Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Episode 10: Spirits

The next morning the king got up, dressed and went to the breakfast pavilion. There he found Scheherazade nursing their daughter with her friend Fatima who was also nursing. Fatima had delivered several children and was showing the King’s First Wife some of the ins and outs of breast-feeding. It’s always a good thing, he thought, to have a friend show some of the lessons learned. Fatima was using her infant son as a training aid. Her breasts were about the same size as Scheherazade’s with dark rubbery nipples and the Sultan never passed up an opportunity to take a peak. He found watching the nursing process to be pleasant and it harkened him back to a time when life was free of distractions and responsibilities.

The Sultan walked along the buffet table filling his plate with fruits nuts and a selection of meats and bread. He took his seat of honor on a raised platform overlooking the gathering and was joined by his his Vizier.

“Do you suppose that what we eat decides the gender of the children we conceive?” he asked.

“I doubt that diet plays any role what-so-ever, but we can discuss the possibilities if you like.”

The King shook his head. “I think it would be a waste of time. We need to concentrate on outcomes that are more likely."

“What is percolating in that mind now?” Oh Great King."

“Maybe we can find the answer to what makes a male child, using numbers.”

"Numbers?"

“Last night Scheherazade told the tale of Archimedes and the Golden Crown.”

“I used to tell that one to my daughters, when they were children. I don’t think Dunazad ever really caught on.”

“The tale showed that the truth is often concealed and to discover it requires an indirect means.”

“Like discovering when a woman’s full moon rises.”

“Yes,” said the King, “and I know that you are a mathematician without peer in the realm.”

“That might be going a bit far, Your Magnificence, but I am a student of Mathematics.”

“Do you think that Mathematics would hold true in the metaphysical world of the sprit in the same way it works in the world of the here and now?”

“I would think that mathematics would hold true in any dimension or place in the Universe.”

“I was hoping you’d say that.”

“Why do you ask?”

“Because I think we can deduce things about the sprit world from what we know about our own.”

“These are matters that great thinkers have pondered long and hard--- and gotten nowhere.“

“Has anybody gone to the sprit world and retuned to tell of it?”

“The Christian’s claim their Messiah died and did so return.”

“And what did this Messiah have to say about the place where the dead go?”

“He spoke vaguely and in metaphors.”

“So he didn’t really say much beyond that the place exists.”

“The unfortunate truth,” replied the Vizer.

“So while we don’t know much about it, we know it exists.“

“For a certainty it exists.”

“Has anybody else returned from the dead?”

“I have heard that soldiers, badly wounded, have walked down the tunnel of death and seen a bright light at the end, however, they never got past the illuminated portal.”

“Do you think our sprits come from this world at the other end of the tunnel of death?”

“I think that is a likely possibility, however since nobody has ever actually returned, there is no way of knowing.”

“Well, we do know some things.”

“For instance?”

“When we die our sprits leave the body and go off somewhere---and that when we are conceived a spirit enters therein.”

“I can see the truth in that.”

“And that that sprit determines the sex of the child.”

"I share your view, but since you’ve been such a stickler of late, separating fact from assumptions, I've been struggling to keep what my senses tell me apart from my intuition."

“Well then let us examine some of these 'Intuitions,' and see if we can classify them as either assumptions or facts.”

“When we die, does our spirit leave our body?”

“When someone breathes their last, their spirit departs and that is strong evidence that they are no longer living.”