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<p><sup><h6>“This is so ironic. The man with the most girls in his life needs to find a mistress.” I let him have his laugh.</h6></sup></p>
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<p><center><a href="https://steemit.com/sfandf-fiction/@arthur.grafo4/little-cherine-book-02-bpost014">Previous Post 014</a></center></p>
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<p><h3><center>841</center></h3></p>
<p>“Niko, can’t you find a reason why I must travel overseas with you for business?”</p>
<p>“What good is that going to do? You think she will let you go without her?” At my apparent dismay he had another good laugh. Nobody was able to come up with a solution and when we left to return home, I saw Niko walk off still chortling. Dommi made me put the seat belt on and drove off. After a few blocks she turned to me, slyly looking out of the corners of her eyes.</p>
<p>“Thank you Robert. You did that on purpose.”</p>
<p>“I was that obvious?”</p>
<p>“Why did you ask the others to come? Were you secretly hoping they would offer you a solution?”</p>
<p>“No. I knew what their answers would be. That damn Alki and his ‘your cub is ferocious’ bit, he is loving this. I had to call them love. Niko needed to see me like this, begging for help, for sex, in front of other men. Having you there was a bonus.”</p>
<p>“I felt his resentment or envy of you die. It was good. You turned something that is bad for you into something good and did it in such a way that Cherine had no excuse to stop you.”</p>
<p>“She will make me pay for making her look like the baddie.”</p>
<p>“Why do you fear her so much Robert?”</p>
<p>“I don’t love. I fear bruising that remarkable love and spirit.”</p>
<p>Without turning to look at me, keeping her eyes straight ahead, she spoke and her voice was soft and warm. “Every now and then you manage the impossible, you make me love you even more. Today I love you as I never have.”</p>
<p>“You sure you don’t want to sneak off, we park somewhere and indulge in a bit of loving?”</p>
<p>She laughed. “You may not fear her, but I sure do. No go!”</p>
<p>All that was left to me was to tease my girls. I got Sam by herself. “No secret cups of coffee and cigarette?”</p>
<p>“You must be joking!”</p>
<p>“You have given in to her too?”</p>
<p>“You expect me to fight her? Dad you must be nuts!” Claudia reacted in the same way.</p>
<p>Aganthi came to sit by me while I doodled around on the computer. She curled her feet under her and sat struggling to read.</p>
<p>“What is that?”</p>
<p>“The girls are trying to teach me English. They say I must also learn to read and write.”</p>
<p>“They are right, you are making me very proud my love.” I leaned over to kiss her and she pulled away. I was about to say something, but I felt her feelings; it was like a sad cold rain in her heart.</p>
<p>“Don’t feel bad my love. We can just put that kiss on the list. I’ll owe it to you. Okay?” First she nodded, then ran out of the room.</p>
<p>“Cherine, enough is enough. The healer says I am fit now.”</p>
<p>“It says you are eighty seven percent viable. That is not good enough.”</p>
<p>“What a shit word to use about a human being!” I checked. “Cherine, have you checked how viable you and the girls are. What is your percentage?” She took a second to ask.</p>
<p>“Ninety six!”</p>
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<p><h3><center>842</center></h3></p>
<p>“You thought I had to be one hundred? Check and you'll find that most healthy people are about eighty eight percent, the average being even lower. It is close enough love. It has been nearly one year. I need to return to our normal way of life.”</p>
<p>“When you are over ninety percent.”</p>
<p>“Only on one condition.”</p>
<p>She put her hands on her hips. “What now?”</p>
<p>“Soon as this is over you promise to go for therapy. My love, I know you are doing this because you love me. So do all the other girls. Would you say Dommi does not love me? Only you are so fixated on me, so afraid of losing me. All the others trust me a little. You do not!”</p>
<p>“I will <i>never </i>trust you Robert.”</p>
<p>“That is sad. I will not live my life to suit anybody else, especially if it is because they do not trust me.”</p>
<p>“I can’t Robert, I can’t, you have died too many times because of me!” She was wailing and I felt her heart tearing.</p>
<p>I put my arm around her and sitting put her on my lap. “Do you think I do not have the same fears, for you, for all my little loves. There are times I am terrified. You remember in the days when we were alone, I told you I had to let you make your own mistakes, take some risks because only that way would you grow.</p>
<p>I also had to make my mistakes. I had a lot of growing up to do. I have grown my love and I am stronger now. If you had coddled me like this from then, I would not have been stronger, I would have been weaker. Can you see that?”</p>
<p>She sniffed and nodded her head against me. I felt her little fists bunching up my shirt as she held on to me.</p>
<p>“Who would you say is the most precious person for you, excluding me.”</p>
<p>“My daughter.”</p>
<p>“Are you going to treat Rosie this way too? Try to save her from ever being hurt?”</p>
<p>“No. It is not the same. If she also could not come back if she died I would protect her all the time.”</p>
<p>“Then you would be wrong. You do not have the right to take away from us what we are. You may watch with heart in mouth, ache to protect and keep her safe, but what would the life you preserve be worth if it was only allowed to be lived according to your fears. I was touched by Aganthi yesterday and tried to kiss her. She pulled away. Forget me for a moment. She ran out with a pain in her heart. Because of you I regretted trying to kiss someone I love because it made me hurt her. What kind of life is that?”</p>
<p>“It is only for a short time…”</p>
<p>“Not acceptable. She was forced to pull away from me and now carries the pain. Life is made up also of tiny scars that finally harden our hearts. That little scar she carries, it burns in my heart too - I was made to feel guilty because I was thoughtless in trying to kiss her while knowing you had forbidden her to kiss me.”</p>
<p>I gave her a minute to ponder all I’d said. “It is time love. You will tell the girls our lives return to normal as of today. You may ask them to not let me overdo it - I will not complain. Make sure Aganthi comes to me first. She needs to be loved so as to feel she is part of you girls.” I would not let her go. I held her, let her warmth soak through into me, tenderly caressing her hair and back. Finally I took her little fist and kissed it, letting her get up.</p>
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<p>Aganthi felt very self-conscious. She knew from her mother, from friends and other girls, that to attract a man, a girl must put on a strong scent, her fingernails must be painted and long and she must have make-up on. Our environment, the no-soap shower, it all embarrassed her. She really thought, even after seeing me with the girls, that what I would do is climb onto her, stick it in and plunge wildly a few times, come and turn away from her.</p>
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<p><h3><center>843</center></h3></p>
<p>I went for my shower while she waited in bed, the sheet pulled up to her chin, holding it there. She saw the girls were looking at her and she blushed.</p>
<p>“I don’t want you to look at me when he comes and pulls the sheet down. I’m not pretty like you are.”</p>
<p>Dommi took her one hand and began to massage it. Slowly she moved her massage up while Wendy took the other and did the same. They reached her shoulders and Dommi told her to turn over. Sitting on either side of her they massaged her back. Wendy was not comfortable doing it from the side and lifting herself sat on her bum, now able to lean forward and massage. The other girls massaged her arms and her legs through the sheet. Sam put her hand under the sheet and directly onto her thigh, gently massaging and kneading her. Soon the sheet was gone and she was being touched and massaged by a number of hands.</p>
<p>Dommi brought her lips to her soft skin and kissed her. She shivered. When all the girls also kissed and ran their lips and tongues over her she could not believe what was happening to her. She felt like she was in some kind of heaven, her body on fire for the first time in her life. </p>
<p>Quietly I came in and sat at the foot of the bed. I massaged her feet and gave a soft lick. As I pulled in a toe, my tongue flicking around it she jerked. I held her and continued. My tongue followed the path the girls had taken until I was high up within her thighs. Her hips arched up and slammed back onto the mattress while she called out in Greek, ‘no, no’</p>
<p>I tried to turn her over and she resisted. Then she saw it was me and she let me.</p>
<p>I first kissed and licked at her face, nuzzling at the corners of her lips. Her eyes stared at me and she did not try to move. I nibbled at her ears, softly blowing warmly. She cried out and clutched at me.</p>
<p>As my tongue enjoyed itself and I nuzzled over her rounded little belly she was moaning to herself, ‘it hurts’ but I ignored her words knowing the meaning. I came to the sweetest of all swellings and took a long look. She stared at me, now ignoring the girls who still caressed and rubbed her. She saw the look on my face and she stared back in disbelief as I leant over her. She cried out ‘mana mou’ again and again - as the heat built up and she was no longer conscious of what she called out, she began to call in Albanian. </p>
<p>I could not delay any longer. With love flowing from me to her mixed with the excitement of seeing for the first time her flower. I felt how close she was and increased the pressure and speed until she could no longer hold on and the ball of fire exploded outwards from her womb and she spasmed wildly. I pressed in tightly, giving her a pressure to thrust against. Once her darling body had stopped spasming, I lay myself down upon her slender body, which did not look as if it could support me, and tenderly kissed her, pleased at the flow of milky breath I inhaled.</p>
<p>“And you?”</p>
<p>“That will come. Relax and enjoy yourself my love. Feel the love everybody is sending you, the happy welcome into our home and hearts.”</p>
<p>She lay silent, but her heart was reciprocating, flooding us with a love she still could not believe is possible.</p>
<p>Again she asked. “And you Roberto?”</p>
<p>“I wanted you to feel first what it is like to be made love to. In this home of yours, my love, I will make love to you and you will make love to me. We only make love, we never fuck. Fucking is what those animals did to you.”</p>
<p>“Can I make love to you?”</p>
<p>“Why don’t we make love to each other this time?”</p>
<p>I let her begin by kissing and licking me. As I felt my own body heating up I turned to face her. Her first soft lick was divine and I soon had to control myself, but only for about a minute. Once her own orgasm was trembling within her I let myself go until the knot of fire burst in both of us. </p>
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<p><h3><center>844</center></h3></p>
<p>Both now satiated, I lay down by her side and kissed and felt the shapes of her sweet body. My lips kept returning to hers until I saw her eyes closing, a deep satisfaction like a warm blanket over her thoughts. Tenderly I watched her for a while, seeing beauty I had missed before. Suddenly she opened her eyes, looking straight at me and she saw the way I was looking at her. Abashed for some reason she threw her arm around me and buried her face against my chest. I held her without speaking until she fell asleep.</p>
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<p>The next day she shyly asked me why I had not made her my woman.</p>
<p>“Last night was the meze. Next time maybe we have the full course. Aganthi, making love is just like learning to read. We must take time to get to know each other, to know what pleases the other and what does not. Once we know each other like that, when I enter you, it will be a moment of joy with no fear.”</p>
<p>Later we all heard her confide to Wendy. “Only you know how I felt. I used to look at other little girls and think, ‘I know what it feels like to be fucked. You are all dreaming of some man doing it to you. Just you wait until you find out how horrible it is - how much men like to hurt you.’ ” Wendy nodded solemnly. “I do not understand all of you. I never knew anyone like Roberto could exist, if he was mine I would never have shared him.”</p>
<p>“When I joined them there was already Cherine and Dommi. They let me share. After a long time I also shared him with someone new. And then with another and another. Every time, I discover that the more I love him and the more of us there are that love him, the more he loves each of us. Wait and you will see.”</p>
<p>“You mean there will be more!!” Wendy gave a delighted little laugh. As for me, I found it odd that even my Wendy has that opinion of me. Perhaps it is what I’ve been yearning for, indicating she is growing closer to the other girls and thus, accepting some of the ways they think.</p>
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<p>Now the training of Aganthi began in earnest. With every new gift she acquired, the more she blossomed. The day she found her own healer was the day I sensed the deepest satisfaction of all.</p>
<p>The next morning Cherine jumped up in alarm. She shook Dommi, not wanting me to know, and whispered “Aganthi is gone.” I sat up, felt for her and knew Cherine was right. She was still linked to us, but she was not in the house. While the others hustled around, just confirming what their senses had already told them, I sat quietly thinking. Claudia came back to me with a cup of coffee. I pulled her onto my lap and drank my coffee.</p>
<p>“You are not worried. Everyone is trying to sense where she is.”</p>
<p>“She will come back. Unfortunately she will have caused us serious problems. Claudia, I have been stupid. I have always known the day would come when we would have to run, hide. I had decided to have us a home to hide in, but all was going so well and I had so many other things to think of, I let it slip.”</p>
<p>“You mean she is telling others about us!?”</p>
<p>“No, she would not do that. She is just following her heart. I think she has either gone to try and cure her parents or else she knows of other poor Albanian kids who are sick. The word will spread about her.”</p>
<p>“Oh no! How could she be so stupid!”</p>
<p>“It was not her love, it was me. Remember when I told her she had to pay a price? One of them was that she had to use her powers to help others. She has not lived long enough with us to understand the danger we are in. I should have explained.”</p>
<p>Claudia jumped off me and ran to the others. Soon they had all trooped in, staring at me in dismay.</p>
<p>“What do we do, Robert?”</p>
<p>“We wait Dommi. Nothing will happen within hours, it will take days. We will have another story hitting the headlines. It will not be about us, just a little Albanian girl who can heal. She will come running to hide and then we get involved. You all know how loyal she is, there is no intention to betray us.”</p>
<p>“Can’t we do anything?”</p>
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<p><h3><center>845</center></h3></p>
<p>“Actually we can.”</p>
<p>I called Tasso and explained the urgency. I told him what I thought her motives were. “Can you find her? Be gentle as you can, do not frighten my little girl. She has had enough fear in her life.”</p>
<p>As is so often happening recently, Alki came over, sensing a problem. I explained what I thought had happened. </p>
<p>“Do not worry about having a home, why do you think I was travelling? I used offshore companies to buy properties in a number of countries. Robert, I prefer to concentrate on staying here. We must find a way to defuse the situation. Maybe she just ran away to see a friend.”</p>
<p>“Alki, I sense you have some important work. Go, I will call you if we need you.”</p>
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<p>We had to stay put in case Tasso called. This upset made me limp again when I walked. The girls were immediately solicitous and forced me to sit quietly and tried to relax me with little silly games. </p>
<p>I gave them all a stern look. “You think I do not know what you little scallywags (άτακτοι) are up to? You got her to run away for a little while so as to skip school. Now that it is too late to send you, I would not be surprised to see her come back in.” As I pointed at the door we heard the key and it opened. Aganthi stood there staring at us.</p>
<p>The girls were in shock. They had known I was teasing and now they were convinced I was serious. They wanted to run to her, to get her to explain they had not put her up to this. Mentally I gave them an order to sit still.</p>
<p>“Dommi, call Tasso on his mobile phone.”</p>
<p>Aganthi closed the door and coming to me gave me her key. I could see she had been crying and felt a deep pain in her.</p>
<p>“What is this for?”</p>
<p>“I should not have the key, you must take it.”</p>
<p>“No.”</p>
<p>“But...”</p>
<p>“Samantha, would you make me a coffee? Claudia, if you got one of those…you know, hidden away, bring it to me in the garden. Would you also like a coffee Aganthi?” She shook her head. “Okay, then bring her a Coke, she is thirsty.”</p>
<p>I took her arm, leaning a little on her as I walked out and sat in the shade.</p>
<p>“It will soon be too cold to sit out here. Did you have a nice morning?”</p>
<p>“Why aren’t you angry with me?”</p>
<p>“You tell me why I should be - then if I should be I will be. Fair enough?”</p>
<p>“I...”</p>
<p>“Having a problem getting started? Let me see if I can help. Just a guess of course. You went to pay the price I told you to pay. I said you had to use your powers to help normal people. Want to carry on from there?”</p>
<p>“How did you know?” Her eyes were huge with astonishment. I saw behind her Dommi, Cherine and Marian were standing, listening.</p>
<p>“As I said, a guess. What happened?”</p>
<p>“I took a bus to the station. There is a girl who used to be kind to me when I was hurting, if my father beat me up or one of the customers…if they hurt me bad. She is sick and cannot always do her work and then she gets beaten up. I wanted to make her better.”</p>
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<p><h3><center>846</center></h3></p>
<p>“Why did you stop, come back.”</p>
<p>“On the bus I started imagining how glad she would be that she had been my friend, when I make her better. Then I imagined how she would tell all her friends and they would come to me to help them. I started to get afraid when I realised how many people would be chasing after me to help them and I realised why you do not go out and help everybody. Why you help them secretly. I got so afraid that I had nearly hurt you and…my sisters.</p>
<p>I promised myself I would not let her see me and help her secretly and then come back for you to punish me. I got where she always is, but she was not there. I asked another girl and she told me that while my friend was begging at the traffic lights, where she always does, she became dizzy and fell into the road. A car rode over her and killed her.”</p>
<p>No tears, no grief, just a small voice speaking that tore at me. I put my arms around her and she began to tremble violently.</p>
<p>“It is alright for you to cry. I share your pain Aganthi.” She looked up and saw the tears in my eyes and burst into sobs. She let the grief tear at her, but I relaxed, now she would get better.</p>
<p>Even as I held my little girl, I saw Dommi and Cherine put their arms around Marian and lead her back in as tears ran down her cheeks. I waited until the painful lump in my throat subsided and rocked and caressed my sweet loyal baby. </p>
<p>Samantha waited until I gestured for her to come. She brought our drinks and silently handed me a cigarette and matches.</p>
<p>I took the cold drink as I felt she needed the coffee. As I lit up, I saw her look at my cigarette with longing.</p>
<p>“Aganthi, you smoke?”</p>
<p>“Yes.”</p>
<p>“Then we better share this one. I don’t think they will let me have another one.”</p>
<p>Quietly we sipped and smoked, sharing, drag by drag. She was studying me, trying to hide it, but it was obvious.</p>
<p>“Why do you never get angry with me Roberto?”</p>
<p>“If you do something stupid I will. You are thinking you did, so I should be angry. If you had gone to your friend and found her alive and tried to show off your powers, I would have been very angry. Angry because you were stupid and did not think of how it could harm your sisters. Since you did think of it and were going to be careful, what is there for me to be angry about? You did frighten us, but I do not think you will sneak off like that again. It is always better to ask for help. If you had told me about your friend, do you think I would not have found a way to help her?”</p>
<p>“I already owe you so much, how could I?”</p>
<p>“Did she die instantly or did they take her to hospital?</p>
<p>“She died last night in hospital.”</p>
<p>“Which one.”</p>
<p>“The government hospital in Piraeus.”</p>
<p>“Wait here for me love.”</p>
<p>I called Tasso, explained and told him I need a piece of skin. He must hurry and bring it to me.</p>
<p>“Samantha, take Cherine with you to find Solomon. Tell him a soul they collected last night from Greece, show them, I want it back. A young female. They must have it ready for us to collect.”</p>
<p>“Jesus Robert! What are you thinking?” Marian looked frightened.</p>
<p>“I want to try and bring her back. I owe it to Aganthi to try.”</p>
<br>
<p><h3><center>847</center></h3></p>
<p>“You are going to play god?”</p>
<p>“If you could, would you? You heard her story.”</p>
<p>That shut her up and I paced anxiously. Tasso called and described the corpse he was looking at. I repeated it to Aganthi. She confirmed it was her friend and started to cry again. Suddenly she stopped and stared at me.</p>
<p>“What are you doing?”</p>
<p>I could sense she was ready to become hysterical. “You want me to pay for her funeral don’t you. We cannot allow your friend to go as if no one cared.”</p>
<p>I asked the girls to forgive me for lying while I held her. I did not want to build up her hopes until we have her friend back.</p>
<p>The two girls returned from the void. I gestured for them to remain silent and we used mindspeak.</p>
<p><i>*They have quite a lot of people from the recent past. Cherine was allowed to examine them and we have separated out the female ones who died young. There are seven of them. How do we pick her out?*</i></p>
<p>“Dommi.”</p>
<p>She concentrated as I very quietly told her what I am doing. I asked her, “I need to get into her mind to see what her friend was like for us to pick the right soul. Actually Cherine must. Will you feel I am invading her privacy and get angry again?”</p>
<p>“Do it Cherine.”</p>
<p>Aganthi was deeply immersed in her feelings and found it natural to be remembering her friend in detail. Slowly Cherine was able to develop a ‘taste’ for her. She came back, triumph in her eyes.</p>
<p>“I know which one it is.”</p>
<p>“Good. Now we wait for Tasso.”</p>
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<p>Soon as he came I sent my healer/protector with Cherine to pick up the soul and create the body. I instructed the healer to develop her body to an infant age of about twelve months. I sent Dommi to the bathroom to wait for the infant. Now I had to explain to Aganthi.</p>
<p>“Do you remember our story. How all of us died and I fought my World to get my girls back? I used cells from their skin or hair to get back all the information my healer needed to make their bodies again. Did that story terrify you?”</p>
<p>“It sounded like you are a god.”</p>
<p>“I am not. I want to try the same with your friend. We have found her soul and Tasso got me a few cells of her body. Do you want me to bring her back? If you say yes, I will bring her back as a baby. Give her a new beginning with parents to adopt her.”</p>
<p>“Cherinians! Can you really do this Roberto…for me!?”</p>
<p>“For you, but also for the girl who had a heart big enough to be kind in a hard world.”</p>
<p>“Oh please!”</p>
<p>I opened the door. “Come out Dommi.”</p>
<p>She came out carrying the baby and handed it to Aganthi. She stared at her, lifted her one leg looking for something.</p>
<p>“If you are looking for a mark, the healer would have got rid of it. Any other way you could tell?”</p>
<p>“Does she remember me?”</p>
<br>
<p><h3><center>848</center></h3></p>
<p>“Ask her. Tell her to close her eyes if she does.”</p>
<p>The baby gurgled with pleasure and closed her eyes, then looked straight back at Aganthi.</p>
<p>“You better explain to her what happened. In a day or so the girls will be able to bring her up to the age of ten or so. Keep your explanation very simple or you will frighten her.” I left her to it, with Marian examining the infant as I went to sit down.</p>
<p>I sensed, with my eyes still closed, that Marian had come to me, but she still caught me unprepared when she threw her arms around my neck and kissed me.</p>
<p>“Marian, I did not realise you felt like that about me!!”</p>
<p>“You are a little bastard, but a very special one too. It was sweet of you to save her.”</p>
<p>“Bah, it was nothing, I enjoyed the kiss too, want to try it again?” </p>
<p>She laughed at me. “What would you do if I said yes? You would be trapped by your own teasing.”</p>
<p>“Not really. Would be nice to see what my Cherine’s mum was like as a ten year old.”</p>
<p>“Jesus!! You really are a pervert!”</p>
<p>“He is teasing mum.”</p>
<p>“Don’t you believe it. Just look at his eyes.” She walked off in a mock huff.</p>
<p>Cherine complained, “Robert, why do you have to tease my mum, especially when she does something nice?”</p>
<p>“Because she is now worth teasing. I do not tease people I do not like.”</p>
<p>Marian looked back at me and I knew Cherine had made her hear my answer. I grabbed as if to bully her, but gave a long kiss.</p>
<p>“That was a job well done my loves. Congratulations to you both.”</p>
<p>“How come then only Cherine gets a kiss.”</p>
<p>“Samantha you will also get a kiss. Then you must do something else for me. It is time for you to visit your mother. Your birth mother I mean. Go remind her you love her and keep her company for a while.”</p>
<p>“How is it that with so much going on you always try to think of everyone?”</p>
<p>“I never try love...”</p>
<p>“I Just Do!” they all shouted together.</p>
<p>I laughed. “Okay, so you all know my punch lines.”</p>
<p>“Who will adopt my friend Roberto?”</p>
<p>“Do you think she would like having a father like Socrati?”</p>
<p>“Oh yes. She will understand a man like him, he is not fancy and rich.”</p>
<p>I grabbed her by the head and kissed her. “Sometimes you manage to delight me just by being you. I’ll get him and Sonja to come over in a couple of days.”</p>
<br>
<p>Niko phoned. “I hear you found another girl Robert.”</p>
<p>“A friend of Aganthi.”</p>
<br>
<p><h3><center>849</center></h3></p>
<p>“She is not pretty?”</p>
<p>“I have no idea. She was dead when we found her.”</p>
<p>“You brought her back?”</p>
<p>“As a baby. Hopefully Socrati and Sonja will want to adopt her into their circle.”</p>
<p>“You must be getting old. Giving up little baby girls now - maybe I should wait around until you decide you can’t handle the girls you have anymore.”</p>
<p>“I never could. Somehow though, they manage to handle me.”</p>
<p>“Always making jokes. Why weren’t you like this in school?”</p>
<p>“It makes a tremendous difference knowing you are loved.”</p>
<p>“Maybe.” He changed the subject.</p>
<br>
<p><h3><center>Chapter Seventy Nine</center></h3></p>
<p>The next day, after I had the thumbs up from Cherine, my loves explained to the infant what is about to happen. I was made to wait outside while they changed her body age and then dressed her. Aganthi also had to wait with me. The door opened and Aganthi gave a cry. They ran to each other.</p>
<p>We let them talk alone while the girls got dressed up. I wanted to celebrate with a meal at a posh restaurant - which might be why Dommi invited her parents to join us.</p>
<p>A timid looking Aganthi stood before me. “Roberto, my friend told me something, please do not get angry.”</p>
<p>“Are you trying to frighten her by making her think I am a fierce horrible man?”</p>
<p>“No. But it is what she thinks you are.”</p>
<p>“Oh?” I sat on the arm of the sofa. “Want to tell me about it?”</p>
<p>“When Aganthi disappeared, I was told she was kidnapped. That some horrible foreigner had locked her up as a prisoner to use her in his brothel.” Under my breath I cursed the doorman of the nightclub.</p>
<p>“Now you find yourself in a house full of young girls and wonder if it is true?”</p>
<p>She gave a gay laugh at this. “I do not know any owner of a brothel who can make dead people come back as little girls again.”</p>
<p>“What a lovely idea. Just think, we could start a whole new business. Turn all the old women who die into little girls for sex.”</p>
<p>Aganthi anxiously cut in, “My Roberto loves to tease everyone, you must not believe what he says. He wanted to...never mind. He is too kind to do that.”</p>
<p>“I am kind now? I thought I was stupid.”</p>
<p>She blushed. She ended up having to explain to her friend about her gift and how she had described me. Her friend had a good laugh.</p>
<p>I said, “I bet you are wondering why I do not call you by your name. That girl you were, she died. I could have brought you back at any age. I thought, if you come back as a baby, you get a chance to live your life from the start and let the terrible memories of your past fade away. Tomorrow you will meet two wonderful people. If you are happy with my choice, I think they will want to adopt you. Would you mind if they give you a name?”</p>
<p>“They will love me?”</p>
<br>
<p><h3><center>850</center></h3></p>
<p>“They will only get you if they do.”</p>
<p>“If they love me, then I will love them too. I lived nearly fifteen years without anyone loving me. It will be nice to be loved this time.”</p>
<p>“Aganthi, she has a lovely heart, just like you said. Come, get ready. We are going out for supper. The parents of Dommi are coming also. They are nice.” I reassured her.</p>
<br>
<p>The next morning, Socrati and Sonja arrived and Aganthi gawked at them. Seeing people appear out of nowhere still is a novelty to her. She was holding her friend, as a baby again, and I saw the shock in the eyes of the infant. It is very different being told about it and seeing it.</p>
<p>After greeting all my girls with a hug, Socrati went to Aganthi.</p>
<p>“This is your friend?”</p>
<p>“Yes.”</p>
<p>The baby put up her arms to be picked up. He chuckled and brought her to Sonja. When the baby smiled at her we knew this little cunning girl has already started to make headway. After a while I asked them if they would like to see her as a little girl, say about four or five. They nodded and she was metamorphosed. Though in the nude now, she grinned at them. They knew she is Albanian so did not bat an eyelid at her heavily accented Greek.</p>
<p>“You are friends of Mister Roberto?”</p>
<p>“Yes, we like to think so.”</p>
<p>“You must be nice people then. He told me he only likes nice people.”</p>
<p>“The same must be true for you. How much of your previous life do you remember?”</p>
<p>“All of it.” Her eyes clouded.</p>
<p>“I only asked because I want to know your name.”</p>
<p>“If I find people to love and love me, they must choose a new name. Mister Roberto said I can start a new life, so I must have a new name.”</p>
<p>I said, “Please stop calling me Mister (Kyrie).”</p>
<p>“It is difficult. When you beg at street lights, you must call everybody mister or misses.”</p>
<p>“I bet you were popular, you always seem to have a smile for everyone and you laugh easily. You will never have to beg again. Not for money nor for love. I want you to be proud of who you are. Hmm, think of it this way. If you were not somebody very special, do you think I would have taken the trouble to find your soul amongst so many that die every day, and bring you back in a new body?”</p>
<p>“You promise I am special?”</p>
<p>“Yes.”</p>
<p>She turned to Aganthi with a huge grin. “I am also special.”</p>
<p>Socrati said, “I would like you to come with my wife and me to stay with us for a few days. We promise to return you whenever you want.”</p>
<p>“Do you want me to be like this or as a baby.”</p>
<p>“What do you want?”</p>
<p>“I want to stay a baby. I want to start again and be a baby.”</p>
<p>“Aganthi, have you told her for how many years she may be a baby?”</p>
<p>“No. I was not sure.”</p>
<p>“You will be a baby for about fifty years. You really want to be a baby for so long?”</p>
<p>She actually looked as if she was considering it. She smiled, “No! Maybe for one year.”</p><br>
<br>
<p><center><a href="https://steemit.com/sfandf-fiction/@arthur.grafo4/little-cherine-book-02-bpost016"> Next [Book 02] - Post 016</a></center></p>
<p><center>I hope you enjoy reading this story of fantasy, adventure and love.</center></p><br>
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<h6>Αλέξανδρος Ζήνον Ευσταθίου<br></h6>(Alexander Zenon Eustace)<br>
<sup>10th May, 2019</sup>
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* posted on Steemit: 10th May, 2019<br>
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