Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2005 10:34:53 +0200
From: Harry Anders <harry@harryanders.com>
Subject: Little Harry-18

Chapter 18. Preparations to visit little Harry's people.

I woke up, looking into two bright and deep blue eyes. Fascinating eyes
that radiated a lot of intelligence, a lot of power, and a lot of pure love
all in one. I nearly drowned in them. Little Harry had positioned himself
on top of me, and stared into my eyes with a big grin on his face.

"I thought you would never wake up!"

"Why would you think such a stupid thing?"

"I'm TEASING you, silly!"

"Oh... now wait a moment!"

I tickled his ribs, carefully not to bruise them, and he squealed with joy,
trying to tickle me back. Of course I let him win, and he straddled my
chest, pinning my arms to the bed.

"I've got your body, your heart, and your soul!"

"You can be sure of that!"

"You're crazy. But I'm hungry, and I have been ill, so today you have to
bring me breakfast in bed. Come on, on the double!"

I grinned and ruffled his hair, feeling RICH with my little soul
mate. After another cuddle I left the bed and went downstairs.

How did my little soul mate do that, with his herbs? I went to the
backyard, trying to remember which herbs he used in his tasty scrambled
eggs. I returned with a couple of herbs that smelled good, carefully washed
them, and sliced them into small pieces as I had seen little Harry do. I
added pepper, salt, and a few drops of hot sauce. I mixed everything with a
little bit of milk and the eggs. After heating a buttered saucepan, I threw
the mixture into the pan and stirred everything with a spatula.

I tasted the product of my cooking... Hmm, not too bad. Something was
missing, the flavor that caressed your nostrils when little Harry made it,
but I didn't know what it was.  I put everything onto a tray and went back
to my boy, who looked at me from under the blankets with a witty smile on
his face.

"Smells good dad! How does it taste?"

He took a piece of toast, scooped some scrambled eggs on it, and tasted...

"You used too much oregano, and I miss a pinch of garlic powder. But it's
not too bad, for the old man you are..."

Yeah, well... next time I will GET him for that!

We showered, dressed, and went downstairs. I cleared the tray in the
kitchen, while little Harry climbed onto the sideboard and put all things
away.

"I want to look at my new gravestone dad. Could we go there today? And this
time I want my brother John to go with us. And my friend Nicky. And our
friend Davey of course."

"Are you sure you want all of them to go with us to the graveyard?"

"Don't you trust me dad?" little Harry asked, displaying a devious smile on
his face.

"Now you are teasing me! You know better than that. But it's okay with me,
our van is big enough."

He started to put his shoes on, when the doorbell rang. He rushed to the
front door and returned with Nicky, bumping shoulders.

"We are going to the graveyard where my parents are buried, to have a look
at my... err... oops, at THEIR new gravestone. Are you going with us?"

"Of course I'm going with you! I'm allowed to be here for the whole
day. How's your illness? Yesterday you were really sick!"

"That Christian dude chased an angry spirit away that annoyed me. Now I
feel much better!"

"HARRY! In this house we never speak about a 'dude'. Here we are respectful
about others!"

"Sorry dad. I learnt that from my new friends a few weeks ago."

Little Harry and Nicky went outside to look for the rest of our flock,
while I took my wallet and my keys. I closed the front door and opened the
van. Soon the boys appeared, John still combing his hair and looking
sleepy, and they arranged the seats so they all could look outside. Little
Harry took his pillow to sit on, and offered the second pillow to Nicky.

"Thank you, that's a good idea! Now I can look outside without craning my
neck."

We drove off, and I searched the radio for nice background music. Our song
didn't pop up this time. Within twenty minutes we neared the church.

"There it is! We have to park our van here, and walk to the graveyard at
the end of that narrow street."

I parked our van in an empty spot. The boys looked around, obviously
impressed by the quietness of the surroundings. Little Harry took my left
hand and Nicky took my right hand. John and Davey put their arms around
each other's shoulders and followed us, softly speaking about something
technical they had planned for the afternoon.

We walked through the meadows to the weeping willows that surrounded the
graveyard. Little Harry and Nicky worked together and pushed the gate that
slowly opened with a squeaking sound. Respectfully and in silence we
entered the graveyard. All bravery left little Harry and he clamped my
hand, trembling.

"What if they didn't put my stone on their grave?"

I sent him my love and pushed him forward. "Let's go find out."

Slowly we walked to the big oak trees at the end of the yard. Little Harry
jumped up.

"Look dad, they DID put the new stone on their grave!"

The boys started to run, followed by me at a lower speed. In awe we looked
at what could be described as the nicest looking gravestone in the whole
graveyard. A beautiful brownish marble stone was set upright at the end of
the grave. Thousands of little marble crystals sparkled in the
sunlight. Both names of little Harry's parents were chiseled and coated
with gold.

Little Harry leaned into me and started to sob. "It's so beautiful..."

Little Harry and I sat down with our backs against our old oak tree, while
the other boys sat down against other trees close by. Silently we enjoyed
the absolute quietness and the peaceful harmony of the surroundings. After
a while the sacristan of the church approached us, smiling.

"Good afternoon sirs, it's a beautiful day today, isn't it? As you can see,
your new stone has arrived. But where's your son, that poor boy with his
burnt face? He was so happy when he eventually discovered the grave of his
parents..."

Little Harry smiled at him. "That's ME. Don't you recognize me?"

The sacristan looked at him with disbelief in his eyes.

"But... then a miracle has happened! I recognize your voice, but you have a
totally different face..."

"The doctors put a new skin on my face and on my body. They modeled a new
nose and mended my lips. Even my best friends didn't recognize me at
first."

"Well, the doctors did a wonderful job! Now you look like every other boy
of your age. I congratulate you with your beautiful new face!"

The sacristan retreated respectfully and went back to the church. Little
Harry looked around with a frown on his forehead.

"I want to put a couple of herbs from my garden around their grave dad. I
think that's a good place for lavender, and there in the corner I will put
a couple of roses..."

He started to add a whole bunch of vegetation and bushes, and I warned him
not to overdo. At home he could first draw a sketch of what he had in
mind. Then we would see.

We sat down for another while, until at last the boys became restless. We
stood in a circle around the grave, holding hands, and I thanked little
Harry's parents for rearing such a marvelous child. Little Harry blushed,
but didn't say a word. Each of us greeted little Harry's parents in our own
way, and in silence we left the grave.

We went to the church, to thank the sacristan. He was very pleased, and
surprised us with coffee for me and hot chocolate milk for the boys, except
for John who asked for hot milk without the chocolate. The sacristan took
us with him to the church, where we admired the old sculptures. Each of us
looked down onto the others from the pulpit, and pretended to be the pastor
for a moment. Little Harry even spread his arms and blessed the
congregation, sermonizing about love and trust. We could feel he really
meant it!

The sacristan took us downstairs to the cellars and the catacombs, but the
boys didn't like the musty smell and hurried upstairs to get some fresh
air. We thanked the nice sacristan and promised to visit him again next
time. Little Harry even hugged him and again thanked him for all his help.

With a satisfied feeling we went to our van. We unanimously decided to
repeat the day at the playground, but now while little Harry accompanied
us. Again the boys built a fort out of wooden boards, they rammed each
other in small electric cars, they fished for small knickknacks, and they
enjoyed every moment. Exhausted but satisfied we went home, on the way
eating lots of delicious fattening junk food and drinking carbonated
colored sugar water. Little Harry looked very tired now, but his eyes
beamed.

"Thank you dad, this was the most wonderful day I ever had! I am so glad I
have you and my friends!"

He put his seat into the sleeping position, closed his eyes, and
immediately fell asleep. John got a blanket from the back and carefully
draped it over his little brother. Nicky put his seat next to little Harry
and watched over him.

"Look out pop, don't use your brakes too hard..."

I parked our van in the driveway and took little Harry in my arms. John
fished the keys out of my pocket and opened the front door. I went straight
to my bedroom where I laid my tired boy down onto the bed. He never woke
up, but curled into a ball and slept on with a contented smile on his
face. Nicky crept onto the bed next to his friend.

"I am tired too. May I stay with Harry for a while?"

I nodded and he draped his arms around his friend. Immediately little Harry
uncurled and within a moment they were totally entangled, both softly
purring. I enjoyed the beautiful sight for a while, until both boys were
deep asleep. Slowly I went downstairs, where in the living room John and
Davey were hatching new electric inventions on a piece of paper.

"Is Harry asleep dad? He looked very tired. And I bet Nicky is accompanying
him, as he looked tired too. May we use the garage until we have to go
home?"

They went to the garage, and I decided to work on my book 'Little Harry'
for a while. Soon I disappeared into the story, until the boys had to go
home.

"G'night dad, this time the fuses survived our experiments. Tomorrow we
will be back, but first we both have to do some chores at home."

They kissed me and we cuddled for a moment.

"Give Harry and Nicky a hug from me."

"And from me too."

They went home, arms around each other's shoulders, and I went back to my
story.

At ten o'clock the phone rang.

"BJ here. Is my youngest son with you? He's sleeping? OK, I'll see him back
tomorrow. Take care of yourself!"

I decided to call it a day, and went upstairs to have a nice hot
shower. Suddenly a very sleepy face peeked at me.

"What's the time pop? I have to go home..."

"Your father has already phoned me, and tonight you are sleeping here. That
is, if it's ok with you."

"Of course. May I shower with you? I'll try to wake Harry up."

A moment later two sleepy boys joined me under the shower. They were too
tired, so I washed them and dried them. Together we went to my bedroom and
crawled under the blankets, where little Harry claimed his usual place on
my stomach and Nicky crawled into my right side. Soon we were deep asleep.

The next morning I received an email, from our Rumanian friends. They asked
us how Harold's surgery went, and when could we pay them a visit? I wrote
them back with all the details about everything their little prince went
through during the last several weeks, assisted by my little soul mate who
helped me remember even the slightest details.

"I want to write them something myself, dad, but I don't know how to write
it in my own language..."

"You could write it in our language, and ask their interpreter to translate
it to them?"  "Oh yeah... may I use the keyboard now dad? After I'm done
you can help me to correct the errors."

He sat down in front of the computer and his small fingers tried to find
their way on the keyboard, searching for the right keys, concentrating
hard. I went to the kitchen and returned with a cup of coffee and two
glassed of orange juice. Eagerly he swallowed his drink, without even
looking up.

I left him alone and went to the porch, followed by Nicky, carrying his
drink.

"When are you going to the gypsies, pop? Are you driving the van, or are
you going to fly? May I go with you? I never was in a foreign country
before."

"We will see. First we will send them the email and wait for their answer."

After a long time little Harry appeared in the doorway.

"I've finished my email dad. Will you have a look at it and send it to my
people?"

We went indoors and looked at his long email, with all the details about
our visit to the graveyard and our conversations with Jack and his spirit
friends. Three or four times my little soul mate stated how much he loved
me, and how grateful he was to have his beautiful new face.

'I luve Dad very mutsj, and I also luve my best frend Nicky. I tink you wil
luve him to and I tink he is ho our Wize Woman spook about Micky. I want
Nicky to go wit us, and I want you to axept him as wan of our pieple to. It
is wonderful tat we are al relatted to eatsj odder!"

I kissed his forehead and decided to send the email as it was, with all
errors, hoping the translator wouldn't have too much difficulty with it. I
lifted my boy from the chair and sat him down on one knee, while I added a
few things to the email. Little Harry clicked the 'send' key with a proud
face; and the email was on it's way to Rumania.

Nicky looked at little Harry. "Who's that 'Micky' you wrote about? Do I
know him?"

"That's you, when you were dad's eldest son and the heir to the throne. But
that's a long time ago."

"Huh?"

I beckoned them over to the couch, and we told Nicky everything about
little Harold's people visiting us, and what we remembered of our past
lives. Nicky listened, open-mouthed.

"So once, a long time ago, you were a gypsy leader and I was your son. And
after that I was a gypsy leader myself? WOW! Now I want to go with you for
sure!"

He looked at little Harry with a smug face.

"From now on you have to call me 'King Nicky the Dragon', as you are only a
prince."

"In your dreams!" little prince Harold answered, and they started a
mock-fight; until I separated them.

"If you want to be a king, or a prince, you also have to behave royally!
Both of you."

They laughed and started to tickle me, until all three of us were
wrestling. I let them win, and they pinned my arms to the couch, grinning.

"Now you have to give us your body, your heart, and your soul!"

"You already have all three of them!"

"You're crazy."

They left me and started a new racing game on the computer, wriggling into
the same chair.

The doorbell rang, and John and Davey entered the living room.

"Morning! Do you have something to eat, dad?"

Nicky jumped up.

"We got an email from Harry's gypsy people in Rumania, and I am King Nicky
the Dragon!"

"In your dreams!" little Harry laughed and poked Nicky in the ribs.

"You are only a little snotty nose, just like me."

We started to laugh, and I told little Harry how to let the emails show
up. With a proud face he started the email browser and clicked on 'sent
items'.

"Well..." John commented after reading little Harry's email,

"It's time for you to go to school and learn how to spell our language..."

"DAD... You promised to help me with my errors. What will they think of me
now..."

"I think your people will love your email even more when they see it's
really YOU who wrote it."

"Oh..."

Suddenly his face lit up.

"There's a little blinking thing over here... does that mean there's a new
email?"

"Probably it's just somebody trying to sell us something we don't need at
all... but click on 'received items' to look at it."

"YES! They've sent us an answer! YIPPEE..."

The email was a short one:

"We invite all of you to join our next celebration, seven days from
now. Details will follow."

The room was dead silent... Then all boys started to cheer and dance around
the room.

"We're going to Rumania, we're going to Rumania!"

I tried to get their attention, but they were too enthusiastic and didn't
hear me. After a while they slowed down, and I could ask them two important
questions.

"Do you have a passport; and do your parents agree?"

They hurried away to ask their parents, leaving little Harry and me looking
at the email on the computer screen. I phoned my lawyer for
instructions. He told me to ask for a written consent from all parents,
verified, sealed, and stamped by a public notary, to always have with
me. He also warned me not to use a mobile phone in that country, as it
would certainly cost me lots of money. If necessary he would speed things
up for us, to get all passports as soon as possible. Money was no problem?
Of course not.

The boys returned, panting. John had brought his passport with him, Nicky
had one at home, but Davey didn't have one yet. Again I phoned my lawyer,
who promised to get two passports as soon as possible, one for little
Harry, and one for Davey. They would be available in the afternoon. He
would also manage all assurances, including a green card for our van.

In procession we went to all parents, to get their written consent and to
discuss our plans. They had to ask school for a prolonged vacation, because
we would travel with our golden van and would be away at least three
weeks. All costs and insurances would be paid by me. I would try to let all
the boys phone home every night, if possible.

We went downtown and bought inflatable mattresses, sleeping bags, camping
pillows, and lots of other things we thought we needed. A photographer took
pictures of little Harry and Davey to be used in their passports, and we
went to the town hall, where we got their passports within twenty
minutes. We went to a notary, who sealed and stamped all consents. We
bought a couple of maps to sketch the way to Rumania; and I bought a small
GPS receiver, to know exactly where we were all the time. I paid everything
with my inexhaustible credit card.

We went to a Chinese restaurant, where the waiter guided us to a table for
six in a cozy corner. Again little Harry was very curious about all spices,
especially the 'green snot'. He asked the waiter, and after a while the
chief cook appeared at our table, a nice Chinese man who didn't speak our
language too well. He was very polite and explained to our nosy boy that
the 'green snot' consisted of four herbs, mingled together with olive oil
and a bit of salt. Little Harry thanked him exuberantly, proudly beaming.

"Now I know how to make it, dad! I already have three of the herbs, and now
I know what the missing herb is. That's the taste of home I missed..."

Again the Chinese food tasted delicious, and soon we were all stuffed to
the brim. We went home in a joyful mood, singing along with the music of
the car radio.

After a while John got a bright idea.

"Dad, if we are careful, maybe we could try out the sleeping positions of
all the seats?"

I nodded, and the boys started to reposition all five chairs. They lined
them up and thus created a nice bed, big enough to accommodate four boys.

"When we are home, we will turn the front seats around and join them to the
bed. Then it should be big enough for all five of us."

They started to unpack the inflatable mattresses, and detected we forgot an
air pump. They nearly panicked, afraid they had to blow all mattresses
themselves.

John painfully punched my arm. "DAD! We forgot a PUMP!"

I turned the van around and we went back to the store, where we bought two
electric motor pumps to attach to the cigarette lighter contact. I showed
John the bruise where he punched me, but he just laughed.

"Ah, poor little baby... shall I give it a kissykissy?"

I tried to catch him, but he was too fast for my old body. Well, I will get
him later on...

Back home, the boys decided to spend the night in my bedroom, sleeping in
their new sleeping bags on their new inflatable mattresses, to try them
out. They went home to warn their parents, and were back within two
minutes, carrying their pajamas with them to make things more real. We
spent the rest of the evening planning things, looking at the various maps,
trying out the GPS receiver, looking on the Internet at pictures of the
Rumanian mountains, and making lists of things we should take with us. We
decided to buy a couple of big suitcases, to attach onto the roof of our
van. All the things we didn't need immediately could be put away in
them. Even the naughty boys...

The boys were far too wound up to go to bed, so we decided to go for a walk
in the neighborhood. This time little Harry led the way. He guided us
through the backyards, along all kinds of scary dark lanes, crossed a field
of prickly bushes, hissed at barking dogs who promptly went silent, and all
of the sudden we were back in our own backyard. Wow. He certainly knew the
way! I complimented him and he smiled.

"I've used those sneaky ways for two years now... Fortunately that's in the
past!"

Now we were tired and went upstairs, showered, put our pajamas on, and
inflated the mattresses with the help of one of the air pumps and a small
power supply. We lined the mattresses up and crawled into our sleeping
bags, zipping them closed.

"Night everybody!"

"Good night!"

After a while my old bones started to protest, as I was used to sleeping in
a warmed waterbed. The mattress wobbled, the sleeping bag smelled of rubber
and was too small, the pillow was too flat...

Within an hour I sneaked into my waterbed, crept under the blankets and
sighed contentedly. I closed my eyes and was asleep within two seconds.

An hour later I woke up, feeling a cold body touching my back. The body
threw his arms around my shoulders, sighed, and fell asleep. Ten minutes
later a second cold body crept into my waterbed, felt the first body,
walked around, and crawled into my arms with a deep sigh. Nicky and little
Harry had found their places! I grinned and loved my boys.


In the morning I woke up and found four boys in my bed, entangled into each
other and me, all softly snoring. So much for trying out the new sleeping
bags! I freed myself and looked at a floor littered with opened sleeping
bags and pajamas. Nicky yawned and squinted at me.

"Morning pop!"

One by one the boys woke up and looked around with sleepy eyes.

"Where are your pajamas?"

They looked guilty, and Nicky leaned against me.

"They started to cling and felt damp. I think I'm no longer used to
them..."

The other boys nodded, and they all went downstairs to try to cross their
beams in the ceramic god.

"Look out, you have to clean everything up yourself!"

"Yes dad..." and off they went, wiggling their butts at me.

When they returned, Davey had a bright idea.

"Could we try to zip all sleeping bags together?"

They immediately went at work, and fabricated one long blanket that could
be folded together.

"That's the solution! Now we can all sleep in the same bed in our van! You
had a very good idea Davey!"

Davey beamed and rolled himself into the long blanket, helped by the other
boys. Soon he detected he was stuck and couldn't free himself.

"Hey! You have to help me. I can't get out of here."

The other boys laughed and went to the shower, leaving Davey in a panic,
until I freed him.

"I will GET them!"

"Take it easy, next time you will be teasing one of the others. It's all
part of the game."

"I know dad, but for a moment I panicked."

After breakfast we went downtown again, to buy a couple of suitcases and a
lot of other things we thought of yesterday evening. When we returned, the
boys carefully washed our golden van. They cleaned the windows, vacuumed
the inside, and painstakingly removed all things we didn't need during our
journey. When they were done, the van looked new in the bright sun.

We went indoor and filled our new suitcases with all the things we needed
in the near future, as clean clothes and towels. We attached the suitcases
onto the roof, under a big plastic sheet, with a couple of ropes. The other
things were stacked away into the back of the van. After carefully checking
and double checking everything, we were ready to go!

In procession we went to all parents, who of course had to tell the boys
all sorts of advise which they immediately forgot. We all hugged each
other, and now we were really ready to go. We entered our golden van, I
started the engine, and we drove off, towards that mysterious place that's
called 'Rumania'.


Harry AnderS, alternative writer.

Thank you for reading my stories, and thanks to Nifty for hosting them.

I would like you to proofread my new chapters and comment on them.
The latest version of the edited and new chapters is available on:
http://www.harryanders.com
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