Order of Operations by Mina Otsuka

Parentheses
They are the first people you recognize. They feed you. They give you protection. But they also take some of your dreams away early on and input ideas in your head that you later discover are in most part bigotry. But you have to deal with them first because they are your parentheses.

Exponents
You soon find yourself attracted to those who look like you, and you want to mirror what they do. When your best friend tells you she’s got a butterfly tattoo on her left ankle, you do the same. But you and your peers are just copies – yet you are all powers. One human raised to the power of four could do amazing things like starting a business to save the Earth or kill another human. It’s your choice.

Multiply or Divide
It’s time to increase what you have or give what you have to others in need. You choose the latter. You get married in your late 20s to who you think is the last guy you’d ever date but he doesn’t know the order of operations; he subtracts so many things from you, like your freedom to pursue your career or your self-esteem by repeating that your role in his life is to take care of the family, and just take care of the family.

Add or Subtract
Congratulations, you’ve reached the final stage. You can either add or subtract – it’s your choice – to complete the calculation. You either see your birthday as another year added or a year closer to the end. It’s your choice. Math is full of rules but you can still make your own choice.

Mina Otsuka is a Japanese writer and translator. Her flash pieces have appeared in FlashFlood and Flash Frontier.

Image / Expression courtesy of Mina Otsuka

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