Reciprocity

In 1907, MacDougall weighed six patients while they were in the process of dying from tuberculosis in an old age home. It was relatively easy to determine when death was only a few hours away, and at this point the entire bed was placed on an industrial sized scale which was apparently sensitive to the gram. He took his results (a varying amount of perceived mass loss in most of the six cases) to support his hypothesis that the soul had mass, and when the soul departed the body, so did this mass. The determination of the soul weighing 21 grams was based on the average loss of mass in the six patients within minutes or hours after death. Other studies were soon put forward to confirm the results. Experiments on mice and other animals took place. Most notably the weighing upon death of sheep seemed to create mass for a few minutes which later disappeared. The hypothesis was made that a soul portal formed upon death which then whisked the soul away.





I want my 21 grams back, Mother Fucker.







" I saw him," she told her own reflection in her Mother's antique mirror. At times, the distinction between who she is, and, whom she must become is a finite line. World's collide. Tides break. Men fall beneath the ink on a brow. She was trying to convince herself that the delusion of it all, was real. Needing it to be real. The cigarette smoldered in an ashtray on the vanity. Through the furl of smoke, she saw her Mother's eyes, so pathetic, weak, and watery pale. Like her Father's ashes. Dust.




In the other room she heard Basle, " Oman, they are here," he knocked gently on the locked door. She flung the paintbrush, with its ink loaded bristles, at the mirror. A hand smeared the stain in large circles. Lineage obscured in the opaque paint. Oman turned her hand over looking at her palm. Black. The Men waited. Seven couriers, bringing the package to her target.




"Drink your tea," another Ghost said behind her, recovering the thrown paintbrush and dipping it into the bottle. With a deftness of memory, she was painted.