"I concur with your feelings."  She had met Her match.  Rarely had She encountered anyone who could parry and thrust so well in an episode of verbal fencing.  "Finding a man who can thrust well was not an easy task," She mused.  She quickly came to realize She had fallen into the same kind of dangerous speculation in which She hoped he had been enmeshed.

    She decided to move onto safer ground.  "Various versions of the parable you read are part of ancient religious literature.  I seem to recall a scripture in the Old Testament that is a prohibition against placing an obstacle in the path of a blind person or cursing a deaf person."

    "I believe it is found in Leviticus chapter "xix" and verse 14."

    "So, you are using Roman numerals in your discourse.  You could simply have told Me it was chapter 19.  Do you exist to plague Me?"

    "Yes," said he flashing an impish grin.

    "You should know I will make you pay for forcing Me to remember the values of Roman numerals.  I haven't had to use them since I was a wee lassie."

    "You were never little."

    "I was to.  I was quite small, until I reached puberty.  Then everything about Me began to grow.  My legs grew more than anything.  They got longer and longer and longer.  Now they are long enough to allow Me to reach all sorts of things."  With that She moved one of Her feet up his shin and partially along the inner part of one of his thighs.  She delightedly watched him unsuccessfully try not to squirm in response to Her overt physical overture.  "You seem to be quite fidgety for some inexplicable reason.  Is there something on your mind?"

    "It wasn't on my mind.  It, meaning your foot, was on my leg."

    "Are you saying I, first, took one of My feet," She noisily moved one of Her shoes over the floor, "and then, I suppose, I seductively moved that foot along your leg like this?"  She repeated Her previous gesture.  This time Her foot traveled even farther along his thigh.  His responses were even more noticeable.  Her glee was now expressed by some sultry and wicked laughter.

    "You Witch!" he declared.

    "You naughty, naughty, silly boy.  You should never say such things about Me," She reprimanded.

    "But, it's the truth."

    "I never said it wasn't true.  I simply said you should never say such things about Me.  Well, I will make one correction.  You should never tell anyone such things about Me."

    "But, I am obliged to warn the unsuspecting public about the mesmerizing, menacing, manipulating maelstrom in their midst."

    "Anyone overhearing you, who possessed familiarity with Germanic legends and Greek mythology, would conclude I was the fusion of the essences of Laurelei and Charybdis.  To let you tell it, I use the irresistible powers of pleasures to draw My prey into My inescapable vortices of influence, control, and domination."

    "I bear no culpability for Your auditory self-portrait."

    "Excuses, excuses.  You shall be chastised."

    "Why?"

    "You implied you would divulge the truth in question to someone other than Myself.  You know I carry handcuffs of various types."

    "I have not asked You to use them upon me."

    "Not yet.  You spoke of your obligation to herald the danger I pose to others.  Nay, nay I shall reveal your 'raison d'etre' to thee.  Your duty is to carry out each and every order I command you to perform.  You will obey My directive about keeping My secret, without fail, won't you?"

    "Please, lean forward."  She complied.  He leaned toward Her and whispered in Her ear.  "Yes, I will obey You, You wickedly evil and irresistibly wonderful Witch."

    "I am pleased when a man acknowledges his place in My scheme and skein of things."

    "As for my payment for my use of Roman numerals, do You take cash, checks, money orders, or credit cards?"

    "My hands are large enough for Me to wrap either or both of them around so many, many things.  Depending upon what My hand is holding, I will gently stroke it back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.  I might even gently squeeze whatever I have in the palm of My hand.  Just take a moment and think about how it would feel to be caressed and stroked and perchance even softly yet firmly squeezed by My hands in this way.  In your vivid imagination feel My hands or My nails stroking you so softly and so sensuously back and forth, back and forth, and back and forth.  Some part of your body being masterfully massaged and mesmerizingly manipulated by My halcyon hands, by My firm yet feminine fingers, and by My naughty, naughty nails.  The soothingly soporific and yet sinfully and sensuously stimulating feel of My fascinating fingers, My handsome hands, and the needle-esque tips of My nails.  My nails are so sharp and so seductive, so dangerous and so desirable."  As She mentioned each of these items, some part of him felt contact with at least one specimen of that object.  She randomly varied the degree of applied tactile pressure.

    "I think I should go back to the topic we were discussing, before You started hypnoerotically seducing me."

    "I was not hypnoerotically seducing you.  I was subjugating you to My will via hypnoerotically seductive Machiavellian machinations."

    "Will You please, pardon me for not recognizing the clear and obvious distinctions between them?"

    "I will let it go this once and only this one time."

    "To borrow from the Immortal Bard, "To err is human, to forgive is Thine."

    "It pleases Me that you possess no reticence when it comes to your acknowledging who and what I am."

    "It is foolish to deny the truth.  Now returning to that scripture we were discussing.  Some people translate the Hebrew word rendered "curse" in the King James Version of the Bible as "exclude."  Some people translate this statement in question as, "You shall curse no one--not even one who is deaf."  For purposes of discussion we shall assume that this passage means, "You shall not speak disparagingly of the deaf."  A warning against cursing a hearing person is easy to comprehend.  Why do You think God told the ancient Israelites it was wrong to curse a deaf person?"

    "I have always assumed this passage was an admonition to be compassionate toward others."

    "I believe it is.  It is also my judgment that it goes further than that.  Why might it be a bad thing to curse someone who can not hear, and thus is unaffected by, what has been said?"

    First, Mistress da Vinci placed Herself in the hearing impaired person's frame of reference.  As Homer had stated, such a person would never know of the curse's existence.  Next, She asked Herself this question.  What is the benefit, from the execrator's point of view, of cursing someone who will never know you have done so?  No sort of gain immediately came to Her mind.  Her follow-up question was, "What might happen if one cursed a hearing person?"  The cursed person may respond in kind, make you the subject of rumormongering, engage in another kind of verbal warfare, or up the ante to some type of physical retaliation.  Now She had Her answer.

    "As we have previously discussed, someone who cannot perceive a thing is unlikely to ascribe much importance to that thing.  The risk of anthropogenic retribution is far lower for an individual who cursed a deaf person, than it would be if the disparager cursed a person who heard it.  Cursing a deaf person is an act of cowardice.  The prohibition against placing a stumblingblock in a blind person's path was far easier for Me to understand.  Doing so puts an unnecessary obstacle in another person's way.  This scripture can be thought of as a stricture against being a coward or an impediment."  She had another realization.  "Many expressions of the interpretation regarding being compassionate to the downtrodden lead to a twisted piece of irony.  Many temporarily able-bodied people, who wish to be sympathetic to the disabled, believe they automatically know what is best for persons with any disability.  I suspect that actions spawned by this opinion have been, and still are, one of the largest and most ubiquitous stumblingblocks with which any disabled individual must contend.  A nuisance remains a nuisance, though the annoying actions of that nuisance may be unintentional or done unwittingly or both.  Take it from one who has been a big and nasty nuisance for a very long time."

    "I do not believe You were ever nasty," he said reassuringly.

    "Oh, I can be nasty.  Thank you for the compliment.  Nevertheless I am very nasty in so many, many ways."

    She was using another innuendo.  He was sure of it.  Well, that could be what She was up to.  He was almost certain She was hinting at something sexual.  What else could Her last sentence imply?  This could all be in his dirty, little mind.  Why did this woman confuse him so and excite him so much?  Could the former be responsible, in large part, for the latter?

    "I still find it difficult to believe You were ever that way."

    "Would you like a demonstration of My nastiness?"

    "I don't know how to answer that question," he replied.

    "Good."

    "Some people, who desire to be compassionate, operate under the following train of thought.  "This kind of person lacks the ability to thrive, or even survive, without my benevolence.  Since this belief is accurate, it is not possible for anyone like this person to earn money by holding down any kind of job.  Since anyone with this limitation has no usable or needful skills, employing anyone in this category is imprudent."  Wanting to assist someone is a good thing.  This desire, nevertheless, can become detrimental to the individual one wishes to assist.  As the saying goes, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions.""

    "The power of the placebo effect is well-known.  I have heard of experiments in which a teacher is told to expect a particular level of performance from a specific class.  The instructor often shapes the curriculum and the teacher's part in any interactions with students to match the previously given assessment of the class.  In many cases, the class lives up, or down, to the teacher's expectation of the students.  "I must help this entity which is incapable of any degree of self-reliance."  Acting in accordance with this premise, or many other assumptions, may transmute the same into a self-fulfilling prophecy."

    "For some reason, it is impossible for me to rid my mind of the fact that You are a Witch.  You should know, there are two concepts related to Your desire to manage SPELL."

    "What are they?

    "There are four stages in the communications process: data preparation, information transmission, data reception, and information processing.  IPATSIC is the acronym for, Information Preparation And Transmission Subject to the Influence of the Communicator.  IRAPSIR stands for, Information Reception and Processing Subject to the Influence of the Receiver.  I shall proceed upon the assumption that You picked out all the items in Your ensemble.  You may have selected a particular piece of apparel to accomplish some goal.  For example, You might have worn that form-fitting, leather miniskirt to draw people's eyes to Your legs.  Once You left Your home and went out in public, You had carried out IPATSIC.  Some individuals may have focused their attention on Your shapely gams.  Other people might have been drawn to one of Your other numerous physical attributes.  The data the perceiver receives and what happens to the received information is subject to what is transpiring in the perceiver's heart and mind.  IRAPSIR is completely under the jurisdiction of the perceiving entity.  Telephone, the message relaying game, illustrates IPATSIC and IRAPSIR.  As IPATSIC indicates, each person controls the information passed to the subsequent individual.  As IRAPSIR reveals, no individual has any control over what is heard by the subsequent individual.  You decide which of Your lures You will present to everyone else.  You have no say concerning which of Your lures will be focused upon by a specific individual."

    She had an idea.  She hoped it would work.  Now She must throw him off the scent.  "You have said that sighted people are enslaved to our primary sense.  I admit the influence of sight on our thinking processes is far stronger than I previously realized or was willing to acknowledge.  What you mentioned about the Rodney King beating and the killings of the two Samoan brothers does seem to bolster your conclusion.  I just can't bring Myself to accept the idea that we who see are so easily and completely controlled by one of our senses.  I realize My response is probably primarily an emotional reaction.  But, are we really so bad off as all that?"

    "As we have discussed, it is far easier to find a blind person who knows a lot about sighted people, than to locate a sighted individual with much knowledge about blind people.  Nevertheless, by consulting any comprehensive dictionary or thesaurus, You will find that the English language uses blind as a synonym for ignorant.  I am aware of no evidence to support the idea that other tongues do not employ this usage.  Now we shall turn to the topic of credit cards.  They do not resemble currency or checks in appearance.  I do not believe this is accidental.  If charge cards looked like money, I believe they would be treated more like money.  If charge plates were treated like money or checks, then the number of impulse purchases probably would undergo a marked decrease.  Once more has vision been used to manipulate sighted people.  Sidebar on credit cards and their usage.  Every time someone uses a credit card to buy anything, an equivalent amount is deducted from that individual's total savings.  How many people reconcile their checkbook register every time a credit card is used?  Advertising intended to persuade someone to buy something on time tends to stress the small amount of the monthly payment.  Rarely do such ads mention such things as: the number of months to pay off the entire balance; the total amount paid by using the installment plan; and the amount of the total price taken up by interest charges.  The sidebar is ended."

    "Next question, why do you dislike daylight-savings time?"

    "Why must you sighted people play silly games with time?  Setting all my watches, clocks, and computer's clocks forward every spring and backward each autumn is a bit of a nuisance.  Readjusting my circadian rhythm and body clock semiannually, so sighted people can enjoy sunlight, is annoying.  We have Benjamin Franklin to thank for the invention of the accursed daylight-savings time.  His "Letter to the Editor of the Journal of Paris", penned in 1784, was his introductory essay on this subject.  In this writing Mr. Franklin proved, to his satisfaction, that his "marvelous idea,"" Homer said his last two words sarcastically, "would be economically beneficial.  Their were certain supplementary measures Benjamin Franklin wished to institute in order to compel others to fall in line with what he concluded was for their own good.  Among these were: a tax for each window outfitted with a sunlight-blocking shutter; preventing anyone from purchasing more than a uniform allotment of artificial light-producing products, such as candles; instituting a curfew on all vehicular traveling after sunset, save for physicians, surgeons, and midwives; and ringing of all church bells and firing cannons on every street at sunrise to awaken everyone.  I find it interesting that one of the Founding Fathers and staunch defenders of liberty had no reservations about instituting such, in my judgment, Draconian measures.  Apparently Franklin's conclusion that he was acting for the public good was enough to nullify any possible reluctance concerning his proposal.  Benjamin Franklin's proposition manifests one of the greatest dangers of any form of collectivism.  Namely, if something is deemed beneficial to the majority, how it affects some individual(s) is unimportant.  His grand vision also reveals the reason it is often difficult to disagree with someone motivated by altruism.  The charitable person focuses on the benefactor's noble intention.  Since the desire is good, how can there be any dispute with the concomitant idea or action?  So now daylight-saving time is extant."  He frowned in disgust.  "Why must you sighted people continue to come up with ways to bother me?"

    Mistress Cleopatra smiled at him.  She would see to it that soon he would be bothered beyond all measurement.  She reckoned that one more topic of conversation would lull him into the properly unsuspecting frame of mind.

    "I am sooooooo tired."  She yawned and stretched out Her arms.  "So, he who was instrumental in establishing North America's first lending library wanted to tightly regulate the number of candles someone could buy at a time.  I would have fought him vigorously on that point.  I simply adore candles.  Candlelight is so relaxing and romantic.  Don't you agree?"  Neither Her voice nor Her countenance showed any trace of humor.  Nor did either of them reveal the devious machination brewing above Her large, bewitching eyes.

    "Candlelight hasn't always been considered romantic.  Books written before the invention of the electric light or gas lighting do not often, if at all, link candlelight to romance.  Once more powerful means of anthropogenic light became commonplace, candles and firelight were associated with lovers.  When bright light is available, soft light is connected to more intimate goings-on.  Would moonlight and starlight be romantic, if sunlight was no brighter than they?"

    The time had arrived.  She grasped one of his hands, placed it on one of Her recently crossed legs, and began to repeatedly slide that hand, counted as most blessed by so many of the envious onlookers of both sexes, slowly back and forth betwixt the top of Her elegantly adorned boot and the bottom of Her well-toned thigh.