Thursday, July 31, 2025

Not dry, no Jack, no message

The stamps that spelled out the “Jack dry stolen” message are not at my own school but at a preschool I work with closely. (I teach the kids English there in the mornings, and they encourage their students to enroll in my school upon graduating. It works well for everyone.)

Since the message was spelled out, I’ve had the habit of glancing at those stamps every day just to see if there’s a new message. As of yesterday, it hadn’t changed much: “Jack dry stolen” had become “Jac dfry stklen,” with the k rotated 90 degrees.

This morning, three things happened. First, the weather looked fine when I left home, so I rode my motorcycle. While I was on the road, though, it suddenly started pouring down rain. I pulled over and got into my rain gear as fast as I could, but I got thoroughly soaked. When I arrived at the preschool, several children and teachers felt the need to point this out to me: “Hi, William. You’re wet.” “Good morning, teacher. You are wet.” Everyone who commented on it did so in English, not Chinese, and used the same word: wet.

Second, I was informed that Jack, one of the full-time teachers there, was being transferred to another class and that this would be my last day working with him.

Third, when I took a look at the stamps, I found that they were now completely scrambled, in an entirely new order and with most of the letters upside down or sideways. There were no English words and no trace of the original message. As someone once put it, “And then the message said, end of message.”

This should feel like a positive omen, but it doesn’t somehow.  I also noticed that, though there were no English words, the first three letters in the stamp case, all right side up, were THU — an early name Tolkien used for Sauron as Lord of Werewolves.

3 comments:

Wm Jas Tychonievich said...

Another possible significance of "Thu" is that the original message appeared on a Thursday, leading to my being "baptized" on a Thursday, and then was erased or scrambled today, also a Thursday.

WanderingGondola said...

Dunno what to say about anything else but it does seem as if the fairies are alright with your baptism.

Expect something in your inbox later tonight, by the way.

Wm Jas Tychonievich said...

It would have been clearer if what happened today had happened immediately after the baptism, but overall I think you're right.

The "Jack dry stolen" message appeared on June 19.
I baptized myself exactly two weeks (14 days) later, on July 3.
The events in this post occurred on July 31, exactly four weeks (28 days) after my baptism and six weeks (42 days) after the message appeared.

June 19 was the date of the waning half moon (third quarter).
July 3 was the date of the waxing half moon (first quarter).
The next waxing half moon is tomorrow, August 1.

All of this seems potentially significant.

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