Engraved upon the parchment were the marks 3483
It is whence the beginning of a journey shall commence
Of glory, of example, of soaring spirits high
A merchant’s bargain for change received
Every time Yestradamus uses a set of numbers, we know to add it all together until we get the lowest single digit. Using our trusty calculator to make sure no errors occur, we proceeded with our mathematical operation. Thus, 3+4+8+3=18. And then, 1+8=9, making 9 the final outcome. In Mathematics, the number 9 is the highest single decimal digit. This is the first clue that we are being asked to look for something high. This observation is given credence by another reference on the third line where it says “of soaring high spirits”.
This reminds me of an operation I was involved in many years ago. In those days, I could still pass for a high school student. Today, I’d be lucky if they’d stop calling me “Sir” at a restaurant like the lady at the Wendy’s Restaurant who usually greets me with a, “Good evening, Sir. What can I get for you?” and I usually say “I want a 6 piece chicken nugget with fries and an iced tea.”
One day, I was approached by a seriously distressed lady suspicious about her son selling drugs at his school. I took the assignment because it was in a coastal city which meant there were surfers who spoke surfer lingo. I liked the challenge because I had to sound like a surfer. So I had to replace certain words that was part of my speech pattern. The word man became dude. The word chow became grub and the word terrific was gnarly or bitchin’.
The first thing I had to do was actually get in the son’s clique. So I enrolled in his school and for months I followed all the parties hoping that I would bump into him. That’s the hard part since I didn’t do all those things that high school kids did. To avoid getting offered drinks or other mind altering concoctions, I used to go to parties looking like I was already loaded. I would wash my eyes with soap so it gets irritated, blood shot and looking like I already had a 6-pack. But there was this really stunning brunette who had the impressive combination of beauty and brains. She was very persuasive that she talked me into smoking a half a stick of marijuana. The last time I did that was in the 80’s. All I can remember about that experience was smoking some horse kicking stuff. The next thing I know I was eating an entire pineapple by myself because I had the munchies. From that moment on my friends called me Mr. Pineapple Head.
She sparked that baby up and by the time it got to me, it was just a tiny piece of smoldering thing enough for me to hold it with just my fingernails. When I tried to take a lung filling drag, the tiny roach slipped my fingers and went straight into my mouth hitting my tonsils on the way in. That was when the laughter started. There are different kinds of weed. Some are so potent that it causes paranoia and panic-attacks. Some will do nothing but make you fall asleep. The pot she brought was the laughing variety. It gives your body just enough toxins that it makes your body wonder what’s going on. And then your body searches for offensive radicals ingested by the body and keeps on searching like it got lost in a circle until your body tells itself “Man, I don’t know what’s going on but I feel kinda mellow”. Your body throws up its hands and joins the party. You end up smiling and laughing. We were both giggling the whole night like a couple of laughing hyenas. She said I looked funny. But, I thought she looked beautiful. She had such a great time that from that evening on she was my high-school girlfriend and we were inseparable.
I had the perfect cover.
TO BE CONTINUED
(Analyst 147)
