I declare war on geometry!

Here is a short story maybe you would like to read =D

Math-Demon-Stration by Frederic Brown


Henry Blodgett looked at his wrist and saw that it was two o’clock in the morning. In despair, he slammed shut the textbook he’d been studying and let his head skin onto his arms on the table in front of him. He knew he’d never pass the examination tomorrow; the more he studied geometry, the less he understood it. Mathematics in general had always been difficult for him to learn.

And if the flunked it, he was through with college; he’d flunked three other courses in his first two years and another failure this year would, under college rules, cause automatic expulsion. He wanted that college degree badly too, since it was indispensable for the career he’d chosen and worked toward. Only a miracle could save him now.

He sat up suddenly as an idea struck him. Why not try magic? Up to now, he’d always figured that it was a bit risky and so he had never actually tried it. But this was an emergency and might be worth the slight risk. Only through black magic could be suddenly become an expert in a subject that had always been difficult for him.

From the shelf he quickly took out his best book on black magic, found the right page and refreshed his memory on the few simple things he had to do. Enthusiastically, he cleared the floor by pushing the furniture against the walls. He drew the pentagram figure on the carpet with chalk and stepped inside it, then said the incantations.

The demon was considerably more horrible than he had anticipated. But he mustered his courage and started to explain his dilemma.

‘I’ve always been poor at geometry’, he began...

‘You’re telling me’, said the demon gleefully.

Smiling flames, it came for him across the chalk lines of the useless hexagram Henry had drawn by mistake instead of the protecting pentagram.