Creative Writing Prompt– Week Two

“…and that’s why dividing by zero is illegal.”

“Imagine waking up but completely forgetting that you left pizza rolls in the oven. You begin to freak out, right? You jump out of bed to rush to the oven only to be stopped by the tug of an IV pump coming out of your arm. You can hear the beeping of the heart rate monitor begin to increase as people start to come into your room. Confused, you start to fight off the intruders. Knocking them down one by one, you can hear one of them yell ‘Ma’am you are in a hospital!’ You then turn around and calm down. After the realization of what you’ve just done, you start to help people up and question why you are there. The head doctor says you had been in a serious house fire and that you and your dog made it out with first degree burns. You realize that you don’t own a dog but ask where the dog is anyway. Doctor says ‘he’s at the vet getting taken care of.’ After getting checked out from the hospital, you go to the vet to check on the dog. When you arrive, the veterinarian tells you that your dog is in rough condition. You are then taken to go see the dog. Once you see him, you remember that you were supposed to take care of the dog for your neighbors, while they are on vacation. You begin to panic again, you take the dog and run out of the vet assaulting anyone who gets in your way. Once you’ve made it out, security is called and you are tackled to the ground while holding the dog. You try and fight off the guard and run to the streets to oncoming traffic. Nearly being hit, a car comes to a stop. You pull the driver out of the seat and force everyone else out of the vehicle, then setting the dog in the passenger seat. You strap on your seat belt and hit the gas to then only find yourself in a high speed chase with the police. As you look in your rear view mirror, you see more than a dozen police cruisers behind you. You then swerve onto the opposite side of the road with oncoming traffic coming towards you. Dodging every car in your path, you then look ahead to see road spikes being laid out for you, and attempting to avoid them, the tires come in contact with the spikes, throwing your vehicle off course, leading you directly into the railings separating the two roads. The vehicle comes to a complete stop and you exit feeling nauseated. Suddenly, a sharp, immense pain comes over you, paralyzing and causing you to blackout. Eventually, you become conscious, and try to move your hands but they are held together by hand cuffs. You find yourself in the back of a police cruiser arriving outside of a jailhouse. You are taken in for questioning. You are seated in an interrogation room, where officers begin to ask you questions. One of the officers say, ‘Okay, take us back to the beginning. What got you to this point?’ Still feeling hazy from earlier, you clear your throat and explain from the start. You say it started one afternoon, where you were taking care of your neighbor’s dog, while also doing some math homework. You explain how you got hungry and decided to get up and make yourself some pizza rolls. You got up, put some in the oven, eventually sitting back down to continue your homework while you waited. You tell the officer you got very frustrated, while trying to divide by zero. You tried searching online for a solution, but every source says that dividing by zero is not possible. After a few minutes of searching for a solution, you begin to get drowsy and fall fast asleep. Summing up your story, you’re taken to a cell where you remain until further notice. Weeks later, word gets out, that recently a bill has been passed that makes dividing by zero impossible.”

“So yeah, as crazy as it sounds, that’s the story…and that’s why dividing by zero is illegal.”