We have discussed this with the Anadir and Ordinx asked the question, ‘What if he is proven to be evil, so evil that none of us, even his Cherine, can bear to call him friend?’.”
2441
I cried out, denying the possibility. He soothed me. “Sam, we must examine all possibilities. It could be that such a truth is presented and we all turn from him. It could also be that the power of his adversary is deceit and we cannot see anything but what it wishes us to. I am hoping that is the answer, for then I see a glimmer of hope.”
“How?”
“If Robert was to be totally vanquished, would he say his four will suffer or would he say they will suffer forever?”
I replayed his words from memory. He did not say forever!
“That means they will not be killed and will not spend all their lives suffering. It has given me the strength to think beyond whatever is to happen. Sam, if Cherine turns against him, would she cut her link? I have to presume she would, otherwise he would continue to have his powers. All we can plan for then is to find a way to help him preserve his powers. I trust him to find a way to fight back and win someday.”
“Oh Solomon!! If you are right, the day he wins we must change your name. No longer the Sparklers but the Glimmers so that all remember forever that you helped him and us.”
“Child, if I was Sol I would kiss you. Let us remain Sparklers though. The name signifies more to us than you can imagine.”
“How do we help him keep his powers. Oh! If you and I turn against him and we know we may betray him.”
“You do not hide from the truth! You are still able to amaze me Sam. We have considered it and that is why we will not discuss it further. All I can say is, go back to your family with courage and hope.”
I waited impatiently for them to settle down. Robbie had his eyes on me, but was lost somewhere deep within himself. I waited for him to finish, felt the world shudder as we jumped .
“Robbie, how are we jumping? Are you folding the ‘skin’ of the void as you did when moving our World?”
“That is right love. I would have to use too much energy to teleport us and I’m not that good at it.”
“Thanks. I have something to tell all of you. I must have your promise, you too Robbie, that you will not pry into my thoughts, however justified you may feel you are. Not now and not when the time comes that you think you must know. Swear to me on all that is good in you.”
It shocked them that I feared they would do so. I insisted by waiting until everyone had so sworn and I’d felt their true intentions. I think I broke their hearts by doing so.
“I’m here to talk about the prophesy. We are faced by a situation that we need to prepare for and yet if we are to turn our backs on Robert, what use are the preparations? If we know of them, then the adversary will know of them too, for we will volunteer the information to help it.” I put up my hand to stop the clamour of protests. “You are thinking you are not traitors. I did not say you will be. According to Robert we will turn against him, see him as our enemy. We will want to help the adversary!
Father, husband and father of our child, I fear for you too. If you know how you could be helped and the adversary is able to pick the knowledge from your mind, would that not be a catastrophe? None of us must know.
On the other hand I cannot bear the lives we are living. Robbie my love, you even hurt our friend Ordinx without reason. So let me tell all of you something I know and then there may be hope.
Robbie, Cherine may cut your link when the prophesy comes about. You would lose all your gifts and powers. How then can you fight?
Our first tiny beacon of hope is the way you phrased yourself dad. You said the four will suffer.” I paused to let them remember and then stressed my words. “You did not say they will suffer forever! Father, you did not say they will die!” I let them think on this for a moment. I saw my father’s eyes take back some life, a power growing in them again, the power of hope. “I do not care if the adversary knows this: Father, a way is planned so that should Cherine cut your link, you will survive and you will keep your gifts and powers. I do not know any further and do not want to know. All I wanted was that you all have hope again, that we face this as just another trial we must experience. Cherine, my loves, if you too have the faith I have in our love and husband, you too will no longer fear. I know our Robbie will win because he loves us.”
2442
I found myself within his arms and snuggled up to his chest, listening to his heartbeat. I waited for those who needed to cry to finish doing so. Then I held out my hand to Cherine. She took it and kept her eyes steady on mine.
“Cherine, first of us, you are the strongest and truest. I know your grief and despair at the thought you will betray him. I want to tell you this and you must keep it in your heart. You will not betray him! If the power of the adversary is such that you cannot help believing Robbie is evil, it will be as if you have been hypnotised and are acting against your will. Deep inside you there will be a Cherine who is prisoner and cannot speak out, but who knows our Robert and loves him. Tell her from me, she must not despair, our man will claim us back again.”
Sweet little lavender eyes took the other hand of Cherine. “We will all keep that secret part of us. Will it help you if you know that each of us has a little prisoner inside who loves and believes in our Robert?”
Cherine swallowed hard, the knot in her throat hurting her. “It will my baby.”
Meli spoke up. “Samantha, thank you. You have done more to give us hope than I would have believed possible. There is one other strength we have, another hope that all of you have not give credence to, not as he deserves it. Never forget that our Mr ‘A’ has also made us a promise. I do not pretend to understand why he has to write this adversary into our lives, but I trust his love for us.”
Sweet Tina, our gypsy girl had sunk deep within herself when she spoke, sending shivers down our spines. “The adversary, he belongs to us, is a part of us. We need him to be whole.”
She looked up in shock and fear and Robbie quickly let go of me, his face instantly hiding his turmoil and reaching Tina he picked her up within his arms, kissing away her fear.
“Another prophesy my love? Thank you, it will help light our way when we face the darkness of despair. I’ll keep your words alive to keep a corner of my heart filled with hope.”
He turned to me. “Sam, your thoughts move in strange circles and worlds and I fear you are growing beyond me. I also rejoice that you do. Our family was falling apart, mostly because of my own fears and you have helped pull us back together. You are right, we must look upon this as another form of the lessons I had to endure. If and when I find myself alone with my four, I will keep myself strong with the knowledge that each of you has a tiny prisoner who still believes in me and I will not allow that prisoner to stay imprisoned forever. I swear to you all, I will fight back even when it may seem pointless. That is my undertaking to you all.”
Goldi has a gift that has changed our lives. The sight of her, even her presence within our space, fills us with a sweetness and promise of magic, as if she truly is the queen of fairies. At first we thought this was just our imagination, our reaction to that rare loveliness of hers. It is a gift that sweetens our days and our dreams at night. If she ever needs to be alone she may suffer, for all of us feel a need to be close to her and if possible to touch her. I hope she has a defence that enables her to find her own space when she needs it.
We are holding a party tomorrow night, obviously at the taverna, to celebrate our first full year on board our spaceship-world. With the wild jumps Robbie is using we can no longer calculate how many worlds have been attacked. What did make us decide to celebrate though was when he discovered the fire-world is looking distinctly smaller. I think that in a way he is disappointed. Dad had hoped that a galaxy would hold millions of worlds inhabited by sentient creatures where it seems we are more likely to end up with something between four to seven thousand.
The Anadir reminded us that the count of inhabited planets does not reflect a true picture of how many planets there are with life. Apart from those we skipped, there should be many planets that have life, but have not evolved an intelligent species yet. Another possibility is that the fire-world is not interested in life that evolved on gas planets, atmospheres that do not include oxygen and so on. That cheered up Robbie - on this subject he is like a kid, his love of science fiction still a part of him.
2443
The girls asked if this would be a good time to put on their show. Robbie rubbed his hand over his face. “Are you going to embarrass me? I have a feeling you are going to make fun of me.”
Candy grinned. “A little bit.”
He stared into her eyes, kissed her nose and told them to go ahead. He called Maria over. “When they put their show on, you better be in my arms.”
“Why Roberto?”
“You are the only one who has never teased me. I may need some of that courage of yours to sit through it.”
He had to create a stage for them on the water. They did not want a raft as it may bob and make the dancers stumble.
“Solomon, your people make me feel guilty. Every time we have a celebration I have to limit the number who come. I then think of those who could not come and feel bad.”
“No point to it Robert. We are able to share…”
“Is it the same as experiencing directly?”
“I suppose it is not, but it is close enough”
I bet the Sparklers had watched the girls practice for all two hundred of them turned up as little girls - very cute girls too! I’d have to say that, for they used us as their models.
No surprise when they asked for some waltzes. Our girls were running around, playing dancing, grabbing food and making it difficult to hear the music with their shouting, laughter and squeals. When the Sparkler girls joined them we gave up on the dancing and watched them, most of us (the older ones) enjoying it through Robbie. The sounds of the kids was the sweetest music to him and he was covering them all with an umbrella of love.
We could also sense that Robbie was waiting for something, a surprise for us. Cherine sat cuddled on his lap, her eyes dreamy as she looked around. A silver sphere appeared through the ‘ceiling’ and drifted down to us. The kids who were running around on the stage ran off as it came to rest there. The bottom of the sphere flattened until it looked like a dome. Suddenly the dome disappeared and we all screamed. Robbie sent a message urgently to Goldi and Gina to hide.
We ran to the edge of the water, Meli leading the way as she jumped into the arms of her mother and father. Our big surprise! Robbie had the protector bring all the Cherinians from Earth, including baby Cherine and Robert.
I was also crying, as my mother Natalie was, and we clung to each other. I had not realised how much I missed her, pappou Alki and all the others. Only now I understood how much I’d also been missing our home. Robbie gave us nearly an hour to get over our crying and calm down.
“I think I have a pretty happy bunch of wives and daughters. Our beloved Cherinians have had a shock I’m afraid. If you girls did not know they were coming, imagine how they feel. I got the protector to tell them he was taking them for a three day trip without saying where.”
He waited, smiling as this got a response. He laughed and raised his arms for silence.
“I’ve had to sit here watching so that my loves could cry all over you, but I’ll take my turn just now. We have brought you here to join our party as we are celebrating our first full year in here. We’ll have our party tonight and for the next two days we can tell each other our news - I know the girls are bursting to do so.
Before we go on with our party, Natalie and Sam, will you come to me?” I took her hand and we went to him. He put his arms around her and softly kissed her on the lips. “Our daughter has turned out to be a real treasure my love. You’ll hear about her tomorrow. I have some news that cannot wait though. Samantha asked and we all agreed that she be the first ever to give birth in the void. Natalie, you have a granddaughter, her name is Gina. Gina, come out please?”
2444
My mother screamed and down on her knees she held Gina to her. She kept on squeezing her, pulling her away to look at her and squeezing her again. Gina threw me a glance, but there was no amusement in her eyes. She hugged her back and kissed her. My mother thinking this was the big news of the night wanted to move away with Gina, but I held on. Gina was quickly introduced to pappou and the others. Comments flew around about how lovely she is and I stood there preening, my heart filled with love and pride.
Robbie let her have her moment, giving her as much time as he could so that she sees how special and loved she is. Somebody made a comment, probably about how impressed she will be to see Earth. She smiled.
“I’ve already been on a planet, but I think you are forgetting something important. I have the most loving family and the most wonderful father in any world. What could compare to the happiness of being with them?”
Alki called to her, “Bravo koukla mou!”
“S’efharisto pappou.”
When things had settled down Robbie grinned at us girls and then spoke. “At a previous party, the private anniversary of Cherine and I, I wanted to play a trick on my loves. The Sparklers had come, as they have today, as little girls. I turned myself into a little girl, making myself so lovely that I knew my girls would fear me seeing her. Sam saw me first and asked whether I am a Sparkler. That brought all my girls and Dommi panicked, saying I must not see this sweet lavender-eyed girl.” He threw his hands up in a Greek gesture and they all laughed.
“Well, guess what! All my loved ones fell in love with her.”
Nicko moaned, “Oh no! Not again!” That provoked more laughter, though eyes were also filled with awe as they guessed.
“We agreed to have her, Cherine would give birth to her, but genetically she would also be the daughter of all my girls - even Gina. Natalie, you are not just a grandmother, you are also a great grandmother.”
He did not call her out, but waited. “I must warn all of you. Goldi has brought a new gift to us and it will break your hearts, especially when it is time for you to leave. Her gift is one of love and sweetness. Would you all like to experience it and meet the girl who won the hearts of my family?”
As they shouted, Goldi walked out and there was a sudden silence. She first went to Robbie, her slim arms reached up and he leant down to kiss her, his face showing his rapture. She did not stand by him, but walked over to Natalie, gave her the sweetest smile and kissed her. She walked out to the others and greeted them all one by one. From little boys and girls to the oldest of us, they all fell in love with her. Even we fell in love with her all over again. I realised something, it was so obvious that it struck me dumb. Dommi and Cherine and then all the girls turned and looked at me. Wide-eyed they silently agreed, the discovery a wonder within them too. Our Goldi is partly as she is, because she has inherited from her father the inability to hate. She has his gift of love that increases for all, with every new person she loves. No wonder!!!
Strangely not one of them touched her; it was as if they were afraid to, afraid that if they do, she will disappear and turn out to be a mirage, a dream. When she came to Alki she did not give him a choice. She lifted her arms to him, her dimples making his heart sing as he picked her up. Sitting on his arm, against his barrel chest, she stared into his eyes and kissed him.
Her voice was a low throaty half-whisper. “They were right. You are a pappou! My pappou.”
His eyes filled with tears. “The pappou of a dream!”
The Sparklers and Anadir had watched all this time without making a sound, their faces curious but sympathetic. Dommi saw everyone was feeling too intensely and she called out, “Let’s party. Dance and drinks everyone.”
Alki brought Goldi to Robbie. “You have outdone yourselves this time. I cannot bear to let her go, you better take her from me Roberto.”
“Why? I think she would love to dance with you first.”
2445
When our visitors from Earth saw the couple who run the taverna they were amazed, but thought we had brought them along so that we’ll eat well. None of us corrected them. I think they would have been even more surprised if they had known that all the food that filled the tables has indirectly been cooked by Robbie.
There was no formal dinner time. As they wanted they helped themselves, but most were too busy dancing and chatting. I saw Jonathan and Percy talking with Em-e and both of them were crying. I decided to eavesdrop; if they were in pain because they missed their daughter, I felt we should know.
When I could hear them, I smiled to myself and walked away. They were crying because of Goldi. Her being a granddaughter of theirs and Goldi herself, her sweetness, had been too much for them.
It was late when I noticed our protector; he was talking with Solomon, a glass of fruit juice in his hand. I was pleased Robbie had invited him to join us. Even though he was deep in conversation with Solomon, I noticed he remained aware of all of us and stayed vigilant; if someone tripped, they did not fall down, an unseen hand helping them get their balance again. My mother came to me, still holding on to Gina. I smiled; she had not even tried to hold on to Goldi, but I was very pleased at the love I saw in her eyes for Gina.
“Samantha, Gina has tried to explain, but I am confused. This whole world she says is Roberto!! He keeps the river flowing, the air fresh! How can this be?”
“Mother, there are thousands of things he is doing at the same time to keep this world together and working for us. He is also searching outside and navigating, chasing after the younger version of the fire-world. Hanging from our spaceship-world he has a shaft of energy that penetrates into normal space so that he can keep watch and see the worlds that are being destroyed. Below that he has another space, smaller than this, where we are carrying beings from another world. They are coming with to help us fight the creators of the fire-world. Do not forget that at the same time he is also the healer and protector. Just what the protector is doing while standing there talking and drinking is mind boggling. My father and husband has grown and none of us know where this will end.”
“Will he still be a human, a man?”
I answered mildly, “Now you can perhaps understand why he reacted so strongly when Ordinx tried to worship him. Always, first and last, he is a man, our man who loves all of us.”
“I cannot believe I dared ask him to have a child with me!”
I suppose it was natural of me to give a wide grin. “I guess I’m glad you did.”
If this were Earth it would have been midnight when Robbie called for silence.
“The young Teller ladies, Gina, Candy, Wendy, Melina and others have joined together to prepare a show for all of us. We start in ten minutes. Because I am a suspicious, nasty and crabby old man I will offer warning once only. If this is what I suspect and any of you laugh, I’ll throw you out into the void.” He tried to make himself look the way he described himself, but it only made us laugh.
From the scenery that appeared and the story of the music we saw we were on a farm. Out of this bucolic background came a very young man. He looked like a real yokel, clothes that did not fit and a stick with a bundle tied to the tip behind his shoulder. He had decided that sweet as the cows were he needed to find for himself a real love, some pretty little thing who would love him forever. He arrived at a city and began his search. One woman was hard and brash; another had a large nose and hairs on her chin; another was selfish; another wanted him to spend all his money on luxuries for her; another wanted sex only; another demanded that he love her as much as she loved herself. Each of them was a story by itself, making us laugh. I cheated, wanting to know who is playing the man; I was shaken! It is the protector!! Finally the man goes to the only part of the city where he feels comfortable, the park. He sits on a bench his face buried in his hands. He tells himself he should maybe go back to his sweet cows. He hears a child crying and turning sees a little girl on the grass behind him. He goes to her, tries to soothe her and soon finds himself with her sitting on his lap and clinging to him. His heart starts to go thumpety-thump and he falls in love with her.‘...and others’ was certainly right! I think they must have roped in at least the Sparklers!
She loves him too and comes to stay at his home. He is very happy, his dream has come true. He is as awkward as ever, still bumbles along, but the little girl loves him. Then after a while the little girl begins to cry. She wants to know, will he love her when she grows up and becomes like the other adult women?
In despair, not able to convince her, he walks the streets alone. He comes across another little girl who is crying. She has fallen and nobody cares to stop and help her. He does and soon she is sitting on his lap.
He now has two little girls that love him and he is twice as happy. In his bumbling way he tells them they are as sweet as his cows and that makes them happy. It is not long though before he walks with his two girls and they find a third girl, also crying and saying nobody loves her. The two tell her that he will and soon she too is sitting on his lap.
I am just giving the gist of the story. When we had intermission at this point, one hour had passed. There was a lot of laughter and many eyes turned secretly to look at Robbie. Stoically he kept his face neutral and even laughed at the same places we did.
I came to the conclusion that the fumbling bumbling awkwardness was created by the imps. He kept on getting into situations that made him look foolish, but every time he did so the little girls loved him even more. Then came a fifth and a sixth girl. Now his awkwardness gets worse as he begins to panic.
This is where I start to see the kind of humour of my Gina. She would have his weaknesses and mistakes become his loveable traits, so that as we laugh we also love him. He becomes a success in the city, but he stays the simple farm boy he started out as. The number of girls he keeps on finding in pain grows and so do those who end up on his lap. He begins to take long walks to escape and be by himself, but soon has to stop that, as he finds a new girl who needs his love every time.
The pace of new girls accelerates and by the end there is a crowd of little girls stretching into the distance, all crying and needing love. Secretly at night he runs away and returns to his farm. There he hugs his cow and vows never to leave again. As the story ends, a calf, child of his cow, comes up to him and stares at him with sad doleful eyes. As he hugs it we see a whole herd of cows in the background and they all have little female calves and all their eyes are staring at him sadly.
If Robbie was to keep his word not one soul would have been left, including himself. The girls had a standing ovation while the laughter continued for a long time afterwards. I do not know how many times Robbie heard little moo’s and then snickers. Most of the girls came to ask him if he will still love them when they grow up. It was morning before we settled into groups talking and yawning.
We found that Robbie had created houses for our guests and as soon as they went to bed we snuggled up against him and Cherine and went to sleep. As I was dropping off I remembered that time when he collected Claudia and his anger with Cherine for teasing him about his ‘little girl magnet’. Has he really changed, I sleepily wondered.
We spent the remainder of that day showing everyone around. They marvelled at the spaceship-world Robbie created. He even carried them to a ledge so that they can look down upon our world. Seeing it through their eyes made us also see it afresh and we too marvelled. For Goldi it was also the first time and she stood fearlessly at the edge trying to see it all. She suddenly leaned over, lost her balance and fell. She did not scream, instead we heard her tinkling laughter. Born in the world of Robbie, trusting in his love, she had no fear of any harm coming to her. She floated out and away and in a wide circle flew back up to us still laughing.
Marian asked where had we found a soul of such remarkable sweetness and we explained that Solomon had brought her. He’d said they had captured a soul of remarkable lightness and Robbie had asked for her.
“I wonder what she was like in her previous life!”
2447
“I found out Marian.” Robbie said. “She was an Italian-American girl. Truly pretty, but rather dumb. Like those jokes about blondes. When men used her she did not see it, she just thought they loved her. In this life she is not dumb and no man or woman will ever use her!”
Why is it that in everything of beauty there is a hidden sadness?
Alki teased Robbie, saying that receiving one year’s work within less than two weeks was good enough reason for him to go on many more trips.
“I just wish the pictures were something I could use. I’ll feed them bit by bit onto your art site. Can’t you try and create some graphic art for web sites?”
“I’ll do so. Alki, how much do I owe you?”
“Nothing. The cost of keeping your home going for two weeks is negligible. If you returned now I’d have to pay you what I owe you.”
He pulled Alki to a stop and we walked on. He did not ask for privacy from his family so we listened.
“If I said to you that one day you will hate me, turn your face away if you see me in the street, even if I am starving. If I stated this as a fact, but asked that you lend me some money now, knowing that once you turn away from me you may not ever get it back, would you lend me the money?”
“What madness is this? Alright, I’ll answer you. Even if I knew that it would be so, you could not ask from me more than I would give you.”
Robbie changed his mind. “As a gift Alki, so that you cannot ask for it back?”
“As a gift.”
“Could you please do so, whatever amount you wish. Something you would feel comfortable about losing?”
“In your account? Not the girls?”
“My account, not in Greece, my offshore account. I will explain before you leave, but not today please. I also want a letter from you stating that you cancel my contract and have no claims against me.” He shuddered. “Oh Alki mou, what am I asking?” He burst into tears.
Us girls walked straight back to them. Cherine spoke for us. “Pappou, he must have it. Please?”
He trembled, sensing some new disaster. “I promise koroula mou. It will be done the same day I get back. Is a million dollars enough?”
Dommi and I held our love as he wept. Dommi pulled away and stared at him and then her hand lashed out in a slap that contained the force of all her anger.
“How dare you!! How dare you feel ashamed to ask. You know what you are doing is mostly so as to care for the four.”
“He is trying to ensure our hatred will not leave him open to attack Dommi.”
“I’m not stupid Sam!! It does not give him the right to feel shame. Alki, you have power of attorney to my Trust. Please take from there another million and add it to his. Before you go, I’ll sign a paper that I agree to this and waive my rights to claim it back.”
“Not tomorrow Roberto, Dommi, Cherine, I must know. You have all frightened me.”
“We wanted today to be a day of joy for you. It would not be right to keep quiet now. Let’s all go to the taverna and we’ll tell all of you.”
They sat stunned; they all protested; they all went silent as we only stared back at them.
Dommi said to them, “Please understand, if we can be forced to abandon him, to hate him, what chance do you have?”
2448
Baby Cherine felt the pain strongest of all, her little heart tearing ours apart. That got Cherine crying again. I stood up.
“All of you stop it!” I turned and looked at Robbie and then back at them again. “We need to use our brains not waste our strength in weeping. At this moment we all love each other and Robert. Think! Once you hate him, what could you do to hurt him? Use this time to block yourself. What can we do to strengthen him and the four? Think of something? Then do it, without telling anyone else. Alki, pappou, I am ashamed, all of us are. Robert should not have had to ask you, we should have thought of it and done it for him. He must be made strong so that he never needs see his four starving, so that when you turn your face from him when you see him in the street, it will not be because you see he is starving, but because you are angry with yourself for making him independent and strong.”
“Me ti kouragio (with what courage) are you going to battle with this hanging over you?” Elia asked.
Dommi answered, “With the same courage that we will face the adversary, even as he beats us, knowing as our last free thought, that our Roberto will ultimately beat him and claim back our love.”
I had been staring and suddenly I giggled. They thought I was breaking down. I was not. I’d seen that the prophesy must have originally wanted three and then perforce become four.
“I think I know who one of the four will be.”
Hungrily Cherine and the others turned to me. I was grinning from ear to ear. “Lavender eyes. Remember, you said she is not capable of hating, so how can she turn against our Robbie?”
Cherine cried out, “Oh Robert, let her be the sweetness to keep your heart strong for us.”
Wing stood up and bowed to Robbie. “On a more practical matter. Robert, what of your tissue sample? If things will be as you say, we could destroy it. You must have a bank that none of us knows of. Place samples of all of us in there, that way you will have of the four, whoever they are.”
Cherine gasped. “Allan!”
Robbie turned to her. “Yes, we must take him dancing now.” He turned to baby Cherine and Rob. “Will you see to it. Tell him I said he has to go immediately.”
Cherine shook her head. “I agree Robert, but that was not what I thought of. The adversary will not be able to affect him. He will not turn against you.”
“Perhaps love, but he will not act on my behalf, only his prime will do so.”
Robbie slowed his jumping and whenever he found an interesting world he would show it on his screens, making it more real for our visitors. It did affect them and seeing the people, whatever their shape or beauty, being killed gave meaning to our trip/mission. At one planet he saw that the people of that planet are still far back in their development and that large continents are still uninhabited. In a pod of energy he took all of us down there, to wander around in amazement as we examined the alien plants and animals. He explained, in case any of us were worried, that he had sheathed our bodies in an energy that protects us from anything, even microscopic, that could harm us.
At our last meal before they left, Alki put his hand on Robbie’s arm.
“As Themi has so often said for all of us, you have done so much good, brought so much to our lives, it is impossible at this moment to believe we will hate you. If this creature is so powerful that it can do this, I wish to ask from now for your forgiveness.”
Robbie threw his arms around him, pulling his head to his chest.
“I swear to all of you, no forgiveness will ever be needed. If you say or do things to hurt me or my loved ones, of the four who follow me, I will understand that it is not the true person who does this, but a puppet that cannot be blamed.”
Before they left he took baby Cherine and her Robert aside and talked to them under privacy.
2449
Alki was amused when he found out why we needed all the extra booze. He joked about wanting first rights to building a brewery on the Anadir worlds when Meli creates them. The time for them to leave arrived and after a lot of kissing, many hugs and tons of tears they went to the stage. The last to join them was Lua, as Wendy clung to her to the last moment. The silver dome appeared, became a sphere as it rose and we watched with aching hearts as it left.
We all sho… (damn that word, they’ve spoilt it for me, now I can never use it or else I’ll be imagining giggles) Robbie with kisses, thanking him for his thoughtfulness, for seeing the need within us even when we had not dared dream of it happening. Loving the feel of his mind I went in and shot out with a cry of warning.
“Close it off!!!”
Bemused he looked at me. “Shut what off?”
“Damn it! Hide the memories of what you must not let us see.” The others watched me as if I’d gone nuts. “Don’t you all see? If daddy thinks of something or speaks to someone to try and protect himself and he let’s us see it, we’ll end up using that knowledge against him.” I began to cry. “Please, love us, but treat us as the enemies we will become.”
“Oh Sam, Sam...” He pulled me to him and I felt his tears on me as he rocked us to and fro.
While writing I’ve just had an idea, I’ll have to tell father. When we return, he must keep this hard drive on him, or else somewhere where he can get hold of it. I’ll also suggest to the girls they each write him a letter which he can then read once he is alone. Maybe such a tiny thing could make the difference and inspire him when he needs it.
Oh!! I’m stuuupid!!! He must take the whole computer or else perhaps Mr ‘A’ will stop getting what he writes! Please Mr ‘A’, can’t you change our story, please stop this prophesy from happening. Please?
2450
Goodbye Arthur, and return to chat with us whenever you can.
After the chat Robbie made all of us go with him. We sat by the river. Robbie likes sitting there when he has to think deeply. He says that the flow of the water fills his eyes and let’s his thoughts flow freely.
“Did any of you understand what he meant about using the body as an analogy?”
None of us said yes.
I hope you enjoy reading this story of fantasy, adventure and love - and should some of it be true for our reality, I hope you will love our Cherine.
Αλέξανδρος Ζήνον Ευσταθίου
(Alexander Zenon Eustace)14th October, 2019
- posted on Steemit: 14th October, 2019
If you wish to read from an earlier book, from Book 01 to Book 04, use this link button to open the LC Book Index:
I do not understand the reason for your reply. What does it have to do with my post? As far as I can see, it is a watch. So?