been at home with the girls who love you and you would have been warm and looked after.”
“Solomon, please do not try to tempt me. It has been difficult staying away.”
“Why must you?”
“I do not understand all the reasons. This attack has proved I was right though. I would have been a danger to them if I had stayed at home.”
“The danger no longer exists. That man was the only one who had the ability to see into your mind. He could not read all your thoughts, but was able to know most of what you did and where you were.”
“That is a relief, but I cannot presume they do not have other ways of getting at me. We do not know what talents lie within their organisation.”
“Perikli has spoken, told of what he knows. We were at your home and there was a discussion. Young Rob made a comment. He said, suppose there was the ability, for a small amount of money any elderly person could have his mind and soul transferred to that of a body of a child. He wondered how many would have the strength to refuse. On moral or ethical grounds. That was when Perikli told us that the upper echelon of the organisation do that. Only their master has the ability to do it, but if someone has served him well he will do it for them as a reward and to continue having the use of their services. He had been told that if he proved himself he would be given the same reward. It seems that getting rid of you was the price. He admitted that the offer had at first sounded tempting, until he thought of the child, of how it would be displaced and sent into his old body. They would not want his old body with the mind of a child to exist as the child might be believed, so they make certain the old body dies immediately after transfer is completed.”
1239
“Do humans disgust you Solomon?”
“I have seen how strong the urge to live is. The desert experience taught us a lot. Since most humans do not know they have souls and will continue to exist afterwards, I suppose it is only to be expected that there would be those who cling to life at any price.”
“I could not do that to an adult Solomon; to a child, it would be unthinkable.”
“We do not include you in the conversation Robert. You are not a human. First of all you are a Cherinian, then you…”
“No longer Solomon. I am now mostly just a Terran. One touched from having been a Cherinian.”
“And I wish to ask you Robert, do you believe that a Cherinian is only one who has the gifts, the powers, or is a Cherinian one who thinks like one, who loves like one?”
“Who thought up that question? It had to be one of the girls, was it Meli, Wendy…?”
“Marian.”
“Marian!! Tell her she has shamed me and I thank her for it. I would love to continue thinking of myself as a Cherinian and she has made it possible.”
“Come home and tell her yourself.” He sat back and closed his eyes. Soon as the eyes opened again I knew.
“Robert. Oh my love.”
“Dommi, it is you?”
“Yes.” She gave me a wan smile, “Everyone bet you would think it is Cherine.”
“There is a special feel to you my love. I’d know you anytime. Is this not risky my love?”
“We have to take some risks my love. It is why we did not let Cherine come.”
“You dare to think of yourself as more expendable!?”
“I am agapi mou. Are you in a lot of pain?”
“You cannot feel? No, no pain. The healer is fixing me so that I do not need to be operated on tomorrow. I’m going to cause more upsets again.”
“It is one of your gifts my love and even the spider cannot take that one away from you. That and your craziness.”
“How is Rob bearing up?”
“He grows more like you daily. It makes his Cherine love him more and our Cherine suffers, feeling him so close to what you are and yet not being the man she loves.”
“Dommi, I do try all the time to contact you girls. I cannot, I can’t even go to the void. Could you take me?”
She tried, but found nothing to hold on to. She could not touch or intrude into my mind, it was like a slippery ball of glass she said.
“You know what that proves? My gifts are not dead, the doors not shut or burnt out. A block has been placed. Tell Henry to check out my mind. Let him see if he can find a way to break through.”
“But it would have to be some kind of energy wouldn’t it? Why can’t a Sparkler get rid of it then?”
1240
“Ask Solomon. I think it must be something else, perhaps a mixture of energy and…whatever. Hey, I just thought of something. You girls are all going to be jealous. I’ve got a pretty girl coming to visit tomorrow. She is from the Consulate. She thinks I’m crazy, but likes it.”
“You just make yourself happy Robert, we will not be upset.”
“Why do you have to spoil it for me Dommi? You should know I was only teasing, I’d never look at another woman.”
“I’m sorry, I forgot, of course not, since she is not a little girl.”
“Well, I did go with a twelve year old prostitute in Rome.”
“And?”
“You really are a killjoy! I paid her fifty dollars for a plate of oily spaghetti. There was nothing I could do to help her.” I told her my experiences and asked that when it is safe they send Cherine to Sylvestro.
“We should have known you would find a way to carry on. Is this your purpose in life now Roberto?”
“No. It would be a good one, but my purpose is to find a way to return to you as I was. Doing this Dommi, it is not only that I help others and teach them - I am also learning.”
“I think what we need you to learn is how much we are hurting by not having you with us.” As a reflex I had expected a reaction at the words, but nothing happened. Is it only the protector in me that reacts to their pain? If it is so, I do not like it nor what it says about me.
“Ask them to mute their pain, as they did when I was ill. That is it. They must just think of me as being ill and trying to find my way back to a full recovery.”
“Aganthi is still missing Robert.”
“That is part of what Rob must take care of. It is up to him and all of you to find her. Telling me only worries me and hurts while I can do nothing about it.”
“You will not return to help find her?”
“I will not put you all in danger. Have you heard from Petsas?”
“He has called to tell us that he knows what happened to you. It has made him their man now.”
“I still think he will come running for shelter. We will win this fight. Solomon forgot to tell me how our attack is working out.”
“It seems pointless Robert. We do not know how many of them there still are. We have already disconnected over two thousand of them, but they hardly seem aware of it.”
“They are, you can bet your sweet smile they are. They dare not show us how much we are hurting them.”
“Where will you go now?”
“I have no idea. Just following my feet, as I was instructed to.”
I asked her to lie alongside me for a while. It was good to feel the warm soft body even if that was all I could do. Not that I would have done more since she was not in her own body. When she left, Solomon took over the body and left the room. I wondered what does he do with it, does he dissolve the body? It upset me to think so after holding it in my arms and feeling the warmth. Strange that I had not questioned it before. It comes from trusting my friends I suppose, but I should have.
Miss Howard came late the next morning, probably half expecting to find I’d died during the night. She took one look at me and sat without speaking. The doctors were fussing in their own language and it was obvious some sort of argument was taking place. I’d had a busy morning of being probed in all the ways they could think of as they tried to find signs of the damage they knew should be within me. I behaved myself, did not crack jokes and patiently let them have their fun.
Αλέξανδρος Ζήνον Ευσταθίου
(Alexander Zenon Eustace)26th June, 2019
- posted on Steemit: 26th June, 2019