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Geometry of Life
by David Harker

Sam was a bit of a square but he was besotted with Crystal and all her facets. She was a true diamond. Bright and beautiful, she was always straight with him. They’d met at a Circus – she was a member of “E’s”, the famous Trapezium troupe. She’d looked so cube in her skimpy costume; he just had to tell her how much he’d enjoyed the show.

It was love at first sight. Smitten, he told her she had an acute angle. One thing led to another and they ended up having a passionate rhombus behind the marquee... they declared their mutual undying love - and then she and the circus moved on. He was a complete rectangle… to have found his life’s love and then lost her was truly devastating. But then just four days later a parallelogram arrived:

‘Leaving circus. Want to be with you. Meet me at Arrow Junction.’

Tessellated, he immediately set off to fetch her. In his haste however he took a wrong turn and ended up somewhere less than or not equal to good. As the familiar straight and narrow planes faded, Sam started to feel edgy. Suddenly he was forced to stop, delimited by a well-rounded street gang.

“Give us the sine!” they derived, “or give us your coins!”

“But… I’m not an element of your set, and I don’t have coins,” Sam replied fearfully, “I only have notes.”

A figure shifted forward, oscillated his knife then lunged. Sam leapt to one side, but not fast enough and the knife struck his corner. Badly chipped, he gasped raggedly and fell to the ground.

As he watched the character smile and advance towards him, he knew he was a polygoner. Then, from nowhere, Crystal appeared and pivoted into action. She struck the figure a flattening blow and stood facing the set. They could see she was harder than any integer of their group, and so the gang melted away.

“I couldn’t wait my love,” Crystal explained, “and so I decided to intersect with you.”

“I’m so glad you did,” Sam said, as Crystal tended to his wound. “You saved me from a vicious circle.”