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Tales in the Spirit
© 5GL Software, Australia
Natural Telepaths

Natural Telepaths interact inside a dimension that forms a Virtual Reality. That dimension is called Andromeda. Andromeda is an ancient dimension, a mature one, and does not "replay" the same scenarios as such, however, our new dimension Telenet (an infant) intended for non-psychics, can replay a situation. Thus, ideally, if you begin to use Telenet, and take to this tale, this tale can come to life for you exactly as it happened. You begin to grow tired, there is a sensation at the back of your head as the dimensional energy build up begins, and then in your mind visions of this tale form. Before long you are part of the Virtual Reality in your head. These visions can be very life-like, or dim, depending on how your brain chooses to adapt and what your brain is happy with.

For an introduction to this novel, and a chapter about how Darth and Lana met and fell in love, click here.

Enchantment

(Tale in the Spirit about a Life in the Spirit Marriage - a Telepathic Marriage and Family)

Chapter 4 - An Eventful Saturday

A Saturday afternoon. The girls set up a stall outside their beach house. An annual carnival on the beach was in full swing. Ocean Road had been closed off by the local council. Only residents, or delivery trucks, could drive inside the barricades. People everywhere - on the sand and on the road. Colourful stands everywhere - on the beach and along the footpaths. A gay atmosphere. There was a shortage of cool drink stalls and the girls stall proved popular. Just after lunch a truck had delivered four large aluminium barrels with lemonade. Special barrels that would retain their coldness for hours. So the vendor claimed. The girls were explained how to put a hose in place when ready, which they soon did and set about serving. Queues formed. Eighteen year old Sara was at the far end table. The tables were covered in plastic with colourful patterns. Sixteen year old Lisa next to her, then seventeen year old Elisha, and twelve year old Harla on the last table. Omar, the four year old, helped Harla now and then, or would run off and play with his younger sibling. Sam, twelve months, content sitting on the green lawn near his mother who was sitting on the edge of a white brick wall that was part of their outer land boundary.

Then chaos! Elisha's hose, that had a trigger on one end which was pressed to pour lemonade, came out of the barrel. Something had gone very wrong and the lemonade was streaming in all directions like a fountain. At first the leak was small then bursts of energised lemonade covered Elisha completely. She stood there, turned to the barrel, hands stretched out trying to block the jet and screaming. The barrel became unstable, began to roll from side to side, the leak became a stream, then onto its side spraying Lisa on the other table. Sara had walked backward yelling at her sisters not to go near the barrel, she fearing it might explode, and to walk away. Harla and Omar by this time were right outside any possible range of the streams of lemonade. Lana was looking at this completely uncertain what to do or what it meant. Sam had lifted his head and was keenly watching. Many in the crowd not directly hit by the escaping jets of lemonade were bemused. The jets became stronger and scattered more wildly, the barrel had ended up on its side and rolling back and forth and its jet spraying right over the table and onto the crowd. There were so many people on the road that to move backward out of the way of the jets coming seemingly from many directions, proved impossible.

Lana had sat where she had been told. For a woman who had given birth to six children, her physical looks and figure were immaculate. Her age impossible to be certain about. She could pass for a young woman in her late twenties. Her breasts a touch larger than average and ever so shapely. Her hips a touch narrow. Her legs exceptionally long and silk-smooth that just looking at any part of her leg was a sensual experience to a man. The girls knew their mother would draw curious males near their stalls, and the reason they carefully selected what their mother was to wear and where she would sit looking after Sam. Lana wore a light sleeveless top and a light summer dress that went half way down her lower legs when she was standing. She had long jet black hair. At first the girls has selected a top for their mother that she had meant to bring back at the time because what was packaged was the wrong size, a top she had never worn, a top that would expose most of her breasts. "I do not mind helping you and looking like a model. I do object looking like a hussy,” Lana told Sara and Elisha plainly when they became insistent.

The display of the streaming lemonade, and the screaming young girl directly in the line of fire, was an added attraction in its own right. No one noticed their father in his white car moving toward the house. Ordinarily from the time Darth turned the corner then drove along and turned into their driveway would have taken less than ten seconds. With the crowd, Darth had already been trying to move forward for ten minutes. Often he had to stop, wait, then ever so slowly touch the accelerator. On Saturdays Darth rarely worked, this time a client in a nearby large town insisted to speak to him and that turned out a long event.

Darth managed to drive up more quickly because everyone was stepping away from that side of the road. It was almost impossible to do this because of the crowd, but somehow a clean path formed and Darth took the opportunity to move closer to his driveway and turn into it. He had already observed the event while waiting in line. At first alarmed, he became a touch amused like many in the crowd. Harla, though small and petite, had inherited her mother's long slim legs and Darth had seen her turn and quick as a flash run away far to the side, with Omar in hot pursuit. No boy Harla's age could catch her. Her own sisters could not catch her when she began to run. She was quickly a distance away and stopped and turned. It took Omar a while to catch up. Harla was looking at the disaster with much concern while Omar was clearly amused, or not sure if he ought to be amused or whether he ought to show it, so he was frequently glancing at the sister he was next to, to gauge her reaction at his clearly amused or delighted face.

As Darth pulled the car into the driveway Lana's brain was snapping into gear. She called Harla and told her to go inside and fetch all the dish drying towels. Harla rushed off. Omar came to take his father's hand as he was stepping out of the car. Darth was looking at the scene with Omar trying to explain what happened. Lana picked up Sam from the manicured lawn, walked to her husband, handed Sam to him, gave Darth a kiss, then took the dish towels Harla had found and brought.

Elisha was walking past them to the house. She was soaked! From her hair to her summer dress. "You are sweet enough you know." Darth said softly as Elisha walked past looking ever so distraught.

"Funny!" she snapped - unusual for Elisha to snap, "and dad and Omar stay outside because I need to take a shower in the basement and have no clothes to change into there, so I will have to run naked upstairs."

Omar felt this was funny and started to laugh. He let go of his father's hand and rushed of after his sister, yelling, "I want to watch."

"Go away!" Elisha turned and dismissed him with her hand. He stopped, giggled, then rushed back to stand by his father's side.

Sam was in his father's arms and curiously looking at what his mother was doing. Lana and Lisa and Sara were busy cleaning the tables. Harla was handing out new dish towels as the used ones became too wet. Harla would first give a new cloth, then take the dripping cloth with two fingers, held it a distance from her, walk to the far table and let go of the cloth, so a pile was building. To understand why Harla did this, one needed to understand Harla. From a young age she had a passion for being clean. She would have a shower in the morning and evening without fail, and often one in between if she felt this was warranted. She would take three times as long as anyone else to wash her hands after she went to the toilet. She was the only one of the girls who had three school skirts part of her school uniform. When she assisted washing up after meals, she would put long plastic gloves on then take twice as long as anyone else cleaning each plate. All the daughters enjoyed helping their mother prepare meals. Lana might ask Lisa or Sara or Elisha, "your hands clean?" Not a question she ever asked Harla. Harla also had big endearing eyes and a personality to match. From a young age boys wanted to play with her at school. She often took to running away from them, laughing. Harla could run! No boy ever caught her unless she wanted him to catch her. There was something endearing about Harla, something that attracted boys her age who wanted to play with her and sit next to her at lunch time. Adults took to Harla very quickly too.

When the tables were clean the girls began to serve lemonade again. Lana picked up the wet towels and walked to her husband, took Sam off him. "Help them, love, do something about that barrel. Sam needs a change I am sure." Lana continued to the house as Elisha was finally coming down the front steps. She took the wet towels from her mother.

Darth made his way to the barrel. He rolled it, as Elisha and Harla stepped out of the way, to the driveway. Now he paused. What was he supposed to do? The barrel had much lemonade inside. Seemed a waste to throw it down the drain. On the other hand they had no clean ready bottles in which to put the lemonade in. There were many bottles in the recycle bin, but even if he used these, even if he spent a long time boiling each one, it was unlikely his daughters would have anything to do with lemonade put into recycled bottles.

As he was pondering, Lana came down to see if the girls needed assistance.

"What do I do with the lemonade?" Darth asked.

"Throw it down the drain." Lana replied quietly.

Darth rolled the barrel to the drain further down the street and poured the content out. Not as much lemonade as he had thought had remained. The outside of the barrel was ever so sticky! His hands were now ever so sticky. Slowly he rolled the barrel to the driveway, up the small incline, and into the basement where he straightened it, then went to wash his hands in the small bathroom downstairs. A bathroom usually used only after the girls has been swimming in their pool. As he was washing his hands he heard Omar run inside, "dad, another one!"

They walked outside. This time Sara's barrel had developed a similar problem. Unlike Elisha's, or possibly because the barrel was less full, the lemonade was spilling from the top but not shooting out. Darth walked past Lisa who was looking nervously at the barrel. She had worn a light yellow summer dress. Parts of it had been drenched with lemonade that had dried. Lisa had decided to soldier on and continue serving.

"You must be sticky." Darth said as he walked past.

"I am." Lisa turned to her father and nodded.

Darth and Sara set about examining her barrel. Sara whispered, "I made Lisa carry on, she is the main attraction."

"I see." Darth smiled.

Lisa had inherited a recessive gene which made her long hair light blond, with a light curl throughout. Her eyes were sky blue. Her face had fine features like her mother's, and was soft, most attractive. At thirteen the eyes of boys her age began to turn to her as she walked along. At fourteen Lana had to take Lisa aside and explain that Lisa was a touch too beautiful and that could bring problems to a young girl and to never walk back from school alone. At fifteen she had a lovely soft feminine figure. The way she spoke was also unique - soft tone, so feminine, with a depth of something mysterious about it, something so "royal" or "dignified" that compelled a person to listen or do as she asked. Not a forceful tone of any kind, not a “posh” tone, a rather soft tone.

All their children had turned out ever so well. Sara and Elisha were a touch more practical than Lisa or Harla. Lisa had that elusive beauty from such an early age. Harla had that enchanting aura. Sara and Elisha were very attractive but because of the way their sister Lisa looked, considered themselves as having missed out. Elisha especially sometimes suggested she was the ugly duck of the family. Certainly not true! She was elegant and pretty just like Sara. Harla was a touch too young to compare herself in looks to her sisters, but Harla had as much if not more natural confidence than Lisa. That endearing, enchanting, quality about Harla, this Harla realised she had at an early age. Her big eyes could speak on their own without any words needing to be said. Her facial features acted in perfect harmony with her eyes conveying exactly and precisely what she wanted to know or ask or say. Sometimes when walking along with her mother while shopping, Lana was compelled to talk to Harla, answering questions she could read on Harla’s face, without Harla saying anything - just regularly glancing at her mother. Sometimes Lana would stop, lean, and tell Harla in a whisper to talk else people will think her mother is insane and talking to herself.

"All right, mum." This was Harla's usual reply with a nod of the head and she would start to talk.

Sara was the organiser in the group. She was very exact and precise in this, and when she planned something it would turn out well and exactly how she planned it. Sara has not anticipated these incidents - who could? – and now as she walked back with Darth rolling the barrel up the incline, Sara was saying softly. "Dad, two hours ago I had to empty our money boxes. They were full. I could not help myself and counted. We have made 150 dollars each profit by that time. Wow! Wonder what it will be when we close."

"That's excellent." Darth replied. "With this heat, you could have charged double."

"My mistake." Sara said. "I decided on the correct price which we advertised on the posters at the front of the table, not sure if you noticed. The moment I saw the crowd come over, I closed my eyes thinking to myself "fifty cents more I should have added to the price."

The girls began to pack. There was still lemonade in the barrels but the girls were now seriously concerned how safe the barrels were, or if one might even explode. Harla helped her father empty and roll the remaining barrels while the girls packed and folded the tables. Omar was among them, also helping the best he could. He wanted to be busy so one or another of his sisters gave him a mission which he diligently set about doing, finished, then came back asking "what else can I do?"

They were rolling the barrel up the slope. Harla and her father. Each time that part of the barrel came that looked sticky or dirty, Harla would let go and wait until the barrel rolled more then again put her hands to push.

Inside Lana was preparing their evening meal. Sam was in his high chair having demanded food and was pushing a very ripe and soft banana into his mouth.

"You look ridiculous!" Lana laughed. Sam's cheeks had more banana on them than the inside of his mouth. He had found his mother's amusement clearly to his liking, because he was chuckling as he so pushed more and more of the banana into his mouth.

"Don't you dare come up like that!" Lana yelled and headed for the internal stairs. She heard footsteps and knew it was Lisa. "Have a shower downstairs love. You are all sticky. You might have sticky lemonade on your thongs."

"Oh." Lisa replied, hesitated, then asked her mother to bring down clean clothes.

The others came upstairs. Harla rushing off to the nearest of the three bathrooms to wash her hands. When she returned she headed for the kitchen and sat herself down on a chair, her legs folded under her, in front of a bowl with a light cream mixture. She paused, dipped her finger in, and licked her finger.

Sara and Elisha had rushed down the stairs again with dish towels with which they wanted to clean up the barrels.  Sara was not keen on small ants finding the sticky barrels and venturing inside.

Lisa had finished her shower at much the same time as her father. They walked into the kitchen at much the same time. Darth, seeing Harla ready to dip her finger into a bowl again, reached and picked her up. She laughed and pressed against him. Harla was still light enough to be easily picked up in this way. She was small enough too for a twelve year old. She was not that light that Darth could hold her for too long, and also no longer a child and not allowing her father to hold her like this for any length of time.

"Why are you cooking, mum?" Lisa looked at the vegetables on the table. "So many stalls out there...so many food stalls...exotic food stalls...even Islamic ones, mum."

"What is an Islamic food stall?" Lana asked as she awakened to this possibility, and glanced over the vegetables she had placed on the kitchen table but had not as yet peeled or cut.

"No idea. Saw a man with a sign on his back walking past." Lisa shrugged. "Islamic Holy Food stall down by the wharf."

"Holy food? In this....but to eat out is a good idea." Lana glanced at her husband, the two communicating with their eyes. Darth had put Harla down who had set about finding something to wipe Sam's cheeks with. All the dish towels were gone, these had been brought down to wipe away the lemonade, and Harla was looking through the kitchen draws trying to find something to use.

"I have some dry ones, washed, in the laundry." Lana said to Harla. "Small white square towels, just to wipe Sam's hands and face."

Harla turned and rushed off. Harla was fond of "rushing off.”  Darth had to move out of her way as she flew past.

Half and hour later the family was forging their way through the crowds to the far end of the beach where there was a wharf. This was the place food stalls usually set up. With darkness came lights, many, colourful. Background music played from groups and musicians who sat on the beach with crowds gathering around them. The steamy hot day became a cool evening with a light fog. The colourful lights everywhere developed an aura. This fascinated Sam. His eyes would focus and settle on such a light as they passed, and remain fixed on this display as they walked past, his small head turning continually until it no longer could turn and then he would turn right around, fix on another light, and this would continue.

"May I have an ice-cream please dad?" Harla turned to her father, stepped to face him, put her hand out to receive the money, then remembered, "wait, I have my own money.” She rushed off to where her elder sisters were lagging behind and stopping at stalls. Sara had brought the money they would need to buy food for all. The girls insisted, since Darth refused to accept money for the initial outlay that Lana had paid for the barrels, that the very least they could do was to pay for their dinner. Harla insisted she have some of "her money.” Sara opened her wallet in her handbag and handed her ten dollars. "That means you still have 190 dollars, all right, we all have, after this meal is paid, 200 dollars each."

"Wow!" Harla replied, inspected the ten dollar note, then rushed off to get Omar and bring him with her to the ice-cream vendor.

"Actually, love, tell Harla and Omar to walk ahead." Lana said to her husband as her eyes followed her children. "I forgot to bring a dry towel to wipe Sam after food. Only have some tissues on me."

Darth walked to Harla and Omar now taking into their hands a rather large ice-cream cone. "Listen," he leant and said quietly, "we only have some tissues to wipe Sam's mouth. We need to save these after his meal, so we want you to walk ahead, we will keep an eye on you, so Sam doesn't see you eating because he will start screaming that he wants a lick."

"All right." Harla replied as she licked her huge chocolate ice-cream top. Omar, sensing the importance of this request, glanced in Sam’s direction then nodded. She and Omar quickly set off, Harla keeping a most careful eye on her younger brother and now and then glancing behind, while hiding her ice-cream well in the front, to see how far ahead they were and if Sam could see.

Half an hour later, it seemed much longer, they were on the wharf. The ice-cream Harla had, had not satisfied her hunger. She turned to Sara. "When are we eating, Sara?"

"Am I your mother? Pest." Sara replied and turned to her elder sisters to discuss which stall they would buy food from.

Sara's reason for her rather harsh reply came from the fact that Harla was as easy-going as any of her sisters - except when she was hungry. Then she became irritable and snappy and demanding. From an early age this was evident. Lana and Darth had taken Harla to a doctor when young, thinking to check if perhaps their child had diabetes or the like and the reason she demands to be satisfied as quickly as possible when hungry. The doctor found nothing unusual, persuaded the parents it was just Harla's personality. Sometimes Darth took one of the girls with him when going to see a client down the major town along the coast. An hour’s drive. During such times if Harla was with him and they passed the odd road house, and Harla mentioned she was hungry, Darth would pull over and turn the car around and buy her a sandwich. She would eat and chat and be as lovely and charming a companion as before she became hungry. With any other daughter, he would ask them to wait, but not with Harla. If Harla said she was hungry, a window of only about ten minutes existed before her personality began to alter.

"Mum!" Harla turned to her mother.

"Sara, girls, please, make up your mind, you know what Harla is like." Lana pleaded with Sara.

"Chinese?" The girls looked at their parents.

"Lovely." Lana agreed and looked about hoping to see somewhere they could sit, "over there, quick, love, the people are leaving."

Darth moved off quickly to reserve one of the outdoor settings on this wharf. With the huge crowd, he was only one of about twenty men heading for this table. He was first, and the girls and Lana came around and sat down. Sara and Elisha took down the orders, ignoring Harla's curt reply of "anything!" Elisha knew what foods Harla enjoyed and decided to order one of those.

Ten minutes later, the family listening to a soft tune played by a musician nearby, Sara and Elisha, by this time Lisa went to assist, were bringing their packed dinner. The first to be served was Harla who quickly opened her container and dug her plastic fork right in. Omar was next to be served. While not as obvious, he was a touch like Harla and became silent and different when hungry.

"Mine is all vegetables, mum." Lisa said.

"Vegetarians," Elisha was eating a spring roll, dunking it in soy sauce, "so I heard, uhm," she hesitated, glanced at Omar sitting next to her eating his spring roll and looking with big eyes at his sister, and she leant and said softly but all heard, "if you eat only vegetables, Omar, and not meat, your pooh will not be so smelly."

Omar was looking at his sister, hesitated, then shook his head in the negative and replied matter of fact, "mine is smelly anyway."

That made everyone laugh except Sara who said, "can we talk about something else please?"

Lisa, sitting next to Harla biting into her meal, turned to Harla. "Maybe that is why you have so many showers, Harla, yours is so bad you need to shower to get the smell off your body."

Harla looked with big eyes at Lisa. For a while no one knew what her reaction would be, then Harla covered her mouth with her hand and started laughing, and shaking her head in the negative. The way she did that made others laugh, even Sam laughed seeing the others laughing. Sam was sitting on his mother's lap and Lana was feeding him fried rice.

"Now that you are eating, you are your delightful self again." Lana smiled at Harla.

"That's true." Harla nodded and put her fork in. She was also not the kind of personality to leave anything on her plate -  not even a grain of rice. If they had meat with sauce, Harla would clean the plate with a piece of bread. If she had cereal for breakfast and could not get the last drops of milk on her spoon, she would bring the bowl to her mouth and let the drops come to her mouth. She wasn't obsessive about this, she didn't always go that far, sometimes leaving pieces of food, but this was rare with Harla. Of all the dinner plates after eating, it would be extremely rare for Harla's plate not to be the cleanest. Sometimes so clean it could be mistaken for not having been used. Usually only when she had a mild tummy ache or was not feeling well, was the only time she might play with her food or eat only some. Omar was turning out much like his sister, even taking to cleaning his plate with a tongue. Because he was only four neither Darth or Lana worried about this, it was Sara and Elisha who tried to make Omar stop doing that, telling him that he was not a dog and it was disgusting.

There wasn't much that annoyed Harla, except for those times she was hungry. From an early age Lisa had an affinity with her father few men would ever experience with a daughter. For example, if Darth came home late, while the family was already eating, and felt too tired to eat with them, and instead he would lay down on the sofa, it was not out of character for Lisa to leave her meal, come out of the kitchen, take her father's shoes off, tell him ever so softly to rest as long as he likes and would he like a cup of tea? As Harla grew older, this annoyed Harla some, she being as possessive in that sense of her father as Lisa. Once when Lisa did that, and left the kitchen table to go to the lounge to her father, and all could hear her soft soothing ever so loving tone, sitting at the table in the kitchen Harla turned to her mother and said, "mum, dad married the wrong woman."

“Yes.” Lana mused and ruffled Harla’s hair with her hand. “If we were young again and Lisa was as she is, yes, I would have had serious competition.”

That made the girls smile. Sara privately thinking a thought she was not game to say at that time but did later “no, mum, in that situation, no woman, not even you, would stand a chance against the power of her love and dedication.” The one thing about a larger family that stood out to their friends and neighbours, was that often one of them would do something or say something that entertained the others. Meal times especially were happy times. They would sit around eating, talking, often laughing at something someone said or did.

"Speaking of vegetarian meals, love," Lana turned to her husband while feeding Sam, "remember that vegetarian meal we had after our marriage...that Buddhist temple...near Wollongong?"

"My first experience, my introduction," Darth mused to his daughters, "to the Buddhist Way - the experience of pain and suffering."

The girls looked puzzled. Lana covered her mouth to stop herself laughing. She explained to the girls. "I was pregnant with Sara, just, did not show yet. We decided to have an outing and visit this...I forget the name...big Buddhist complex...rather nice, lovely...we had no lunch with us, they had a lunch room...they had a menu but it was only in Chinese or whatever...on the outside of the restaurant. We couldn't read but your father being a logical male saw all these people pouring into the restaurant and decided it must be a top notch restaurant. I was not so sure but he grabbed my hand and just pulled me inside. It turned out they only offered one meal at lunch time. We stood in queue, paid, received our plates. Very natural and colourful food was piled on our plates. It looked positively exotic and delicious. Problem was that except for a small pile of white rice, I could not work out, and your father couldn't, what any of it was. We sat down to eat.  I could not work out what any of the vegetables were - but I did not like any. You know your father, he is rather spoilt with food. The look on his face as we started was priceless! He kept asking quietly every few minutes "what is that?" About the only thing I recognised, just, was a lotus leaf. Anyway, when we went outside the restaurant, and your father left most of the food, he makes this remark "now I understand what the Buddhist Way is - understanding suffering through personal experience – that was suffering! – and I am so so hungry! That rice was not cooked well but the only thing that had some taste and that when not even boiled in salted water! As for those lotus stems or whatever - I am positive that ordinary green grass has more flavour. That green thing that looked like a mushroom – that I could use as a kitchen tap washer and I am sure it would work. Those longish black things reminded me of the poodle next door. I noticed you didn’t try those."

Lana nodded. Her reason for avoiding those was, as it was clear now, the same as her husband’s.

Darth had a sense of humour. It was a part of his personality. He often said things that made people smile. It was hard to explain or define Darth's unique sense of humour. Rarely did he do this on purpose. It was his personal unique way of thinking that often caused this. Harla sometimes showed this trait too. One time Lana had to come with Harla on an excursion. They showed up on time at the school. Harla's usual teacher that year was a Mrs Jonalski. On this occasion Mrs Jonalski brought a helper for the day, her own sister, and introduced her sister as "this is my sister Amy." Harla looked at the two and asked the new sister, "so you are Mrs Jonalski too?" The teacher had to explain, to her surprise because Harla was highly intelligent like her sisters, that no, her sister was married to another man, not her husband, and had a different surname.

They finished their meal. Lisa the last to finish. That was her particular trademark. By the time her sisters finished half the plate, Lisa's plate often looked like it wasn't touched. She was happy chatting away, eating a piece of bread, never rushing with any meal, and taking ever so small portions at a time.

"Omar, I have some money left, want a ride on the merry-go around?" Harla turned to Omar who had rested his head on his father's lap and stretched himself out, pushing Harla's slim legs away with his own.

"Just one ride Harla.” Sleepy Omar replied and stood up.

Sam by now was also full, satisfied, cleaned with a tissue, gave a big burp, and promptly snuggled in his mother's lap like a baby koala and closed his eyes. When Harla returned, a decision was made that Sara and Elisha and Lisa could remain and have some fun on the many rides that were set up. The others walked home, Lana holding Sam fast asleep, Darth holding Omar not fast asleep but neither moving or talking. Harla was walking along side and chatting away.