Monday, August 28, 2017

16 ON WATCH

Ivan returned to his latest thoughts before his sleep and something in his mind clicked. It was the nagging feeling that he'd had when Gábor talked about the man Lundy. Gábor in his excitement thought there would be no connection from Leo to the big cat, but the connection was that Lundy fought a cat and Gábor claimed it was his son that went over the guardrail. Lundy was alive and when he talked to the Gendarmes, he would talk about a big cat aboard the cruiser. The big cat and Gábor's son had to be the same person. Gábor would have some explaining to do, even if they did not find Leo. The police could charge him with contraband, assault, and manslaughter. Plus there was a motive for Gábor to cover up a criminal activity.
The Gendarmes would think the possible exposure of Leo warranted the murder of Lundy. Gábor had a motive, opportunity, and the means to get rid of Lundy. The motive was to cover up the discovery that he smuggled a big cat aboard the liner and was afraid of the legal consequence, the opportunity was the deserted quarterdeck, and the means was shoving the man over the rail into the shark infested waters. Lundy's statement about the identity of the "Thing" going into the water would compromise Gábor's family. They had to make sure Lundy would remain silent somehow, Ivan thought.
He shuddered. This kind of thing was behind him, but it seemed now that the past was catching up. He didn't like the thought that they would have to dispose of the man, however, if he did nothing, his friends would lose everything, their child, their freedom and all reason to live. Ivan made a decision; he would take care of Lundy. He would find him and talk to him or "erase" him if he could not be reasoned with. He looked at the three sleeping people, his charge now. They were the best people he had met since he left his parents. Leo especially was close to him. Leo's intelligence was incredible. He was more mature than many adults he knew, a young cat if you want to call it that, but nevertheless mature enough to compete with high school students in a very short time. He deserved a fair shot at life and more than that. He could be a guiding light for all of humankind. If Lundy insisted on exposing Leo, and would not accept reason, he would forfeit his life. Ivan hoped it wouldn't be necessary. Most people's silence can be bought. Leo was very different and Ivan wondered; how did this metamorphosis come about? Is this a new path evolution has taken? Was it an exception or would there be more like him? Helena or Gábor, or perhaps a combination of them both, must have something in their genes that created Leo. If they had another child, would it be like Leo or a human child? Could it be a new race? Nature had enough examples of metamorphosis and why would it not be possible for the human race also to morph into a different form? Humans needed to broaden their minds to those possibilities, especially if they wanted to explore other planets in the future. With the present mindset, it would be catastrophic if they encountered other, non-humanoid intelligent species. There would be wars and annihilation if humanity could not outgrow their present state of mind.
It would be interesting to find out what caused this mutation in Leo, and Ivan hoped to be around to see Helena and Gábor's next child if they had more. Society must be educated and it had to begin at home, kindergarten and schools. He remembered the Elephant Man story and how he was treated and vowed that would not happen to Leo. An idea began to germinate in his mind and he wanted to think it through in leisure time and make it more plausible. He returned to the pressing issue of Lundy. He and Gábor would be going to Tahiti in the morning and then he'd see what the Gendarmes would do.
He had to talk to Gábor and advise him not to tell the police about Lundy being alive until he'd talked to Lundy first. Satisfied with his breakthrough and about what had bothered him about Lundy escaping with his life and the connection to Leo, he looked at the watch and discovered how much time had passed. It would be Gábor's turn to take the watch.
Climbing down the rock, he noticed something strange near a coconut tree, a shadow. When he glanced over to where the prone figures of Helena, Gábor, and Leo were in front of the tent, he realized Gábor was not there. It must be him then, and Ivan descended from the lookout and approached him. Gábor pulled up his zipper and turned.
"I guess it's my turn now," he said to Ivan, meaning the watch. In the dark, the smile on his face was almost grotesque.
"No, it's mine." answered Ivan and took Gábor’s place at the tree.
"Shouldn't it be the tree that tried to kill you?" asked Gábor and both laughed. Gábor scaled up the tower with the help of a small light and Ivan followed him after he had relieved his bladder.
"You don't want to sleep?"
"There is a better place up there." Ivan told him." Plus I have something to tell you." Gábor looked at him questioningly. "What is it?"
"Wait until we have a little tea. It's no longer hot, but good enough." They sat down and Ivan fumbled with the backpack he had brought with him when he joined Leo and produced the thermos with the tea. He poured some into the cup, offered it to Gábor and when his friend emptied it, he poured one for himself. "Water change," he said and grinned. "So, what do you want to tell me, Ivan?"
"Don't say anything about Lundy to the Frogs until I talk to him first. He is the connection to Leo, the child, and the kitty he fought."
Disclosing the news about Leo's ability to read minds he would leave to Leo, but Ivan came straight to the point about Lundy. It threw Gábor off for a few seconds, and his mind reeled. Then it clicked. Something deeply buried in his subconscious awakened, unfolding like an unpleasant flower bud in the morning light.
"Goddamn it. Something bothered me when Leo gave us the information about Lundy's survival, but it was just such a relief not to have his life on my conscience at the time. What the hell are we going to do about it? Could we come up with something to stop him from talking without harming him, buying his discretion perhaps? I'm glad he is alive, but I can't allow him to mess up the plan, even if he doesn't know who Leo is, or that we found him. It will become clear when they put two and two together. For all he knows, he fought a big cat. This mess is getting bigger and bigger." He stroked his head with his fingers as he always did when he felt helpless, and let out a puff of air through his nostrils.
"I must meet with him before the gendarmes get a hold of him," said Ivan. "I'll drop you off in Papeete, you can have your talk with them, and I'll go back to Niau and see if I can find him and talk to him." Ivan had a face like a bird of prey, sharp lines around his nose and mouth that seemed to become fiercer as he talked, and his blue eyes glittered like gemstones.
"Don't do anything stupid," warned Gábor." I'll pay if he wants money for his silence."
"I'll do what is necessary," said Ivan, "and I will not harm him if you say so. But if that SOB hurts Leo in any form, I won't stand for it. He'll pay in one way or another if he fucks with Leo's life. Leo has a right to live a decent life not only he." The two men fell into a brooding silence and then Ivan grumbled.
"I'll speak to you some more when we get up. I'm tired. Good night, Gábor," and with that he laid back and in minutes a deep breathing indicated his sleep. Gábor poured some more of the tea and reviewed the situation.
Point one.  Lundy was alive and could tell the gendarmerie about the big cat that he saw. He had stated it was his son that Lundy attacked. That made two different statements. Not good.
Point two. Ivan wanted to find Lundy before the police would and possibly hurt him.  Two wrongs don't make one right. Not good.
Point three. He would be talking with the Inspector and possibly be arrested for bodily harm. Not good.
Point four. Helena and Leo would be alone on this Island without a boat for the time while Ivan would be looking for Lundy. Very bad.
Point five. They had to find a safe place or come up with an idea how to get the boat inside the cave. That was not impossible.
And finally, how could he protect his family if the gendarmes arrested him? While he came up with ideas and tossed them around, time flew and before he came to any conclusion, he felt a movement beside him and a soft hand on his shoulder. Helena woke up and she had come to the tower to join him. It was a bit early for her watch but she wanted to be with him for a while before the two men left for Tahiti. She glanced at Ivan and whispered into Gábor's ear. "Is this a club for men only or can a girl have some fun too?" With a straight face, he whispered back.
"We make exceptions once in a while if it's a girl. May I see some ID?"
She flashed him quickly with her breasts and he pulled her to him and planted a kiss on one of them before she buttoned up again.
"You may stay." He said and she smiled.
"It's getting light in the eastern sky," she said, and her face shadowed over telling him she didn't want to let him go. She paused a moment and waited for his answer.
"That inspector is a bloodhound, but he can't hold me without a body." His eyes held hers.
"I hope you will come back with Ivan. Lenoir has no right to hold you. Tell them to look for Lundy on Niau. Leo saw him alive."
"I can't honey," and he explained to her in hushed words what Ivan and he found out a few hours before. Helena listened and her heart sunk.
"We can offer Lundy money to keep this secret," she speculated.
"What if he keeps asking for more, blackmailing us? Are you willing to risk that? The $120,000 in the bank will not go far if he's greedy. Perhaps Ivan can do something; like scaring him to keep him quiet. We'll have to see what will be the best. We said ‘A’ and must continue to ‘Z’ until we're finished. At least nobody died." Ivan opened his eyes and grumbled accusingly.
"Hey, there's a solitary man over here! It's impossible to sleep with you two whispering sweet nothings in each other's ears. Don't you have any decency or a room to go to?"
"Good morning to you too, old, miserable, grumpy bear. You get a room and we'll take the high post."
"Who do you call old?" Ivan wanted to know and looked around, then added, "This is my castle. And what happened to room service? But since you're here, I'll have my tea now Miss."
"I'm on guard duty. Get your tea from the corner store, Sir."
With an exaggerated sigh, Ivan turned away, shook his head, and lamented to Gábor.
"The help today; too young and without any respect for the elderly. The new world is going down the drain fast."
Gábor shrugging his shoulders climbed down to the crevice, digging for the one burner propane stove and the teapot. He made the tea with the water they had in the jug. Leo got up and joined Ivan and Helena. Gábor took four cups and scaled up the steep rock face with the cups. Handing them to his friend and family, he poured them tea and without sugar or lemon juice they had to drink it the way it was. Helena took the full cup, smiled at Gábor, and warmed her hands on it, then she flinched from the droplets of water he flicked at her and smiled. It was fresh this morning. A breeze had sprung up and moved the trees and the air felt cool, but the glow of friendly comradeship and the presence of loved ones felt like a cozy blanket. Sipping her tea she felt confident that they would find a way out of this challenging situation, they always did. The sun came up over the edge of the island, and they all had their tea quietly, submerged in their own worlds. Gábor was the first to break the silence.
"Let's clean up and go to the cave. I want to see it before we leave so I'll have something to think about on the way to Tahiti."
They cleaned up, gathered their gear, and returned to the boat. Leo got the line, Gábor the anchor, and Helena took the controls with Ivan tutoring. They moved out smoothly. Helena reversed the engine then put it into forward and accelerated until the boat planed out and sped toward the North.
Rounding the point a few minutes later, she slowed down and pointed forward. The sentinels looked menacing and were the only recognizable features that showed them where the tunnel was. The steep walls didn't indicate any opening on the craggy, plant and vegetation-obscured façade.
"Is that it? Or is that a different one?" The question was justified because the entrance was underwater when the swell rose and it became a slit, visible only when the swell receded. A hissing and gurgling sound became audible when they got closer. The sentinels stood like stern guards perhaps a meter above the surface and looked dangerous. With each swell, the water swirled about them and created small whirlpools on both sides of the tunnel entrance. Current moved in and out of the submerged opening with considerable speed.
"Tide," Ivan said and a sudden idea flashed through his head. "We need to know when the tides are."
"Leo, Helena, do you see that narrow ledge by that crevice over there?" and he pointed to the left of the entrance.
"It looks like one could get to it from the top. You have the handheld GPS and could find your way back to here. Would you check it out while we are gone and see if that is the case? From that ledge, you could see how high and low the water gets during the tide change and perhaps you could get into the water and take measurements of how low the water is at low tide. We may have a way to get in if the tide gets low enough. See what you can do, will you?"
Gábor saw what Ivan talked about. His mind focused on Leo, thinking he was a bit too young to take a risk like that. With sharks in the water and the swells possibly washing him against the rocks, it seemed very risky. Before he could formulate his thoughts, Leo spoke to him.
"I do it. Sharrks no prroblem." It sounded like purring and Leo seemed to have gotten the idea to sound the "m",  "p", and the "b". "What…Did I speak out loud?" Gábor looked questioningly at the two humans. Helena and Ivan returned his glance and shook their heads.
"Speak out loud about what?" asked Helena and Ivan at the same time. Ivan looked strangely at Leo. Helena furrowed her forehead. Ivan linked with Leo.
"Do you want me to tell them? I think you just made mind-link contact."
"You tell him. You're better with words. It would help if he would stay in contact with me when you are in Papeete."
"Does it work over that distance?"
"Distance is almost unlimited once the link is established." This mind-link exchange took no more than a second. Ivan turned to Gábor and Helena.
"Ever had the feeling cats could read your thoughts," Ivan asked Gábor.
"You're trying to be funny? It's too early in the morning, Ivan."
"If it makes you loosen up, all's fair! Because this Kitty can read your thoughts."
"Yeah, and I can swim the Niagara Falls upstream."
Helena had a quizzical look on her face during this verbal sparring match. She recalled a few situations when she thought Leo knew what she wanted to say or do and he'd acted before she could say or do it.
"Explain, funny man." Helena, a bit more open than Gábor, was intrigued.
"I had a telepathic conversation with Leo last night for a long time. It is for real." He turned to Gábor who looked like someone who wanted to laugh and get annoyed at the same time.
"Yeah, right. How could I have missed it? Too quiet perhaps?" Ivan ignored his sarcasm.
"What were you thinking just before you asked if you had spoken out loud?"
A steep furrow appeared between Gábor's eyes and for a few seconds he searched his memory, and then it came back to him.
"I thought that Leo was too young to take a risk like that." Helena squinted and scrutinized Leo. On that, she agreed with her husband.
"You werre dinking of sharrks and de swells vrreaking ne on de rrocks," said Leo with a purr. Gábor's chin dropped.
This can't be true. I'm dreaming. His eyes looked intensely at Leo, who shook his head, and Gábor ‘heard' him clear as a bell.
"No. You're not dreaming. It is true. I can read you and Helena too. Finally."
‘Gee, I'm a poet, like that guy on Sesame Street’ Leo thought amused without projecting it to the others. No grumbling, no growling or purring in this conversation and still, it was clear who "spoke" to him. Gábor looked at Helena. Did she ‘hear' anything? Was this real?
"Can Lena hear you too?" Gábor conveyed his scepticism. Helena observed the two in silence. She noticed Gábor's concentrated looks and Leo's serene eyes and knew something had happened between the two. Ivan looked smug. Then she paid more attention to Leo and felt something like a whispering presence in her mind. Helena focused on it.
"Yes, if she was linked, she could," Helena ‘heard' in her mind.
"How does it work? Were you always able to do this? Can you think to both of us at the same time? Could Helena read my thoughts? Can I read hers? Can we tune out if we don't want to be read?" He stopped and took a deep breath and let it out through pursed lips. This was unreal.
Gábor had vocalized without realizing and Helena looked as if she had ‘heard' something other than his words. Leo's lips didn't even twitch. Helena's lips curled into a big smile, then she began to laugh and took a breath to speak, but Gábor beat her to it.
"This is getting a bit too weird for me," Gábor admitted. "I'm not sure I know how to handle a mind-reading lion. First I'm discovering he is intell…" He wanted to ask more questions about this form of communication, but Ivan interrupted the flow of words.
"Why don't we all talk at once, eh? Helena would like to be in on this little chat, I presume, so how about if I take the lead since I had the pleasure of being ahead of you two?" Ivan suggested. Helena was quiet and looked speculatively at Leo, her face excited. She ‘heard' the last ‘transmission', but wasn't sure if it was real or imagined. They sat around Leo, and Ivan related his experience with Leo excitedly. It was a phenomenal discovery and hard to be stoic about it. With this new development a lot of things could change, including Leo's schooling.
"Leo and I talked yesterday during his watch and he told me he wanted to learn everything that I know. That would take about five minutes, I'd think. He is much smarter and grown up than we ever thought possible, you'll see. I just needed to imagine him in my head and direct my thoughts at him and he was able to "read" me. He calls it the "mind-link"; I tried and it worked. He was in my head. He ‘read' me and I ‘read' him crystal clear, without a possibility to misunderstand. Whatever is in his mind during a link is in mine too, pictures concepts and all. It is as if we have one mind." He paused and looked at their astonished faces.
"If you want privacy, you just put him out of your mind, not imagining his face or focusing on him," Ivan continued.
"I checked it out and it works. You have to focus your attention on him if you want him to ‘read' you. Whether he can talk to all of us the same time, I don't know, but it would be easy to find out. I don't think that you, Gábor, or you Helena, will be able to read each other's minds without Leo, that remains to be seen, but he can ‘read' all of us if we focus on him. I'm sure he could talk to any person if they would focus on him. Is that about right Leo?"
Leo purred and his eyes closed and opened slowly.
"Close enough. Me having this forrm converrsation is new to me as to you. I don't know what all the possibilities arr." His words came slow, deliberate and his voice still sounded like growling and he made an effort to pronounce the “m”, “b”, and “p”.
"You guys want to take a "test-read?" Ivan asked. Helena didn't need any encouragement and jumped right in, but Gábor's face looked intense and a bit incredulous.
"What are we going to do now?" Helena asked and in an instant, the two men and Helena heard the question in thought and aurally.
"We're having a telepathic conversation, that's what we're doing now," they ‘heard' Leo's answer on the mind-link. A "Zen" answer. The recognition flashed into Gábor's mind. What was in his head was also in the heads of the others. It was as if Leo was the hub of a wheel and the conversation flowed through him. The sensation was like being in one room and all could hear anyone that ‘talked'. Another curiosity was that it was not a language, but a much more precise form of information exchange that words attempted to express inadequately. When Gábor ‘thought' in the Hungarian language, Leo had no problem ‘understanding' and Ivan tried the same with Russian and Farsi and Leo had answered back as if there was no language barrier.
"Leo, is there any language barrier in this form of communication, and is it possible to avoid being ‘heard' by anyone you are not targeting?" asked Helena.
"I don't know of something you call language. The sounds you make are not important to me in the mind-link. Language is not a problem for me because thoughts are put into words to express an idea. I get the thoughts, purely and clearly and that is what I convey to you. That is why there can't be misunderstandings or problems when we are conversing telepathically. I think words in comparison are clumsy, inaccurate, never really conveying the essence of an idea and often insufficient. As I said, I don't know about sending private messages through me, because this is new for me too. Your thought is the message. What your phonetics are will not make a difference in this form of communication."
"What is the limit of this mind-link," asked Gábor.
"I don't know of any limit. Anybody can think at me, but I can choose who I want to ‘read' and to whom I want to answer," thought Leo.
"What if I don't want you to ‘read' me? Can you still see what I'm thinking?" Gábor asked, and his thoughts were excited; he loved this new form of ‘talking'. He also understood the entire scope of Leo's intelligence and maturity. To him, Leo felt far more advanced intellectually than his age would have suggested.
Helena felt it confirmed her hunch. It also allowed for a much closer bond with Gábor and Leo. Ivan was right. Leo was as mature as a young man of twenty at least, maybe not as educated because he had no formal schooling and lacked information about the world, but unquestionably mature. Helena had the same impression and was overjoyed. Their child was at least equal to normal people. If he was only five years old with the maturity of a grown up, there was no telling what he could be with good education. Thrilled she listened to Leo with attention.
"No. However, I feel your emotions like happiness or sadness, anger or joy, fear, and love but no particulars. It is only emotion without information. When you concentrate on what you want to convey, then I have the ability to ‘read' you. I can choose whom to relay thoughts to as well. I suspect if Lena wants to "think" to you, then you would be ‘hearing' each other through me, and I would pick up your emotions, but with no content of the message. I think it may take a bit of training to achieve that kind of filtering."
"How long have you been doing this for?"
"I was able to ‘read' you since I morphed, as you call it, but you did not ‘hear' me."
"If you were able to talk to us, why didn't you?"
"I did. You were deaf." Gábor swallowed that without protest. Helena was exhilarated.
"This is much more precise than spoken words and much too intimate for all to ‘read," she thought. She was deeply intrigued with this mind-link, but concerned about losing privacy.
"What would happen if I just wanted to think to Gábor without involving you, Leo?"
"Unless we train to encapsulate the information, that would be like you wanted to tell Gábor a secret across a crowded room, while you are in the link," cautioned Ivan.
"You don't have Leo's capacity to filter out whom you want to think to, I think. Leo is the one who could choose to whom the message would go. You cannot read my mind without Leo relaying it to you," said Ivan, but Leo got in and explained.
"Not entirely correct, Ivan. As it is now, it is not possible, but if you practice more, and access the part of the mind where it is quiet, you could develop the ability to encapsulate your thoughts, at least to some degree so I would not necessarily know what you're thinking, only that you are. At times, I felt you were connected with me and knew what I wanted without me initiating contact. The same happened with Lena, but she dropped out before I could establish the link. I have tried a few times to link with you too Gábor, but Lena and I spent more time together than you and I did, additionally Lena has stronger intuition. Meditation will strengthen your mental sensitivity too."
"How do you know all this?" Helena asked.
"I don't know. I just know."
The husband and wife team had a tremendous breakthrough with this revelation of their son's capability and ability to converse with them and for a while, they exchanged information among themselves and Ivan and became mentally intimate to an extent that even Ivan's secret desire for Helena seeped through and Gábor didn't grudge him that. He knew that many men felt envious that he had ensnared an exceptional woman and knew that his friend would never try to "steal" his wife from him or do her any harm. That he had a crush on her only affirmed his choice of being with Helena. Ivan had proved himself to be a reliable friend and he could trust him. She would be safe with him around.
They wished they had more time, but it was time to prepare for the sail to Tahiti, besides, they still could practice on the way, and if it were true, the distance wouldn't matter and they wouldn't need radio devices anymore. Exhausted from the mental strain they terminated the link, but would work more in it later. Now they needed to plan ahead.
Leo, Ivan, and Gábor surveyed the wall and entrance and even got into the water while Helena stayed in the boat and watched for sharks, but she didn't see any. When the three returned and dried off, they decided to go back to the landing site. Helena took the helm again. She started the engines, put the boat into gear, and in a wide arc steered it south, toward the now familiar beach.
The Eastern trade wind had kicked in a bit and increased the wave action; the swells carried more waves on top of them. Still, Helena had no problem getting close to the beach. Ivan slid over the inflatable's tubes into the water with the line in his hand and made fast on the tree that had become their on-land mooring. Leo dropped the anchor and Gábor lifted Helena off the boat and carried her on his shoulder ashore, as a cave dweller would do to his captive. Macho; she thought and laughed. They had not had a lot of time for themselves and this little bit of intimacy felt, well… uplifting. She wished for a little time alone with him soon. Shortly he would take off and she would miss him for who knows how long, a few days for sure. An idea came up.
"I want to check on the cache to see what we may need from Tahiti. Care to help?" she asked Gábor, and he looked at her in astonishment. Helena was good in planning and organizing things. What did she want to check on? But then he's got it.
"Good idea." Gábor's eyes lit up. The sparkle in his eyes spoke of things better done than talked about. Leo looked at Ivan and his friend had a sly grin on his face. He envied his friend.
"We will get the boat ready. See you when you've finished checking the goods."
In his own way, Ivan wished the couple all the happiness in the world and hoped to find a partner for himself like Helena. He had fantasized about her many times whenever he felt lonely and sometimes even hoped she would find her way into his bed, but friendship had a very high value for him and he would never take advantage of a friend's wife, even if she offered it. His morality index, ingrained since birth, had been tested a few times and he had failed once and felt remorse over it.
His military service had left his wife alone for long periods and he's heard rumours that his wife had a few male visitors while he was fighting in some hellhole. He couldn't blame her; he wasn't there, but he hoped at least those men were not abusing or hurting her. He had a serious affair once and it ended badly. Now in the South Pacific for the first time in his life, he hoped to meet a woman like Helena. The stewardesses had been good looking and he would have started something with one of them, but he was occupied with planning where to get a craft for Leo's ‘rescue' and how to go about it. In Tahiti, there would be more time to look around.
He had heard how beautiful the Polynesian women were, but when he arrived at the airport in Papeete and saw many grossly overweight and unfriendly females, his hopes dropped. Perhaps after this business with the rescue was over, he could take some time to do some ‘sightseeing' and find someone as attractive as Helena. Under some laughter, the two departed hand in hand with a spring in their step. Watching the two walking towards the jungle setting and disappearing into the foliage, he still smiled and then turned to Leo. "Let's practice the mind-link kitty."
Leo murmured something Ivan didn't catch and then joined him in the boat. There was nothing to do but wait, so they practiced the mind-link.

Sunday, August 20, 2017


On the watchtower, Leo and Ivan carried their own conversation. Leo, with his particular purring quality fascinated Ivan. When he was a child, he had a favourite cat "Niki" and he could have sworn the cat could read his mind. The conversation with Leo reminded Ivan of his cat. Whenever a topic came to mind he thought about, Leo breached the subject before he could articulate it.
Curious about Leo's fragmented memories about the time in the ocean and what happened then, Leo began talking about it before Ivan asked him to tell him more about his ordeal of thirty-two hours. With his peculiar way of words and how he used them, Leo conveyed what little he could recall of his fantastic rescue as if he knew what Ivan wanted to know.
The early childhood experiences Ivan had with his cat "Niki" were the times when he came home from camps the Red Brigade had sent him to and his cat appeared at his home just minutes after he had stepped over the threshold. His parents had not seen the cat for weeks, but when Ivan came home, the cat showed up just minutes after his arrival.
Ivan's upbringing was anything but easy and his parents were not wealthy. He had left home when he was thirteen, became friends with an old Korean Hwa-rang-Do master and practiced with him this particular art while he worked in an ammunition factory, and learned more about fighting, guns, and bullets than the average seasoned soldier. When he was seventeen, he joined the army and rose quickly to the rank of Polkovnik (colonel), loved the martial arts, and started instructing Hwa-rang-Do at the age of twenty.
When the war started with Afghanistan he had a reputation of being the best combat instructor the military had. The Bureau sent him to Kabul to train government forces and he soon found himself involved with drug smuggling conducted by the government and wanted to get his own little deal going. It went very well and he made a lot of money.
The commanding officers thought he was too successful, did not like competition and tried to eliminate his little business and sent two men after him. Only two pairs of ears returned to the CO's.
Ivan managed to get the better of the guys, and sent their ears with a note to his superiors as hearing aids so they would be able to hear his message loud and clear. The message: "I quit. Spare your men," was hard to misunderstand.
He escaped thru Pakistan to India and then to Canada and was accepted as a political refugee in exchange for some delicate information.
Because he had seen the suffering that conflicts caused on civilians, he turned fifty percent of the money he had made through his drug dealings into good use, and a lot of war orphans and relief organizations wondered whom the anonymous donor could be.
Money was not a problem; he still had a lot to himself and did not lack funds when he needed it. Just the monthly interest the bank paid on his money amounted to over nine thousand Dollars per month, but nobody would guess it. Channelling a third of that toward Education in private schools that taught solutions towards peace and equality in their curriculum, he still had a pretty easy life and yet lived frugally. His visible account had grown considerably over the past twenty years because of his simple lifestyle. The money he sent to his parents was enough to allow them to live a good life in Kazan. His wife and his son dead many years ago, he remained single. When he moved to the West Coast and was free from governmental interest groups, he settled on the Sunshine Coast and lived a quiet life, fishing, and hunting. He had one rifle, a Remington bolt action .270, a Glock 17 handgun, and a compound bow with a 75-pound pull. He was deadly with all three. Regularly he went into the backcountry and into the mountains and came back with enough venison that supplied him with meat until the next hunting season.
He never talked with anybody about his life and now with Leo at his side, he felt like a mentor to this strange kid. Leo was five; going to be six in two months, but he was as high in his size as a cougar, and when he stood up, he was as tall as his mother, and he still grew. During their short time together in Canada, he displayed the maturity of a human of at least twenty and that intrigued Ivan to no end. He saw a huge potential in Leo and loved him.
Although his parents were humans, Leo could be a being from another planet, he thought, and an idea took shape in his mind. Humans could see him as an ambassador. All that he needed was a space suit and a ray gun and people would be more accepting of him. He looked at Leo from the side and Leo looked back at him. The stars, very bright with the absence of other light sources, gave enough light to make out facial features and the sky glowed with the Milky Way.
"Leo, when this is over, I would like to try something so people will be more accepting of you. Are you interested in hearing what I have to say?" Leo blinked slowly; which Ivan had learned to see as a nod in humans.
"They are not as bad as they seem, but live in fear of anything they don't understand, and from this fear, they act like idiots. I know how smart you are and I wish I'd known you from the very first of your life. It could have saved everybody a lot of headaches, misunderstanding, and disappointments.”
“Your mother is a great woman, I'm sure you know that, and so is your dad. They will do anything to protect you, but they were confused when they saw you changing into who you are today.”
“Possibly I would have been the same if I were in their position. For an outsider, it's easier to accept your appearance because they don't know that your parents are humans, but your parents didn't expect you to turn out the way you did. As you are aware of your facade, you‘re not having exactly the looks of a human child…" at that, Leo lifted his head and yawned and Ivan laughed. That obviously wasn't news to Leo.
"What we are doing here is protecting you from people's own fear and also from acting out against you because of their ignorance. People need time, as your parents did, to get used to your exterior."
He paused for a few seconds to see if Leo was interested in hearing what he wanted to say. As always, Leo listened silently, only the position of his ears and the occasional slow blink of his alert and intelligent eyes indicated his full attention.
"We want to give you all that we know, so people will see who you really are and not what their ignorance tells them. For that, we have made this plan and we will be here for as long as it takes for you to face humans and for them to be ready for you. If the idea in my head works the way it should, we will succeed, if not, you will be able to take care of almost anything with our full support. Do I make any sense to you?"
Leo blinked slowly in addition to a nod of his head and Ivan kept talking.
During this long talk, Leo listened intently and watched Ivan. He felt the sincerity of Ivan and understood what he wanted of him. Nobody knew anything about the close encounter he's had with humans while he was out hunting last fall. He couldn't tell Helena because he couldn't talk enough to be understood and if he could talk, she wouldn't allow him to leave the house if she knew what had transpired. Gábor worked during the week, and every other day he came home late and was less inclined to listen than his mother. In addition, he was less sensitive than his mother in perceiving Leo's attempts to communicate, although he spent time with him in the woods often.
Nevertheless, he tried communicating with Gábor, but it was useless. He had witnessed his parents ‘dark times' and felt helpless. He understood their dilemma like a human would, but his nature was heavy on observing and letting them work out their problem on their own. He didn't take on a guilt complex but wished they would get over his appearance. He knew who he was and was aware of his condition since he was two years old.
During the times of his father's fitness program at home and on the bush path, he ran with him and kept up with him easily, but he had the advantage of being on all four limbs. Gábor was glum on those occasions, withdrawn and Leo's attempts to interact with him stopped. Often Helena walked with them and he attempted to have a conversation together with both of his parents the way he knew how, but without success. They were deaf or insensitive to his images he projected to them.
Conscious self-awareness came to him at the time his transformation began and he noticed his appearance changing, while neither his parents nor other people underwent the changes as he did. He understood that somehow he was different. However, Leo didn’t feel strange about himself. First, he thought this was the way of all humans until he found out that "normal" humans remained hairless and without a tail and had hairless faces. Realizing that to them he must look alien and strange, he allowed his parents to shave his face and hide him away from strangers, which was everybody, but he had not felt anger or hatred towards them. To him they just were just different. Other children only grew taller, but basically remained the same, he noticed.
That didn’t bother him, but his father's confusion did. He didn't talk to him, was reluctant to touch him and whenever Leo approached him, he began to do something. All conscious living beings need affection but Gábor moved away from him when he came close as if he carried some contagious disease.
Leo was as confused as his father because he felt his affection as well as his repulsion. Leo's father was a bundle of contradicting emotions and strange as it was, his father loved cats. He petted the two house cats and they often curled up on his lap, but with Leo, he was distant, yet deep down Leo felt loved by him.
Leo tried communicating, however, Gábor appeared immune to Leo's transmissions, but Leo's mother seemed more perceptive. Still, there was no communication other than a one-sided sensing Helena's intent and emotions and to a lesser degree that of his father. Leo read them, but they didn't read him. He had tried to use words, learning from the TV, but that proved to be a fiasco. His parents seemed not to use the same words the TV did and his sounds were not the same as on the TV. He needed someone to learn from.
Leo had no idea that his parents spoke their native language among themselves. How could he tell them, they only needed to think of him and he would understand? His own problem was that nobody taught him to use words. He listened to them and their conversation, watching their aura and without knowing, he understood their spoken native language, but he couldn't reply. The words were too hard to form the way his mouth and tongue were and without guidance and practice the words failed to sound as he intended them to sound. Knowing nothing about other languages he found out about them when Ivan came to the house and met with him. Leo learned a language called "English" without being able to know the difference in languages. ‘Reading' people's mind was not about language, but intentions and ideas put into words.
Initially, it made his task of learning to speak confusing, but then he picked it up rapidly with the help of his ability to ‘read' people around him. Ivan was the first person to teach him seriously to read, write, and articulate words and Leo began to connect the intentions of what a person thought with the corresponding sounds they made. He associated the sounds with thoughts and so his communication with his parents and Ivan started. Helena spoke to him before and he felt her genuine love and confusion about him and his strangeness and he had wondered what was strange about him.
He thought nothing strange of his looks, but apparently, his parents did. His father was hairy to some extent and loved him in his own way, he felt it, but he carried a feeling of shame and guilt within because of the way Leo looked. Why? His emotions were a jumble of love, and a desire for Helena, but his emotions toward him were confused. Only in the past few days, Leo felt the changes in Gábor towards him. He seemed to be more accepting and treat him in a kind manner, which he liked. Gábor talked to him more and seemed to listen. Leo thought independently and was intelligent, but his father had only in the last few days paid attention to him and opened up. Now he seemed to see him as he was.
A few days ago, there was a switch thrown, he listened more, not with his ears, but with his mind, and his mind became easier to follow. It was not easy to connect with him because Leo could not speak well and Gábor did not know how to listen or direct his mind outward, no communication happened.
Leo didn't know how to change that and now here was Ivan with whom he could hopefully interact. Ivan wanted to communicate and listen; he was open to listen to Leo's side of life.
"I know your nind," Leo vocalized with his deep, growling voice.
"Yes. That's good. So are you willing to learn from me then?"
Leo ignored Ivan's question. "Dink at nee."
"What do you mean? Think about you, you mean?"
"No. Direct dinking to nee."
"I don't understand."
"Close de eyes. See ny face. It will help. Focus, dink strong what you want to say." Ivan had no idea what Leo wanted, but he closed his eyes and made an effort to imagine Leo's face and for a few seconds, he couldn't think of anything because he had no idea what thought to formulate. Why did Leo want him to think about him?
It was dark around them, but Leo's face, visible in the weak light from the stars, was right in front of him and he wondered what time it was.
 "It's now, Ivan." Ivan had the clear impression he heard Leo in his head, but with a clear voice. Leo looked at him and his eyes shone in the night like green LED lights but his mouth-like muzzle didn’t move.
"What?"
"It's now Ivan. The time you wonder about. It's now."
The thought was as clear in Ivan's head as if Leo had spoken to him without moving his mouth or the characteristic rumbling sound when Leo talked. It was more like a strong thought in Ivan's mind. Ivan shook his head.
"What's this?! Are you reading my mind?"
"Yes, and projecting mine to you."
“Holy shit," he exclaimed vocally, suddenly excited.
"Not even close. I think you would call it mind talk, telepathy." Leo still looked at him without moving his mouth. There were no substituted or missing consonants as when he used his vocal chords.
"Let's try this again," Ivan said with voice, a bit shaken. If this was real...
"Okay. Ready?"
"Go." Excitement flooded him. This made a world of a difference.
Leo looked at Ivan as if he was in some contemplative state and began to transmit. His facial expression remained the same.
"I wanted to talk to you about your cat ‘Niki" you had in your country when you were young. Cats can link into minds."
"Wow. You're not kidding me, are you? Do Helena and Gábor know you can do this?" he focused his thoughts. He noticed how Leo's mind talk was clear, not as it was when he vocalized, no clipped sentences, growling, nor purring.
"I have tried, and I am new at this too, communicating, I mean. I could ‘read' them most of my life, but I did not get through to them. I thought a lot about it and tried hard, but their thinking does not include the possibility that I might have enough intelligence to communicate with them and can't imagine telepathy as an option to communicate. I noticed in you more willingness to converse with me. You're more open to the possibility.”
“Helena sometimes had been close to ‘hearing' me. I want to talk with them and make them aware of it and then I think they could be very good, especially Helena. They need to learn mind projection if they want to talk to me. I don't think my vocal cords are made for spoken words, your talking is hard for me to imitate, and my vocabulary is very limited. Words are very cumbersome. Ears are for listening to sounds, minds are for communicating clearly and the mouth to put food into it. Humans need to learn to listen with their hearts."
 "You are very wise for your age, Leo. Since when can you do this mind-stuff?"
"I always did ‘hear'. People don't really listen. You are deaf, but talk a lot."
Again Leo demonstrated his mature thinking and Ivan laughed.
"Yeah, Now I see what you mean. I understand everything you said and it seems even concepts are more precise."
"There can be no misunderstanding."
"Can I keep my privacy and stop you from reading my mind if I don't want you to pick up what I think?"
"Just direct your thoughts away from me and I can't ‘read' you any longer."
"What if you wanted to?"
"I would only get a vague image, like a dense fog. And by the way; if you tune down the intensity of your thoughts by relaxing and focusing on what you want to ‘think', I still can ‘read' you and you don't come across ‘yelling' at me."
Ivan just looked at Leo and thought himself very privileged. For the first time in his life, he had a telepathic conversation with someone and the experience was phenomenal. It was clear as a bell, all he needed to do was to direct his mind and imagine Leo, and the link was there and remained stable as long as he focused his attention on Leo. He wanted to test it. Averting his attention from Leo, he looked at a tree; ‘A coconut tree is as dangerous as the stupid sleeping under it,' he thought, but there was no sign of Leo ‘listening' but this was not conclusive, so he looked out to sea and thought: ‘There is a boat coming.'
This would galvanize Leo into action, but there was none. He did it again. Focusing his mind on Leo, imagining talking to him, he projected the image of a boat on the water coming towards the shore.
"There is a boat coming."
Leo's head turned and he looked out to sea.
"Where?"
Ivan laughed out loud with glee. This was too incredible and marvellous.
"Sorry comrade, it was a test. I'm practicing. No boat, don't worry."
"You learn quickly, Ivan." Leo was happy to have this break-through in telepathy. It opened up possibilities. A nagging point that had pestered him for a long time came unbidden to him, but with Ivan communicating telepathically he felt it was okay to bring it up.
"I want to tell you about an encounter that I've never told anybody. Don't tell my parents until I do, okay? Lena would never let me leave the house ever again. She worries too much about me and thinks I'm a child."
"Well, you are. You’re only six, Leo."
"I'm mature as it is. Just don't tell them what I'm about to tell you, okay?"
"No problem." Ivan wondered how mature Leo felt he was and from where he derived his self-evaluation. The mind-link experience with Leo changed his view about him dramatically from being a child to a young adult, but just how mature Leo was, remained to be seen.
"I tell you this because you might wonder where I got the experience about others from and because I need to understand why me being different makes others want to hurt me. It is important to me, so this is the story. I hope you can help me to understand." Ivan opened his mind and became receptive to Leo's account on past events.
"On my way back home from a hunt, I saw two men hunting with rifles about half way from your house to ours. The men saw me because I just crossed the road and one of them raised his gun, shot at me, and would have hit me if I hadn't moved. Then he must have seen me better and I felt him becoming agitated. Then he fired again, but missed.
“I heard the other shouting 'Get him!' and seeing him raising his gun, I dropped and he hit the tree behind me. I took off. When he fired again, I was in the woods. The other man fired many times and it was close, but nothing hit me. I lost Gábor's parka and I saw the man pick it up when I looped around to get it. They talked and tossed the jacket in the pick-up and sat inside the cab, putting something smoking in their mouths, passing it fore and back between them. I went to the truck and took the parka but they must have seen me, jumped out, and started shooting at me as I ran into the bush. But again, they never hit me but I was scared of being near a road since then. For sure they must have had the idea that I was more than what they thought when I went for the jacket. Tell me, why did they want to kill me? I have an idea but want to be sure."
To Ivan's astonishment, the conversation with Leo was flawless, crystal-clear and carried far more information than verbal conversations ever could. He felt every nuance of emotion; he saw the scene that Leo described as vividly as it happened in his own head. Even the queries in Leo were coming through clearly.
During the story Ivan saw the area clearly, the pick-up and the two men, he knew them, Donny and Ricky, two useless dope addicts from Gibson's; trouble makers like the books talk about. The file the RCMP had of them was more of a catalogue than a file and Ivan vowed to have a word with them when he got back to his house. Twice those two came to his home to steal; his car first, and the ski-doo the second time, and both times they got off on technicalities. This time, when he finished with them, they would not be able to use a rifle again without considerable effort. The hands of the law were tied, not his. Ivan became aware that Leo ‘heard' him thinking.
"How can I answer your questions as clearly to you as you are conveying yours to me, Leo? I want to be able to give you my thoughts on this matter without any misunderstandings. Now that I see much better who and what you really are, we can have a real informative education going. This mind-link is the ideal way to communicate, but some things I want to keep for myself."
"You did it just a minute ago. Just relax and turn your attention away from me and I will not ‘hear' you. As long as you're holding your mind steady on me, I will see and perceive all that is going on in you," Leo reminded him.
"Okay then, let's give it a whirl. You were lucky to get away from those two. I had some run-ins with them as well, and they are the kind that makes all humans look bad. There are many others that aren't like them, most people are just misguided or don't know any better. In any case, until it changes, we have to be wise and stay away from them and not become like them. It is too easy to retaliate likewise and that will only perpetuate the situation. The wiser path is to cultivate compassion in us and become role models for them. We may positively affect some people in that way, and that might change their behaviour, but if it doesn't work, then drastic means are justified. However, don't be carried away with punitive actions or allow yourself any culmination in unjustified reaction. We are responsible for our actions and the resulting consequences. If we inflict injury, we must aid in the full recovery of the adversary. In my view, violence is the last resort and rarely solves the problem. I know from experience. On occasions, something more than modeling is necessary, like a strong action or even a violent one, and in some rare cases, one has to speak their language or they will not understand. Once you have delivered the message, actions have to follow that are harmonious with the message. Am I explaining it well enough? Can you follow my ideas?"
"I can see very clearly what you mean, yes, and what about the man who tried to hurt me on that ship? Is he a bad man?"
"I don't know Leo. Misinformed about what form of life is intelligent, maybe. He could have thought you were a Stowaway. Perhaps he thought you got aboard somehow and he wanted to see what the Captain had to say. Then he saw your face and that must have scared him. Your appearance is that of a predator, you know that. Many people would perceive you being dangerous but you resembled a human standing upright.  You would have had a very hard time convincing them otherwise, not to mention the problems your parents would have had, had he found out who and what you are. Misinformation and ignorance are a dangerous mix, Leo. That is why we try to shelter you until we can deal with it."
"You are a good man, Ivan. Why not others?"
"I don't know what a good person is, Leo, but I can tell you, I did not always think like this. I learned from my mistakes and live a different life now. I was not always like this. Before I started meditating and read some books on philosophical issues, mainly Eastern ones like Tao, Zen, and others, I did things I'm not proud of. Many of those books were helpful, but in the end, you will have to find your own truth. You can't find truth in books; they can only point at it. Action is truth. Anything else is hypothetical and interpretation of what is perceived. Western thoughts, Voltaire, Meister Eckhart, Herman Hesse, and Plato, etc., expound these ideas to a great extent. Be that as it may, they serve as a guideline only, but beware of letting them become a dogma or the absolute truth as most of the world's religions claim their books are. But that is not what I want to talk about now. Your parents would want to know that you can see into their minds and would want to be able to communicate with you, as we do now. Do you want me to talk with them or will you?"
"Would it not be easier for them to understand you? You speak their language after all."
"You are very perceptive, Leo and far beyond the level of intelligence any of us would have thought. You're too young to have this knowledge. Where does it come from?"
"If I was as intelligent as you say, I'd know. I want to learn what you know, Ivan."
"You honour me, Kitty. Your parents will be ecstatic when they find out about your ability to communicate with them."
"I hope they have the kind of ears that you have and I'm not talking about the one which that coconut tried to rip off you."
They had a good mental laugh at this and were silent for a while. Ivan drifted off a bit, allowing his thoughts to flow and Leo soaked up as much as he could. This concept of telepathy would thrill Leo's parents and be very useful to link with him on that level. Ivan hoped that they would be able to communicate with Leo as he did. For a while, his mind whirled around thinking about all kinds of ideas and then the day caught up with him and he fell asleep without noticing. Two hours later, he sat up abruptly and said aloud:
"It's time for you to sleep, Leo. I'll take watch. Is everything okay around here? No sneaky nuts to jump us?"
"No nuts," grumbled Leo, "just we. I go to join them. Yourrogay." This time he made an effort to pronounce the ‘m'.
Ivan, nodding approvingly, watched Leo descending down to the two sleeping figures, and softly snuggled up to Helena. She stirred and in her sleep put an arm around Leo's upper body. Leo wanted this closeness with his mother more often and hoped one day to be close to his father too. On this trip, it appeared he was getting closer to him and Leo sensed a shift in his attitude. He would welcome his Dad's affection. A closed door had suddenly opened and nothing seemed impossible.