“No, but I think we both deserve some time for loving each other alone.” I gave her a long soft kiss, at first she resisted me, but then she melted and held to me tightly. “Go my love.” She stood up and tears brimmed her eyes as she jumped.
1261
I lay on the bed for about ten minutes, trying to imagine what Doris would do. I am not good at visualising things of that nature and giving up, I decided to walk down to the hotel and beach. It is a long walk and once I had arrived I was too tired to roam the beach. I sat with a gin and tonic and rested, watching the few guests. I soon realised what is wrong. There are no children, no little voices calling out in play, laughing, screaming, crying. The place filled with only adults as it was, felt dead.
Tanzania is not exactly a tourist Mecca and those who come there are there on business. Most people do not take children on business trips. I decided a warm beer or a fresh coconut drunk from the nut itself are better in a local village where there are children, than sitting here in supposed luxury. To me, luxury is the joy I feel in being surrounded by their vibrant souls. The hotel bus was about to leave for Dar and the driver agreed to drop me at the bottom of the hill below the farm. From the way the driver talked I found out that all the locals know Dimitri and though they think he is crazy, they like him. He asked after him and I told the driver Dimitri is away, gone for a visit. He made noises of astonishment, telling me he could not believe it, that he has not left his farm for over twenty years.
I arrived by the front door, about to open it. The back of my neck prickled and I spun around. There were about fifteen men holding pangas and they were coming in towards me, their faces frozen in a wild trance. The door refused to open and I was stuck in the middle of the ring of death closing in upon me. I took the cowards way out. I asked my healer to block all pain and turned back to face the men as they silently came towards me. They spoke in Swahili, so I could barely understand them.
“He is the one who brings the demons to take the souls of our children.” They all replied, “He is the one.” As this continued the first one came within striking distance. He raised his panga and without any hesitation, chopped downwards. It sliced into my side. I saw the blood, my bones showing through, but I felt no pain.
Desperately I tried to bluff, but I had to do it in English. “Those who strike me will pay. I will return to make your children sickly and they will spend their lives in pain and so will their children and the children of their children. The demons I send will torture them their whole lives and when it is time for them to die they will eat their souls. The same will happen to you.”
It is as if they could not hear me, there was no change of expression and the second blow landed on my shoulder slicing through. My left arm hung uselessly. There was no way my healer could repair such damage fast enough. The next panga stroke was aimed at my waist and I knew it would slice through too many organs for me to live through it. A hand reached out and gripped, holding back the blow.
Softly a voice spoke, “Samama! Kwenda sasa.(Stop! Go now).”
All the men stopped, even the one about to strike me did not struggle. They turned to what I saw was an elderly man. He looked like a normal black man, but he must have had some power to have broken through their trance. He spoke to them, his voice still soft but filled with authority. They looked at him and then at me and their eyes were filled with fear as they saw what they had done.
“Tell them I do not blame them. It was the evil one, the spider who made them do it.”
“I have spoken to them, they will leave now.” Even as he spoke they left. He put his arm around me, holding me up. “Can you repair yourself?”
I gasped. “How did you know?”
“Bwana Eddie told me to come. He told me you have many powers.” He easily opened the door and led me to a chair in the kitchen, where I sat down.
“I need water please.” He brought me a glass of water that was stained with rust from the pipes, but I drank it and returned it for a re-fill. I knew my healer could not make something out of nothing. I was drenched in my blood and it needed to make more very quickly. I closed my eyes and tried to relax so that it could concentrate on its job.
“This Eddie, he is an old man with a white goatee beard, a friend of Dimitri?”
“A friend?” He laughed. “Those two fight all the time like old women. He will be here soon. I see the one wound is already closing.”
“My shoulder, can you hold it up so that the wound can be closed?” Gently he held it in place for me.
1262
“I was not expecting them to get here so fast or else I would have hurried. I am an old man and do not like to hurry unless I have to. I apologise.”
“For what, for being old?”
“That I am proud of. My name is John.”
“Robert.”
“Do you know why bwana Eddie called for you to come here?”
“No. I think it is to help me.”
“You have powerful enemies. Who is this spider you spoke of?”
“A woman. I made her fear me and now she is seeking to kill me. How did you break her control over their minds?”
“These are my people, this is my land.”
“Are you a witch doctor?”
He laughed. “I am a chef at the hotel by the beach. I saw you there, but before I could speak to you the bus left.”
“You did not have the power to make the driver wait?” I teased.
“He who uses his powers must be careful how he uses them or else they will, like a serpent, turn around and bite him. I see the shoulder wound has closed, can I let go now or are you still repairing the bones?”
“I have no idea. I cannot communicate with my healer anymore.”
“You did not use it wisely and it…”
“No. The woman I spoke of, she blocked my mind.”
“There is a war on then?”
“Yes.”
He described Doris. “Is this the woman?”
“You know her?”
“Bwana Eddie is her husband.”
“What!!!”
“She comes sometimes to speak to him.”
“In her body?”
“You know? No, mostly her spirit.”
“She was here today, just before I walked down to the hotel. I do not understand, why does her husband want to see me? Why would he send you to save me?”
“He loves her, but they do not believe in the same things. Wait for him to tell you. Will you be alright if I leave now? I have to cook for the guests or else I will be fired.”
“John, I can’t find a good enough way to thank you.”
“I think you will find a way when the time comes. Bwana Eddie told me you would. He says that you look like a man on this world, but that you are Death. So the time will come when you will help me. I hope it will not be for a long time.”
1263
I began to laugh and he watched me, not understanding. “John, if I am Death then it should cause you much amusement to know that you saved me from death.”
He shrugged, not seeming to understand why I found it funny. “Many gods have been helped by men.”
“I am not a god, I’m just an ordinary man with some gifts, talents or powers you may call them. Or I was before she blocked me.”
“Then why do you let her? Why not break her block?”
“To break her block I need to use my gifts. To use my gifts I need to break her block.”
“I see. You are a man, thirsty but swimming in the middle of the ocean.”
“Something like that. Not that I would have put it that way. I feel more like a man swimming in a lake of fresh sweet water, but my mouth has been tied shut and I cannot drink. If you can spare me a few minutes I would like to wash and change and come with you. After the repairs I will be starving. Do you cook a good steak?”
“I will make a special one for you. It must still be red inside so that you get the strength of the meat.”
The healer had to call on my last reserves for me to make it to the hotel. John made me sit down and soon had a plate of sandwiches and a coffee for me.
“This will help you for now.”
“Could you ask a waiter to bring me a packet of cigarettes?”
I sat alone, looking relaxed, but my mind was in a turmoil. From what John had said, I understood that this Eddie guy called to me, was the reason I had felt the need to travel. The fact that he is also the husband of my enemy was disturbing. Hearing that she comes to visit him still and that he loves her did nothing to instil me with confidence.
“Are you a real goddam tourist?” He looked about fifty and was obviously tired. Without asking he pulled out a chair and sat at my table. “This fucking country is going to cause me a heart attack. Hey you! Bring me a whiskey on the rocks and made damn sure it is a Chivas. You have to be careful, if they think you don’t know the difference they pass off the cheapest rubbish on you.”
“Not my experience. I’ve found the people of this country to be one of the most honest I’ve met. I exclude politicians, priests and lawyers of course.”
“I’m Harry, Harry Westman, from Miami.”
“Robert.”
“Well Robert, what are you doing here?”
“Waiting for supper.”
He thought I was funny and seemed to be incapable of taking umbrage. If I’d met him in a zoo I might have mistaken him for a rhino, he shared a certain quality of skin with them.
“You don’t like talking about yourself, all you British are the same. You should learn to be open and friendly like us Americans.”
“Thanks, but I’d rather be shafted by somebody who calls me mister, than by someone using my first name. My experience is that you Americans use your show of easy friendliness as a weapon.”
“My! You don’t mince your words do you? I like that. Does make it difficult to be friendly though.”
“I hope so.”
“Somebody stolen your wife? Or maybe you are in this mood because nobody wants to steal her?”
“What are you doing here if you hate the country so much?”
1264
“The country is great. Do you know how much potential there is?”
“Harry, you remind me of an old story. When Greece was still ruled by Turkey and the Greeks were fighting for independence, the British Parliament sent out a few men to report on what was happening and whether the Greeks should be helped. When they returned they were full of marvel at the antiquities they had seen, the strange beauty of the country, but their comment was, ‘what a pity it is occupied by Greeks’.”
He slapped his thigh in enjoyment. “They had it damn right.”
“I think you misunderstand. The story, which is true, does not reflect badly on the Greeks, it shows what complete arseholes that delegation were. If I needed a reason to dislike your politicians, your betrayal of your allies, Greece I mean, would be enough. Turkey sided with the Germans in the Second World War, whatever their official declarations were. Greece fought and suffered on the side of the allies. Yet your arseholes reward Turkey. You betrayed the people of Cyprus. Your presidents make speeches about your beliefs, but they do not give a shit about humanity. They will back any dictator if it serves their purposes, even if only in the short term.”
“I think you have your facts mixed up. I had not expected to find an anti-American. I better leave.”
“I am not an anti-American. The ideals the people believe in are my ideals. I just do not like your politicians. But then, to be honest, I do not like any politicians.”
He sat back again smiling. “I’ll drink to that.”
“So Harry, what are you doing here?”
“Trying to make these idiots understand how business is conducted. I come with millions to invest, offer to build a tourist resort that will stand out and bring them tourists and foreign exchange. You’d think they would jump at the opportunity. Instead, they are demanding they get fifty percent ownership, just because they have the land - and that they run the resort. Do you know the kind of comments I get? ‘You foreigners are all the same, you come here with the bible in the one hand and a pistol in the other.’ That is from the Minister of Finance. The Minister of Tourism has the cheek to say to me that they offer land filled with diamonds underneath and because we have the machinery to dig it out we think we must be in control and get the lion’s share. She’s goddamn right! The diamonds are worthless sitting down there.”
“Your machines are also worthless if you do not have diamonds to dig up.”
“There are diamonds everywhere. Our machinery is the capital we have. Why should we risk it here when there are so many places our money would be welcomed without us being at risk?”
“You are both right Harry. You need to understand these people and to have the patience to negotiate until you have an agreement that benefits both of you. Unfortunately you also have to know how to grease a few palms.”
He then told me something interesting, “Just kilometres away from here there is a game park. It is the only place in the world where animals, even giraffes, come down to the sea and go into the water. We are proposing a resort just by the border of the park. It would be a gold mine if publicised correctly. The problem is that a road of about two hundred kilometres would have to be built. No damn hotel can afford to build it. They would also have to bring electricity and water. They expect us to do all that. They are dreaming!”
“Harry, so are you. This country cannot afford to put the infrastructure you need. You may have the ideal concept, but I think it is the wrong time for it. Come back in twenty years.”
“You know something? I think you are right. I’m going to cancel my meetings and go back home. I can use my money just as well back home.”
“At least there you know the rules, the people and your market. This country has been spoilt by countries like Sweden. They have for too many years been giving them money, helping them. It is about time Africa grows up, stops expecting others to care for them and begin to work to create something out of their own wealth. They do not need your fancy resorts Harry. They could put up simple stone and thatch huts with a few amenities and tourists would flock, even travel over their awful roads to get there. To the visitors it would all be part of the unspoilt Africa they came to experience and they would put up with it. It would be better for development to grow that way than by trying to leapfrog themselves into owning resorts of the kind you talk about. Unfortunately their Ministers do not understand that. They want the luxury trappings of the West and the prestige.”
1265
As annoyed as I’d been by his intrusion I had been helped to forget my own problems for a brief moment, so I became friendlier and we chatted a while longer. Once he stopped trying to bulldoze me he turned out to be fairly nice and showed me photos of his children.
“Are you married Robert? You look too young to have any children yet.”
“I am older than I look. I have a couple of daughters (if I’d told the truth he would not have believed me).”
“No son?”
“Not yet. Maybe in a hundred years or so.”
“You are wrong. My sons have been my joy. The girls, they are always close to their mothers. You need sons.”
“As the Arabs say, Inshalah! God willing.”
“What kind of work are you in?”
“The Internet, I design sites. I specialise in computer graphics. I also put my drawings on the Web.”
“You’re kidding! You said your name is Robert, is your surname Teller?”
“How did you know?”
“Goddam! You’re the one that did the Kaleidoscope World series? Shit! Just wait until I tell my kids and wife. They love your work.”
“I’m flattered.”
“Bullshit! You know you are good. How much to buy an original from you?”
“All my originals are on the web. You are welcome to copy and paste them.”
“I’m talking about an original. On canvas. You must have done some. What would you charge?”
“I’ve never thought of it.”
“Name your price.”
“You mean you want me to paint something for you?”
“That too. What I want is an original of the Kaleidoscope series.”
“Those are not for sale. They belong to my wife and daughters.”
“You tell your wife I’ll pay a hundred thou for one.”
“Harry, for what you have just done for my ego I owe you a drink. Another whiskey?”
“Why not. It’s not as if I have to get up early tomorrow to go to any meetings anymore.” He winked at me. “Let’s celebrate, get a bottle.”
“I don’t really drink. Just wine with my food.”
“Then you must join me for supper. We’ll get the best bottle of wine they have.”
I felt dizzy. What a day! I see my girls. Slit my wrist. Bring in two new Cherinians. Nearly make love. Meet the spider. Get sliced up by pangas Find out I came all this way to meet her husband. To top it all I meet someone who wants to pay this kind of money for a painting of mine. What else, I wondered.
1266
Luckily the rest of the evening was pleasant. I was pleased to find John waiting and he stayed the night. I may sound like a little girl, but I really did not want to spend the night alone, just knowing he was in the house was a comfort.
“Bwana Eddie comes today, a little later. You come to the kitchen for breakfast, I made you eggs. I am also to give you a message. There will be no attacks today. The madam has promised her husband.”
“You think she will keep her word?”
“She fears him. She will keep her word.” I did not believe it and sent another warning that they must expect an attack today.
“This power you call the healer, you can talk to it? It could talk to you before?”
“Yes.”
“Can it talk to me?”
“Why?”
“You are worried. If it cannot answer you, let it tell me and I will tell you.”
“I would like to know that my friends and family are well.”
His face impassive, as if this sort of thing happened every day, I saw him listening. “The protector, it says, will do as you ordered. It says they are all well.”
“Thank you John.”
“I do not have milk, can you drink coffee black?”
I did and enjoyed a smoke with it. We sat on the front lawn looking over the sisal and all the way to the sea. I felt relaxed and did not feel the need to fill the silence with small talk. We could see the main road below us and two jeeps came down it filled with soldiers.
John gestured. “They must be after poachers. We have a big problem with them. The government does not have the money to equip our game rangers with the guns and equipment they need. What is happening, why are they coming here?”
“Quick, hide.”
He disappeared amongst the thorny sisal. I climbed a tree and hid in the foliage. The jeeps stopped at the front of the house and the soldiers came running into the house and through, out onto the lawn. They saw the chairs and my mug. They began to search. It took all of five minutes for them to find me. They stood under me, laughing and joking amongst themselves. Their officer came and looked up.
“Climb down or we will shoot.”
“What do you want. I have not done anything.”
“We have our orders. Come down.”
As I started to climb down I saw all the rifles were pointing at me. I jumped the last bit and landed on my feet. As I steadied myself, the guns less than a metre away from me, the officer shouted something and all the guns went off. I was thrown up against the tree and collapsed. I had been hit in the heart also and hardly had time to know what was happening before I found myself fading into darkness.
I did not go to the void. As far as I can recall, nothing happened. I came to and felt my heart beating. An elderly face, big ears and fleshy nose, a short dirty white beard and very blue eyes staring at me from close up were the first things I saw.
“Humph! You’ll live. Was it my wife?”
“I…I don’t know.”
1267
“Of course it was.” He grunted as he got off his knees. He stood staring off into the distance and suddenly Doris was there. Not a projection, she was actually there in flesh. She was terrified as he coldly told her, “You broke my word, made a liar of me.”
“Eddie, I had to. They were going to kill me.”
“You are lying! I have lived in his mind longer than you have even known of him. He has never intended killing you. It does not matter, what does matter is that you have dishonoured me. I gave my word you would not attack today. At least he had the common sense not to trust me and ordered his family to be on the lookout for an attack.”
I kept silent. This was between the two of them. I felt uncomfortable in clothes soggy and sticky with my blood. I wondered, had my healer succeeded in saving me or had it been Eddie?
I saw John come out of hiding. Eddie turned on him, his anger very evident. “You were supposed to protect him.”
“How? One man against fifteen soldiers with guns?”
He turned to his wife again. “Hettie, you will release him now. Take away the block.”
“But...” she took one look at his cold eyes and I felt the block disappear. Immediately I felt Cherine and our link was back. As they came into my mind they fell silent as they watched and listened through me.
Eddie turned to me and put a hand on either side of my head. “Let me into your mind. Open up.” I did so. There was too much power in this man for me to even think of refusing. I felt him do something deep within me.
“I have fixed you so that she cannot return to block you again. Go change your clothes, have a wash, I want to talk alone with my wife.”
*I have no more clothes, can you girls bring me some?* They arrived and stared in dismay at the blood and bullet holes in my clothes. I grinned at them. “I may not be a saint, but I sure get holy at times.”
They were not amused even though I thought it was one of my better lines ever. Dommi looked at Cherine and turned to me. “If those are bullet holes, how could your healer fix all that damage?”
“I think it had help. It turns out her name is Hettie, I think she must be Austrian or German. While I wash and change, take a look in my mind to see what happened, not the shooting, I mean about Eddie and Hettie.”
Of course they all searched through all my memories since I had left Greece. Cherine left the room without a word. I saw her through the window and tried to call her to return, but she ignored me.
“I am Cherine. I have come out here to tell you that if you ever hurt my Robert in any way again I will find you and kill you in the most painful way you can imagine.”
She turned around and walked back in. Only then did I see her face, white and wet with her tears. She did not want me to touch her and sat by herself, her arms around herself. Dommi went to her and pulled her into her arms. She then began to sob. “I failed him Dommi. I let her hurt him and did nothing.”
“Shh love, you had to obey him. He is our Robert, you could not go against his wishes.”
“But I let her hurt him!” As she cried she fell asleep in the arms of Dommi, as she used to do so long ago.
Half an hour later Eddie came to the door. “Would you mind all coming outside?”
I saw Cherine had woken up and realised he must have known and waited for her. I picked her up in my arms to carry her. She squirmed. “Let me go Robert. I will not let her see me like this.”
“My love, I would prefer you did. Let her see how different we are from her. Our weakness may be our love, but it is also our strength. Let her see how wonderful it is to feel so much love, do not be ashamed of it.”
1268
“She would only see a little girl and my threat would look silly.”
“You mean ridiculous. I think it would be even more frightening for her. To see she lost to a bunch of kids, god that must be aggravating for her.”
“You want me to come out as a baby?” Tina asked cheekily.
“You are fine just as you are. Come on girls, let’s go meet the man. I think this is going to be interesting.”
“As you now all know by now, I have been aware of you for a long time - from about the time of the story of the angel of Athens. I have kept an eye on you, especially you Robert. I had to place a part of my awareness into your mind so as to get to know what you are like. You are a difficult man to understand and a very easy one to underestimate. I had to see whether you would abuse your gifts, take the same road my wife and I did. Believe it or not, when I first met her and we recognised that we were both special in the same way, she too had dreams of making the world a better place for everyone. She was sweet and innocent and her heart was filled with love.
You have seen how she has changed. We did not discover the void and we do not have the ability to create new bodies for ourselves. I have still not understood why creating healers within you has resulted in changing your metabolism, extending your lives so dramatically. For us it did not. We began to grow old and then we discovered how to give ourselves another lifetime and we did it.
At that time, things were very different from now. There was contempt for the poor, to take the bodies of two of their children for our use did not seem a terrible thing to do. This is my fourth body. I vowed it would be my last one. Each time we did it I felt it more repugnant, whereas my wife became hardened and saw it as her right. As our powers made it easy for us to manipulate normal people, we saw them as cattle, there for our use. Our paths took different directions. I learnt something that forced me to re-evaluate my beliefs and ambitions, so I returned to the idealism of my youth. I clearly saw what we had lost and rejected all that my powers could offer me. Unfortunately Hettie could not.
Can you now understand why I was so concerned about you, why I had to get to know you? I will admit I could have stopped Hettie from attacking you from the start. I was aware of her plans from the beginning. Robert, you are picturing the day the puppy exploded in the arms of your daughter, of her sitting there with her arms gone and crying out in your mind, how could I have allowed that. You are right in a way, but I also knew that even were she killed you could bring her back. The test was severe, but at least you passed it with flying colours.
I knew my wife could not win from the beginning; you have powers, that you wisely chose to call gifts, that she does not. It is difficult to wage a war against an enemy who can be killed a thousand times and yet return again to fight on. I needed this war, for myself and Hettie - and so, perhaps did all of mankind - and so did you and all your Cherinians, so I let it happen. I saw it as the ultimate test. If any of you were to become like my wife, it would show up soon enough. There is nothing like having your loved ones hurt for bringing out the justifications for becoming hard and then careless of the lives of others. Not one of you has been a disappointment to me. It may sound ridiculous to you, but living in the mind of Robert I got to know you all and then to love you as if you were my children - Robert, I include you. Aganthi child, when you took off after Robert I was touched and interfered for the first time. I hid you from my wife. I wish I could have shared your travels with you.
These two last days have been brutal for you Robert, but they were also perhaps the most important. You met my wife after she made you slit your wrist. She threatened and you planned only on how to save her. You were attacked by her tools, the men with the pangas and when John interfered, I waited for the first feelings of hate. When you were shot today and felt yourself die, I was convinced your last thoughts and feelings would be of hate - you must have known your soul was to be held captive by my wife. Your thoughts were only of your girls, of your love and concern for them. You even worried about John, hoping he had got away.
If you had failed, changed and hardened, however extreme the test had been, I would have been vindicated. It is bad enough that the world has one person like my wife. Another could have meant the destruction of mankind. Your refusal to change, finding time to help others even in the dire circumstances you found yourself in, has made my test a thing of shame. Do you understand why I had to allow it, why I did not intercede on your behalf earlier?”
“Yes. I think I am even grateful to you for not stopping it. Having to face an adversary of her powers meant we either had to grow or die. It would have been the easy way to have fought back in the way she fought us. I will not say tempting, for I was not tempted.”
1269
“Actually Robert I was not asking you, I was asking your cub. Cherine?”
“I do not understand it like Robert does. Maybe I will, I know he will try to make me understand. What I want to know is, what happens now? Are you going to stop your wife or do we have to?”
I could not help grinning at her proudly and after a second he grinned too. “No, she is my problem, I will deal with her. You have already dismantled her organisation. She has been left alone, that may explain to you her desperation of these last days. I have one important question to ask of you. Would you accept me as a Cherinian?” Cherine looked at him and I felt him open himself to her and saw his smile as she gave me her signal of acceptance.
“We cannot accept her.” Cherine spoke in a flat voice that signalled she would not even discuss it. He smiled sadly.
“I understand. Remember, I still see the girl I originally fell in love with. What you see as evil in her, I too was like that twenty years ago. Given time she too may change. I do not want to face eternity without her. If only you could have seen her in her original body and in the innocence of her youth, she was so lovely.”
“She has the time, it is up to her. If not, if she cannot change, she can return to live another life afresh, perhaps in that one she can become a Cherinian.” Cherine was not pleased by my answer, but did not contradict me.
“The war then is officially over. Robert, I am glad you saw fit to take my friend Dimitri. He is a crazy old man but I love him, he has a very big heart.”
“Before the war is officially declared over Eddie, I would like our allies here, can you wait ?”
“I’d be very pleased to meet them.”
“Sam, I think you should do the honours, want to call them?”
Within half an hour they were with us. Eddie and Hettie stared at them. “Two little girls!!?” We all laughed at her expression.
“Eddie, if you want to see them as they really are you will have to meet Solomon in the void and Ordinx on the world of Meli. Sam, you do the introductions so that we can finish with this war.”
“Ordinx, Solomon, this lady is called Hettie. She is the one called the spider by us. The nice man next to her is her husband. He has forced his wife to stop attacking us. We have all agreed to end the war, but we first wanted you here before declaring the war over. Eddie, this is Ordinx of the Anadir and the other one is Solomon of the Sparklers. They have been our allies, their people helping us to dismantle the spider organisation.”
“I am honoured to meet both of you, I have seen you both through the eyes of Robert, but I have a feeling I will get a far truer picture by getting to know you both myself - Robert has his own strange way of seeing everything. Now that you are both here I would like to declare this war officially over.”
“Eddie, I swear I will not stop attacking them if they continue to call me a spider.”
“The right to name you as they will was bought by their victory.”
I intervened. “I regret the name was used in your presence Hettie, it was only used by us as we did not know who our enemy was. As from this moment I would like to rename the war as having been the ‘Doris’ war, the first war and hopefully the last between gifted humans.”
Belligerently Cherine asked me, “Why Doris and not Hettie?”
“She assumed the name Doris during the war and I would prefer we bury the past so that the name Hettie one day is identified as being the name of a close friend of ours. Hettie, I ask for your help to clean up. We have a large number of people who need to be identified and approached for re-educating, people we damaged from your organisation. If you have a list of their names and addresses it would help us.” I nodded at our two friends. “I do not think we should impose on our alien friends any longer, they need to return to the void.”
1270
Eddie looked at her and she reluctantly replied, “I do not have the names of all of them. I would have to get them from those who work for me.” She wandered off to the edge of the lawn, looking out to sea, obviously in a turmoil.
Ordinx came close and spoke softly, “We would be pleased to help you find the people we disconnected. My people know them and we can find them again.”
“I know Ordinx, I am trying to get her involved on purpose. If her husband needs her, we have to do what we can to turn her around.” A thought crossed my mind. “Eddie, you said you placed a part of yourself within me so as to watch me. Is that still the case?”
“It is. You wish me to withdraw it?”
“If I may rely on your discretion it will not be necessary - at least for now. The times when I am alone with my family I would like to know we have our privacy.”
“I have never spied on your private times. Your love life is yours alone.”
“That too Eddie, but I was also talking of the times I am alone, being part of a family. If I speak with my girls or argue with them, or even need to remonstrate with one of them, I do not consider that as part of my public life. We all have abilities to share the experiences of the others, but we respect each others privacy. I ask of you the same consideration.”
“To tell you the truth, I have learnt more of your character from watching how you treat your family and what you say to them. It is no longer necessary though and I will withdraw entirely.”
“I hope I have not hurt your feelings, it is not my intention, Eddie I would rather you show me how you got in so that I learn how to protect myself.”
“You would have to come into my mind.”
I nodded. “After you become a Cherinian then. I would suggest, if it is convenient for all, that we meet at our house tomorrow night. We can then have a love fest - as good a word as any for the experiments we have been conducting. Afterwards we can all go to the void. I think thereafter you will become a Cherinian. Eddie, if you can persuade your wife to come along for the first part I would be grateful.”
“You do not trust her with regard to the void?”
“Not a matter of trust, I could quite happily take her right now. When we all dance together we exchange motes, parts of our souls, and this helps to make us all one. I do not think she is ready for that and I know that we are not.” As we talked I saw Irene walking over to Hettie. It seems all the girls had already noticed and were watching her through her own senses.
“Hi, I’m Irene. Do you know which one I am?”
“No I do not.”
“Remember when you sent the puppy and it blew up? I was holding it. It blew my arms off, Robert had to grow new arms for me. I just wanted to let you know that I am not angry about that anymore, but I am cross that you killed the puppy.”
“Then tell your Robert to go buy you another puppy.” Irene shrank back at her harsh tone.
Eddie did not hide the pain in his eyes as he said to her, “Oh Hettie! How hard you have become. How can you resist the heart of a child who forgives you for the terrible pain she suffered because of you?”
“Don’t you dare talk to me like that! Where did you get the body you are using now! Did you care how that child felt? You are a hypocrite!”
*Girls! Let’s give them some privacy. See you at home.* I grabbed Irene to me as I jumped.
Αλέξανδρος Ζήνον Ευσταθίου
(Alexander Zenon Eustace)28th June, 2019
- posted on Steemit: 28th June, 2019