NUMBERS by Imreadonly Kimberly was obsessed with numbers and with the mathematical equations, patterns, and theorems she saw all around her. Numbers gave her a sense of control. And she liked being in control. It took 23 minutes for her to arrive at her job at the university, where she taught math and wrote papers on fractals, topology, and number theory. Lunch was 26 minutes -- 8 if she ate at her desk, which she did 93.79% of the time. At night, she tossed and turned as she puzzled over the Hodge Conjecture. When she found out that her new neighbor, Mr. Wilson, spanked his two daughters, the computations began. How long? How hard? How frequently? Did it vary by daughter, by naughtiness, or by age? Was the naughty variance a linear progression, or did it level out? Kimberly became obsessed. Her insatiable appetite for data forced the reticent scientist to befriend Wilson's two daughters, Jennifer and Lois. Much to her surprise, she discovered that she enjoyed having friends. Soon abandoning her drab unisex clothes, she began dressing like the girls: sneakers, shorts, t-shirts. She hypothesized her new clothes and a bratty demeanor might move her from the safe set of untouchable adults to the risky domain of nubile, spankable young women. She computed the odds. Mr. Wilson always spanked bare, 100% of the time, zero deviation from the mean. Would that also apply to her? Jennifer was 19, Lois was 21, and Kim was 28. She WAS the eldest, but.... She needed more data. Fortunately, chaos theory intervened. They were washing the car, when Lois turned the hose on her father. Kim contributed by dumping a bucket of water over his head. As Mr. Wilson unzipped her jeans and yanked them down to her ankles, Kim deduced the set of spankable girls in the Wilson house had just increased by one. When she felt the finger in the waistband of her panties, she begged for mercy. But Mr. Wilson's saturation rate and anger quotient made the probability of descent 100% As the spanks rained down, she presented her numerical analysis for Mr. Wilson's consideration: 28 years old! 1st in her class at Stanford! IQ: 160! GPA: 4.00! But to Wilson these numbers were statistically insignificant. "How many more?" she wailed. "You'll be spanked!" SPANK! "Until I'm done!" Her eyes flew open. How would she know the midpoint? The percentage complete? Her universe crumbled. Time stopped. Her calculator mind froze. Her mind cleared as she focused solely on her burning bottom and the tears streaming down her face. "Ow!" SPANK! SPANK! "I'll be good!" SPANK! "I promise!" SPANK! SPANK! SPANK! There were no numbers. Nothing existed but Mr. Wilson's hard palm and Kim's quivering, bouncing, flaming butt cheeks. She had never been happier. Powerless and numberless, she was free. Edited by C. Lakewood