“....They will not starve or suffer, but they will live whatever time is left to them without any dreams to sustain them. I did not like their dreams, so I cannot help but see it as being good for them.”
5481
We returned to Athens. Not to either home, but to a hotel in the center of Athens. I asked them to wait for me and, as Allan, we jumped to the home of Feizal. We were instantly surrounded by men with guns, but as soon as they recognised Allan, they lowered the guns, but held them ready. Feizal and his father entered the room.
“Allan, welcome.”
“It is good to see you again. I would not have arrived without asking for an invitation first, but the truth is, I am not here as myself - it is Arthur using me, for he wishes to speak to you. He asks that I first share our recent experiences with you. Will you please examine the memories I hold available for you?”
When Feizal finished, and as he opened his eyes, he exploded. “Never! I did not seek to take his life because of my respect for his father, but what you ask, never!”
I asked, “Never Feizal? You choose to carry hatred in you for the rest of your life?”
“It is Arthur?”
“Yes. Feizal, for him to be the son Alki loves, he needs your forgiveness, but I do not ask it for that reason. What he needs, I do not have the right to ask of you, if it is only for him. You and your father are good people and I do not want to think of you spending your lives with a poisonous hatred filling those parts of your heart which should only know love. Am I wrong in assuming that you find it so hard to forgive him because you find it so hard to forgive yourself for allowing your men and family to become so vulnerable? Feizal, if you are to remain good and caring, then you will have to make yourselves vulnerable a number of times, choosing it as a risk worth taking, because of the way it makes your lives richer.” Allan returned to Athens so that they can consider the problem without feeling they are being pressured.
They contacted Allan at the hotel two days later and Allan took Khalid with him. I did not go with, for I felt this should be dealt with between them only. I felt a change in Allan and knew that Khalid had been forgiven and it had made Allan rejoice. I decided it is time I withdraw and allow the rest of the reconciliation to occur without my affecting anyone.
Oh boy! Wow!
We had been reading the diary, Alki and his family glued to the screen, often weeping as they read what Arthur wrote. Then you handed the controls back to us and within minutes they arrived in Freddie. We jumped home and asked they meet us there.
Vincent and Allan entered, but drew to the side, Allan to be grabbed by his loves, as Khalid walked to Alki and threw himself to the ground, at his feet.
Alki roared and pulled him up. “Is this the way I have taught you?”
Khalid could sense directly the love from his family, their pain and love, and it was shattering him. Tears poured as he told Alki, “I betrayed you father, I belong on the ground.”
“You did not betray me! You betrayed yourself. Why can’t you see it?”
Cassie could not resist, “Pappou, should we set Samantha on him? Maybe she can make him understand?”
Alki shook his head, “No kori, the understanding must come from deep inside himself, or else he will never be the son I love, just a shadow of him.”
Dommi went to Khalid and placed her arm around him. “I hear what your father says, but let me be the first to offer you what you ask for; Khalid, with all my heart, I forgive you.” We formed a line and did as she did, though mostly our arm was to help him remain standing. When Tania did so, he burst into sobs and we had to give them some time on their own; she took him into a bedroom and they talked for nearly an hour. It did not feel it would be as relevant when he came out, but we continued, reforming the line to speak the words he needed (still needed) to hear. At the end of the line stood Marian and Alki.
This is the next day. We waited for Alki and his family to come over (Khalid is still feeling shattered, but at least loved, but we understand and did not invite him to come). Arthur, we all want you to know, that anything you may have done to hurt us or anger us with you, it is all forgiven. We are amazed that you were able to deal with Khalid as simply as you did - sometimes you are quite good at pulling a miracle out of a hat.
5482
We must first finish with this chapter of our lives - return the new Teller family and Claire, Elia and Dominique (a pity, but when we went for lunch, their Nicko was in the USA, hoping to do a deal), and then each of us will bring in the alternates they must have as part of their family or else, as the core of their friends. We also must decide whether we should introduce ourselves at this time to their government. If we don’t, it will be a very long time before we do (not that it matters, as we can time-jump it back here, so that we arrive not long after we left, even if decades have passed for us), but if we try to do it now, I do not have many pages left for writing (Arthur warned me I only have two pages), so we would not be recording their story as fully as we should.
Okay, no governments, just the difficult ones, Hettie and Eddie, Alki and so on.
There is, we have discovered, a complication we had not foreseen. When Softri and families first arrived here, they were sensed by the Mansfield organisation, especially when they were attacked. They even worked out more or less where the spaceship landed, so they gave high priority to the finding of the crashed spaceship - they were very keen not to allow any government to get there first. By the time we came into the picture, they already had the smashed spaceship and they’d found the four bodies inside. They suspected there were more, but with hundreds of agents searching Athens and the surrounding areas, the three little beggar girls passed below their radar, because of their own preconceptions.
They did sense our presence in Kefalari, but we did not stay long enough for them to organise a snatch. One of their Talents met Robert and they reported a possible, but very weak Talent. When the order was given, just before they could get to him, he disappeared. Frank had the feeling that something important is happening, so he flooded Kefalari and Arusha with agents, with orders to attack instantly, without warning. They were to take us alive, but if not possible, we must be killed.
They sensed us having lunch with Claire and Elia, so they converged on us, and as they rushed the property, we disappeared. It almost sounds like a comedy of errors, except that their intentions were not funny. Unfortunately for them, one of the first alternates we went for was Savva. He had been part of the teams sent to capture or kill us, and out of his fear that we may have powers and his memories inadvertently betray Frank, he could not think of anything else. We did not examine his thoughts, but his emoting was all the warning we needed and we grabbed him and jumped to Freddie. We felt that we must not let time pass, so Freddie jumped to another reality.
With all he experienced, he became convinced we are superior in power, but he remained loyal, until we shared with him our friendship and experiences with our Savva. It converted him instantly and he told us all that has been happening.
This time Robbie was not in a mood to play. “I’m grabbing Frank and placing him in stasis, we can deal with him later, when we have the time.” Freddie returned, Frank was placed in stasis and then Robert, Cherine, Hettie and Eddie, went calling on the local Mansfield couple. As they arrived, they froze. They have a three year old son!
5483
Desperate to avoid any accidents, Robbie tried to explain they are there with peaceful intentions, but just in case, he warned Vincent to be ready to protect the child if necessary. Now here is how sometimes things work out, despite everyone’s worst intentions. The reason they did not attack was not because of their son. It was because our Hettie and Eddie arrived in their own bodies.
When they saw that they were not attacked, despite them hesitating, they gave our group the time they needed for explaining. They were invited to Freddie, with a solemn promise that their son, Martin, will be safe - his safety guaranteed by us. Maybe they did not feel they have an option, but they agreed.
Being suddenly within a small planet sized spaceship, obviously not too far away from Earth (they did not believe it is possible to teleport for a distance greater than a few thousand miles) and yet invisible to Earth, convinced them we are too powerful for them to pick a fight with us. Seeing all kinds of aliens also deflated them a bit - though not Martin, he loved Iona and ran around with Bitsy, trying to catch her.
Being able to share memories has turned out to be one of our most effective tools for convincing newly met alternates that we are genuinely nice people and mean them no harm. There was a fierce joy in them, for they have been desperate to find a new way of life that does not include people like Frank, in the life of their son. They were shocked to learn that we have taken out Frank and when we release him, he will not have any powers.
Under their fierce joy, we also sensed a sadness, and it was our Hettie who worked out the why. “You want your original bodies back, same as us, but you already have a son and you don’t want him to feel he has lost his parents?”
“That, plus he then will not be of our genes, not a true son. We cannot do that to him.”
“Even if you hang on to these bodies, they are still not of your genes. You probably had him because of him not being of your original genes, for otherwise you would have feared he would inherit powers from you.” They nodded. “We can make the change a game for him, but as soon as he can understand, you will have to explain, especially since you will have to adopt all the children you used.”
“Adopt?” Hettie placed her hand to her mouth. “Oh God, it means two of our children will be his blood parents!” It was not meant to be funny, so we tried hard and stifled all signs of amusement. They decided to wait until Martin is a teenager, though they will explain from now, so we concentrated on getting their Cherine and Robert to become friends with them. It was not too hard, because of shared memories, and this Eddie is just as loveable as ours is - well, nearly. Once we felt the right relationship exists between them and their Tellers, we returned them to Earth, for them to call off their agents, while we rushed around snatching everyone we want and jumping them to Freddie. We asked Hettie and Eddie to return to us and we jumped realities again.
Taking everyone to dance in the void helped convince the last doubters and soon the local Cherinians numbered more than seventy. They also met their Sparklers and Solomon and as the Anadir are released, our Anadir are sharing memories with them. We helped find the Anadir who had escaped and they were soon back with us, providing a home for the Anadir being released, until they can recreate their own World. We want them to have their own Eminixx, but we don’t have the time to go through all the story about us and their true history. Candy pleaded, so we made time for the Eminixx and now we are very glad we did. They will be good friends for our little Cherine. There is one more thing we want to do before we leave. They must dance and create their own World.
Robbie made a Pavlova meringue cake, mostly for our new little Cherine, and we were in a good mood, so I don’t know what brought the following introspective thoughts from Angelica. “On an Earth planet where there is magic, they include magic in their plays and sometimes, the play is built around the magic, and these plays are considered light but beautiful. Literally, children are not allowed in the dark plays, for the magic can affect their minds. There was an actor with magic abilities, but he was not very creative, but his acting was light and witty, so he was fairly popular. What nobody knew is that he yearned for the abilities that would turn him into a real actor, as he thought of it.
A new play was created and it was a bit on the moody and deep side, so they built in a scene, during a flood, for this actor to provide a few minutes of relief and humour. They left it to him to choose in which way he deals with his role.
5484
At the start of his scene, the rain poured and he used all the hackneyed methods of making the rain fun; like kicking at the water, dancing and so on, while his monologue was just as uninspired - but, it was what everyone wanted of him and they were pleased. But then the magic which was creating the rain picked up, grew stronger, and he was either expected to leave the stage for the rest of the play to continue, or come up with something to give him a good and witty finale. As the rain turned into sheets of water, he panicked, fearing he will drown. There was a cart on stage and it wobbled as the water beat against it, and the wobbling gave him an idea. He climbed onto the wagon and using magic made the wheels fold under the wagon and he made it float off the stage to applause.
It was corny and nothing to boast about - for any other actor. Our friend, he did not boast about his solution, which he considered brilliant as it saved him from drowning, which would have brought about an end to his career, but he did think of it as his first-ever adventure on stage. He found that he loved having adventures, that it gave meaning to the roles he undertook. Unfortunately, as I have already stated, he is not creative and as he was no longer light and witty, people did not want to watch him struggle his way through scenes without meaning. He soon was no longer asked to take part in any plays, not even the non-magical kind.”
She looked at me as she asked, “I wonder if there is a lesson in it for us.”
“Because we have so many adventures, you worry that they might become the reason for our entering the stage each day?” She nodded. “Angel, I don’t think we are addicted, after all, we do take time off to stay at home for relaxing, studying, being with friends. I’ll tell you what, as there is a possibility that we can at times become addicted, it will be your responsibility to watch out for it happening and give warning when you feel it is necessary.”
She pulled a face, but then she burst out in laughter, as did many of us. Jade had shared a thought with her, *Adventurous? How can you call us adventurous? What kind of adventurous girls are we if we make do with sharing one man between us?* We all loved it that Robbie also laughed.
From below, we return to our lives with ‘our’ Arthur. To remind the poor readers who have to suffer through our odd ways of dealing with our crazy author, we are still on the Syrina honeymoon and we are on our way to create a Samantha for a new Teller family. Even if you are not confused, try to imagine what it has been like for all the politicians travelling with us. They really need a holiday from us. 
Freddie arrived in another ‘dead’ reality and Robbie and Cherine jumped to Robert’s house.
As soon as they arrived, Robert went to our Cherine (Cher over there) and taking her hand kissed it. Cher pulled a face.
“Robert, you are a Robert, you are allowed to kiss a Cherine on the lips. I’m not royalty, please do not kiss my hand again.”
“You are a queen to me, all Cherines are queens to all Roberts.” In a mock confidential whisper he added, “If I kissed you on the lips he would sit eating my chocolates while toasting my balls to feed them to me. He is a dangerously jealous man, I’d rather play safe and kiss your hand.”
Robbie pretended not to notice and pulling Cherine to him kissed her. “No make up?”
She giggled. “I changed my age to about seven and forgot to get rid of my make up, I looked really silly. He says he prefers me like this, so there is little point in painting myself.”
“Do it if you enjoy it love. All us Roberts seem to prefer the natural look in our girls, but it does not mean you have to slavishly obey our whims. How is Pamela? Still running her school?”
“We all help, but we now have professional teachers, just as your Aganthi has. Alki takes our school very seriously and spends hours every week checking out their teaching methods and how they interact with the kids. Are we having a party?”
“Maybe. Where should we take them?”
“Robert and Alki decided to pretend this is a conference for the management of his companies and booked rooms in eight hotels and various apartments. We don’t have a Cherinian hall so we have booked a conference facility for meetings. All of it is in Kefalari.”
5485
“I don’t think they want to have meetings, they were hoping to enjoy themselves and see the differences of your reality and theirs.”
“I know.” Robert answered. “That is why I am putting together a talk, with film, showing the key points of our history. You will be jumping them to their own countries?”
“I suppose so, with help from everyone. Robert, have you arranged chefs for those who have religious requirements?”
He grinned. “What a nightmare! No, we are buying the food from local restaurants in their own countries. For Greek cuisine we have bought a taverna and warned the staff we will need the food to be prepared for delivery to the customers. Why not have our meals in exotic places, such as the African place we celebrated the sixteenth birthday of your Cherine, up on Mt. Olympus and so on?”
“Did Vincent tell you why we came?”
At that moment, Natalie and Samantha jumped home. With squeals of delight, they rushed to hug and kiss Cher and then Robbie. Once emotions had calmed down Robbie explained in detail. The girls, including Cherine, were delighted, but Robert thought about it for a while and seemed to be worried.
“Are you sure it is wise of you Robert? Couldn’t it lead to ‘family’ groups of Cherines and Roberts forming that way? Surely it would be better to only use the prime family so that first allegiance is to your family - they do feel they are your children in a way, don’t they?” Robbie was not irritated, as he would have been with anyone else. This is a Robert and he knew what prompted the question.
“You are all welcome to fill a hundred realities with your family, if that is how you see it. As for them being loyal to you - admit it Robert, who are you primarily loyal to, is it not your Cherine? Thereafter? Is it not the concept of Cherinianism? Even if you do become a family group with special loyalties to each other, go ahead and carve your empire. You try to lead them even once in a way that serves your interests and they will withdraw from you. Call on them as family to help if you are in trouble and you will be inundated by offers from all Roberts, including myself. Can you feel our Cherines? They are both relaxed and amused by our discussion, for they know that what binds us is our need to protect, not any ‘family’ bonds.”
Cher grinned. “What if Jeskine and Orgg want to, would you allow them?”
“Why not? Are they not protectors? Don’t they consider themselves Cherinians?”
Robert did not relax, but he showed that he accepted Robbie's argument, only adding, “You are too trusting. It is not good for the prime protector to be so trusting, life throws all of us curved balls and we should always think ahead.”
“I’m not very good at that. Until my instincts let me down, I prefer to rely on them.”
“Your family and you will stay in the old house of Alki. If you bring about eighty of your guests at a time, we will take them to their hotel. Alki is bringing envelopes with some spending cash for each of them and he should be here within a few minutes.”
“Thank you, I must admit I’m impressed, you have reacted in a far more organised manner than I would have.”
Robert laughed. “Do you mean your instincts would have allowed you to leave them out in the streets to fend for themselves?”
While the guests are organising themselves, I’ve brought the diary up to date and decided I should include a picture of our Solace. If I include Rania later, that only leaves five girls whose pictures I have not pasted in here. Sometime…soon
I saw yours and I’ve now deleted both. Have you noticed we mostly prefer to look a little bit older than we did in our earlier pictures? You may have also noticed that all the girls who have bodies that Solomon had anything to do with, have slightly larger feet than the rest of us. I guess Solomon found it difficult to imagine them standing on tiny feet - the girls could have changed their feet, but they keep them as a sort of ‘trade mark’. They are proud of their origin and especially of their link with Solomon and the Sparklers.
5486
We wanted to escort our guests to their hotel rooms so that we can jump there if we need to, but practical Pamela told us (with evident amusement) that all we have to do is ask the hotel to give them a message to come to the lobby. We’ve gone through too much to be that relaxed, but Robbie did not seem to mind, so we let it go.
Most of our guests seemed to relish the opportunity of moving around without bodyguards and either walked in small groups or sat at coffee shops. Hilda had a large amount of money in her handbag, her allotment and those of her two girls, and we directed her down Kolokotronis Street so that they can go to the shops in Kifissia. Her daughters’ little hands in hers, they chattered with excitement as they looked at the strange architecture, so different from Holland or Germany. Hilmar had tactfully stayed away from them so that Hilda can enjoy her outing, but of course his girls were sharing with him. He was not giving them much of his attention, as he too was excited and enjoying himself with his parents.
It is funny how things you hardly notice because they are just a normal part of your life will impress visitors. I’m not certain of my facts, but I think what happened was the Greek government, post civil war, wanted to make available some kind of livelihood for handicapped war veterans so they gave licences for them to build kiosks on the pavements. These are like mini shops, staying open seven days a week and keeping longer hours. They used to carry cigarettes, candles, newspapers and magazines, some sweets and so on. With time they evolved to what they are now. Many kiosks will have three or four refrigerated cool drink and ice cream cabinets, they surround their kiosks with magazine stands and carry magazines and books in English, French, German and, in areas where tourists of other nationalities tend to favour, other languages too. They often have handbags (for the tourists) and other souvenirs. It is quite impressive how much they stock.
The French leader asked if there are any international bookshops close by with French books and Claudia offered to take him to one. The Belgian leader and then others decided to join them as they wanted reading material while in Freddie - it is amazing how many people from various realities still prefer to read hard copy books, while many of us younger ones prefer using a screen. I guess we will have to open a library in Freddie with books in all languages. Despite what I just said about us, I think we will enjoy the library just as much as our guests. Perhaps we should also open an art gallery and museum with copies of the best of every culture from our world. I wonder if our alien friends would also like to do the same. (R: Don’t get too carried away love or else there won’t be space for us and our animals. That said, I like your idea, so you better appoint a team to help you.) I should have kept my mouth shut!
Jade: Can we have a gallery with photos and videos of all the worlds we’ve been to? (Sam: Sure, I like your idea so you better appoint a team to help you J. Aganthi can build it for you - I’m going to ask her to help me put up my libraries and museums.) You are so predictable Sam, but, I’m willing to show my gratitude by pointing out to you that there are bound to be books, articles, artwork and artefacts (inventions too) that differ according to the reality. You should organise the layouts to make it easy for everyone to compare the differences. Hey, this is exciting! Why not also have a section that shows when and why each reality split off? (R: Mind-boggling is the word you need Jade! I think you both will need a lot of help, including the scientists - the aliens and ours. Just the Unation sections will strain our capabilities.) Haven: No, they won’t. Sam, ask each species to build their own. The Unation leaders have already agreed and they say they have everything ready for us (another time paradox for you Sam?). Do you want to let them build their own museums and libraries? They will need about sixty square hectares and they will cover them in a number of domes so that each species section has its own atmosphere. Boy! When you get going you certainly shake things up! Please don’t get any ideas about rearranging galaxies to suit you. (That comment was from my Athia.). (Cherine: Athia, our Sam does not think small - why should she try to rearrange galaxies when she can change entire realities?)
I better carry on before everyone jumps on the bandwagon to make fun of me. Actually, that joke by Cherine has backfired on her - she forgets that she is the one responsible for entire realities being changed!
Troy came to sit by me. “Samantha, is this world further advanced than ours? I saw some magazines for computers and could hardly understand what they write. I also got the feeling they are revealing information that is classified in our world.”
“Before Keith got the idea for mimicking the energy net used by the Sparklers for creating the computers we now use, this Earth was about seven years behind ours. With the help we’ve had from our alien friends, technologically speaking, they are now about two hundred years behind us. They do not know about us Cherinians yet, but when we reveal ourselves, they will be brought up to date. I’d say you are presently about twenty years behind them. President Carver, in the computer field, every year was bringing dramatic growth on our world, we used to say that if you bought a computer with all the latest specifications, it would already be obsolete by the time you carried it out of the shop.”
5487
“Call me Troy. Would it be possible to take some of this technology back to my world?”
“We have an ethical problem Troy. It applies to the aliens also. A number of them are going to need help as they try to re-establish themselves on terraformed planets, so we decided any technology they make available to us, like the anti-gravity engine, we pay them so that they can purchase what they need. We’ll go into details later, but in some cases, it is an agreed royalty and in others, they are partners. The same must apply to alternate Earths. The man or corporation that develop a product should be paid. Troy, a lot of it is based on goodwill. There is nothing preventing your Cherinians picking up ideas from this or any other Earth and using them back home. If that happens, all worlds will soon know they did, so I hope everyone sticks to our unofficial policy.”
“We had no intention of stealing knowledge!”
“It will happen Troy, it cannot be avoided. Let us say we bring someone from an Earth still at the pre-flight stage and they see your aeroplanes. They would not need your theories and technical drawings, just knowing it is possible will spur them into developing their own.” I smiled sympathetically. “I bet you must be thinking that if your technology is lagging behind those of other realities, having to pay for everything will drive your world bankrupt as you have nothing to offer that will send money flowing your way. We are working on that, but the technology from the aliens is so far ahead of that of all Earths, that we would all be bankrupted if we had nothing to offer them. They might not need our technology, but we have a lot to offer them and they are trading as friends, not as competitors, so they are very careful to plough back into our economies all they can.”
He shook his head. “I see we are going to need a new breed of young men and women to help us deal with the changes you are bringing. Too many of us of our generation have been shaped by the threats of our past to change easily now.”
I nodded. “It will be a gentler world. Still, until the younger generations have some experience, I would like to see experienced people like you keeping some control so that they do not make drastic mistakes. You have learnt about political correctness and how it has been used against Mankind in our reality. The strange thing is that if it had been kept to reasonable levels, it would have improved life for all of Mankind, softening a few of the sharp corners, without it costing the Cabal anything. I will confess to you that I sometimes find the selfishness of Normals confusing and very ugly - I’m just glad I love them enough for it not to turn me against them. Shall we go examine some of the latest technology they have here? There is a good computer shop within walking distance.”
In the afternoon, Allan told us he is inviting all the kids to go to a Rodeo playground to ride the big wheel and so on. We had a good laugh when Robbie immediately changed himself to a ten year old. Allan went one better. He took his hand and spoilt him rotten that day, treating him like a favourite son. As for us, I think our screams as we tumbled about could be heard miles away.
Robbie pointed out to our guests that when they return, they might want to tell their people that they visited their country, so he offered to take them. We are timing it so that they arrive in the morning, we leave them there with cash in their pocket and a Sparkler to watch over them and will return to pick them up in the evening.
Goldi has been in a strange mood and asked if she can return to Freddie. She said she wants to be alone. Robbie told her that at least one of us has to be with her and Aganthi volunteered. I came with to bring the diary up to date, but I can sense that Aganthi will be returning with me. I know Robbie will be upset that we are both leaving, but I feel that if she needs to be ‘alone’ then she should be allowed to. After all, Freddie will watch over her and talk with her if she needs company, plus most of our alien friends are here.
Hello Arthur. This is Goldi. If I write for you, will you promise to delete so that nothing is left here?
Please try. This is the first time I have been alone to feel sad and I did not know I would miss everyone so much.
5488
Bull! You know something Arthur, I thought of you as being a Robert of sorts, but now I suspect you are more like Sebura.
That seems to have annoyed him, he refuses to answer. I am sorry we had to trick Goldi and Arthur, but it was worth it - I feel like I received a wonderful gift today and I’m going back to Robbie to tell all of them our news.
Robert here. I can only excuse Samantha’s comparing you to Sebura because she was feeling foolish from her relief and happiness. So Arthur, you too are a manipulator! I guess that explains why I’m not - since I am supposed to be an idealised version of you. Oh Lord! I better let Sammy take over before I dig myself in too deeply, been fun laughing at you. We’re going to hear quite a few jokes about this, I warrant.
Am I now supposed to apologise for Robbie? Would you like to first hear all the other smart-aleck comments before I do, so that we handle all the apologies in one go?
5489
Do you perhaps recall that we are still in Syrina's honeymoon? Not much of that time has been spent in loving each other sexually. Syrina is too much like Robbie in that she gets interested in their discussions and loses her focus on why they are alone in bed. She could end up with the longest honeymoon with the record for the least times of making love. Now that Rania is close to being born, Syrina will have to wait again. Robbie is already showing that he is smitten by his new daughter.
Robbie may say he is not a manipulator, but he is sneaky. He arranged with all our guests that they each be picked up outside the local orphanage. They each were given the equivalent of six months salary of a top company executive and we told them they are not expected to return any of it. When they arrived at the agreed spot and waited to be collected, only one of them looked at the orphanage, felt the money in his pocket and quickly went in and handed them the money. I am not the only one who is totally baffled. First of all, I cannot understand why only one out of more than two hundred did so - or even thought of doing so, but what really has me reeling is who that one person was. The Chancellor of Germany! The tough, mean guy who we thought does not have an inch of softness in him. Okay, we’ve had it explained to us by Hilmar's father. He said his chancellor did it because he is practical. He would have perceived returning the money as a waste. I can’t say I’ve understood.
For that evening and the next day, many people must have wondered what was going on, for our guests were very animated, telling each other of the differences they have noticed.
We are all back in Freddie, with the local Teller family and friends. We will return to Syrina's reality and they will split there. Robbie is in a good mood and asked whether anyone wants to show our guests the lace world. We all said yes and the rodeo girls volunteered (eagerly) to take them on a ride on the fire world. Robbie laughed and told them he doubts any of them will want to go.
We were touched to see the Akiard kids feeling possessive about the lace world, as if their adventure here has given them some rights to the world. They held up their baby brothers and sisters and told them about how beautiful the world is and that it can die very easily, so they must not try to get out of the platform. They also worried about us going too close to the surface, just in case Robbie gets into trouble again - despite their knowing from the tellings that it was a test they were put to and which they passed with flying colours. If it was not humour (teasing Robbie), and traces of worry have survived, is it because of their obsessive nature?
At first I thought it was not fair that Robbie was doing so much for these men who have shown themselves to be hard and narrow minded. Seeing the lace world and then our fire beastie being ridden by the girls has changed them dramatically. We had to do a telling again to show them Robbie’s lessons and now, having seen the size, they were impressed. As is natural, they began to worry about the fire world of their reality. When they expressed their concerns, Robbie told them not to worry, should the fire world come while we are away, next time we return we will bring them all back to life after repairing their planet. They believed him and worried until Cherine gave him away by giggling.
Soon as we arrived in their reality, we took a chance and asked the Wirms whether they can wish themselves and us to the local fire world. Robbie wants to have some fun while, at the same time, impressing on them how useful it is having Cherinians on their world. He created platforms and took everyone into normal space for them to watch and he made the fire world chase him in circles so that they came to within a couple of hundred kilometres of his audience before he allowed the scientists to heal the fire world. Totally losing interest in Robbie it drifted off, aiming for a sun.
I was not too surprised when Troy invited himself to our taverna and sat at Robbie’s table. “You are right and wrong. We have discussed it and we are convinced that Samantha must not do what she suggested could be the new way for you to handle other realities. May I explain?”
“I had hoped that you would have understood by now that we always welcome new ideas or suggestions. We like to think of all sapient life, in all realities, as embarking together on a journey to a future filled with hope and love. If we are to achieve that, it is imperative that all ideas and possibilities are discussed. We never take exception to anything said in good faith.”
“The way you handled our world, with our problems, required a lot of patience on your behalf, but we have seen enough to be capable of appreciating all you have done for us. If you take the shortcut Samantha suggested and the leaders of those worlds are anything like us, you will not win them over. If you had grabbed us and shown us ten times as much as you have, we would not have adapted, all we would have done is capitulated, our spirit and ability to dream our own dreams shattered by the evidence of your powers. Do you believe our people back home would have allowed them to surrender on their behalf? On the other hand, first you won the hearts of our people and once we, the leaders, were able to look back and recognise your patience, we accepted that behind it was only goodwill without intentions of taking us over.
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Until the last couple of days, we still dreaded the idea of you bringing us a new Teller family, seeing them as our new masters, ruling on your behalf. The general feeling now is that having our own Robert and Cherine, even our own Samantha, is an act of love by the Cherinians and we will welcome them with open minds. I am not used to talking this way so I hope I was clear enough for you to understand me.”
Robbie nodded, his eyes gentle, almost like those of Christós. “Thank you, it is so easy to do the wrong thing out of good intentions, so what you said means a lot to us. Do you recall Samantha telling you that she envied you because you will be living through great changes? The times ahead can only be exciting if you all work together and help us make the changes your world needs for all to live with dignity. The one task you have ahead of you that even I would dread will be almost impossible for you if you do not wholeheartedly believe in our dream. With Cherinianism spreading and death becoming almost obsolete, you must, I cannot stress this strongly enough, you must change the trend all governments succumb to and encourage your citizens to assume responsibility for their own lives and those of their children. If they do not, they will have too many children and soon you will not have space to live. If that happens I will be forced to block all your Cherinians so that they cannot take over other worlds and your civilisation will crumble and die. As you saw from the telling, we did force an Earth to face the truth and now their population is growing at a very slow rate and we hope to find new answers that will allow them to still experience the birth of children without crowding themselves. I do need time to find the answer, even if I already know the answer exists.”
“I don’t understand, if you know, why do you still have to find the answer?”
“The Unation of our time know the answer, they solved the problem hundreds of thousands of years ago, but as we still are helping them far back in their history, the solutions belong to our and, in a sense, their future. I dare not cause such a major paradox by taking shortcuts.”
Nicole and Alexis wanted us to share a final magical moment with our guests. They said to us that we should never forget to speak to the child in them and asked that they be taken on a cruise through the fairy world. The girls were right, they were delighted.
Rich Robert sat next to our Cherine and took her hand in his. “Would you consider it presumptuous of us if we asked for our new family to be created on your birthday?”
“Robert would have to take us back to our reality! Of course I don’t mind you ninny, I’d love it.”
Robbie pretended to groan, but Freddie jumped. We must have worried some people when we appeared in their sky and then left again.
We were all worried, Robbie too. We had not expected to be celebrating Cherine’s birthday here and did not have anything planned for her. She wanted to give us a present of her younger self for the day, but we all refused. She kept out of our minds as we rummaged through the storeroom, looking for appropriate gifts. Arthur, what would you do? Give her gifts for an eight year old girl or a woman of thirty one?
We all chose for the child she remains, by choice, while Robbie searched for a gift suitable for an adult. Alki and then everyone else jumped to the local Earth and bought her gifts. Now the leaders of this world (and ours) are upset and they have to be returned to get her a gift. Our Earth leaders went as guests of their local counterparts and the local governments ended up paying for their gifts.
Once we were ready for the party, we all gathered in the fields around a platform Robbie had placed for the splitting of souls and bodies and the creations of their new family to be seen by all. Samantha had spent most of the day with me, her mind and mine open to each other as we shared. I really find her lovely, she is much sweeter than I am, still gentle because of the lack of experiences I have had, but I could sense her mind is just as active as mine, so I guess she will end up hurting herself a few times.
We all went to the void to fill their souls with our exchange kissing and see them split. We returned to Freddie to watch as their new bodies appeared and then waited while Dommi and her helpers joined the souls to the bodies. We projected for them so that they would not wake up in the nude.
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 February, 2020
- posted: 14th February, 2020
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