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Chapter Nineteen: Generation Gap
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Derbyshire, Pemberley Manor
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March 1821
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- I'm so glad for Richard, smiled Fitzwilliam. I was afraid that he would never find a woman he could finally ask to marry him.
He winked at his wife.
- We have set such a high standard that I really believed he would never again believe such a woman existed out there.
Elizabeth frowned at her husband. They were preparing themselves for their night and they had just spent more than an hour with their youngest.
- Finding a wife was never the problem, Fitzwilliam and you know it. Richard is a stunning officer with a reputation both in the military and outside. He could have had a wife just after a few minutes' research. There are hundreds of mercenary women who would have flocked around him had he made it known that he wanted to marry. And he would have found women of a lot better standing than himself, don't doubt it for a second.
Fitzwilliam nodded.
- He's an Earl now, like his brother. And he deserved his title by his actions in North America. Of course, he would have found fine aristocratic women interested in him.
- With his new title, he had daughters of every great House from all over Europe pinning to marry him. Add to that that he's your cousin, a relative of the King, he is famous for having your ear and the King's in military matters and, which is not a disadvantage at all he has the dark Darcy handsomeness and good built. He was just not searching, that's the reason of his lasting celibacy.
Fitzwilliam's famous frown adorned his brow for a second.
Richard hadn't really lived in celibacy. His affairs –it was an ugly word but still the truth- with quite a few different women had been all over the press for years now. And his liaison with Teenara had been a well-known fact for more than a year. That hadn't made it to the newspapers' front pages because the King had frowned publicly at the first short report published in Light and Famous about it. And, knowing how rare the King's frowns were, no journalist who liked his job and his salary had chosen to take the risk to put a picture featuring that member of the Royal family on a front page. At least not without Jane's approval, but these last weeks –after the information of the incoming wedding had been hinted at by Jane- a few pictures of the both of them had been published and Teenara's origins had been rather heavily publicized since the truth about Gandhara has been published thanks to Lydia's latest book introduced by Bishop Collins himself.
Fitzwilliam wasn't a bigot but having his favorite cousin –his real childhood brother- living in a very unsavory manner with a woman whose culture was clearly not above dumping him at the first best occasion had been a minor itch in Fitzwilliam's idealistic management of the family.
- You should look at your face, love. Why that unyielding frown? You should rejoice, they finally decided to marry. Richard is the first European who was able to convince a Gandharan woman to enter the sacrament of marriage! That's a victory worth a lot of military campaigns, believe me… It will change our society in ways you don't even imagine.
Fitzwilliam's frown didn't disappear. It increased.
- I'd like the changes to stop, Lizzie! I have seen too many changes for a dozen of lifetimes, believe me.
He sighed.
- There are moments I'd like the flow of time to go backwards! What wouldn't I give to get back my father's old world where I would have stayed a simple gentleman farmer? A time where my greatest problem would have been to having married a simple country girl and where my greatest scare would have been to become slowly crazy because I was unable to find in myself the courage to go back and ask the woman I loved a second time.
She came at his side and sat on his lap.
- I can understand why you long after those times where men were mighty and so much superior to women. And that's exactly the reasons why I do revel in these our new times where women have, at least, approached equality with men. We are not yet totally there but we are slowly reaching the point where it will no longer be possible to reverse the trend.
She forced him to look her in the eyes.
- But be frank, do you really think we would have been happier?
He shrugged.
- Happier? Probably not, because I'm wonderfully happy with you, with the kids –even the nosy demanding and bad-tempered ones of recently- and with the overall situation of the family. But it does weight on me that so much people look up at me and believe I'm an example to follow…
She couldn't help but laugh.
- What other example should they follow? You know that you are still the most popular man of Great Britain, don't you? The people like the fact that you have shown to the world how a real honest man was able to act while in power. You did what you had to do without ever taking the slightest advantage from your job as Regent. And then you just quit the exact day you've promised you would. With no visible regret but with a true-felt encouragement to William. They see you –and I do approve and agree- as the most honest and trustworthy man of the whole world.
She tapped him on the hand she was holding.
- Live with it, husband, you're famous, well-loved, popular and the best father ever.
He shook his head.
- Which shows, once more, that the public intelligence isn't very smart at all. And for the father part, there are nights where I long to no longer be one.
That comment made her laugh her head off.
After quite a long period of wifely laugh and husbandly frown she slipped around to be able to kiss his frown away.
- You can't complain that our children are not all unique. We are still discovering daily this totally new opportunity, love… Our experience is no help at all. We just have no way to deal with it without making mistakes. We are proceeding by trial and error and I must confess that even if we don't have gotten extraordinary fruitful results what we got is nevertheless fantastic.
He puffed and snorted at the same time.
- That's really not the word I'd use, love. We were at least able to hide from the elders when we needed privacy. Those two? They will probably never learn the significance of the word privacy! They just can't stop contacting us whenever they are in the mood of chatting with us.
She forced herself to smother the smile that wanted to show itself on her face. In fact the kids didn't want to chat with them. After all she was with them a lot more than he and so it was more or less him they were seeking out at every hour of day or night… They needed his point of view and when they needed something they acted in order to get what they wanted.
Having smart, mind-sharing and impatient children was a real challenge especially for the poor father who had, until those two never really been confronted with the needs of little ones.
One sure and certain thing was that little infants, when given an alternative, weren't noisy at all. She was quite sure that the Pemberley nursery was the quietest nursery ever even with twelve little angels sleeping there. There was not a cry or a shout ever uttered. The loudest noise the children made was their post feeding "burp"! For the rest they clearly preferred using more civilized methods.
Like asking papa or mamma directly by mind-asking.
So, it was happening that, for the first time in his life –and for the first time in the lives of any Darcy for the last thousand years-, Fitzwilliam Darcy was confronted with his daughter and son's nightly needs. And since sending a nurse –or mamma for that matter- to do the diaper changing was not the favored response his children were fancying –it only got him endless recriminations- he had learned what he needed to know to give them satisfaction. But their needs were a lot more differentiated than that. He knew now that his latest kids did have a lot of things they wanted from their father. And they had a very efficient way to let him know that they wanted him to hold them, kiss them or chant them into sleep. And so, having no choice, Fitzwilliam Darcy had become rather skilled in matters his father would never even had envisioned asking a manservant to do.
- I know you are grinning, hissed he. I see it in your eyes!
- I'm not grinning but I confess, said she while letting the smile appear, that I can't help to smile at what they succeeded to get from you.
He grumbled.
- And my brothers don't thank me to have been the first to yield. Now they can pretend that it is my fault! That they would have resisted and put a stop to all this nonsense!
- You know as well as I that nothing could have stopped the little ones to ask for them. What would they have done, hit them because they wanted their Papas? It's not your fault and they know it, but you must admit that you were the first to do it… And I'm very proud of you that you did show such unnatural courage. I like it when you are a precursor, Fitzwilliam Darcy.
- My brothers don't like it at all…
- Well we now know, and they know it too that young children need their parents, both their parents and that, when asked they make it known that they prefer their Papa to any stranger even with better parenting skills.
Fitzwilliam couldn't help but laugh.
They had found out that, in order to get at least a little sleep, they had to spend quality time with their little ones. A smile and a pat in passing was clearly not enough for some strong headed –some would say bad tempered- youngsters who wanted their dads. So, for the first time in eons men of the Darcy Clan did spend quite a lot of time with mere babes. And since for the little ones it seemed to count too, they were spending even more time with sleeping babes in their arms.
- They will soon overcome that phase and you'll get back your sleep, love, but I'm quite sure that you'll never regret the happy memories they are giving you.
He nodded and smiled.
- You are right, it is tiring and even exhausting but the link I share with them will last forever, I'm sure.
He sighed and embraced her.
- Thanks, love.
- No thanks needed, we did it together, remember?
Even if it was with mamma's help.
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Not knowing that something was impossible was, from time to time, a great revealer. And for the twelve infants sharing the Pemberley nursery mind sharing thoughts with each other was not only possible but, had been, for quite a few weeks now, a more or less hourly occurrence. And while their parents were happily specializing in mind-sharing with their offspring, said offspring had discovered early that it was clearly possible even between cousins.
And, contrary to adults who tended to use mind-sharing as another sort of speech, they very soon discovered that whole minds were a lot more versatile than vocal cords and the human larynx.
From time to time they had all succeeded in making contact with their twins while in their mothers wombs and once born and concentrated in the same room they very soon discovered that mind sharing was possible outside of twin-bonds and as Kitty's three daughters were able to demonstrate that one could share with more than one mind at the same time. And having no rules to hinder them they soon discovered that they could all share with every other cousin at the same time.
And soon they grasped the concept of shared knowledge acquisition. Once more thank to Kitty's triplets who did discover quite a few weeks before coming into the world that sharing their thoughts was a great time saver.
So they all learned, within days after their birth, that, if one learned while mind sharing with others, all present in the mind-share had no problem to understand the concept and often were able to master immediately the learned skill or at least to do it with a minimum of personal effort.
And so, it happened that while the babes were still slowed down by bad muscular coordination and bodies that had neither strength nor agility, their minds were, while together, working in over-drive.
It's so much easier to understand things while we are sharing, thought the Mind, when we are alone and unable to be in contact with at least a few of us, it's awful! It's like having most of my mind just erased…
When in the Mind form, they were no longer alone but they still felt as individuals because they still felt only what their own body was experiencing! What they saw, smelled and tasted was personal. Hunger, thirst, tiredness and the necessity to empty full bladders or intestines were individual feelings and, at least for the last ones, were never felt as a shared feeling. The others were, perhaps, shared but since they were always and hungry, and thirsty and tired, it could really be that what they felt was just felt in common and not a shared emotion.
Another problem they soon had discovered was the fact that they were unable, while in the Mind, to contact an adult. For a reason they were unable to understand, their parents, while clearly having the tools to do it –they could feel it-, weren't willing to share their minds. They were willing to exchange thoughts by drippling them one after the other, but they would never really open their mind doors. The adults refused to let them in –where they could just have shared normally- and used it as a sort of beacon operated from outside without ever opening up. They could all feel the mind glare, but they were refused to enter it. It was strange to feel them using it so improperly, but they soon decided that it was a grown-up thing. There were probably good reasons grown-ups wouldn't open up for them. They could feel their parents' love and solicitude and were all sure that not one of them was willing to do anything to harm them. So, the Mind wasn't really worried about what was clearly nonsensical but also shared by all of their parents without an exception.
They would have to look at it someday in the future but meanwhile they had so much to learn while sharing that worrying about the reason adults prefer not to share was really of no importance.
And if their parents weren't willing to share, others had not been in the least reluctant to do just that.
It had been so long, had said the mind glow in the pool when Kitty's daughters were born. It has surrounded the newly born infants with a blanket of welcome and joy. At that moment Caroline, Louisa and Young Lydia hadn't been aware that somebody else than their mother and Aunt Jane were assisting them and the thoughts that had lifted them hadn't been really considered by them. It was only a few days later, when they had been able to introduce the others to all the mind sharing possibilities, that the Pool's mind Glow had contacted them again.
They had all felt the extreme joy the Pool's Glow had diffused.
We were despairing that some of you would finally stumble on the path again.
Never really as clear as those of the cousins they were sharing the nursery with, the mind note had been nevertheless welcoming and friendly. They all had felt that the distant mind glow was different and weird, but it still was embracing them in an embrace that was whatever the differences, irradiating an openhearted and kindly glow.
The Mind hadn't been surprised. It rarely was in fact. So many things were new and strange for it, it would have spent the wholeness of tis time surprised and stunned. So, it just went on accepting what was coming up.
Who are you?
We are the spirits of Mother Nature. We inhabit places like the Grove where you were born. Those of us who were present helped with your birth by granting you and your mothers with the gift of health and vigor during the birthing. It is the way it is done. We help the mothers and we protect the children.
Can we share your minds?
No, because we don't have minds like Humans. We are able to contact you like your parents do but since we have no bodies and no brains, we cannot share with you as could your parents should they discover that they have the possibility.
How is it that you can contact us and not them?
Because you are sharing your minds and while sharing your Minds, you are a lot more than the sum of those twelve minds of yours. While doing it you have the possibility to hear the planet's harmonics. And we, the Spirits, use those Harmonics to discuss among us. And to speak with you.
What's an Harmonic?
Let's call it in a simpler way: you can hear the songs of Nature and with a few more years of experience you'll be able to understand what those songs mean. With the passing of time and the accumulation of wisdom you'll discover that while mind sharing you are able to do a lot of very different and interesting new things.
What sort of things? You already saw it happen?
It did happen in the past with a very few very talented Humans. As for the skills you could discover, that's not to us to share. You'll have more insight with the passing of time, and recalling what we saw in the past would only influence you. You have no preconceptions and no past in that matter and that's excellent. We could reveal how it was done in the past but that would force upon you beliefs that are not yours. We will let you discover your own path. Should you fail to discover some of the things we already know are possible we will help you but for now we will just be at your side and advise you in how use your gift for the best of everybody and without hurting yourself meanwhile.
Why are our parents not sharing?
They have been given the gift recently. While they were already adults. And adult Humans are a lot less adaptive than children. Especially very young children like you. There are things their bodies and minds will never spontaneously discover because they remember it to be impossible.
But we could show them…
I agree, you could but it does change nothing to their inability to adapt to those new skills their previous experience will call as impossible. My advice: best not to bother them with it. They have by now still to cope with a lot of recent and difficult changes and, because of their responsibilities, they have a lot of problems to deal with. This part is your part only. You'll be able to help them a lot in the future but in order to have that to come true, the best is to deal with it on your own. We'll be here to point you in the right direction should you need it. Your parents' present limitations will only slow you down while you learn how to cope with what you are presently discovering. Once you master this new skill range, it will be easier for you to teach them…
So, we go on without telling them?
Yes, but there is one advice we will give you despite what we have said previously: you should limit your mind sharing time to a few hours a day. You have your bodies to develop and that can only be done while working alone and physically. If you spend too much time with mind sharing you'll be handicapped in your physical development.
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Derbyshire, Pemberley Manor
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June 1821
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- What is it?
Mary's question pulled her out of her daydreaming.
- What is what?
Mary came along and sat on the armchair's right arm.
- Come on, Jane, you are worried. You hide it with your usual finesse and skill, but I always knew when you were worried and even if it is a lot rarer now, I still haven't forgotten that precise skill.
Jane looked up and for a moment she dropped her iron façade to let her true feelings be seen. She wasn't worried, she was clearly scared.
- Something's happened with the bairns, Mary. I don't really know what it is but something's not right. They are hiding something…
- They are toddlers, Jane, they have just over a year in age. Children this age don't hide anything from their parents.
- That would be true if they weren't so different from normal children. This mind speaking business has changed them radically.
- They are silent and discreet, I will admit it, not to mention amazingly smart. But they haven't isolated themselves from us, they speak with us a great deal more than 'normal' children would or could. And now that they sleep their nights it is no longer a burden to have them ask questions at every moment of the day. They even signal when they have bodily needs. Who's ever had a toddler who made it known in time to do something about it that he needed to go on the chamber pot?
Jane took a long and deep breath.
- I don't say that they don't have prodigious advantages, Mary. I say that under all these convenient advantages they display to the world there is something they don't share with us. They share it with each other, but they are very attentive not to give us an insight of what they do together.
Mary frowned at her sister. Jane had always been the most sensitive of them all. She had, her whole life, felt their mother's wild temperamental swings a long time before they got her reeled up. She'd also been the one who was able to coerce Lydia and Kitty into more acceptable behavior without angering them. Why should she doubt her now with all the gathered child rearing experience she now had?
- What do you mean together?
Jane sighed once more.
- You remember these last times when we had four or five little ones sharing the nursery? How it was difficult to have them all sleeping at the same time? We often succeeded but it was always the result of an ingenious strategy having them tired and fed and satisfied at the same time around the evening…
- Yes, I remember how efficient you were with that peculiar skill.
Jane looked her sister in the eyes.
- I never had to use it with those twelve, Mary. They do it from alone.
- Not true, there is always one or the other who's awake and asking questions during the nights.
- I know, I have lists… said Jane.
- Lists?
- Lists, nodded Jane! As in working schedules.
Mary felt her frown become deeper.
- What do you exactly mean with these terms?
- I mean that there is nothing hazardous happening at night, Mary. Those smart and secretive little geniuses of ours do have a very elaborate schedule. For instance, on even Monday nights it is Caroline and James who are asking questions to Kitty or me or both their parents if they are both present but most of the time, they contact their mothers. On even Tuesday nights, it's Charlotte contacting Lizzy and Godefroy contacting you. On even Wednesday nights it is Aileen contacting Lydia and Arthur asking questions from Ann or George if Ann is in Rosings… And, if you want more proof, I can go on for every night in every two-week periods for the last two months when I have begun to suspect something wasn't right. And when I'm done, you'll notice that each parent has –working time off not included- a five nights sleeping period before having to be assaulted by another salvo of questions.
Mary forced herself to remain calm and tried to remember when it had been the last time she had been awakened by one of her offspring.
Last Tuesday by Godefroy. It hadn't been a question, but he had asked to be put on the chamber pot and be fed.
She felt her blood escaping from her face.
- My God, Jane, you are right… It's not always questions but I have been awoken by Froy last Tuesday and it was the 6th of June. The second week of the month, is that why you call an even week?
- No, it was the 24th week of the year, thus an even week. All of Charles' scientists use that new way to schedule their experiences. Fitzwilliam and Geoff have followed Charles into it… They think it's practical… They are probably right.
Mary went on nodding for herself.
So, Jane was right, the children did have a schedule for nightly questions.
- Why?
- I can't be sure, answered Jane. But I believe it's because they know it gives them normality. They don't want to worry us, so they go on like in the beginning with nightly questions. But they don't want to harass us, so they created a schedule to make it easy to put up with… We got what soothes us but with enough leeway to make it look normal, unthreatening.
- Nice thinking.
- Very nice for one-year old toddlers, agreed Jane while showing her sister a very worried face.
Mary could only nod. Very nice indeed.
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Derbyshire, Pemberley Manor
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June 1821
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- Do you have any idea of how what you just said could be interpreted?
Lizzie was visibly, like Kitty, Lydia and Ann more than shaken.
- I just exposed what I believe to be the facts, that's all. I have a very clear idea of how crazy it sounds. But the facts are the facts and those facts say that this little dozen of sweethearts is deliberately hiding something from us. And yes, it scares me a lot to imagine one-year old children doing something as convoluted as that.
Kitty who with three daughters was a little more involved than her sisters asked for Jane's attention.
- I won't play dumb, Jane, I have noticed as you have probably too, that my girls are a lot smarter than one year old should be. But they have clearly begun to learn months earlier than normal children. Could it not explain their precocity?
Jane shrugged.
- It could and I hope it's the explanation, but I'm not ready to write it down to a few months more learning time. That mind-sharing business is more probably behind the whole secrecy.
She looked at Mary.
- I believe we need to form a circle and try to contact them while they are being suspiciously calm and quiet. We need to know, we can't just go on putting our heads in the sand. I don't know what they are able to do but whatever it is, I want us to be part of it. We have those same possibilities, if there are new skills to master to be able to understand them better; I want them, for me and I want them for the family…
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Derbyshire, Pemberley Manor
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June 1821
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I knew you would come…
The circle's tendril had had no problem to find what they were searching.
There was an entity waiting for them and it didn't feel surprised.
Who is 'I'?
I am the Mind we form when we share, came the immediate answer. We share and we pool everything at our disposal. Together we are more than the sum of our minds. We are better and smarter than when we are alone…
Jane's worry was immediately sent to her sisters. Luckily for them the circle was able to function on more than one level.
We need to separate them… They will lose their individuality if we let them go on like now.
I have three of them, reminded Kitty. What am I going to do? Put two of them with foster parents?
Let's not panic here, said Mary and Lizzy in one and the same thought. It is, added Mary, probably smart enough to understand that their individual minds are at risk there. We need to make them understand that individuality is important. That, in order to survive in our society, they need to create their own personality.
They are only one-year old children, said Lydia, how can we possibly make them understand?
We need only to convince it, not them, said Jane. And it is perhaps smart enough to fathom that it is also in its interest to have them all develop their own characters. Let's give it a try, Mary!
Soon the circle was back contacting the Mind.
We are impressed, said Mary, but we are also very worried. You can't go on like that, you are too young.
I'm smarter than each one of them will ever be. Why should we renounce to such an advantage?
You don't need to renounce, you just have to give the minds of your parts the opportunity to develop faculties of their own. If you go on like now, you'll all be the same and you'll lose possibilities to become even smarter.
It is true that we tend to adopt the same patterns. It wasn't so when Young Lydia and her sisters introduced us to the Mind.
To have that possibility back you just need to let each and every one of you become independent again. Use the Mind only when necessary, for instance when you have to solve a problem. Don't do it all the time, don't go for the easy option! You'll lose yourself in the whole.
I'll ponder the problem. I'll have to make a decision…
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- What if we were unable to convince them?
For very evident reasons, it was Lydia who was most worried. She had always been the most independent of them all and the perspective of her daughter becoming a mental clone of the others was daunting. The fact that Young Lydia –her namesake and goddaughter- had found out that the Mind-Sharing business was possible added another level of personal dread. She knew how egotistical a young one could become if not restricted.
- We'll have to take the matter into our own despotic hands, said Jane. We separate them. While hoping that they don't have a planetary range. It should not be the case, as we know, range comes with skill, but who knows what happened to them during these weeks spent becoming a one mind? It could already be too late.
- Charles believes we could put people in orbit and build an installation on the moon, said Kitty.
- Let's hope that we won't need to separate them forcibly, said Lizzie. Hopefully they are, while in one mind, able to understand that restricting themselves to one and the same mold would be a catastrophe. We need them to accept freely our position. I'm quite sure that forcing them will not be taken easily by them. And who knows what could be damaged in their minds if we tear them out of each other's range.
She looked at Jane.
- I'm beginning to fear that our great project was a great mistake after all.
- Let's not consider worst-case scenarios, please, said Ann. They have discovered something, they have played with it and found it interesting. It's only the novelty that has hooked them. Let's show them that there are other interesting things around them. They know, intimately that we love them and that we have only their best in mind. They will accept our advice. It's not too late for them; they are not yet addicted to that mind-sharing possibility.
Mary took a long and profound breath.
- Should they refuse, there is another possibility and you know it like I do. You are just afraid to envision it. But if my only alternative is losing my babies, I'll do it without hesitating even for a second.
- We could lose ourselves in that thing, said Jane who had already thought about it. She would never have envisioned it but to have a chance to get her babes back, she knew she would do it.
Mary snorted.
- We are strong-headed and independent minds, Jane. We have decades of personal experience behind us and we have the love of our families to remind us that we have a great deal of things to lose. We will enter that thing, take it over and show all who are present what it means to be lost and directed within something you have no real power upon.
- Why enter their One-Mind, asked Lydia. Let's create our own one. We have the same upgrade as them; we just didn't know that it was possible. Now we do…
Five pairs of amazed eyes turned to look at her.
- Why not? Do you really want to enter their One Mind without knowing what it really means? For us and for them? We are sisters and we have very few secrets from each other. I wouldn't propose it to Mamma and Papa, of course, but who is better suitable than us to make an attempt together?
- We have no real idea what it really means, whispered Lizzie. It could be dangerous.
- It is dangerous, agreed Lydia, and it would be even more dangerous –probably for them- to enter their One Mind without having an exact idea of what is going to happen. I do trust you all and I have no fear that you will make an attempt to harm me when we are mind-sharing.
- If you don't mind, said Ann, I'll stay out of your sisters One-Mind. I don't know how much you'll be able to see about my memories but there are in that mind of mine quite a few dirty secrets you really don't want to share… I wouldn't have to kill you because you are all very high in the habilitation scale but you still would not like some of the things I ordered.
She shot a shy smile at Jane.
- And I would advise not to share your husband's mind, neither he nor I are what you could call kind people.
Jane answered with a smile of her own.
- I already got a few hints about that… But to my eager satisfaction I'm still going to pretend that even if he cannot be considered as the epitome of kindness, he still is a much kinder man than he was when he first saw me.
- No debate on that point coming from me, cousin, said Ann. But still, avoid looking at his memories; it won't bring you any satisfaction to know everything about the man you love.
Mary made a sign and Ann stood up and exited the circle.
- Let's see what sharing minds like the little ones does, said Mary. And let's hope we won't regret it.
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It hadn't been at all what they had expected.
One moment they were trying to reach each other and the following second they were something else.
A different mind with very different, very detached motivations. They still felt human and they still had the certainty that this One-Mind was only a temporary situation, that their true personality was somewhere, awaiting their return. But meanwhile they were… Someone else? Something else? A summary of all their experiences and a concentration of everything their true selves had been.
Were!
Jane could literally feel how she was taking over. That mind –their One Mind- was probably smarter and more efficient, but it was a hollow bulk and it was in need of a leader.
No problem with that, thought Jane while taking over.
She immediately had answers. Lots of answers. She forced herself to concentrate on the current most important problem.
The answer was there and she found elation in it. Nothing was definite. Everything could still be undone. But…
She would have to enter the children's One-Mind.
She stopped and concentrated.
Within seconds she was –they were- in the children's One-Mind and even if it was clearly wider, it wasn't a match to theirs. Within seconds both had merged and she was taking great lengths not to abruptly take over.
She was elated by what was at her disposal, but she was also very conscious that she had to be very cautious not to force the issue. She wanted them agreeing not patronized and compelled.
She felt that she would have no problem at all to make it stop and to force them out of their One-Mind. But knowing their parents, they would just build it again. She needed them to understand and to agree.
A possibility appeared in her Mind's eye.
The One-Mind was what came immediately. But was there a possibility to have another level of mind-sharing, not so efficient, perhaps, but with more freedom granted to the sharing minds? Could there be a sort of awareness while sharing, something other than merging everybody's minds?
She was at the center; it was hers to find a path where sharing and independence could be granted. And she had the resources of seventeen very fine minds at her disposal. What could go wrong?
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- I'm sorry, said Jane, but I wasn't able to find another path.
- Don't be sorry, answered Mary, it is perhaps not perfect, but it is a lot better than what they had produced themselves.
- It will mean that one of us will be obliged to stand at the mind-sharing's center, insisted Jane. Day and night whatever the hour of the day.
- Indeed, said Lizzie, and, for my part, I'm very satisfied with this new development. We are the parents and I really believe that as responsible parents, we have an educational role to play. And one of us at the center of that One-Mind will have a lot more impact on each of our little one than before. It is a totally new perspective on education and it is, as Mary said, a lot better than what little Lydia had discovered in her naïve approach of mind-sharing.
- Having triplets with mind-sharing abilities within one and the same womb probably called for it, said Kitty who was at the same time proud that it had been Lydia who had played the role of the precursor and guilt-ridden because of the amount of work it was going to pile on the young mothers. We will have to inform every other female who shares these new gifts with us how she must deal with that novelty.
- Indeed, said Mary with a loud sigh, becoming a mom has involves now quite a few new additional challenges. It has clearly no longer anything in common with what it was when mother was carrying us.
The six of them could only nod their silent approval.
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