They arrived at the crevice and she rummaged in the
watertight box containing the electronic supplies and found the GPS she was
looking for. Closing the box and covering the goods with the gray tarp, she
stepped back out in front of the hideaway and noticed Leo looking into the
distance. They couldn't see the water from here; there were too many trees and
vegetation blocking their view and Helena suspected Leo used his ESP power to
know what was coming at them. Leo would make a fantastic radar. She focused her
mind on Leo and formed the question in her mind:
"Is there something?"
"I sense somebody is heading this way. We should
clean up our tracks on the beach. Better if they think it was a long time ago
that someone was here."
"Good thinking, Leo. I'll get some branches to use
as a broom. Let's play Cowboys and Indians. This will be fun."
Leo and Helena grabbed some old palm fronds, walked down to
the beach and started to erase the fresh tracks they'd left behind. Walking
backward and looking at the beach, they were sure that nobody would guess their
presence here. Withdrawn into the dense foliage they looked out to sea. Helena
saw a powerboat about three miles out heading right toward the point where they
had been only a few minutes before. They must know this place, she figured, and
watched, as they got closer. There were three people in the boat, one was a
male, and the two other were women, perhaps a husband, wife, and a daughter?
The boat approached the shore, dropped anchor, and a pretty young woman about
twenty years of age got out of it. The waves were now a bit larger and
breaking, creating surf, but the girl had no problem in the water. Helena
watched as she fought her way onto the beach and up to the same tree where
about thirty minutes ago, Ivan had untied their tender.
For a moment, the woman looked at the tree, then, wrapping
the line around it, she turned back to the boat. The two others dropped an
anchor and pulled their vessel closer to the beach, and moored it just outside
the surf. The boat rocked with the waves but had no problem riding them. The
man lifted a bag and put it on the side of the boat, jumped into the water,
which came up to his chest and hefted the bag onto his head, making his way
toward the beach. The older woman lifted something and Helena recognized scuba
equipment with buoyancy compensator and a regulator unit. Then she lifted a
second set off the boat and lowered them into the water, jumped in and dragged
the gear ashore where she covered them with some palm fronds.
Leo and Helena had seen enough. They knew these people would
be here for the night, so they quietly left their hideaway and headed for the
cache, grabbed two backpacks, and filled them with some foodstuff and some
other items. Fastening the sleeping bags onto the backpacks, they took a
hatchet and two machetes they thought might be important and continued on
toward the North. It was hard walking and they needed to concentrate on their
feet to see where to step safely, and they did not talk to or "read"
each other.
Helena observed it was much easier for Leo to navigate
around challenging areas than for her. He moved like a cat and Helena felt
envious. He leaped over fissures, jumped on or over fallen trees, boulders, and
outcroppings. He was at home in this wild setting. Leo was so much more suited
to the natural environment than her and seemed to know where he was heading.
For Helena, the dense jungle, with its steep, uneven, and rough terrain was
confusing and hard to traverse, but it was beautiful. The air was fresh and it
all felt so vibrantly alive, it invoked images of the Garden of Eden for her.
Flowers everywhere and everything was lush, green, and magical.
After an hour of walking, she thought they had lost their
way; she consulted the GPS and found she was closing in on their destination.
They had programmed the coordinates into the Garmin when they were on the beach
the second time and made a waypoint, called "Cave." It was only three
hundred meters away and Leo was heading straight for it without the GPS. There
were a few flat areas here and the vegetation made everything look the same.
When she looked back, she could not even see where they'd come from.
The sun was high in zenith now and it was getting hot, and
even though they were in the southern latitude approaching winter, Helena broke
into a sweat. She saw no sign of Leo being hot. He had taken off his clothing;
his cat features with his fur were stunning to her. She found Leo to be
beautiful. Resembling a lion, his thick fur must be hot for him, but he showed
no sign of discomfort. Now that she clearly saw his intelligence and his
ability to communicate, she felt a pride about having given birth to a being
like him that she never thought she would. Self-pity and shame had made its
exit from her life and an awe and joy filled her heart. This is my son, she
thought, and he is precious. Leo turned and looked at her intensely with his
amber eyes. Helena realized she thought about him passionately as only a mother
could. She smiled broadly at him and thought with concentration:
"You are a magnificent specimen of a person that
makes me proud to be your mother. I love you, Leo."
"But I'm not human."
"Thank heaven. You're much more than that. You are
the most unique being this planet has ever seen and I feel privileged to be your
mother. I'm sure your dad feels the same way, too. He may not know it as well
as me because in some ways he is too pragmatic, but when you fell overboard, he
went into the waters after you and didn't care about the sharks. He was a half
hour or more in the ocean before the crew fished him out, with sharks circling
around, and he had to be handcuffed to prevent him from getting back in to find
you. I was scared I would lose him. He is the best man and father you and I
could ever wish for."
"I didn't know he came after me, Mom. Ivan told me
he is a good man and he is his best friend."
"Ivan is a good man too, and when we asked him to
help us with this crazy plot, he did not hesitate for a second. He loves you
too, Leo. You are lucky he is your friend."
"I want to learn what he knows. I think he is very
wise… Look, here we are. There is the cave and over there is the place we waved
to Ivan." She looked around, they were in an area that was pretty much
flat and even, with a good number of trees, and in comparison to the area
they'd crossed to get here, it was almost like a meadow or a parkland setting.
It was a beautiful area on a small ridge, elevated about three meters from the
surrounding area, with many flowers and chest-high hibiscus bushes. A good breeze
made it a pleasure to be here. When Helena was up here the first time, it
hadn't been visible. Dense flowery vegetation fringed the plateau. This was the
best place to set up a Polynesian style fare in the future, in case they
decided to return one day.
"Perhaps we could look for the ledge we saw from the
water, Leo. It was on the other side. Yes?"
"Yes, and I have an idea where it may be. Let's
leave the backpacks here. Come with me."
They set down their packs and Helena followed Leo around
some boulders, with the cone of the dead volcano to her right and the grotto on
her left. She looked for a trail to the ledge also, but saw no indication of a
path and relied on Leo's guidance. Leo progressed north and soon he found a
crevice about three meters wide with the debris of tree trunks and rocks the
size of small cars and a clear indication that water ran in this gully, at
least when it rained hard. His keen hearing picked up the sound of running
water, but he saw nothing, so he entered the crevice. When he'd made it to the
bottom, he heard a gurgling sound, but still saw nothing. Projecting his
thoughts at Helena forcefully to break through her ESP barrier, he called her.
She still needed practice to ‘listen'. Finally, she ‘heard his ‘call', relaxed, and allowed the mental
pressure to unfold into Leo's ‘invitation’.
Slowly she was beginning to recognize the characteristic signs and symptoms of
his telepathic callings and tuned into them easier now.
"I hear water running, but see nothing. Could you
come down here and see if you can figure it out?" Helena joined him
and after listening intensely she heard a faint sound that sounded indeed like
water running through a tube. With a quizzical look on her face she looked
around, removed some loose rocks and branches, and laid her head on the ground;
the sound was louder now. "It must be underground," she vocalized to
Leo and got up. "Let's find out if this leads anywhere."
With Leo in the lead, she followed the crevice that sloped
down in a relatively steep descent, and after a few bends and turns, they heard
the sound of the surf not far away, the walls of the gully reflected it as if
they were in a long tube. Helena saw several fissures, some too narrow to
enter, others wider; she would explore them later. A few more meters along,
they saw the ocean glittering through a meter wide cut in the rocks. Continuing
the exploration, they exited into the middle of an almost three meter wide
ledge poised about six meters above the water.
To the right, the ledge ran along a wall for another
thirteen meters, and then it narrowed into a very insubstantial protrusion. On
the left the ledge widened to about five meters then recessed by about four
meters, creating an alcove approximately five meters deep, three meters high
and seven to eight meters wide, opening out toward the ocean. Flowering plants
and vines hung from an overhanging huge slate that obscured the indentation.
That was the reason why they didn't see the hollow indentation from the water
before. Upon their appearance a mass of seabirds lifted off squawking,
protesting their intrusion and Leo used his arms to swat them when they became
too aggressive. His mother broke into laughter as the birds' dove and screeched
at him, but in the end, Leo succeeded in driving them off.
The rock floor was covered with thick moss and a lot of
twigs and branches, along with a great number of nests that they would
relocate. The ground felt springy under their feet though it seemed to be solid
rock. It would make a great place to rest and look out to sea without anybody
seeing them, but not ideal for inhabitation for a longer period. Inside, the
cave was almost free of detritus with the exception of the nests and they would
have to clean the area, but the ledge was full of it. Too bad they couldn't
climb the wall to get to this place; they could only get here by the way which
they had come.
Above the indentation, a few bigger trees grew on apparently
sheer rocks, but they looked strong and well rooted. A stream of water ran down
the steep wall and disappeared in a fissure about a man's height above the high
water mark. The ledge had plants growing on it; rocks were mixed in with fallen
branches from trees, but there were no shells or anything that would witness
saltwater ever having had come up this high. Leo looked at the wall and figured
he could climb it from the water all the way up to the ledge, but for a human,
it would be very hard, but not impossible. A breeze cooled Helena's face and
strands of her hair fell over it.
"I have some ideas on how we could use this ledge
other than for surveillance, Leo. Is it possible to contact Gábor or Ivan
through the ‘mind-link?'"
Her focused thought came clear through to Leo and Leo responded.
"If he is in a relaxed state of mind, it should be
possible. He now knows about the possibility and once he's got the idea and had
contact, it should be easier to "call" him." Leo turned his
mind to Gábor and probed forcefully. He felt Gábor faintly, but he seemed
occupied with the pending meeting with the Inspector. The contact was very weak
and Leo could not penetrate Gábor's mind. He turned his probing toward Ivan and
in an instant had Ivan. Ivan was thinking about Leo and they established
contact without a problem.
"Hey. I was just thinking about you. How are you
guys?" They realized the question was moot. He felt how they were
through Leo. Gábor and he were in sight of Tahiti and saw the city of Papeete
on the hills of the island.
"Can you see what we see?"
"As if I was there. Can you see what we see here?”
"Is this a Mind game? Of course. What's up,
Kitty?"
"Lena wants to link with you and Gábor and show you
what we've found. Can you rouse him?"
"Donne."
"Wow, it's a great view. If you'd looked around, I
could see what you see, yes?" said Gábor following the link-up.
"Sure. It would be as if you were here yourselves.
Mom could even convey her ideas to you this way. Enter my world," answered
Leo. It almost sounded like a ribbing and Helena chuckled. As she looked
around, Gábor and Ivan saw the scenery and the ideas forming in Helena's head
through Leo's mind. Helena projected to Leo and Leo in turn to Gábor and Ivan;
it all happened simultaneously and the link was crystal clear. The amazing
thing for all of them was the ease and clarity of the communication. Once one
knew the method, one only needed to empty one's mind of thoughts in order to
receive the thoughts of others, and then transmit them out again
instantaneously. In this case, with Leo as a "relay station" all
three, including Leo, they were as one mind. What one saw or thought was in all
of their minds and they felt like one expanded consciousness.
Their ideas mingled; one person's thoughts became the same
as the others. Ideas and concepts did not need an explanation because no
apparent separation of mind existed between them; misunderstanding or different
interpretations of the same words would never occur. It was the perfect way to
communicate. The weird thing to outsiders would have been the eerie sight of
people standing around without talking, yet going into action knowing exactly
what to do without any exchange of words.
After their conversation, they wanted to see if they could
remain in a kind of lucid contact, still in the link, but in a way that allowed
for privacy. Leo did not know if that was possible, and they realized Leo did
not have all the answers to mind-link, a lot of this was still new to him too.
In the past, he was able to "read" them, but when he tried to
communicate with them, he found they were deaf and mute. He could hear them
better when they focused and were clear, but most of the time, their minds were
all over the place and they had a hard time holding a thought for more than a
few minutes.
Helena had a thousand things on her mind, Leo knew that, and
when she calmed down, her mind became easier to read, especially when she
worked on something. She could be very clear, but so absorbed in her own
thinking that she could not "hear" Leo. On the other hand, the yoga
exercises she did were enabling her to be clearer, especially when she let go
of daily concerns.
In the past Gábor was different. He focused on his work,
solving problems, helping others to perform better, and he meditated regularly.
It was easy for Leo to see his mind, but he was to "realistic" as he
called it, so to consider such a thing as Mind-link went against the grain. At
least he loved Leo like someone loves a pet, a dog perhaps, but it was love for
a pet nonetheless. Only recently, he'd begun to open his mind to Leo and he now
saw in him an intelligent being rather than an animal. Leo thought if he'd been
just an animal, and not born to Lena, with Gábor as his father, Gábor would
have just loved him in the same way as the other pets, but the fact that a
human couple produced an animal-like being was too hard for him to accept, and
Leo began to understand his father's predicament.
When Leo heard that he jumped into the water to save him, he
began to see Gábor in a different light. Before that, he saw in Gábor a person
he respected but did not really love. They never played or made an effort to
talk as one would talk to a human. Leo felt tolerated more than wanted by
Gábor; his acceptance of Leo was a tribute to Helena, but it did not come from
a space of genuine love, he thought. Since he had found Leo on the Island after
his accident, Leo felt a different mindset in Gábor. There was a genuine love
and happiness in him for Leo and it made Leo hope for reconciliation with his
father. Helena had told him about Gábor trying to save his life by going after
him into the water. He would not risk his life for a pet in shark-infested
waters. What had happened since he fell over the side with the black man and
the time they had found him? He didn't know, but this affection for Leo had now
surfaced. For sure, Gábor had made big progress toward Leo and Leo now made
steps toward Gábor.
"Dad, Mom misses you and would like to take care of
the hard drive. What's wrong with it? Her thinking is a bit confusing."
It was only a vague image he had from Helena and just wanted
to get a little closer to Gábor, connecting. Suddenly the link became deserted,
except for Ivan.
"What? Did I think something wrong?"
"Kitty. We need to talk." Ivan chuckled.
Leo noticed Helena looked red and embarrassed and Leo cut
the link with Ivan.
"Did I say something wrong?" he repeated
his question to his mother.
"How old are you in cat years Leo?"
"Well, let's see. If I heard it right when you and
Dad were sitting and talking in the solarium about Bushi and Miko, you said
they were about eighteen when in reality they were three. I'm bigger than they
are, so if I presume half of that time would equate to me, which would make me
about the same age as they are now, eighteen also. Why? What does that have to
do with the hard drive?"
"Oh, I think it's about time to get you some books
about the birds and the bees Leo."
"What? You make no sense, mom. Why birds and bees?
What does a hard drive have to do with the birds and the bees?"
Irritated and embarrassed Helena retorted, "Have you
got nothing better to do than asking a lot of weird questions, Leo?"
"Two questions are a lot?"
"Le-o!"
His mother was exasperated, he knew that tone and shut up, letting
her cool off.
"How do you feel about going back to the cache
tomorrow and we can bring some more of our stuff here? Where would you like to
spend the night? Up here or on the beach?"
"The beach."
"Okay, let's get the backpacks and move in."
Relieved that she didn't have to answer any awkward
questions, she escaped from the ledge. Carefully, Leo probed her mind, but she
guarded it well. The two returned to their stuff, circled the cave to the
southern end, and went down to the beach. Their footprints were still there
with no other prints so they put their bags in the sand and decided to get into
the water. Since they had often been naked in the house when they were alone
and were not shy or ashamed of their bodies and didn't think Leo had compunctions.
Helena began to undress, but then she hesitated for a moment before she
shrugged her shoulders and stepped out of her shorts.
She had to admit it was different knowing Leo was much more
mature than they previously thought, but why change the custom now? Leo was her
son, and he had no problem taking off his baggy pants he did not like anyway,
so why should she feel shame? Was it because they talked about the birds and
the bees and it flashed in her mind how stupid the sexual education was? People
still considered sex dirty in many parts of the world and hid when making love
as if it was a sin. Murder and atrocities shown on TV and in movies or video
games promoting violence were fine, but shows of erotic content, with explicit
sex scenes between people, was classified as pornography. One had to be
nineteen in many parts of the world before drinking alcohol, but going to war
and killing other humans, one only had to be eighteen.
Society called a public show of sexuality ‘perversion', but
men went and paid money in "Titty Bars" to see on stage the
"perversion" they condemned in public. Violent beatings and abuse in
schools, orphanages, and foster homes were rampant. Gábor had clients that had
suffered those kinds of treatments, yet authorities gave licenses to
establishments that performed and sold services of that kind. Helena wasn't
against nudity or prostitution, but hypocrisy she couldn't stand. People like
to point fingers at others to deflect attention away from them and nudity
became stuff for movies and sensationalism. It was okay when there was money in
it. The exploitation of sexuality is big business, Helena thought, and that
could almost take the fun out of sex. Leo was out toward the entrance of the
cave and she observed him checking the height of the rocks above his head. It
seemed to be a bit higher than she remembered and she came up to Leo.
"What do you think? How much lower will the tide
go?" she thought.
"I don't know," replied Leo. "The
computer may be able to tell us if we have the right program. Ivan had a
program on his that predicted the tides anywhere in the world. It even had
charts and maps of the world with all the pictures of them. He called it Google
Earth."
"I think your Dad downloaded the charts and the tide
tables on this computer. We can check it out tomorrow. I hope that the
"guests" will be gone tomorrow and Dad and Ivan will be back. Let's
swim back to the beach and find out what those two have accomplished with the
gendarmerie."
Not much of a breeze was in the cave and the sun was
descending slowly over the edge of the cave when Leo came out of the water.
Helena had her eyes closed, but when she felt a shadow on her, she opened her
eyes and looked at Leo. His fur was about two centimeters long and the wetness
allowed the outline of his body to be clearly visible. He had the body of a cat
with some human elements. With a broad chest and flat belly, he resembled more
that of a human than a large feline. However, for a human, his body was too
long and seemed too wide in comparison. He had a strong back and heavy limbs
extending into the forearm and the paws had short, but dexterous, wide fingers
with claws that were hidden in sheath-like pockets. His face and jaws were half
human, half lion and in some way, he was interesting to look at. Leo looked
powerful. Lately, he had adopted the way of walking as a cat would; on all four
limbs and he looked natural that way. He was a mixture of a human and a lion,
yet his appearance was predominantly that of a lion. His narrow waist merged
into very strong developed thighs with large feet and he walked on the ball of
his feet when he walked upright.
Sitting, he looked just like a cat, and when he moved on all
four legs, horizontally, he could easily be mistaken for one. His tail was
about eighty centimeters long and looked like that of a lion. His testicles
were visible and tight against his body; his genitalia, concealed in a pouch
inside his body, were out of sight. His head resembled that of a male lion and
nobody would suspect anything else at first glance. His whiskers were long now,
and his eyebrows were developing nicely. He was still young looking, and as
cats go, he was a great looking cat, and Helena felt like getting up to pet
him, but something held her back. He was not a kitten anymore and he was
humanoid to some degree. She wondered. Would he ever find a mate? Could he
reproduce? He had reproductive organs, but who would want to mate with a being
like him? Were there any others like him, a female perhaps? Would he ever know
the pleasures of sexual intimacy? When would he mature sexually?
Helena could not relate to her own son; she didn't know
anything about his needs, his pleasures, his feelings, or his pain. How did he
feel about his condition? How long was his life expectancy, what were his
dreams? What did he hope to achieve in his life? Did he have any ambitions like humans or was
he free of that compulsion? Confused and at a loss for answers and what to do,
on an impulse she rose to her feet and embraced him, tears welling up in her
eyes as happened frequently when she thought about him. Leo put his furry arms
around her. The love of a mother to her child was not always full of joy but
this moment it was.
He was a grown young being, alien in appearance, and her
child. He deserved respect as any intelligent being would, that is, to be
treated with love and dignity. She would always love him; she was his mother.
Helena held him for a long time, then she let him go, and they went to the wall
where there was a rock upon which they could sit down. Looking at her watch,
she figured her husband would be facing the Inspector in Papeete.
"I think he will be talking with the inspector
now. Can you try to contact your Dad?" Leo nodded and a few seconds later
got Gábor. This time the connection was easy and instantaneous.
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