Bobby rushed to hide himself within Cherine and it was as if his entire soul were one massive mote of love.
They all felt energised by the developments and worked long hours healing land at a rate they’d never achieved before. Two weeks later Arthur asked for silence after their evening meal.
“I’ve been calculating how much land has been healed and though I do not have exact figures I estimate we have healed just over six per cent of the entire planet!” He waited for their excitement and when they settled he added, “If the last week is any indication of what we can do, I estimate we’ll have healed all the lands that were not deserts within two years. If we could grow the working team by another twenty persons we could reduce the time to about one and a half years.”
Cherine waited for the whooping and exchanging of ideas to settle before she spoke. “Arthur, should we perhaps slow down?”
“Slow down?” He was not the only one puzzled and dismayed. “Why?”
“I wish we had someone who understands weather systems, I’m worried that if the changes are too fast we might unsettle the world weather systems to the point that floods, tornadoes and gales tear the forests and destroy the land as fast as we’ve healed and grown them.”
Regretfully Arthur nodded, “She has a valid point. We need advice. We better plan the next few months more carefully until we can find someone willing to calculate the correct areas and speed of healing.”
Robert looked at Arthur, stood up and walked around as he thought. “I’m more worried about the fact that we are healing the land without first searching for and identifying all the areas inhabited by humans. We also need to know their numbers so that we can plan to provide for them. What about the storms? Don’t we have to use some kind of system so that we know when they need our help? We can’t just leave them to drown or starve.”
“I’m pleased, we are beginning to think in advance as professionals should. We’ll have to find the help we need even if it means risking the wrath of the Council. As for Robert's suggestions, I suggest we give that our priority. It does mean we will not be healing land for a few months.”
Cherine asked, “Why?”
“What do you mean? We can’t spend our days searching for signs of life and healing the land.”
“The Sparklers can identify all human life and save us time by taking us to them directly. We’ll be finished within days.”
Pleased with the results of their meeting they then discussed and theorised as they analysed the events in the previous dream that still puzzled them. That night Robert had his next dream. He woke up filled with horror and shaking. Cherine and Arthur both wept with him. They’d experienced the final death of the split half of Prime Robert and shared his last thoughts. Unable to bear it, Robert had woken before they could learn of the success or failure, only knowing that Prime Cherine had taken his soul and connected or merged it to the Shadow Robert.
Cherine was inconsolable and could not help with the sharing of the dream, so Arthur had to share with the rest of the Cherinians. No work was done that day as their hearts were too filled with grief for them to heal land. Especially the women watched Cherine with empathy and understanding of the hell she must be placing herself in as she identified with the Prime Cherine and shared the blame.
Robert took her hands in his. “I’m sorry love, I’d hoped to be the best and the strongest Robert ever for you, but now I have to admit I do not have the strength of Prime Robert. God! No wonder Arthur loves him so much.”
For this once Cherine could not tease him. With eyes filled with tears she looked back into his eyes. “How could she? Her Robert!”
“Robert warned them love, she did not have a choice, she was under a compulsion.”
“I don’t care! Nothing, no power could ever compel me to kill you!”
“Grief is hardening your heart my love. Don’t withhold your empathy from her just because she is your alternate. God, just imagine her pain when she understands what she has done! My heart hurts for her my love.”
“Never!”
The others kept quiet, none daring to express an opinion. The sharing had been too direct and their suffering was still too raw so they either sympathised with Robert or Cherine but kept quiet, not wishing to add to their pain. It was plain though that for the first time ever all eyes and hearts looked at their Robert with more admiration than they felt for Cherine.
Robert could see how they felt and apart from feeling embarrassed, he was also upset, for he could never imagine the day arriving he would be anywhere as special as his Cherine. Wisely he also kept quiet.
That night Robert willed himself to continue the dream but it only returned two nights later. This time it was a very long dream and, once more, they awoke disturbed and fearful. Arthur resigned himself to another day passing without any healing, the threat of the Gnolats he knew would keep them all obsessed for the day. He was right. Robert, Cherine and Arthur were surprised by the worry of the others over the departure of Allan and the girls. They had not realised the others have grown to love the girls that much.
Arthur gave a half-hearted laugh. “I’m now certain Tchiri is right. Arthur has to be writing about us.”
“What convinces you?” Robert asked Arthur.
“Haven’t you noticed how the dreams always end with a cliffhanger? That is him being a typical author, I bet he just can’t resist treating us as he does his readers.”
Robert frowned. “Are you claiming the decisions I made were actually made by Arthur, that I don’t have free will?”
“With any god, who can say?”
Cherine protested, “But we saw in the dreams that Arthur does all he can to allow them free will. Why should he treat us any different?”
Robert's anger was not mollified. “Perhaps, but if I find out that he has been responsible for all that happened to us I’ll be furious with him.”
“You mean he will allow you the free will to be angry with him?” Cherine sweetly asked.
Robert looked confused for a moment and then he said, so as to pay her back, “If he is writing for us it means I only loved you because of him.”
He waited for her angry retort, but she only smiled. “Robert love, I don’t care why you love me as long as you do love me.”
Arthur chipped in, “I can’t believe he would create the Gnolats - what was he thinking of! What about the Gnolats of our reality, are we in danger?”
Robert shrugged, not wanting to tell them what the Sparklers had told him. “I’ll worry about it thousands of years from now if we are still alive.”
Everyone noticed that Bobby has changed dramatically. Where he used to fidget, uncomfortable in clothes and especially with shoes, he now dresses himself and tries hard to keep himself clean and tidy. He has stopped pulling away when others touch him and talks to the agents if they talked to him. Cherine sensed that something is still bothering him, but she decided to give him time to solve it on his own if he can.
Agents secretly met with friends in the city and a meteorologist was roped in. When presented with the problem he grew excited and asked for time as he will need a fast computer and a new program. He promised to give the results as soon as possible.
The Sparklers searched the planet, continent by continent and shared the locations where they found humans. From the number of daily deaths that they reported, Arthur made his own calculations while everyone else searched out the humans found by the Sparklers so as to estimate their numbers and check on their most urgent needs.
“I think we have bitten off more than we can handle. If we use an average lifespan of forty, the average number of souls returning to the void indicates a world population of between four to six hundred million. There is no way we can feed that many if the weather patterns change drastically.”
Cherine looked at Robert, but remained silent, waiting for him to be ready with his thoughts. He went for a walk and returned scowling, ignoring the fact that the discussion had moved on to other matters. “We don’t have a choice. If conditions worsen we will have to capture them and use the methods we use for keeping our own bodies in hibernation when we want to stay in the void for long periods. If we awaken them for one day every ten days in a staggered fashion, we’ll manage to feed them.”
“Even then I doubt we can manage it unless some areas remain conducive to raising crops.”
“Arthur, we’ll do whatever has to be done. For instance, we have those in the ruined city and those along the coast that we can teach so that they farm for us. With our healers helping them we’ll raise enough crops to keep everyone alive.” He bit his lip. “If only Freddie would come we could use another Earth that does not have humans for growing all we need.”
Alvers said, “I suggest we recruit another fifty couples Arthur. If we get them from the villages, they’ll be able to heal the land once we teach them, but they already know how to farm and can help the others.”
Over the next month they recruited sixty three families. They found and created arable land distant from any tribes or other groups and tilled the land and began growing crops.
Agents immediately chose the most dire cases and contacting them began to provide them with food. All agents were careful to keep a distance from the area the Children of Rea might be living in. Robert shared another two dreams, the last one ending off after Robert's trial and at the linking of Vincent. With every dream they rode an emotional roller-coaster, but mostly they suffered as they compared themselves to the growth in Prime Robert and his family. The Sparklers were also excited when they shared the existence of the two mother souls.
The area they have occupied in Athens is barely large enough to be called a village. However, they prepared more houses, as each of the new arrivals had someone they want to bring. Now that they’ve lived the Cherinian dream of their Robert and Cherine, they are eager to bring family members and or close friends. Over the next month they passed the two hundred mark and held a party to celebrate. Both Solomon and Ordinx came and Ordinx over indulged with their ale, mostly prudently ignoring their hard drinks. They all found it funny seeing him drunk as a little girl.
Days later, Solomon and Ordinx arrived within the home of Robert, and Cherine and Bobby gave Ordinx a smile. Ordinx does not find the hate in his eyes as disconcerting since he tends to ignore the eyes, so he was pleased at Bobby’s welcoming smile and sat on the floor to talk to him for a while. The others waited until he was free to join them.
“Robert, over six million Anadir have been released and there are enough of one World for them to recreate their World. We have watched you and shared in your dreams of the prime reality and you will find the attitude of my people has changed. They are now asking to be given the opportunity to prove themselves to be the friends that the Prime Anadir are to Prime Robert and his family. Will you and all Cherinians join us for the creation of our first returned World?”
Bobby came to stand between Robert's legs and lean against him. Robert placed his arm around him and after giving him a smile he answered. “Please thank your people for both messages and we are honoured on both counts. I do not have the powers of my alternate and there is no Samantha among us so I believe your friendship will mean even more to us.”
“We hope there will be a Samantha for your family someday, even though you may fear her.”
“Fear her? What gave you that impression?”
“Prime Robert does, you would not? We know that males of your species, unlike ours, do not favour females that are so strong-minded.”
Robert laughed a laugh of delight. “No Robert could fear his Samantha; our only problem, for all Roberts, is the feeling that we do not deserve such a pure love. Even her Cherine feels the same way.” He turned serious. “Ordinx, the day we have our first Anadir and Sparkler Cherinians will be the day my heart will be filled with light and joy.”
Everyone was out attending to duties they’d undertaken, so Robert took Bobby in his arms, told him to hang on and levitating, flew to Cyprus. The Sparklers had told them that a few humans still survive there and he wanted to check on them. He also wanted to see why it is that Prime Robert likes going there to walk along the beach.
Robert stepped forward to help the man pull his boat out of the water, but he waved him away. He then proudly walked to stand before him. He greeted Robert in Greek, though Robert had some difficulty in understanding him until his ear grew accustomed to the language.
“Turka or Hellas?”
“Athena, Hellas. Not Turkish. Do you find fish in the sea?”
The man showed him. None of the fish were bigger than a finger and they shone with a silvery sheen. Robert was fascinated as this was the first fish he’d ever seen. He also rejoiced - the sea is not entirely dead! Now if only he can succeed in persuading the man not to kill any more fish so as to maximise the chances of the sea life recovering.
“I must return my son home, I return soon.” He teleported them home and grabbing a basket he filled it with whatever food he found and returned. “This is for you. Food. Eat and if you like, we trade.”
The Cypriot invited him to his home and Robert accepted. When they arrived at the entrance to a cave Robert stopped to examine it. He saw it is not a natural formation, they had dug out the cave a long time ago. He imagined how hard it must have been adjusting to the time of poisoning and suddenly felt love for all of mankind fill him. He shook his head at his admiring thought, ‘Even Man cannot kill all of mankind, we are survivors’.
The man, he called himself Achilleas, responded to the question of how many people there are on the island with a disgusted, “Too many.” He lives alone, hence his willingness to entertain a guest since he had no family to endanger. Robert decided he looks to be somewhere between forty to fifty years old. His healer reported the man as being basically healthy.
“What do you know of the old times?”
The man continued his preparations for a meal without answering, but he was obviously thinking about it, so Robert waited. “Too many people, but some were gods. Those who were gods grew angry and left. They poisoned our land and water because we would not obey them so many died. The gods forgot to poison the olives so we live. Maybe the gods kill us when they return. I think they want the world for themselves only.”
“What is an olive?” The man turned in surprise, saw Robert was being earnest so he passed him a small clay bowl. Robert tried one and found the taste strange. His healer confirmed it is not poisonous and surprised him by confirming that nutritionally the olive is one of the most nutritious foods it has ever examined. By the third olive he was beginning to enjoy the taste, the slight bitterness no longer unpleasant. Achillea was also exclaiming over the taste of the foods he was sampling, so Robert felt more comfortable about negotiating.
“Achillea, there are more people like me…”
“Are you of the gods? That is how you fly as they used to?”
“No, we are people just like you, there are no gods. We do have some gifts and powers, but almost anyone can have them.” Robert explained about the poisoning of the air, land and water and how it caused mutations. Once he understood what the word meant he exclaimed with surprise.
“We do not allow them, strange children are killed at birth. I was one, but my father hid me and now I live alone.”
“Achillea, we do not kill, we only heal. Those things that are different about you I can make the same as everyone else if you want. Our group call ourselves Cherinians and we are trying to heal all the land, our whole world. Would you like to join us?”
“You want me to fish for you?”
“No, we want you to stop fishing. Allow me to explain why.” Achilleas sat with a grave face to listen and though there was much he did not understand he did understand about the need for the number of fish to grow. “We will supply you with food so you will not be hungry. If you agree to help us we will help you find your own healer inside yourself so that you can help to heal our world.”
Dear visitor, if you only joined us now, welcome.
Boy, I think you have missed some beautiful parts of the story of Cherine and Robert (and Bobby).
If you feel the same way, this is a reminder, you can go to the top of this page and use the link to return to Post 01.
Thank you.
nice!
This needs more upvotes.
Thanks, maybe sometime next year.
I had been hoping at least two or three people would like it and actually point out where I made mistakes and discuss the growth or not of the characters, as I am thinking of having the book made into an ebook and, hopefully, sold. I don't expect to make money, but even if ten people buy it, I'll be happy.
If it happens, then I'll have to find an artist capable of creating the cover - Bobby would be the problem, the rest of them are easy.
See, even at my age I can still dream.
I can post comments, but once again Steemit 'Submit' is not working for me. I'm going to re-install OS etc in the hope it fixes the problem.
I wish I had more to say, so I could sound intelligent and cultured, but I just really enjoy the way you write.