I said, “You are hoping to keep the hammer in reserve for when you need it. You prefer to play the same games they do with political manoeuvring.”
5401
“Samantha!” He was irritated. Apologetically he explained to Hettie, repeating our previous conversation. “She convinced me to do it as she guessed you’d want to, so I don’t know why she put it that way.”
Hettie studied me for a moment, but I only stared back innocently. She sat opposite me and took my hands in hers. “What would you do?”
“Spike their guns.”
“What? You’ve lost me Sam.”
“Spike their guns. All of them, of all the countries. You then tell each of them, confidentially, that we spiked their missiles only, but we are not going to tell the other sides. Strongly urge them to negotiate and come to an agreement to disarm as quickly as possible, before the others find out.”
“Jesus!” She burst out laughing. Next thing I knew she had hugged me. When she was about to leave she said to Robbie, “I’m surprised you still have any pillows with a Samantha in your home. Girls, next time, whop her one from me.”
I presume you do not need an explanation of why I had to take over from Samantha again - at least you had the good sense to show your admiration for her in an acceptable way. It did not take long for everyone in Freddie to hear about Samantha’s ‘solution’ and our world has been filled with laughter for the last week. Every time a politician on Terra makes a statement suggesting that this is a window of opportunity for mankind to shed the threat of war forever or something like that, the laughter starts again. My sweet Sammy tries to spend most of her time at our home or under the waterfall in her apartment. If you can believe it, she even tried to convince our new Allan that the best part of his life up till now was when we travelled from reality to reality starting Cherinian families, and volunteered to go with him.
In the past we have probably bored you with repetitions of dealing with similar situations. Now that we have the ‘Spiked SAM Solution’ (you do have SAM missiles?) as everyone is calling it, we should be able to deal with those situations fast enough to avoid writing about them again. Hell, I’m even tempted to use it on our home Terra (not while Bruce is in office).
Arthur, so often I find myself looking at our little Samantha as she plays with the girls, talks, or bites her lip as she concentrates on her studies and I wonder how you can bear to live without her. Apart from having the loveliest smile, which can look very naughty at times, eyes to write songs about, long shiny hair that reaches her waist, sometimes a deep golden blonde and sometimes a chocolate brown, she has a body (as a little girl or woman) that sends my blood racing and legs that always remain boyish in their slenderness. When you meet her, if you are only half as crazy about her as I am, you will be awed by the love you feel for her. Stop procrastinating and assume a way for us to find you.
5402
It is irritating for everyone in Freddie having Hilda here. I’m surprised her vegetables aren’t bitter from her hate for me in particular, and all Cherinians in general. She has had to give in and allow Hilmar to be with her girls as often as they want, but she has already damaged the three of them with her anger and hate. At first Hilmar thought he could be open about their sexual relationship because of his earlier relationship with his parents. He is hornier than a goat and wants to make love with the girls at least twice a day (each) and if the girls are happy to oblige he is grateful for an extra fellatio or two. Having this happen openly, often in the sitting room before her, understandably angered her and when she blew up she threw Hilmar out of the house after screaming at him and then hit her girls. Instantly Hilmar jumped back in and placing himself between mother and daughters stood his ground even when she hit him. He touched the girls and jumped with them to his house. That forced Hilda to realise she is no longer in control of her daughters and as long as he is discrete, she has to be satisfied with petty nastiness. She tells anyone who listens to her that she has to put up with it because I arranged it as her punishment and if she creates a scene I will get rid of her and her daughters won’t have a mother to see that they grow up properly.
My girls insist I stay away from her and that if I try to explain to her (or give her a strict talking to) it will be a waste of time and only give her further reasons to be bitter. We have to remain focussed on the children and show them a lot of love. We have also done our best to explain to them why their lovemaking should be private - in their emoting of their passions we cannot do much as none of them are able to block yet. Can you imagine the three of them living in a block of apartments?
Sam is angry with me for my comments about her and threatened to delete them so make certain you can paste them back in if you want to keep them. I’ll let her take over again.
Sometimes I think Robbie gets more pleasure out of embarrassing me than he does out of a night of sex with all of us!
We should have had the young man (William) who went to visit Jesus with his theories about time with us today. The conversation started with a comment about the mother soul we call ‘Arthur’. The main question was, did time begin when ‘he’ came into existence. Our family like to think that ‘he’ forced time to exist, but it is only a matter of belief, since there is no proof either way. Enztepir had enjoyed a couple of beers and was in the mood to start a debate.
“I doubt time has a beginning or end. There is only a beginning and end for galaxies. The idea that all matter throughout the universe started off as one unit and then exploded sounds like a tale for children. Our examination of a number of black holes show that they grow in size as they gather material. What would happen if two or more giant black holes fell into each other? Would they become one if they meet when they are of equal size, or would they implode or explode? We’ve seen them speed up as they approach each other and then fly apart. For all matter to be at one point would surely mean that all matter in the universe prior to that had collapsed into that point? It would have to mean all black holes became one!”
“How do you explain that all galaxies are moving out, away from each other?”
“In a reality without a big bang? It could be due to the universe expanding. In a universe with? Surely when such a ‘big bang’ occurred, matter or energy sprayed out more or less uniformly in all directions? Has anyone identified galaxies that move alongside ours in the same direction, but at an angle that can be extrapolated backwards to a common departure site and another in the opposite direction? To argue a different point, what if you find even one galaxy that cannot be extrapolated in reverse to the same point of origin? Would that be a galaxy that formed later - but even the energy and dust that formed it must have been moving in the same direction as the other galaxies? For your theory to be based on logic, you would have to be able to extrapolate from all the observable galaxies and place an ‘x’ on a map of the universe, naming it the point of origin of all matter. Has that been done?”
Robbie took a guess, because it made sense, “I believe so.”
“Strange, when we still lived on our home planet we had not identified such a point of origin. Then perhaps we should ask Robert to take us there? If your theory is true, I’m just trying to imagine another probability, if what you suggest is true, surely the centre of the universe would have to be totally devoid of matter?”
“Hold on!” Robbie was frowning. “let us, for arguments sake, postulate that it is so. Would we be able to go there and what would the danger to any matter travelling against the forces that expelled all matter from there be?”
“There should not be any forces, as you call them. All matter should have left taking with them all possibility of gravity.”
5403
“Does that mean time has stopped existing there? Would there be no energy of any kind there? If so, surely that means the theoretical temperature of absolute zero should be a fact at the exact centre?”
The discussion went on for hours. Many who know next to nothing about science felt free to argue with logical arguments being treated as facts; unlike when you can only argue that something is logical when you know the facts your logic is based on are true. All our family, figuratively, held our breaths as Robbie played with the idea of going there as the void. He was curious and was wondering whether such a place and event could also have been the birthplace of the void. Was that the point of origin for all void energies and are they still being created there? We all looked at each other in relief when he decided to shelve the idea for a few centuries.
I was left with questions, but I’ll ask them some other time - well, one of the things that puzzles me is that if all our galaxies are moving away from the point of the explosion, propelled by the same force, surely they should be moving at the same speed? How then is it that they can collide? Could it be that galaxies with very large black holes are slowed down?
Now I feel like asking my question. Thanks to the above discussion (bear with me a moment please. The word ‘discussion’ as written or spoken does not express what I really mean. If I had sent the word to you telepathically it would have been accompanied by a sense of drunken jollity and drunken earnestness which would have identified it as not to be taken seriously)…okay, let me start again. Thanks to the above discussion (of the previous paragraphs, not mine above) my mind went off in other directions. (Cassie: Oh Lord!)
Science fiction writers, maybe scientists too, I don’t know, have theorised alternate realities (or universes) where light travels at a different speed. If we have been to such a reality, we would not have noticed (I think), but what if the same could be true of gravity? What if we jump to an alternate reality where gravity of matter is ten times as powerful because the rules of gravity are different? I presume we would be safe there in the void, but if Freddie entered normal space? Would our shields bear up under the new weight of the water between them? I think we should ask Lynda to find us such a reality - I bet the scientists would go nuts.
As I was writing the above I could feel the amusement of my family. I pretended to be cheesed off with them and jumped to the lounge.
“What is so funny? Robert, you know that what I said about light is true.”
“Sure, they’ve even imagined scenarios where water runs uphill. It can’t happen love.”
“Says who? Didn’t Arthur ask you a question about alternate realities, do you need me to repeat the question?”
“No. I still think you cannot take things to an extreme for then, any such reality would collapse upon itself.”
“Okay, I’ll give you an extreme example. How about a reality where all of space is at an intensely high temperature. The only way life has managed to come into existence is because the suns are close to absolute zero and radiate their coldness, cooling planets to the temperature life, of our kind, finds comfortable.”
He looked at me suspiciously, knowing I expected him to tell me it was a stupid theoretical possibility, but then he turned and looked at Lynda, as if asking her whether she had found such a reality for me. That was all I needed to burst out laughing. He pretended to chase me while I ran, squealing. When he sat down again he chuckled.
“What are you doing to our diary Sam? Maybe you should keep your weird imagination for a new diary to be called ‘the wild imaginings of Samantha Teller’.”
“Hey, I like that! I’ll change the title of the diary.”
So, here I go: This diary from now will be known as -
5404
Robbie came to me and stood waiting while we chatted. He says it would be illegal in our reality also. He then insisted I delete the change of name, that this diary is still meant to be about Cherine and our family. I wonder why he put it like that, isn’t Cherine part of our family?
I refused, but agreed to print out a retraction so that his precious diary continues to bear the title:
Arthur, you may delete all the above if you want, I’m not trying to mess up your story.
Thanks.
It seems our time for fun and games is drawing to a close. The Germans have asked to sign a treaty! They have offered to withdraw from most of the territory they occupied, except for certain parts that they want to hold on to, which they claim are originally German. Hettie says we may have to agree as most of the population in those areas are German nationals, or consider themselves Germans.
The main stumbling block to bringing an end to the cold war is America. They are furiously building new missiles and have sent out warships to the Mediterranean. They should be arriving tomorrow. Hettie is upset, as she spent most of her energy on trying to come to an agreement with them first and sees their intransigent attitude as her failure. Frustrated she remarked that she wished Bruce were here.
This must be our fastest trip ever! We are going back for Bruce.
As soon as we arrived, we communicated with the White House and Bruce agreed to meet us immediately. Only Hettie, Eddie and Robbie went. When they heard what our problem is, all his advisors agreed it would be a good idea they show up in force. They have come back, about eighteen of them (plus a contingent of commercial media with cameras - they have undertaken to report honestly, without bias and Robbie agreed, as we don’t want to explain our problems to the host reality) and a platoon of marines to act as honorary guards, and we are immediately returning to our other reality. Robbie had Freddie jump first to a ‘dead’ reality so that we can have an evening to eat and talk. As part of their briefing they learnt of the ‘Spike SAM Solution’ and they were kind enough to compliment me. I wish they would change the name and stop telling everyone it was my idea.
Aware of the cameras, most of us decided to appear only as adults. This caused some problems as a number of the men were strongly attracted to most of the girls. Strangely, not one made a play for Goldi. They seem to see her as a creature far too beautiful and exotic to dare hope she could want them.
5405
The poor animals in Freddie must get terribly confused. We stayed up until nearly morning talking, dancing and some drinking too much, so Freddie stayed dark until noon to give the Normals a chance to recover. It suited us as we had Sally with us for most of the morning. Cherine went to her as a toddler, as she had the first time they met, and Sally kept her on her lap all the time. Cherine had not intended to stay that young as it meant she could not take part in the conversation, but she grinned in our minds and made the most of it. When it was time for Sally to return to her husband, Dommi grabbed Cherine and when she felt how Dommi was loving holding her, she gave up and stayed as she was until we had to appear for the official meeting.
Our announcement created quite a furore, but then the local Americans publicly invited ours to visit them. Robbie created our first ever luxuriously appointed platform. As he worked he was laughing at himself for giving in to the expectations and prejudices of others. I don’t think anyone will want to let him get rid of the platform afterwards. It is really beautiful with expensive looking carpets and furniture (all shaped out of his void energies) and he has hung paintings by Jade. Our guests are amazed by the wooden floor. It looks warm, like rich honey and the detail is so authentic that many bent down to touch it, not believing it is not wood. Robbie needed the whole day and most of the night to get it ready on time.
Alki put his arm over Robbie’s shoulders as he watched the journalists entering. “I am proud of you Roberto, it is beautiful. At last you have created the right environment for my friends and I to play tavli and talk.”
Robbie grinned. “Have you checked out the Presidential Suite? I trust you will only be taking your girls there and won’t use them to seduce mine.”
“There is a bedroom!? When did you do that? How does the platform have space for it?”
“I’ll make the reception area smaller and put the suite in for you afterwards. I was joking Alki, but now that I think of it, this should be yours, as President of us Terran Cherinians.”
“Never! Trellathikes?”
“Why not patera? The Anadir have their own leaders, so does every other species, why not us Terrans? I cannot be leader of all Cherinians and leader of our species.”
“Not me. Roberto, a suggestion, not Hettie nor Eddie either. Choose someone like Luigi. An artist as our leader and a poet as our Prime Minister, that would be good.”
“We’ll discuss it later, it looks as if it is time to leave.”
We could not all go with, we would have outnumbered our guests. Robbie allowed us girls to choose three to go with him. We chose Em-e, Aganthi and Lynda. Bernie was given the job of dressing them and Dommi helped them do their hair. All three looked stunning. We all rode with them in the minds of the three, but Aganthi made special provision for me so that I could let her know if I wanted to see or hear something in particular. With Eddie and Hettie that made our group six.
Troy Carver, the President of the United States broke away from his group and our group hung back, giving Bruce the opportunity to meet him halfway. They shook hands while cameras from both realities recorded the meeting.
Only the two presidents and their closest advisors were in the meeting. Bruce had guessed correctly and had taken mostly military men. Since almost all the men with Troy were in uniform, it made it easier for them to talk, military minds of all realities seem to have no problem in understanding each other.
Robbie had given Bruce permission to explain the ‘spiked guns’ bit, so when we felt anger from within the room, we guessed Bruce had told them. An hour later a man walked out of the closed room and spoke to Hettie.
“Your President has explained to our President about Samantha and he asks that she join us in the meeting. Your President said it would not be a problem, is that correct? Oh, he also said she should come at her usual age.”
Robbie silently gave Hettie the go ahead while I panicked. I could not make them wait while I changed and did my hair. All I could do was stand in front of a mirror and project until I was happy with what I saw.
5406
As I appeared in the room where Robbie and the girls were waiting, he grinned and gestured to the man to take me with him. He looked confused for a moment. He is a big man and the top of my head did not reach anywhere close to his shoulders. His face red with anger he escorted me to the presidents.
President Troy Carver stood up when I entered. He looked at Bruce when he saw my age and then gave me his hand. “We have heard a lot of complimentary things about you Samantha Teller. I am pleased you could come at such a short notice.”
“Mr President.” I gave him a bright smile. “I am honoured.”
“So, you are the one who thought up the scenario that forced the Germans to capitulate. President Erst suggested we invite you in the hope that you can come up with a few solutions for us.”
“May I speak in my usual way or must I observe the formalities?”
“As you wish. Gentlemen, shall we declare our meeting suspended and sit for an informal meeting now?”
Someone poured me a cup of tea which I pretended to enjoy.
“Miss Teller, are you aware of our problems?” His attitude and tone was as if he was dealing with a child.
“Mr President, do you know anything about butterflies?” I felt the amusement of my family as even Bruce looked startled.
“I’ve never studied them.”
“Have you noticed that people will rush to kill almost any insect that enters their home except for butterflies? They will be very careful not to hurt it and try to help it find its way out to the flowers again. I am a butterfly. That is, my appearance, my youth, they are the fragile beauty that wins me the cooperation of most adults, even if it usually is condescending.
I am over twenty years old and not as innocent or naïve as I look. There, now you cannot say I did not give you fair warning. By the way, please call me Samantha or if you must be formal, Mrs Teller. Robert is my husband.”
“My God! You only look about ten years old.”
“Eleven actually. My preferred age. Mr President, I presume that the problems you speak of are the obvious ones? The threat of civil unrest and secession by a number of States and your relationship with your allies coming close second? The British government see this as the perfect opportunity to rid themselves of a monarchy they consider obsolete and meddlesome and if they had to come to the table with us now because of you, they would consider your change of heart a betrayal. Anything else?”
“What about the Germans and Russians?”
“They have already agreed to negotiate. We are aware of how many new missiles they have manufactured and their precise locations, so we will be able to take precautions. They are not your problem Mr President, they only represent a challenge for your negotiating team.
I think your worries about extremist Governors causing you problems have been mostly solved by us for you. The only real worry is the British government.”
“How have you solved our problems? I thought you had caused them.” Some of the men chuckled or grunted in agreement with him.
“What is the most potent weapon a country can have, surely you do not believe it has anything to do with bombs? I see many men in uniform here; gentlemen, can you win a war if you have not inspired your men to fight for you? The human heart, the emotions that will exist tonight are your weapons. Will your media be concentrating on us or on the arrival of the first family of the United States from our reality? Will anybody switch off their television set when either of them speak? Your internal problems will soon be forgotten once President Bruce talks to your people.”
Very dryly, “I had not been informed he was to speak in public or on television.”
5407
“Nor was I.” Bruce added.
“Why don’t you discuss the idea then? I’m certain there is merit to having him tell your people about how the United States is the most powerful country in nearly two dozen realities we know of. Of how your people, in reality after reality, are willing to give their lives to help rid the world of tyranny. He will sadly have to mention the one reality where a number of States seceded and destroyed their country. I know he can be quite passionate in his arguments if he feels his country is at risk or needs to be healed.” I grinned. “His wife, Sally, tells me she must be the only wife in the whole world that cannot win any arguments she has with him.”
“Mr President, she may not be exaggerating. Consider how he got us to open up to him and tell him our real concerns within a couple of hours. It seems she is being honest in describing him as their weapon.”
I kept my voice even, “I recall describing him as your weapon General Levenworth, not ours. I was being rather flippant in explaining, as I knew that once you handed the problem over to your opinion makers, your public relations team that is, they will have a professional campaign worked out in no time at all. May I move on to the problem with your allies?”
His tone of voice was almost sarcastic. “You have a solution for that also?”
“No.” He’d pissed me off.
“Come on Samantha, I know that look, you have an idea, tell us what you are thinking.”
“I don’t know if they will understand Bruce. In our reality, how many tourists from America, Japan and so on go to England every year just in the hopes of seeing the royal family and having their photo taken by the guards outside the palace? England, here, will no longer have colonies and their technology is lagging behind that of Germany and the United States. They must find alternative sources of income or else their economy will soon be in shambles. They must be convinced that now is not the time to vote against the monarchy.”
“That is a weak argument Samantha.”
“Perhaps. All I know is that those in power in London are fossilised, the cold war and threat of Germany has not been conducive to forward thinking men ruling their country. The only obstacle to Britain becoming a dictatorship has been the existence of a liberal monarchy. To me it does not matter, as we already have a number of Cherinians of this world and we expect them to soon be in the tens of millions. No dictatorship can survive that, only honest democratic governments can.”
“Give us a working solution Sam, I know you have one.”
“Damn it Bruce, I should not have let you get to know me so well.” I stood up, ready to leave. “You are forcing me to do something I hate doing. You must know that the only way I can solve the problem is by manipulating the British people and government. President Carver, push the British to vote with regard to the abolishment of the monarchy immediately. Once they do, I guarantee the government will vote to keep the monarchy, freeing you to negotiate worldwide disarmament.”
Bruce smiled, his eyes soft. “And how will you influence them my little butterfly?”
“Get them to announce the impending vote and we will arrogantly demand the British abolish their monarchy.”
“Jesus!” Suddenly everyone was trying to talk and I jumped back to my treehouse apartment.
We watched Bruce on the screen as he appeared on a number of shows. They also had Sally on a few and she was a great success. When it was mentioned that Bruce has almost served two full terms, the host asked whether a man who has served two terms as president in another reality is barred from running for office in this one. Within days the change in public thinking was obvious, a sort of euphoria of national pride taking hold and a side benefit was that we were suddenly not such terrible monsters.
During this time, everybody took a dig at me about my being a butterfly and a couple of times I was surrounded by illusionary butterflies. I really must be more careful of what I say in the future.
5408
It was not necessary that we demand the British get rid of their monarchy. Just the American president confidentially mentioning we intend demanding it, forced the government to change their mind.
Bruce and Sally have had a hectic schedule, so he arranged a day to relax and they came back to Freddie. At the taverna he told us what was said after I left.
“President Bruce, she appears to be an astute girl, but she did not give any signs of being brilliant like you promised.”
“I agree, she only gave you simple answers to your problems.” His comment (it amused him) let him off the hook and they spent the rest of the time working out minor variations to my suggestions.
Manoli has been playing about fifteen sets of tavli a day and has not lost a game for the last four days. Statistically that is impossible and nearly everyone is watching him play now. To avoid overcrowding, Freddie has had to show the board on the screens. Manoli challenged Cherine and she played six games and lost them all. He explains that his brilliance is the reason for his wins, but we suspect a new gift may have flowered in him. We will not check until he has had his fill of winning. If he has a new gift, I feel sorry for him, it means he will not enjoy playing anymore.
Freddie has thought up a new game that has become the rage. He extruded fifteen coloured spikes out of the inner shell about five hundred metres above ground and sixty metres apart. The colour of the spikes change at random. From the spikes he has ropes hanging. We are supposed to jump to a ledge, take hold of the rope and swing to the first spike without using any paranormal powers. The spike has a meter wide ledge on the top. Not only do we have to gauge the power and momentum of the swing correctly to get onto the next spike, but he also (at random he claims) has strong winds gusting that can blow you too high or push against you so that you don’t reach the spike-ledge. If you don’t make it, you have to let go of the rope and start from the beginning by jumping (teleporting) to the starter ledge. If you do not teleport to the starter ledge successfully and wait until you are not falling anymore (reached the ground) then you have points deducted. Obviously it is almost impossible to teleport successfully while in motion. You do not have to reach the fifteenth spike to win. If you reach a spike-ledge you are given points according to the colour it was when your feet, arms or body touched the spike. Whoever gets to one hundred points first is declared a winner and the winners then compete to reach a thousand points first. The points of each colour get higher the more spikes you’ve reached. Wherever you are at four in the afternoon is where you start from the next day. The spike-ledges from the fifth spike onwards are only half a metre wide and from the tenth to the fifteenth spike he messes around with gravity also. Once you have reached the tenth spike you have the choice to either go back to the starter ledge or continue from the tenth spike. The trick is that though you score much higher points if you get to the eleventh and so on, you can make more points if you start over again. He is banking on everyone wanting to say they managed all fifteen spikes.
I did not join in the rush to play and spent days watching. After numerous tries, only Jade has managed to get onto the first spike-ledge. She only managed it once and fails just like everyone else as she continues trying. By the fifth day I was highly amused by the arguments and boasts of ‘did you see how I nearly got onto the spike-ledge but…’
“Freddie, what are the odds of anyone getting a hundred points?”
“Samantha, are you trying to spoil my game?” His answer made me laugh, but I shut up. I’d guessed ‘his’ game was not what everyone thought they were playing. I waited, not writing about it until someone else worked it out.
“Freddie, it is impossible for anyone to win.”
“I do not think so Samuel - you have won.”
“Ah, I thought so! You were waiting to see who would use their brains?”
“Correct. The game will be adjusted as from tomorrow morning. There will be no artificial gusts and no altering of gravity from now. However, the ropes will be shortened, which means that to get to the next spike-ledge, you must let go of the rope at the correct velocity and angle so as to reach and land on the next ledge.”
5409
His new rules not only did not put a damper on everyone’s enthusiasm, but had the opposite effect. It is fun listening to them scream as they let go of the rope and realise they misjudged and are falling under or over the ledge. Whatever else, his game has livened things up for us. The Akiard kids are so fixated on completing the whole course that I think Freddie dare not stop the game anymore.
Robbie is not happy with us, as none of us are willing to go with him to his daily meetings on Earth. He is thoroughly bored for hours on end, but he is learning a little of how politicians think. If he was not worried about leaving our people alone here without protection, I bet he would have claimed he has an emergency to deal with in another reality and hightailed it out of here for a week or more. He finally cornered Candy and she went with him when he let her go as a five year old and promised to let her sit on his lap most of the time. She decided one day of that was enough, but she feels sorry for him and goes with every second or third day. Cassie had everyone screaming with laughter when she volunteered to go with him if she could go as a baby. The idea of him introducing her as his wife was what had us in stitches.
Samuel King still bothers me. He said he is a loner, prefers to go his own way and yet, on the previous trip, when Cherine linked all those who wanted to become Cherinians, he linked. Cherine would not have linked him if he was agreeing for selfish reasons, but I still suspect his motives are not in line with what ours are.
He has been spending days working on the vegetable farm and claims he enjoys it because the work reminds him of his childhood. While they are out in the fields he and Hilda talk. Mostly she does the talking and most of what she talks about is Robbie and us Cherinians. She has taken the high moral ground and claims we are all degenerates. Samuel seems to be adding fuel to the flames by telling her about his life and that Robbie was responsible for him losing, as a teenager, the only family he had. That made her open up to him and the hate came boiling out. In the evenings he sits at the taverna and sometimes has a small smile on his face as he stares at us. I wish I knew what he is up to, but there is no point in my asking.
I was sitting on my balcony reading with Gina on the swing-sofa next to me. She has decided to take up embroidery - Hilmar's mother had got a number of the girls started on this and we’d had to take her to Germany to buy us the materials we needed. I heard her gasp and looking up saw a Sparkler dancing within inches of her face. She smiled and the Sparkler sank into her chest. She put a finger to her lips and then pretended to be absorbed in her work again. I put down my book and looked up at our sky, my thoughts in a jumble, for I could not work out why the Sparkler had entered her.
A group of Sparklers came dashing to the balcony and then split up, obviously searching. I picked up my book and pretended to read. As soon as the Sparklers left, Gina giggled.
“They are playing hide and seek. They saw some Terran children playing it and wanted to try it.”
“How long will it hide in you? I’m not certain it is not cheating.”
“You sound like dad! It is not cheating, they should have thought of it since they know they can enter our bodies.”
“It is cheating love. Whether they thought of it or not, they could not very well search inside you, that would have been rude of them.”
“I don’t care. Mum, you have missed the point! Sparklers are playing!”
“I wonder if Thinkers also play.”
She laughed. “That’s my mum, now you sound like Samantha.”
I was leaning over her, tickling her, when the Sparkler shot out of her and entered me by mistake. I felt an apologetic buzz in my mind and it shot out again, swooping in an arc to dance with its playmates. Solomon appeared a while later.
“I’ve been told. My apologies Samantha.”
“I hope you punished the tattle-tales.”
“What? Oh, no, the one that offended you told me.”
5410
“It must have misunderstood then. Solomon, I’m to blame for the accident and I apologise for causing it the distress of thinking it offended me.”
“Did it win Solomon?”
“If it did not cause offence I guess it did.” He sat down. “These are strange times, Sparklers playing like children!”
I giggled at the reaction I knew I would get. “Solomon, just think of them as training to become Thinkers.”
After a short pause he looked at me sternly. “Samantha, you are not going to make me exclaim ‘Jesus!’.” Without a smile he stood up, lost again in thought and then vanished.
Robbie was just as excited to hear about the Sparkler and nodded, agreeing that it is a good way for them to train.
“It just goes to show, our meeting and living together must be affecting all the species. I know it has affected us.”
Athia asked, “What would happen if one of them tried to hide inside an anti-gravity engine?”
“We better warn them, it could prove to be dangerous.”
I objected, “Why? If a soul can fly right through the ground and come out the other side, why should it be dangerous?”
“There could be forces we don’t understand in the engines, I don’t want to risk it Sam.”
Dommi looked at me with a smile. “Don’t argue Sammy mou, now that he thinks of Sparklers playing like children, he has to protect them.”
Changes happen at a dizzy speed and just when everyone is getting over-excited they slow down to a crawl again. The irony is that the greatest obstacle to disarmament now is our presence. The fact that their arguments are illogical does not stop them and we seem to have a Gordian knot. (Arthur, I know your rotten sense of humour, do not dare suggest we get Alexander to cut it for us.)
After numerous discussions by our team, including Bruce, a solution of sorts was found. The spaceships of the Unation are far more impressive than Freddie is as they are seen as technological evidence of a very advanced and powerful people. Their leaders offered to sign an alliance treaty with all nations of Terra, agreeing also to act as arbitrators on their behalf. As a gesture of good faith they released information on technology that would have shot them forward by two hundred years if Cherinians did not exist. This was seen as a major breakthrough by them and Hettie. She felt their roles as arbitrators will enable them to convince the governments that they should refuse to negotiate a surrender by Robbie.
Hospitals and then private clinics reported a dramatic reduction in patients. Mostly what they have now are victims of accidents we could not prevent, but we do rush to heal them also. Farmers worldwide are abandoning their farms or just not bothering to plant new crops. We are now beginning a massive campaign to re-educate everyone so that farming becomes more quality conscious, just as we did in our reality. At this time we are being extremely selective about linking new Cherinians. We must first have a Cherine for this reality.
Vincent has confided to a few people he trusts, his concerns. He is very clear in his mind that he belongs here with us. However, he admits that his origin is not that simple. Since our Robbie and Robert are two halves of the same soul, it could be argued that he is a part of both of them. What makes his problem worse is that Cherine and Cher are also two halves of the same prime. The same goes for the rest of us. With Cherine and us girls he says he has accepted that we remain his prime primes, as it would be with us and any of our alternates. His problem is mainly Robbie and Robert. If he accepts that their claim on him is equal, then it forces him to reconsider his position with regard to all of us since the Cherine and family of Robert are his primes, which would then make them Vincent’s primes, equal to us. The ideal solution would have been for him to split himself, but unfortunately he cannot. He claims that he is still to a large extent a part of Robbie and not a fully independent entity yet, as we like to think he is. He admits he also feels a connection to Robert, though not as strong.
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)9th February, 2020
- posted: 9th February, 2020
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