‘Division’ by Marie Gethins
1)
Mountain misery’s tiny fronds cloaked the hillsides and oozed pungent sap that clung to our clothes, skin, hair. In the summer, my sister and I ran through endless cascades. I counted steps while she sang folk tunes. Our child-feet broke a trail of green, shaking loose red dust that covered our sneakers. Chipper wove in and out between us. He panted in the heat. (1 + 1 + 1 = 3) After the groomer (19.5 lbs – 0.58 lbs = 18.92 lbs), his fur matched ‘Burnt Sienna’ from the Crayola 64 box. On our adventures his pelt became ruddy from the soil, gained a twig and leaf confetti. Brushing removed debris and earth, but the steamed-artichoke odour remained.
2)
A Grandmother owns 1 Dog and has 2 Granddaughters that visit her during July and August. Calculate how the 1 Dog splits its affection between the 2 Granddaughters during these months. (Show your work.)
3)
At home, Mama liked to scrub and polish. (99.9% bacteria and viruses killed.) She presided over school book stacks, monitored our penmanship, and checked sample tests. During free time, she ushered us through a schedule of activities. We learned to dance and sing, tame curls, make polite conversation. (Actual free time is inversely proportional to maternal control. Calculate.) As we grew, Papa ebbed to a brief shadow – ice rattled in a whiskey glass, his face aglow in laptop light. Silence became the dominant voice during dinner.
4)
Family Mass = Density x Volume. If Papa is now a shadow, calculate the new Family Mass factoring in his change.
5)
Each summer Papa’s mother served us watermelon and tranquility. I crushed mountain misery with bigger and bigger feet. Chipper followed with a slowing gait. Broken stems snapped and released the same aroma. By age 13, my sister abandoned our hillside explorations. (3 – 1 = 2) She lay on the back deck in a bikini and turquoise headphones, baked herself to ‘Sepia’ humming the Top Ten. Cocoa butter. Lemon conditioner. Ruby nail polish. I combed Chipper’s greying coat, buried my face in his back to breathe his mountain perfume.
6)
The mathematical model of a Traversable Acausal Retrograde Domain in Space-time (TARDIS) describes a bubble of space-time geometry that rotates with respect to regular space-time, allowing its contents to travel at speeds greater than the speed of light. Use E=MC^2 to calculate how much energy (E) is required to raise a teenage girl of the mass (M) to the speed of light (C ) in a TARDIS, such that she could go back in time 8 years.
7)
When did the harmony distort beyond tolerance? (Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) is the ratio of the equivalent root mean square (RMS) voltage of all harmonic frequencies (Mother + Father + Daughter1 + Daughter2) over RMS voltage of the fundamental frequency (Mother).) Did Grandma hug me tighter in that final embrace? Did Chipper hide to avoid saying goodbye? Did time slow or speed up as Mama drove us away? Her explanation derived from multiple factors. (ax2 + bx + c = ?) When we arrived home, Papa stood in the driveway. My life packed into neat containers. He loaded them into his car, added my summer suitcase. Mama and my sister climbed the front steps and closed the door.
8)
4 ÷ 2 = 2
(1 home ÷ 1⁄2) = 2
(1 parent + 1 daughter) x 2 ÷ 2 homes ≠ (2 parents + 2 daughters) x 1 home
9)
A decade on, I steer once familiar roads. Endless switchbacks – accelerate, brake, accelerate, brake. At last, I stand in front of Grandma’s house. A ‘Scarlet’ SOLD across the realtor sign. It swings with winter gusts, hinges release a metronomic squeak. For 3 hours and 13 minutes I box memories and pile them onto the car backseat. Later, my sister and I will make two inheritance piles. But before partition, that conclusive split, I will climb the hill behind Grandma’s house and gather a bouquet of mountain misery.
10)
2 – 2 = 0
From issue #6: spring/summer 2018
About the Author
Marie Gethins’ work has featured in anthologies/journals, won/placed in the Dorset Fiction Award, The Short Story, Tethered by Letters, Flash500, Dromineer, The New Writer, and Prick of the Spindle. Listed in The London Magazine, Australian Book Review, Bath, Bristol, Brighton, Fish Short Story/Flash/Memoir, and others. She lives in Cork.
