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} Once again, the Oracle is charmed by your naivete and is moved to
} answer this humble supplicant.
}
} Further downstream the Awash (Unitrea's one river), the river branches
} off into three and thence known as the Threewash, respectively the
} Awash, Bwash, and Cwash. A tribe called the Abaci lives upon the three
} downstream shores in three towns: Abbe, Bede, and Chrisom.
}
} Some times the best way to answer a supplicant's question is through
} parable. I will tell you a story about the young girl whose name I
} omitted to mention in my earlier response, but now will relate is
} Solitaria.
}
} Solitaria's parents had warned her to stay away from the downriver
} tribe, but she was, as children often are, not the most dedicated
} obeyer of rules. And while this was the One Rule she was to obey, it
} was the One Rule she broke. (Solitaria thus recapitulated her people's
} origin tale of when the first man and the first woman broke Allah's One
} Rule.) This Oracle can hardly blame her, for one must get bored of
} playing solitaire from a deck with one card.
}
} Solitaria was fascinated by one thing above all others -- the monarch
} butterfly. One day she was watching a monarch butterfly so intently
} that she did not realize she was wandering far from her one home. She
} did not notice that single-leafed plants gradually became became
} sparser replaced by three-leafed plants.
}
} Solitaria gasped once when accosted thrice by three different children
} each saying, "Hi, hi, hi." As if this were not jarring enough they all
} gave her a triple-gestured three-finger salute, then each introducing
} his own name and that of his brothers:
}
} "Hi, hi, hi, I am Abel; this is Boanerges and Christopher."
} "Hi, hi, hi, I am Boanerges; this is Abel and Christopher."
} "Hi, hi, hi, I am Christopher; this is Abel and Boanerges."
}
} They wore strange attire: Three-piece suits with the three
} triple-holed buttons this humble supplicant was so incredulous as to
} doubt, three-strapped sandals, and thirdly, tricornered hats. Each
} article of clothing was made of three different materials dyed three
} different colors.
}
} Their hair was parted thrice whereas Solitaria's hair was parted once.
} Whereas Solitaria's hair was woven to one purpose, each of the three
} strange boys' hairs was braided and carried three pruposes. One strand
} held a triangle-shaped implement that triples as a pen, pencil, and
} high-lighter. Another strand held a religious trinket with three
} branches off its base. The third held a timepiece that delieated the
} day into three segments of of three smaller sub-segments of three even
} smaller sub-sub-segments each.
}
} Solitaria was most baffled, for in Unitrea, there is no concept of time
} -- they live at one moment. Their bell-tower has one bell and rings
} out once. The Abaci have three times -- past, present, and future.
} They have three towers in each town each having three bells which ring
} out thrice three times daily. Needless to say, Solitaria was
} unaccustomed to this din.
}
} When the Unitrean child accompanied the triplets to there home, she was
} amazed by the sights before her -- three-laned road allowing mounted
} triceratops' to go off in any of three directions. Abaci engineers
} construct three-dimensional traffic flows, unlike the two-dimensional
} constructions prevalent upon earth or one-dimensional road in Unitrea.
} Of course traffic is no problem in Unitrea as there is only one
} unicycle and all roads lead to Unitrea.
}
} Solitaria marvelled at the three-story house the Abaci boys led her to.
} She did not know how they got there because she could not triangulate
} as she did, and thus was more than a bit worried. To make matters
} worse she learned they did not recite the Daily Prayer ("There is but
} one God, God and Mohammed is his prophet.") but instead worshipped one
} God who took on three forms.
}
} Further, rather than using a single platform (UN*X) as they did in
} Unitrea, the Abaci used abacuses, DOS 3.3, and Modula-3. Instead of
} monochrome monitors, they possessed trichrome trinitors -- three
} screens arranged in a triangle with pixels red, yellow, or blue. It
} seemed hypocritical of the Abaci, to Solitaria, to call them primary
} colors when there were so many of them!
}
} The triplet's had three parents. Solitaria did not understand how
} anyone could have three parents, but it was assured her that everyone
} in the Abaci had three parents. When Solitaria asked how this was
} possible, the Abaci were quite surprised and remained silent.
} "Perhaps", thought Solitaria to herself, "they do not know and are too
} embarrassed to say. I will let them be, for I would not want to anger
} such a strange people whom I was told not even to go near, oh my!"
}
} Seeing Solitaria's discomfort, the Abaci parents, who wore trifocals
} rather than the monacles she was used to seeing in Unitrea, decided to
} take Solitaria back to her home. Solitaria enjoyed riding upon the
} triceratops, but decided preferred her own unicorn better and was
} thrilled to be back home. Her parents were delighted to see her back
} and gave her one good scolding later.
}
} The triplets waved goodbye to her thrice and professed they wished to
} see her thrice more, yet Solitaria was single-mindedly determined that
} once was enough and that this was the one time she would disobey her
} One Rule.
}
} This time you owe the oracle three dollars as my answer was roughly
} three times as long and drawn out and covered three times as many
} topics.
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