Math City Read online

  Chapter 7

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  At the end of the war, the Horizontal Line governed half of the city; and my father, the other half. Maybe you are thinking this was a good thing, but it was not.

  In our city, this separation was always an excuse for quarreling with each other. For example, if someone committed a robbery in our territory, he ran across to the Horizontal Line territory Next, the robber as a liberal could be appointed to an influential office because the Horizontal Line could show his fans that his regime was better than ours. Of course, if a robber sought asylum with us, it became a national hero. Next, my father slowly forced the robber to confess, and finally in the name of justice, the guilty was tried and then was added directly to the Monster Number. Of course, my father announced everywhere: Justice means the world to me! I am Justice.

  Only I, my father and family, and Monster Number lived in the half of the city that belonged to my father, but my father wanted to occupy the entire city. Of course, I again forgot to say that poor Zero lived with us, too, but nobody took any account of it. Poor Zero did not even have an identity card because its name had not been registered in the nation-wide census of Math City.

  On one side of the city, the One numbers were starving, while on the other side, Monster Number stifled with adiposity. One side was hungry, while the other side was full. The Horizontal Line had to ask for help from foreigners, but some of them did not pay attention to his request and said, “We do not look anything like you. We were elected by our people, and our city law does not allow us to do anything without the people's knowledge.” But this answer did not have any meaning for the Horizontal Line, and he never could understand why they had to obey their people. Instead, Physics City always helped him because Physics City had not attached much importance to Number rights and democracy.

  My father hated the foreigners, especially Physics City, not for numberkind rights or democracy, but because they often helped the Horizontal Line; therefore, my father tried to expel foreigners from Math City. He even forced the Monster Number to kill some foreigners. In fact, my father was one of the reasons of cooperation between the Horizontal Line and Physics City.

  The Horizontal Line then could not understand their regimes, and he said that some of them were tricksters and would not fulfill their obligation on the pretext of numberkind rights. In addition, the people of Math city supposed that foreigners had to work gratis. Anyway, a foreigner was a foreigner, and there was no difference between them in Math City. Above all, none of them liked foreigners.

  I confess that our city is a backward city with many problems, but why did Physics City set out to harm us? What results did they get? Only for money… The truth is that they were responsible for a large part of our infamy! Now, even their own do not know what to do about this situation. I guess that foreigners are much more confused than we are.

  Anyway, after a time, some One soldiers gathered at midnight to solve the problem. Sergeant One said, “My brothers, we were fat when we were with the Horizontal Line, but now we are weak and slim. We wanted to lose weight and give our body to our family, but not to this extent.”

  A lady with curly hair said, “Oh, my God, my daughter did not get anything from my body, unfortunately she has become a number One, too.”

  Sergeant One continued, “We will die if we stay here, and we will be eaten by the Monster if we go to the other side.”

  A tall woman said, “We can revolt against the Horizontal Line.”

  Sergeant One said, “I like this idea, but the people will not follow us…”

  A Lady One with black hair said, “It is right, People still believe the boss.”

  One of them who always advocated the use of force said, “If we can kill them, then we could govern.”

  Sergeant One quickly disagreed, “No, I oppose that. The people will have more reason to believe dictators if we kill them. Fulfilling this idea can make the situation even harder than before. The people need to understand where their problems are. Dictators will become national heroes if we kill them.”

  A Lady One with blue eyes said, “So what should we do?”

  Sergeant One answered, “The only way is to write a letter to the Dictionary and ask him to find a solution because almost all worlds accept its recommendations.”

  “That is a good idea, and we should start as soon as possible,” a Lady One with blue eyes shouted.

  Maybe you are wondering how I was aware of these events without being there? You are right; I have received the news from my friend, Comrade Zero. Nobody can see it, so Comrade Zero could easily go to their meeting and come back to tell me everything that was planned without being seen by anyone. By chance, poor Zero had liked the idea of writing a letter to the Dictionary and actually shouted that it agreed, too. But nobody attached importance to it for they did not know where the shout came from! Poor Zero, I am its only friend. Oh! Yes, I am the only one who can see, hear, and understand this poor Zero.