She faced them with tears streaming down her cheeks and then teleported directly back to her home.
Below you will see the explanation of what happened in the reality of my Robert and Cherine (as in Book 11). I've added this page from our exchanges of views. In other words, I was writing this story for them, posting parts of it as I wrote. When I reached this part, they reacted, forcing me to change my story. However, to understand what happened, a brief explanation is needed and provided.
I am copying their diary, but because my 'author' power of 'assuming' is just as real for me as it is for every author, if my subconscious does not faithfully send me the correct text, any changes I make alters their lives. We evolved a system, allowing me to chat with them without my writing altering their lives, by me using a font called Footlight and the ink used is 'red'. So as to increase the directness of their communication with me, they use a font called Palatino Linotype and ink is 'teal'.
Because many realities of their Syncosmi know about my existence, the story I was originally writing to amuse Samantha has been made public, (which makes me the author with the most readers ever - Terrans of at least a few hundred realities and over a hundred alien species of each reality). Quite mind boggling! Oh, the aliens are careful not to ever comment on my writing, but, as everyone knows, Terrans are not that tactful.
I used a chat font for the Boxee story, but my family, the Tellers, now demand I change the font I am using so that the 'Boxee' characters become real, another reality of their Syncosmi. I hope this bit of background helps explain what happens from now onwards - it does become important later, once Robert starts dreaming.
PS: Robert of the original books is often called Robbie by his loves - me too, if I'm trying to wheedle him into doing something for me. Arthur, of Boxee, is the alternate of Arthur Campbell, an enemy of the Teller family (especially of Samantha).
The Council was upset with Cherine in regard to the latter part of her appeal, so they showed it in what is called a suave and civilised manner. They publicly congratulated her for seeing so many truths with such a deep and mature insight, but then they reminded each other that she is very young, scarcely an adult, and it is only natural that she should have such unrealistic expectations and ideals. They kindly told each other they should not totally disregard her dreams, but they should carefully examine what is within the realms of possibilities without causing undue hardship to the people of their wonderful nation.
Of course we should help, they said, a prime example were those of the derelict city found recently who’d turned out to be such reasonable people, willing to do their utmost to contribute in return for the help they receive by farming their fertile land and producing enough to supply all their own needs and supply our people with all their excess.
Most of the older generations sided with the council while many of the young sided with Cherine. What did surprise and annoy the council members was that included among the young this time were those between sixteen to thirty, not just those under twenty years as in previous times. A number of writers, poets, artists and academicians argued on Cherine’s behalf and when the Healers Guild also came out in her favour, it became obvious public opinion was split, with Cherine’s faction gaining support every day.
Being wily politicians they asked Cherine to draw up a plan of how she hopes to achieve her dream and the number and sizes of the communities that will need help. They let the news leak out with the comment that they truly wish to do all that is possible to save lives and earn goodwill for their people, but they have to be certain the plans are feasible and possible without causing suffering among their own children.
Robert snuck out to speak to a few younger supporters and soon the council were deluged with letters from children offering to reduce what they eat if they’ll try to save everyone.
The council decided it would be foolish to keep it a secret and made public the manner in which children had responded, commending them for showing such mature compassion, but allowing it to be understood that no parent would wish to see the growth of their children stunted by reducing their food.
Arthur kept quiet during the debates and arguments in his home, but met his friends in secret to find out how they stand. He was dismayed to discover that Philip, Flens and Sarine have sided with the council.
“I respect your right to your opinion, but I am also troubled. Both children have opened their hearts to all of you and they will be hurt to find out that not all their uncles and aunts stand by them. You have known Cherine for years and not once has she proposed anything that she had not considered in ways far more mature than us. If she says we can help every single human being in this world, then I personally believe her and she has my total support. If I am forced to tell her how you stand, I am convinced you will regret what you have lost.”
Flens wavered and then changed his mind. Philip and Sarine stuck to their guns. Arthur left with a heavy heart, for he knew how deeply Cherine and Robert will especially be hurt by the lack of support of Philip. He decided to keep quiet about them until he is forced by circumstances to speak.
Arthur had converted a small guest bedroom into a study for Robert. As he entered he saw Robert had printed blown up copies of the continents and was busy drawing red lines over the map of North America and Canada.
“I’m splitting each continent into sections so that we can do a section per visit to the void. The Sparkles don’t understand maps, so we’ll have to have a clear idea of which areas we want to examine during each visit.”
Arthur smiled. “I think the council are going to be surprised at how quickly you’ll supply them with the information they requested. They did not consider it is possible at all.”
“This is not for the council Arthur, this is for us so that we can make our own plans. Can you please close the door, I need to speak to you privately.” Mystified and troubled, for he thought Robert was planning some defiance of the council, he did as asked and took a seat. “Do you recall how it is the healers repaired damaged brains?”
“You mean, their ability to return in time?”
“Arthur, they can’t return in time to bring brain cells, only to examine them. I’m planning a surprise for Cherine but I don’t want her to know in case I fail. I want to ask a Sparkle to allow my healer to take it back in time. If it is possible, I want it to use the experience it gained with the Nuar-Fiuremm world and encapsulate a cell from the body of a person and bring it forward in time to us. If it is possible, I’ll then ask my healer to create a body using the genetic information within that cell. My problem is that I can’t go to the void on my own, I need Cherine to help me. Could you find an excuse to go to the Nuar-Fiuremm with her while I remain behind?”
“I thought the…I like your name for them, can the Sparkles carry a cell, I thought they cannot affect matter.”
“They can’t. What I’m going to suggest is that the healer separates a cell and they wrap it within energy, as they did with the Nuar-Fiuremm who’d become energy threads. They can release the cell within our space where the healer can work with it.”
Arthur worried. “You’re not going to bring back someone who died since you’d need their soul and mind, but you can’t be planning to bring the body of someone still alive. I can’t see what you are planning.”
“Please trust me and don’t ask questions. I promise that if it works you will not be angry with me.”
He sighed. “I don’t have a choice, I should have learnt how to refuse the both of you years ago - it’s too late now.”
Robert grinned, “That’s you uncle, our victim.”
“Show some respect young man.”
That night, as Arthur struggled to beat insomnia, he sat up in shock. He knew what Robert planned and he trembled at the idea. If Robert succeeded, he knew Robert would be upsetting their world and changing the future more than all of Cherine’s gifts had. He gave up on trying to sleep as he considered the ramifications.
Despite his trepidations, Arthur was enjoying himself. He could not believe that for this once he was manipulating Cherine, instead of it being the other way around. She sensed the worry at the back of his mind so she agreed to go with him and didn’t protest too much when Robert insisted on staying behind. He warned them he is not likely to stay in the void until they return and will go to their mansion. He suggested they meet him there.
He explained to the Sparkles what he intends. They were awed by the idea of travelling in time and were eager to try it, but the return of a dead person to his body did not make much of an impression on them. They have few preconceptions in that regard so they accepted it.
It was the first time ever that Robert was trying to call forth his healer so that it appears as a form of energy. He too had no preconceptions about the possibility and so only willed it to be so. The Sparkles were far more impressed by his success than he was.
As he waited for his healer and Sparkle to return, another Sparkle approached him. *Robert friend, if you succeed and create the body, how do you intend returning the soul to his body?*
*Since it is his body, surely all we have to do is help him go to his body?*
He saw signs of distress in the Sparkle. *That is not how it is Robert! There is a cord that binds the soul to the body. The cord must be attached, how will that be done?*
Robert's soul trembled at the ghastly idea that he could have produced a body and then failed to reanimate it. What would he have to do with the body? He could not just dispose of it! He panicked and asked for help.
*As we have told you, we have removed souls from their material bodies before we found out we were causing harm. We have seen in other species how the cord is attached, but we are not certain it would be the same with your species.*
*Could you go to my body to examine how my cord is attached?*
*There is a danger in that Robert, our presence could cause your cord to release your body. We cannot take that risk.*
*Please, you must try, I won’t blame you if things go wrong.*
*There will be no blame from Cherine? *
*She’ll blame me for being stupid. but she won’t blame you - I promise.*
*We think your promise is not to be trusted. Even should she not blame us, we will blame ourselves.*
Robert decided to trick them with sophisms. *You sadden me. What you are trying to do is remove from me the right of choice. No person or persons are allowed to take that right away from another - whatever they foresee. Your only right is to warn the other of the results you foresee, you may not decide for them. You have warned me and I’ve accepted the risk, I believed your ethics were purer than that, you have to help me if you can.*
A Sparkle was sent to his body and it returned with a clear idea of how his cord is attached. They communicated among themselves and decided they should be capable of succeeding. The healer returned to the present and then the healer with Sparkle holding the bubble of energy went directly to the mansion. Jivers was prepared for his cord to be connected and Robert was carried as a soul to watch the body form. He was too late, the body already lay on the floor waiting. Urgently now the Sparkles connected the soul to the body while Robert rushed back to his body and quickly teleported to meet Jivers.
Cherine and Arthur had watched as Ntchizi and her people discussed the procedures to be followed once their spaceship arrives on Earth to collect Ntchizi and then they returned. Advised that Robert is waiting at the mansion, they returned to their bodies and both of them teleported.
Robert sat with a cup of tea in his hand, trying to look casual. “Was your trip successful?”
“They are an easy people to negotiate with. I suspect that Ntchizi’s experience of our people helped.”
“Cherine, I have a surprise for you. Why don’t you go to the study, I’m certain you’ll love it.”
She went without suspecting anything and Arthur followed her - which did surprise her. As she entered the room she screamed and fainted.
Once she had recovered and shown her joy at having Jivers back, she blew up and raged at Robert. “You made me faint - I never faint! How could you frighten me like that?” He tried to apologise but she would not listen to him. “How could you do that Robert, I could have lost our baby!”
His knees turned weak and he collapsed onto a chair, staring up at her with a mixture of fear, horror and exhilaration. “Oh god! I’m sorry Cherine.” Arthur had also grown dizzy from fear at the thought of nearly being responsible for something potentially so tragic.
A look of triumph replaced her look of anger. “Got you! Now you know how you made me feel.” She ran to Jivers and hugged him. “I’m so glad you’re back!”
Robert just sat looking, all his elation turning to ashes. Glumly he asked, “You are not pregnant? It was just a trick?”
Archly she responded, “Not yet, it will happen at the right time, the right place and in a suitable manner.” Arthur burst into hysterical laughter.
“I want Bobby back.”
“I wanted to bring him Cherine, but the first we tried had to be someone who understood what we were trying - in case we failed. I also don’t think we should bring him back right now. While he is a soul it might be easier for us to find a way to bypass his protective shell of hate energy and teach him how to communicate. If we can Cherine, we just might manage to wake up parts of his mind that he cannot activate because of the way he has lived.”
“I don’t think it is hate, it just feels that way to us. I’m certain he loved me at the time of his death.”
“Do you want to try or do you insist on bringing him back as he was?”
“I’ll first meet his soul and then I’ll decide.”
“Every mote he sends you will feel like hate Cherine, it will be painful.” She just glared at him, so he waved his hand in surrender.
“Have the two of you prepared yourself for what is to come?” Jivers asked. “You will be besieged by tens of thousands to bring back their loved ones. You might be justified in refusing to bring back the elderly, but where parents, brothers, sisters and lovers ask you to bring their loved one back, how will you resist their pleas? If you do refuse them, for the first time Cherine will be hated by a substantial part of the population.”
Arthur nodded. “I’ve been worrying about the same thing. We cannot bring them back, we cannot afford a population explosion at this time.”
“I don’t trust Cherine or myself. We are too soft and all that needs to happen is for one mother or father to beg for their child and we’ll give in. Once that happens we’ll have no excuse for refusing anyone else.”
Cherine nodded her agreement with Robert and then, staring into his eyes she said, “We’ll solve that problem, I know you’ll find a way, but I am bringing Bobby back.”
“I wasn’t refusing my love, with Jivers back, it is already too late for us to avoid the problem, so adding Bobby won’t make that much difference.”
“You are wrong,” she replied, her voice bitter, “they’ll be even more hurt when we refuse them. They’ll be angry that we brought back a mutant but refuse to bring back a true human.”
Robert's eyes were huge with a pain he could not hide and then he exploded in a rage. “Don’t you dare! You will not allow them to change you like that!”
The days passed and Cherine seemed strangely reluctant to go to the void to meet Bobby’s soul. The problem had been postponed by Jivers staying in hiding in the mansion, but Robert was aware they would have to face the problem sooner or later and it was not fair to Jivers to make it much ‘later’. He was convinced that if Bobby is to be returned to life it has to be done before the world learns about Jivers and begins pleading for the return of loved ones.
Cherine did not feel she could share her thoughts as she was convinced nobody would understand. What she thought, would be just a concept to the others, but to her it felt right.
She could not find the words to effectively defend her thoughts so she waited, knowing that she was dithering. She also wanted to be able to communicate with Bobby, but she wanted to achieve that by building a relationship so that he opens to her through trust, not through her powers or his weakness. She felt his soul had chosen to be born as he was and she had no right to force a change. Her inner conflicts left her mind in a state of inanition, as if it required some other answer to feed it with a new solution.
Unable to delay for much longer, Cherine elected to go to the void alone, without telling anyone. The Sparkles welcomed her and she posed her ethical worries for them to consider in the hope they would provide her with an acceptable compromise. They found it difficult to understand, despite having absorbed Terran knowledge, as those they’d borrowed the knowledge from were not people who had much of an inclination to waste time on philosophical matters. They asked whether meeting Bobby might help her define her problems in a new way so that she can find her own answers.
They formed a sphere of energy to protect Bobby from the void and released him in there, Cherine already waiting for him and radiating all the love motes she could. As his soul appeared she called to him in the same way she used to and he focussed his attention on her. His confusion was evident, for he recognised her voice but did not relate the energy shape of her soul to the body-shape he knew. Desperately Cherine tried to influence her shape so that she could form the face he trusted. She succeeded and Bobby suddenly twirled around her in anxiety, as if trying to understand where the rest of her is. She continued talking to him and tried to ‘stroke’ him with her motes. The second time she returned to the void he dashed around her and this time she was able to hear his cries and recognise the fear and need behind the snarls of his voice. Gently she called and soothed and risked affronting his sense of territory by partly enfolding him. It felt as if his glowing motes were searing hers, eating at her like an acid, but she held on, crying out to him of her pain. It panicked him until he realised it was him hurting her. He pulled back into himself.
The third time he was even more desperate in his joy at seeing her and clung closely to her as if depending on her to protect him from being snatched back into that place he did not understand and feared. She sensed how he felt and her soul wept motes of her pain. All she could do was repeat his name again and again. Finally he allowed her to enfold him as if he were hypnotised by the sound of her voice.
“We’re bringing Bobby back this afternoon, he hates being held in a Sparkle. They do not enjoy feeling his hate so he is cut off and alone. He now trusts me enough to allow me to hold him so he’ll let me bring him to his body. Robert, we must bring him back at the same place he died. When he wakes up on the same rock with me beside him, his memories of being shot and his stay in the void will only feel like a dream to him.”
“You’ve been going to the void to be with Bobby without telling me!”
“I had to Robert. I could not explain how I felt and what I wanted, so I had to go there to find out for myself. I refuse to allow his defensive shell to be pierced, he’ll have to open for me when he is ready. If he never is, then he’ll live his life as he was meant to and I’ll be there to help him in his next life. Robert, we have to respect who and what he is. Only love is allowed to change him, not our convictions that we are right.”
“The same way you changed me?” She bit her lip but did not answer. He laughed. “I’m glad you did, no need to become defensive with me. We’ll do it your way Cherine.” He touched her cheek softly in a caress. “At times, my love for you hurts.”
Dear visitor, if you only joined us now, at post 23, welcome.
I think you have missed some beautiful parts of the story of Cherine and Robert.
This is a reminder, you can go to the top of this page and use the link to return to Post 01.
Thereafter, each post has the next link at the end of the story. Or else, from post2 onwards, all you need to do is alter the url, increasing the post number by one.
If you do enjoy the story, I do not ask that you resteem or upvote; those to me are just bonuses, a sign you enjoyed reading Boxee. All I really want as encouragement is that you recommend the story to all your friends; those you think would enjoy such a fantasy story.
I would like to add a personal note, which is also a hope of mine. You may or may not enjoy my way of keeping my writing simple where I can; you may or may not enjoy the style of the adventures experienced; but, I am very confident you will each grow to love at least one character.
Is that character going to be Cherine, Robert, Arthur, Bobby, the Fire Woman or her daughter, or one of the others you will come to know? I will not even try to guess, but I know you will, for I have loved each of them and written of them with love :)
Thank you.