A quest for The Sign

A quest for The Sign

Walter Suite, a former chef, has gotten The Sign he always wanted, or so he thinks.

He is a former chef who lives in the city of Xalapa, in the Mexican State of Veracruz, his late father Matteo Suite, an insider in the business, religious and government circles of the capital of the State of Veracruz, used to buy sinecures in for get easy jobs. He and his wife Graziella Abbruciati, Walter's mother, came to meet their respective deaths in a bicycle accident in some low-lying hills outside of Xalapa.

One of Walter Suite's ancestors, the Scotsman Trevor Suite (died in 1624 in Milan, poisoned by an internal enemy), had been a court adviser to the Governor and Captain General of the Duchy of Milan, Gómez Suárez de Figueroa y Córdoba, III. Duke. of Fair.

Walter Suite himself usually wears brown taffeta ruffles, similar to those worn by Gómez Suárez de Figueroa. On special occasions, Walter dons one of his cherry velvet ruffs.

The theme of this story involves elements of family history, politics, crime, and corruption. Walter is a precocious young man, very alert, very streetwise and has traveled many parts of the world, not very gifted in the exact sciences, for example, but possessed of cunning and sagacity, and with surprising resources and clever intelligent attitudes.

From the time he was a teenager, the modern-day middleman, collector, and dealer Walter discovered that a special kind of creativity only occurs after some form of "incubation," as the mind synthesizes information without any deliberate effort on the part of the thinker. His friend of several years, Lise Maria Antley, played a key role in Walter's awareness of this phenomenon.

The human mind has the ability to process past events and make sense of them, which can help with decision making in the future. However, this ability can also lead to overconfidence in one's ability to predict future events, which can be problematic.

Hindsight comprehension or hindsight bias may also be related to cognitive processes such as mental incubation and synthesis. Mental incubation refers to the process of unconsciously processing information over time, which can lead to new insights and creative solutions. Synthesis is the process of combining different elements to form a new whole. In the case of hindsight, the mind is synthesizing past information to create a new understanding of the event, which can help predict similar situations in the future.

In general, hindsight is a natural cognitive process that allows people to make sense of past events and use that understanding to navigate future situations. However, it is important to be aware of the potential biases and limitations of hindsight, as it can lead to overconfidence in predicting future events. But while hindsight is a natural cognitive process, being aware of its existence and development can make your thinking and reasoning more effective.

She had explained to him that this phenomenon was caused by the aforementioned mechanism, a subject she had read about in a book written by the French alchemist and self-styled Count of Saint Germain, who died in Eckernförde, Germany, on 27 February 1784.

Several years ago, Walter received vegetables, legumes, tree fruits, and herbs from a friend of his who lives in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, the house is on the lake, where he grows these vegetable products.

After failing as a chef, both as an employee in an elite restaurant attended by many celebrities, including actors, actresses and singers, and in his own mini-restaurant business, Walter has dedicated himself to importing and marketing foreign manufactured products, mainly from Vietnam. He has two agents in the port of Manzanillo, Colima.

Next week, Walter will take a flight to Atlanta, from where he will fly to Cairo, to visit the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, better known as the Egyptian Museum, to continue his search for The Sign; for him, the most sought after object during all his so far short life. There he hopes to find it, the unfading Sign of the ancient Egyptian gods of the pharaohs. He has spent years searching for it, but to no avail. In this search, however, he feels that he is closer than ever to finding it.

Surprisingly, at the Cairo Airport, he saw his acquaintances, the Eskimo Alatook Akeeagok and his wife, Kendra Neeariak, who of course were not wearing his caribou-skin pants and bearskin coats, but modern clothing.

Walter walked up to them and greeted them warmly. They too were surprised to see him. They told him they were in Cairo on a cultural exchange program, representing his people in Alaska. They invited Walter to join them for a tour of the city and visit the Egyptian Museum together.

Walter was delighted at the chance to count on their company in his search for The Sign. He accepted his invitation and they set off together to explore the city. They visited the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities and spent hours studying the ancient artifacts and hieroglyphs. Walter was in awe of the history and culture of Egypt, and felt that he was getting closer to finding The Sign.

As they were leaving the museum, Alatook and Kendra told Walter that they had something to show him. They took him to a small store on the outskirts of town. The shopkeeper, an old man with a long white beard, greeted them warmly. He took out a small, intricately carved box and handed it to Walter. Inside the box, Walter found a small golden amulet. It was unlike anything he had seen before.

Walter was speechless. He knew that this was The Sign that he had been looking for all his life. The amulet was the unfading Sign of the ancient Egyptian gods of the pharaohs. He thanked Alatook and Kendra for their help in finding him and for their friendship.

With The Sign in his possession, Walter felt that his life's mission had been accomplished. He returned to Xalapa, where he reported his discovery to his friends. He was proud of his heritage and the legacy of his Scottish and Italian ancestors, and he knew that The Sign would sell for a high price, in the millions of dollars.

Walter's journey had come full circle, from a failed chef to a successful collector and businessman, and finally to a discoverer of the ancient Sign. The Sign would be his legacy, and he knew it would be a reminder of the power of mental incubation and synthesis, and the importance of following one's passions and dreams.

But, two weeks after arriving in Xalapa, a connoisseur, antique dealer, and gallery and museum curator told Walter that The Sign was made of gold, indeed, but on the other hand, it was false, it would not work well, or it would not work at all. The antiques dealer from the outskirts of Cairo had not lied to them, but it turned out that he didn't really know what he had in stock at his shop.

So Walter decided to wait six months, to hire the prestigious archaeologist Pasiflorineo De Orihuela y Rampaz, and his team of assistants, Medardo Cumminzt, Evetius Souligram and others –all from the Serenissima Republic of Ribequé–. The group will arrive on Tuesday, 7 January 2025 in Iraq in search of the ruins of the famous Akkadian capital of King Sargon I, named Akkad or Agade. After obtaining permission from the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), headed by Ibrahim al-Yaafari, the group will have placed seven tents in the vicinity of the coordinates 33.214070, 44.504670, that is, 33°12'50.6" North latitude and 44°30'16.8" East longitude.

The precarious tents of the team of anthropologists from Ribequé will be set up southeast of the capital, Baghdad, a few meters east of the beautiful Tigris River, and a little further from its tributary, the Diyala River (that is, south of the Diyala).

In addition to the payment of exploration rights for two months, the MFA has imposed three conditions on Pasiflorineo and company:

1. Respect the desert habitat and the environment in general.

2. Immediately notify the authorities of the National Directorate of Archeology and Antiquities (NDAA) of any relevant finding.

3. Notify the authorities of the National Police if they see suspects loitering around the place, since looters and robbers of tombs, mausoleums, treasures and ancient pieces abound in Iraq.

On 11 February, while digging like a tornado (violating the most elementary rules of archaeological research) in a somewhat distant place, Evetius will come across a large stone stele inscribed with the image of the sun-god Shamash; Evetius will continue digging and find the entrance to a narrow tunnel, he will call the others. They will dig for two and a half hours and at nightfall they will retire to sleep, except Cumminzt, who in a taxi will quickly go to the Office of Translators, Interpreters and Transcribers (O.T.I.T.) to prepare a document —Detailed Report of Archaeological Findings (DRAF), which he will take to the NDAA that same night. On the way back, he will stop at a Harum-al-Shaba convenience store to pick up two six-packs of Miller Genuine Draft beer (he will be lucky: there is an 8 × 6 sale that day—pay for twelve and get sixteen cans–) and three packs of Lucky Strike cigarettes, unfiltered.

The next day, standing up at 6:00 a.m., and after going to the FUE (furthest urinal to the East), of the network of urinals, toilets, sinks and showers installed by the executed former dictator Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006), they will have breakfast of corn flakes with milk and cane sugar in a hurry, and they will continue their excavation, south of their tents.

The always intrepid Evetius will go to the front, the hour of darkness will arrive on that 12 February 2025, when suddenly he will find a Royal Hall, and inside, one, two, three, four... up to 37 statuettes of gold animals and 21 chains of the same metal, 206 well-preserved mini-motifs and stone "figurines" (minor gods), a large number of drawings, graphs, maps, tables, diagrams, charts and illustrations, as well as six carefully sealed ceramic vessels inside which there will be honey, which will be quickly removed from the containers. He will serve everyone to sweeten their morning meals. They will save the sugar they will have bought in a supermarket north of Baghdad for when the honey they will have discovered runs out.

They will also find an imposing ziggurat, but sunk so deeply and covered by naturally compacted sand after the collapse, that the top of that great Akkadian tower will be six feet and two inches below ground level in the area. To leave the ziggurat in sight it will take months of excavations, which Pasiflorineo and his team do not plan to carry out. They will suggest to the National Directorate of Archeology and Antiquities (NDAA), that it carry out said earthworks.

Suddenly, Evetius will hear a spectral voice in the Akkadian language translated/interpreted in real time by his Yamato brand universal electronic translator/interpreter (made in Osaka) into the Ribequean language:

The monotonous and guttural song of the apparition from beyond the grave will be:

—"Attention, invaders: I am Rennhui, a ghost from the year 2300 B.C. (before the Common Era, B.C.E.); if you don't get out of here in ten minutes maximum, you will all die, according to the curse of Shamash, our Akkadian god, I know you come to steal, my father was an Akkadian, my mother was a Lulubi, unfortunately I am half-breed!

—"We are not here to steal, moron, you are as much a liar as a Jew, a Muslim, an Albanian or an Ibero-American!, and without further ado, he will spray with plenty of IDDI (a powerful insecticide from a large spray bottle that he will carry with him, the acronym in English for Insects Drop Dead Instantly), the place where the voice will seem to come from, and He will immediately activate his Ronson brand lighter. With the tremendous flare, reason for a new scolding from Pasiflorineo, who was calmer or "passionflorian", Evetius will terribly scare the poor ghost. What's more: he will make him rest now, forever, so that he is not bothering the living beings of today, of the fabulous 21st century.

Everyone will be happy after that, and they will continue with their task. They will end up discovering the vestiges of the great Akkad or Agade, they will report everything to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), they will deliver all the statuettes, treasures and antiquities (except The Sign of the god Shamash, for which Walter will pay them a fortune) to the NDAA, and al-Yaafari will award everyone with the Order of the Silver Cord of the Republic of Iraq. He will even go to see them off cordially at the Baghdad International Airport.

Then it will seem that a magnificent and definitive smile will finally be drawn on the face of the great collector and millionaire Walter Suite.

Later, in 2026, Walter will go after a crystal ball and an oak wood magic wand. A magic wand should always be made of wood, the quality of it doesn't matter much. The ideal length is 26 inches (66 centimeters), and the diameter can range from 13/32 to 1/2 inch (1 cm to 1.27 cm).

It can be the natural color of the wood, or white, silver, gold, blue, red, violet, black, green...

The last two have been specifically designed to do evil. It is advised not to have these colors, since it has been proven that, in the end, evil turns against itself. Nemesis, the Greek goddess of revenge and distributive justice, is always on her toes.

The other seven colors are for doing good. The best magic wands are silver or violet.

The already famous Walter Suite is expected to use the crystal ball to foresee the future, and the magic wand, to do good, but you never know.

Walter has gotten The Sign, but it doesn't work either. Soon he will put it up for auction, because although it does not work, it is made of 22-carat gold, and the engraving of the sun-god Shamash is magnificent, on the obverse, while on the reverse it bears a phrase in the Akkadian language that no one has been able to or will ever be able to decipher.