LiTTLE CHERiNE Book 03 - post097

“Your auntie has a good heart. When people have good hearts, it is easy for another good heart to enter and help their body repair itself.”

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1705

Without being at all self conscious, she sat on the step and Robbie could feel the eyes of Hermanus boring into his back.

“Can you teach me how?”

“Have you got a good heart?”

1706

“The bible says all children have no sin.” She giggled.

“Perhaps, but not all children have good hearts. Some like to tease or bully others. Some like to hurt the innocent creatures God gave us to make this world beautiful for us. Are you one of those Sarah?”

“No I don’t!” She was indignant. Then she confided. “They tease me at school.” Hermanus silently moved out and sat to listen.

“That is not the same. They only tease you because you are so beautiful and they are jealous.”

“No, they tease me because I got a genetic defect.” She held up her left hand and he saw her thumb was tiny and deformed.

“I’ve never seen a beautiful girl with a genetic defect before. I did not think they existed. I think you must be playing a trick on me. Can I see again?” The healer was already in her

She showed her hand to him and he asked her to place it on his palm that lay face up on his leg. Him being a black man, he sensed she did not like the idea.

“If you do I will tell you a story about magic. It is about a place called the Void. Would you like to hear about it?”

With hesitation she put her hand on his. He covered it with his other hand.

“Just leave it there until the story is finished.”

He spun a tale about a place called the Void. He told her about the Sparklers and how they spent millions of years travelling around space, going from planet to planet saving all the souls they could. She exclaimed when he told about the misunderstanding and how they left planet after planet devoid of life. Then they reached Earth. He told of how there was one man who could travel to the Void. He taught his family to come with him and there, their love for each other created a whole new world for their souls to go to when they die. He told of how that man thought the Sparklers were insects that ate souls and he used his terrible powers to kill hundreds of millions of the Sparklers.

“Oh good. He should have killed them all!”

“No Sarah. It was a terrible mistake. The Sparklers had pulled back and they wondered why they were being attacked when the family of this man came to see him. Their souls danced around each other so as to give love to each other. The Sparklers saw this and they sent a few Sparklers who danced nearby in the same way. The man realised they are not insects and that they are trying to communicate with him, so he did a wonderful but scary thing. He left his family where they were safe and went into the middle of the Sparklers. They were like a whole sky full of stars and he showed them he trusted them and they opened a way for him to go into their centre.”

He told of how they learnt to communicate and the man found out that when he killed all those Sparklers he also killed the souls they were carrying from all those different worlds. He was so sad he wanted to die, but he had to live. His family needed him, but also the Sparklers needed him now, for he had to find a way to make them want to live. They thought they had been saving souls when they had been killing planet after planet. Their guilt was unbearable.

“If you were to go to the Void now you would see it filled with the Sparklers, a cloud of green stars is what they look like. You would also see the beautiful World of the family who love each other so much.”

He sat, his head bowed as he recalled, then turned and gave her a bright smile. “When you do magic to make me see something that is not real, you know what I do? I hold that thing in my hands and when my hands get rid of the magic I can see what it really looks like. Can I look now?”

“But…”he lifted his hand and she saw her thumb grown to a normal slender thumb, matching her other thumb. She cried out and then burst into tears. She threw her arms around him and kissed his cheek and got up calling for her father and auntie to see. She stopped as she saw her father sitting right behind her and showed him her hand. He took it within his and tears flowed. He hugged her for a long time and then looking again, told her to go show her auntie.

“Who are you - what are you!? Why have you come to my family and turned our lives back into ones of joy?”

1707

“I don’t know. I think I may have come to heal those who will kill me.”

“You cannot mean that? I would not...”

“Not you. In you there is goodness and joy. No, there are others who will fear.”

“Then leave. I’ll drive you to the border and get you across.”

“I have nowhere to go to escape. If it is my fate…” he shrugged, “Maybe it will take me back to my family.”

“In the Void?”

Robbie grinned. “You believed my story?”

“With you it seems anything could be possible.”

They could not talk any further, for his daughter and sister came outside. She was using a cane to walk.

“I’ll soon be rid of this. What you did for my niece, it gave me more joy than my walking again does. Thank you.”

“She has a lovely soul, I could not do otherwise.”

“Hermanus, this is no kaffir, no black man, you must see that. He must have been sent by God.”

Hermanus surprised Robbie. “No sister, he was sent by his good heart. To give the responsibility for his goodness to us to a higher power is to take away from him what he did and our debt to him.”

Sarah sat by Robbie again.

“What now Sarah? I know; you want me to hold your nose in my hands so that it becomes three times as long. You are worried that now you are too beautiful and they will not tease you anymore. You like being teased?”

She half believed him for a moment then realised he was teasing. Suddenly she threw her arms around him, “Robert, I love you.”

“I love you too Sarah. Be happy and have a good life.” He knew that his healer had affected her life span and she would soon change to be her ideal in appearance and it pleased him. He stared into the distance and no one spoke, for his look was such that it showed his heart. He then muttered under his breath, “She is a green leaf, but not the green leaf.” And there was regret in him.

Robbie insisted that Hermanus not procure for him documents, insisting that when he is found out they will trace it to him.

“If you let me go, at worst they can fault you for an error in judgement.”

“I’ll drive you to Johannesburg, give you enough money to lay low in the townships until you learn your way about.”

Robbie laughed. “Amongst the people of my skin colour I would not last more than a day.”

“Hermanus, ask sergeant Jan to give him a room and watch over him. He owes you.”

“Why can’t he stay here with us?”

Robbie spoke to her with the same tenderness he has for all children. “Sarah, do you know how many people there are out there who are suffering, all kinds of things wrong with them, some suffering terrible pain? I have to go to them.”

Like the child she was, only six, she asked her father the wrong question. “Papa, are there any white people as good as Robert?”

He stuttered, not knowing how to answer. Robbie cut in. “Sarah, I know a lot. I think you are one of them.” Hermanus gave him a grateful look.

1708

Next morning he was set free and not much later he was in a car driving into Johannesburg. Hermanus gave a lot of advice on the way.

“You will be living in an area called Roodeport. There is a train station there, take a train at the same time workers are going to work. Go to some other area and do the healing you want to, but make sure you are on a train at the time workers return home. Do not let them find you on the streets after six, without papers you will be in serious trouble.”

Robbie listened, but it was not the way you listen when your life depends on it and our hearts sank. We feared he wanted to die. What if he could not return to our void. How would we get him back?

The man Jan was as good as his word. He gave Robbie a room and strict instructions about what he is allowed to do and what not. Robbie was deferential and polite. Hermanus gave Robbie a small wad of paper money for ‘expenses’ as he said and then went into the house for a drink with his friend before returning. When they came out Jan had changed. He waited for Hermanus to leave.

“Hey boy, you the new one, come here.” He led him into the kitchen. “Baas Hermanus told me about you. What kind of bullshit is this?”

Robbie stood with head bowed a moment and then squared his shoulders and lifted his head.

“You are taking a risk for your friend’s sake, it would not be fair if you do not have proof. Have you got a cut or scratch on you? I see you do not. If you have the courage and slightly cut yourself, you will have your proof.”

“No fucking kaffir talks to me like that. You better do something fucking impressive or I’ll be kicking the shit out of you.”

Robbie only stared back. Jan grabbed a sharp steak knife and cut along his forearm. The blood welled up. “Shit! I cut deeper than I meant to.”

“You will be glad you did. Would you like to wipe the blood off?”

Taking a dish-drying cloth he did so savagely, determined not to show a black he cannot take the pain. He stared in shock. He could just see a scar and it faded as he watched.

“Jesus fucking Christ!!”

“Actually, my name is Robert.”

He stared at Robbie and burst out laughing. “Hermanus warned me about your sense of humour. Robert, my father has a heart condition, could you fix it?”

“Too close to you. If I get caught I will not give your name and there should not be anything tying you to me. Take me with as your kaffir servant to watch your car while you visit. I only need to see him.”

He stared at Robbie’s face because he was grinning. “You are enjoying this!!”

“You have offered me the opportunity to partly repay you for helping me. I am happy.”

“You poor munt, you are not going to last long. When they get hold of you, you will break under their interrogation methods.”

“Perhaps at least one of them will need to be healed and something good will have come out of it. You fear I will incriminate you, please use the same knife. Start carving me up, I will stand before you without flinching.” The crazy fool switched off his pain centre and watched as Jan made a tentative cut. He took the knife from his hand.

“They will not be that gentle.” He slashed at his arm, opening it to the bone. “Is that the kind of pain you were thinking of?” His smile was gentle though we could feel that tiny up-curl to the one corner that told us he is in a teasing mood.

Jan nodded, his mouth dry. “You can fix it?”

“I would not while they are working on me. Yes.” He watched as the flesh came back by itself and the skin sealed.

1709

He whispered, “Are you immortal?”

“No. Just very stupid.”

“I don’t believe I am going to say this. Robert, will you sit and have a beer with me?”

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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)
^{6th November, 2019}

* posted : 6th November, 2019

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