"...we can take turns sleeping without losing our vehicle and having to form a new one every day. We could even use it to sleep in if there is the possibility of danger in the area."
Arthur returned five days later by land vehicle as he also brought the foods Jivers had asked for. They sensed Arthur is in a hurry, carrying rolls as he led them to the office. He spread one out on the desk.
“As you’ll see, the carpenter changed your design. He increased the curve slightly so as to strengthen the beams. He also attached the cover to the rear beam. These leather straps will hold it up when you want it open and these clips he designed will hold it closed. The top of the plug is contoured so that it is flush with the front beam and slopes up to fit flush with the back beam. He warned me that it will not be strong enough for you to dive underwater, but it should be more than capable of handling all extremities of weather.”
“It’s beautiful Arthur! Please give him my compliments.”
It was obvious that Arthur had a secret, but they pretended not to notice. Robert brought out his latest sketches of the energy car and pointed out the changes with the reasons.
“I don’t see a toilet.”
Robert grinned. “I made a flying toilet and tried all the ideas I could think of, but whatever I did, every time we tried flushing some water it blew straight back into our faces if the vehicle is moving. We’ll have to learn to control our bladders.”
Arthur chuckled at the picture Robert had evoked. “I discussed the design with our air force boys and they came up with some adjustments I think you’ll approve. A couple of them had to be fitted into the plug. You’ll notice the seal on this ledge that extrudes on the inner side? There is also this metal plate, it is not there for decorative purposes. I’ve brought with me their sketches with annotations for you to study and in the vehicle is a combined wind generator and air pump. Robert you will be limited to flying at low altitudes unless you can pump in air to maintain a minimum air pressure. The higher air pressure also makes it possible for you to install a toilet - we used a design the old ones used in their airplanes. There is quite a lot for you to study before you build the e-car, so don’t plan on departing within a day or two.”
Cherine tried to control her impatience, but she could not understand why the idea of cutting his nails frightened Bobby. He’d seen her cut her own nails, Birshima and Robert had also cut theirs. Bobby was outside, watching the men and she and Birshima were in the kitchen preparing the next meal. She confided her frustration to Birshima who stopped what she was doing to stare at Cherine.
“What’s wrong?”
“You truly do not understand? In our village we keep our nails long, even the men, because we can use the nails for so many things and if there is a fight they are like tiny knives. I saw what his nails looked like before you changed him, they were strong and sharp, I think to him they are his weapons.” Cherine gave her a hug and then grinned.
“How will your mother react to you being hugged by me so often?”
“She will not be pleased. Cherine, when I see her, I’m going to hug her, even if she is disappointed in me. You have not made me weaker by hugging me, it makes me feel good and that you care and that makes me ready to fight for you. I told her last time that I am learning about love and hugging and kissing is a part of love.”
“Are you looking forward to having a child?”
“Now that I’ve lived with you? I don’t know Cherine, he does not shower like we do and is full of fleas and other things that bite.” Cherine had not thought of that side of it and it worried her. Would Fiera force her daughter if she refused?
That night she told Robert of her discussion with Birshima and he sat thinking about it while she prepared for bed.
“When we leave we’ll be passing from their village. I’ll insist that Fiera accompanies us this time. We’ll have to train her so that she also changes.”
“I doubt she’ll change that much. You know, now that Birshima is learning to read and write, I won’t be surprised if she refuses to return to the village. What kind of life waits for her there?”
He chuckled. “Sweetheart, you can’t go around adopting other people’s children. On a more serious note, her people will need her to drag them out of their lives of superstitions and fears that are holding them back.” He noticed the lack of reply and told himself, with a barely concealed smile, he better prepare for trouble between Cherine and Fiera.
An agent asked Cherine to follow him and he took her to a clump of bushes. She immediately saw the dying leaves and went close to examine the reason. She did not need her healer to explain, she could see the aphids.
“What do you wish to do? Should we kill them?”
Ntchizi talked with her and she shook her head. “We must allow all forms of life their place in our world. We’ll have to see that they don’t spread, but they can have this corner. There are other insects that feed on these and birds that feed on the insects. We must never break the food chain again, just try to control it so that we are allowed our corner.”
When she returned home Robert saw she was amused and asked why. She explained and then told him, “The agent listened to me as if I was wise. I wonder what he would have thought if he’d known that I only repeated what Ntchizi told me.”
He kissed her. “You were wise enough to listen to her, most people would not have. It is good for our world that people have a high opinion of you, so you’ll have to grin and bear it.” When Arthur heard from the agents, he too stared at her with respect and Robert chuckled to himself as she squirmed. In the end she felt too rotten to keep quiet and explained to Arthur. He also refused to pass on the facts, agreeing with Robert.
When the children joined them at the table for supper, Birshima was holding herself in the same stiff manner she used to and one of the agents whispered to Arthur that she is emoting anger and misery. He let Cherine know. After the meal she asked Birshima to join her for a walk.
“What has upset you?”
“Nothing.” When Cherine insisted, the only comment she would make was that it is not for her to say.
When they returned to the house she saw that Birshima sat by herself and instead of playing, Bobby sat on Arthur’s lap. “Bobby, do you know why Birshima is upset?” He shook his head. “You would tell me if you knew, wouldn’t you? We are a family and we have to look after each other.” A few minutes later he went to his room. Robert gave him ten minutes and followed him. As he stood at the door he saw that Bobby had curled up into a ball. He sat on the side of the bed and gently rubbed his hand over his arm and back.
“You can tell us Bobby. Even when we get angry we do not stop loving you. Did you do something to upset Birshima?” Bobby remained curled up without answering. “As I said, if you tell us, we might be angry for a moment, but it will pass. If you don’t tell us and I find out you did something to hurt her, then I will be angry and hurt. If I’m hurt, that does not pass quickly like anger does.” After a couple of minutes of silence he returned to the others.
After ten minutes he came into the room and took Arthur’s hand in his, pulling at him. With a groan, since Arthur had had a couple of shots of brandy, he came to his feet and allowed Bobby to lead him. When they returned Bobby was looking thoroughly miserable, but his hand was still within Arthur’s.
“Tell them Bobby.”
“Tear Bir’s clothes.”
Robert asked him why, but he would not answer. He looked at Birshima for an explanation. Now she was blushing.
“He wouldn’t leave me alone so I told him I don’t play with animals. I’m sorry, I did not mean it, but he made me angry.”
Robert took Cherine’s hand in his. “Let’s take a walk in the moonlight.” As they walked out he turned to look back. “I don’t know which of the two of you hurt us more.”
As soon as they were out of earshot, Robert turned to Cherine with a grin. “By the time we’re finished with the two of them they’ll be brother and sister.”
“You draw the oddest conclusions out of unrelated facts.” He kissed her, forcing a change of interests.
“These shapes are giving me problems Arthur. Can’t we leave them out?”
“Just because you levitate and drive the vehicle by mental power, it does not mean you can ignore aerodynamics. The more you have to fight air resistance, the quicker you’ll tire.”
“We are not going to ride at speed!”
“When you have a thousand or more kilometres to fly you’ll travel at thirty kilometres an hour? Robert, you don’t have to push it up to any great speed to start off, just enough mental nudge to keep it accelerating slowly and over time you could reach quite a high speed.”
“Why? Oh, you mean, if we travel at night?”
“You’ve confused me young man. What do you mean?”
“To teleport I have to either see the place I want to go to or have been there. Why shouldn’t we travel in jumps, teleporting to an area we see kilometres ahead of us? Surely that would be safer than forcing this to travel hundreds or thousands of kilometres an hour?”
“Damn! That was obvious. What if you are caught in a storm? Oh, you can teleport out of it to an area you’ve been to.”
Robert shook his head. “Not always, we might have reasons for staying in the storm. For example, we might need to rescue people caught in a flood. I’m sorry Arthur, it was me being stupid, I’ll try to force the shapes.”
He was forced to compromise, giving the shield a more rounded shape at places the engineers had specified a sharp edge so he compensated by flattening the overall shape and the e-car handled well enough for them to prepare for their first trip. As they stowed their necessities, Robert paused to give Arthur a new design.
“If this can be manufactured out of very light but strong alloys, it could act as the skeleton of our e-car, enabling us to install seats with safety belts, a small freezer for food and specimens we collect plus a number of other advantages. For instance, I forgot that we are likely to be burnt by the sun. We need a ceiling that the energy shield can flow over. Ask the engineers to alter it where necessary so that if something happens and we all lose consciousness and the field is lost, the skeleton can act as a glider or kite and land us safely. Perhaps airbags in the seats could be set to inflate should the energy field dissolve?”
Arthur shook his head. “No, I’m not passing this on to POL, I’ll establish a company with the two of you as shareholders and employ the designers and engineers we need. Robert, if this is feasible, you could end up mass producing e-cars. I’m certain POL, Security and other government agencies will be your first customers.”
“Not just for Cherine and I. Give Jivers and yourself a quarter each. We’re all in this together.”
“No. we’ll take ten percent each, but the two of you must be the main shareholders - you have two children to bring up Robert, so don’t argue.”
“Twenty percent for each of you, that is the lowest I’ll agree to.” Cherine agreed with Robert so Arthur gave in and agreed to fifteen percent each. Robbie then insisted the staff have ten percent - he was surprised but pleased when Arthur did not argue.
They were all up at dawn and within an hour the e-car was being sheathed. Any time spent at the mansion after the e-car was ready was time wasted, since there would have to be at least one mind constantly maintaining the shield. Everything was quickly loaded, the children sent to the bathroom for the last time and they all climbed in. Robert stood on the sheath, worried about putting too much weight on the wooden beams and as the kids were passed to him he lowered them. The rest levitated until only Cherine and Robert stood outside.
“Arthur, we’ll return for you as often as we can, plus it is likely we’ll need to return for a shower and some of the comforts of home. We won’t forget to check any libraries we find and we’ll send for a team if we find books. Take care old man.”
At first Robert was cautious, insisting they stick to about fifty kilometres an hour. As his confidence grew the speed rose to a hundred and then to one hundred and fifty. He refused to travel any faster. Their first stop was for collecting Fiera so they arrived at the Faerie Glen that afternoon.
Robert explained, “I’m not spending the night at the village, we need to relax.”
In the morning they travelled to the village and hovered over it as they looked at the changes the agents had already brought to the village. The crowd underneath quickly made way when they saw the vessel is landing.
Fiera had left before dawn, but was expected back within a couple of hours so they allowed themselves to be questioned and in turn express their amazement at the changes. The most important change had been visible from the air from a distance. The POL agents had healed a lot of the surrounding land and they were teaching the locals how to farm corn, wheat and vegetables. Once the ecology is firmly established they will bring sheep, pigs and chickens.
“They have taken to eating meat every day and we are not discouraging them for the present. They still eat the worms that have been their only diet until we came, but less often as time goes by.”
“I see you have not been successful at convincing them to shower often.”
“The young ones are bound to adapt faster. It does make it difficult when they have spent a day in the sun working and then invite us to join them for a drink. As you know, they like to sit very close…” Robert laughed, whispering to Jivers that he prefers facing the unknown to doing the work these agents are doing. Actually, the agent had it easier than Robert did the first night he spent here, since the agents are using their healers on the locals on a regular basis so they no longer stink as they had previously. Even without oral hygiene, their mouths no longer stink of rotting teeth and gums.
As soon as they’d arrived, Birshima had reverted to custom and stayed in her mothers hut. At first Bobby did not notice, but when he did, he did not ask for her, he went looking and entered her hut. The villagers began shouting angrily since no male is allowed in the hut.
Birshima came out with Bobby’s hand in hers so everyone settled down again, though her father threatened to tell her mother. Birshima stared at him with a haughty look, but kept quiet.
Without them seeing her arrive, suddenly Fiera stood in the village square. Her face betrayed no emotion as she saw her daughter out in the open and holding the hand of Bobby. She greeted Robert first and then Cherine and the other men. Birshima chickened out and did not try to hug her mother.
“Birshima has been a disappointment?”
“Not at all! That is a very smart girl you have and we are amazed by how much she has learnt. We came here to see you. Fiera, we are travelling beyond the rain lands and we do not know what we will find.
If your daughter is to come into danger with us then we think you should be with. Will you join us?”
“You need my protection? What of my people?”
“They are safe with so many here to help them.”
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.
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 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 a romantic 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.
nice!
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You do really a great author! I wish more people read your post.
If you want, you can have ocd-resteem as one of your tag, just to let the ocd currators realize that we have a great author in Steemit.
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I saw on your blog that you resteem ocd and was wanting to ask you whether you only resteem or also play a part in what they do. After looking through 4 of your resteemed copies, I realised that they do not seem to mention fiction often, mostly just articles that have to do with community. if so, I think it is great, for learning about other communities, plus inspiring stories, even if just about nature, they do not have much of a platform and they deserve to have a good and effective one.
However, I was going to ask you whether they would not start something akin to what they are doing, but concentrating on fiction and poetry - what a marvel it would be to have stories from different languages, especially if they are translated into English so that they can gain a wider audience.
If I do contact ocd, I would want to make my stories available from the first post of each story, so that their readers can read the entire story, not just from my last post. Do you think they would object to that?
I could either post the first post of each, or a list of links (as I did for you).
I have a problem with Steemit. I can use my browser for about 3 days to post, but then, as it is today, the page refuses to open, staying at the 'loading' stage forever. I have a short story I would love for you to read, I don't even have a title for it yet. I woke up this morning out of a dream and I quickly wrote it down. I think you'll find it interesting. If you do not mind, I'll let you know as soon as I have posted it.
First I must uninstall Firefox, clean it out of my operating system, re-install, enter my password again and then I'll be able to post for a few days. It is very frustrating, but what can I do (I've also tried 2 other browsers and they both have the same problem). As it is with replies page, if I see you replied and I open the page to read your reply, it keeps on loading and I can do nothing, only read. However, if I click on the title, it opens, I read, upvote or reply if I want and click for the page to go back and I'm on my home page again. Really weird, but steemit support are not interested, they do not answer when I ask if they have any suggestions on how I can solve the problem.
I'll be back - and thanks again for all your kind words.
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Ocd has 2 kind of nominations, first for english writing and the other one is for international languages. All has different curators but all in ocd. For your type of writing, there are writing curators in ocd, and usualy they come and nominate for the compilation daily. As for ocd-resteem, they pick up some posts with the tag ocd-resteem and nomintate to get some rewards and resteem by @ocd. Just follow @ocd to know much more.
Take care and nothing to worry about Steemit, you are great author already.
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