THE AMAZING STORY OF THE NUMBER FIVE

prose piece

Five people entered a building with the number five painted on it. The person who painted the number five on the building was the fifth in his generation to paint numbers on buildings. His employee number was five and five was the number of cats he owned. He lived in a house with five rooms, owned five cars, ate five meals a day and watched television five days a week. There were only five hairs remaining on his head.

When five o’clock came, he left the number five building, got into one of his five cars and drove to the Five-Cent Store, located on Fifth Street. He walked in, bought five nails, paid five cents apiece, then went home to his five-room house. He took the five nails and using a five-pound hammer, nailed the nails in the shape of a five into a five-inch-by-five-inch board. He took the board and placed it above the five-burner stove, visible for all to see when they entered his five-cupboard kitchen.

One day, a lady friend of his, who happened to have only five fingers—three on one hand, two on the other—came to visit his five-room house. When she entered the kitchen, she immediately noticed the five-by-five board with the five nails in it hanging over the five-burner stove.

“Interesting,” she said five times, pausing between each “interesting” for effect. “But what is it supposed to be?”
“Why, it’s the number five,” he said, looking up at it from a five-degree angle. (He was very tall, but his actual height is classified under Section 5.)

“I’m sorry,” she said, this time only once, but using a mere five decibels, “I don’t see it.”

He took the board down and used one of his five fingers (he had all five on each hand, and felt guilty for parading them in front of her) to show her the number-five configuration. “I realize,” he said, “how difficult it is to see, but once you open your eyes to it, it gets easier.”

She peered at the nails for a full five seconds, unblinking. “Oh, okay, I see it now,” she said, and took five steps backward.
It was then he knew he had found the love of his life—for the fifth time.