probabilities are not probable today/ draft one

probabilities are not probable today/ draft one

fiction
edward w pritchard

I sat in front of the device and studied it, trying to relax. It was simply constructed for such an important device. Two shiny metal circular thin rods held eighty samples of fine cloth. Most of the cloths were different color and textures. One flipped the cloth samples along the metal rods until one found one to peruse. The cloths represented character flaws a person could be born with. The expression "cut from the same cloth" is a racial memory of the 80 character combinations.

The cloths represented all the possible combinations a persons character could be composed of, but no person's character contained more than twenty character flaws. Eighty possibilities of character combination but only twenty were allotted to each person at birth. From those twenty character combinations a persons nature and potential were cut. The device containing the 80 cloth samples was sitting on a table in front of me in Hell. I was taking a test to see if I stayed in Hell for Eternity or was able to transfer to Heaven. I would flip the cloths four, five, six then seven times and all I had to do was to hit the appropriate number for each numbered test without stopping at a character fault I possessed.

For my first test I had to  randomly pick twenty pieces of cloth as my sample group. From the twenty I had to first pick four that represented character faults a person could have. I had to pick four possible character faults, and then most important they had to be character faults I did not have. If I picked four of twenty without a hit I moved on to the next stage of the test.

I had chosen four of twenty with the clerk in section four when I first arrived here in Hell. It's not uncommon to pick four of twenty and I was allowed to choose again in a few minutes in section three. I was choosing to see if I could not be assigned to Hell for eternity.

I was sent to section three next. I have to trust them here in Hell that they don't mess with the original twenty samples of cloth I pick from. The man in section three here in Hell is very officious. He goes through a lot of procedures before he lets me choose five samples. You have to hit five of twenty to survive section three. I did. He was upset with me but now I move to section two.

There  are two clerks and a supervisor in section two. A woman supervisor is all business here and she is very strict with the two people working for her. I picked five of the first ten. Although it wasn't until the twentieth pick that I hit the magic number six. Now I sit before the Devil himself in section 1.

It's unlikely that I don't have any of the character flaws in the sample of twenty I selected at random. I just have been very lucky so far.

The Devil tries to bargain with me instead of letting me pick. The devil tries to jinx me when I refuse to bargain. I need to pick seven character flaws out of a random sample of twenty to be able to leave hell and never return. The Devil offers me his final deal, twenty more years of life on Earth before I have to return for Eternity to Hell if I forgo my pick in section 1. Can I pick seven character faults from a sample of twenty that I don't have even one of?

I took the Devil's bargain. Twenty more years of life on Earth and then eternity in Hell. As I was leaving Hell to return to Earth the Devil gave me a free pick. I stopped at the cloth of altruism. Is that a character fault or just not a valuable part of one's nature to be born with? Maybe I find out in my next twenty years on Earth.