Once upon a time, in the present moment, in a world of papers and booklets, there were letters dancing to the tunes of texts, building their words and sentences, and guiding their reality with great wisdom and adherence to grammatical rules.
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From A to Z, and even to the vowel markers, they harmonized and formed their world.
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Here comes the train: the letters C and T joined together, along with A and R, to build it and ride along the streets shaped by their own letters.
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A complete world inhabited by the letters in a state of perfect tranquility, building buildings, vehicles, squares, stadiums, and everything else that could be represented by spoken letters.
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But this world, which was merely a reflection of the colossal human efforts to find ways of expression and communication, was not limited to a few elements; numbers too had their share in these considerations.
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The invasion of the letter world by numerical symbols was uncommon, but wars were inevitable. As everyone knows, numbers are endless, which always motivates them to invade and conquer spaces.
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“Alas! Alas!”
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The letter W cried out, its voice so loud that it woke up the sleepers, then it continued while fleeing:
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“We are being invaded by monsters! We are being invaded by monsters! Wake up and save us, oh people!”
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What is this? Letters do not usually face such things; they are used to connecting and building their community structure, not to meeting strangers. In fact, they had never encountered outsiders throughout their existence, for they are writings isolated from the world in every case. This might be the reason why W called these numbers monsters, despite the possibility that they were friendly symbols.
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Just a few hours passed, and all the letters gathered (or so they thought) and gathered in the book square, looking like a crowd despite their small number.
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The letter W stepped forward and took the podium. As soon as it climbed it, it glared at the letters M, N, S, and T:
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“What are you doing here?! Join the rest so I can address you! We are in a state of emergency!”
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The letters M, N, S, and T (in one voice):
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“But the podium…”
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W: “Forget about that! I don’t need it. Quickly, go join the others so I can finish my speech!”
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(They joined the crowd, and before the leader could address the public without the podium, he turned to look behind him.)
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W: “What’s going on? Why are you standing there motionless? Are you tourists or invaders?”
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(Realizing) No doubt, they cannot hear me.
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“Loudspeaker! Come to me!”
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(The letters that were called came to him and formed into a loudspeaker, which W used to repeat his question.)
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One of the numbers responded, looking over the entire book:
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“We are neither tourists nor invaders, we are explorers.”
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“We are an endless series of ourselves, and there is no place left for us anywhere we’ve been, because places are limited, unlike us…”
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W (interrupting):
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“So, you came to examine the place?”
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One of the numbers:
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“That’s right.”
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W: “Then go back! This place doesn’t accommodate anyone but us.”
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One of the numbers: “We thought it was abandoned, but it turns out it’s inhabited, so we might buy it if you’re selling.”
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W: “Buying and selling?”
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One of the numbers: “Yes! Buying and selling, is that so surprising?”
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W: “I don’t even know what buying and selling means.”
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One of the numbers: “What a shock! A society so prosperous yet unaware of trade?” (To himself: It seems these foolish beings lack much knowledge! Exploiting their ignorance of sciences would be to our advantage!)
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“Trade, my dear, is two things: buying and selling. You give me something, and I give you something else of equal value in return.”
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W: “That doesn’t sound too complicated, but I refuse to hand over our land under any circumstances.”
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One of the numbers: “It seems we won’t get a satisfying result!”
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W: “Indeed. Leave.”
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The number turned to its companion and ordered it to leave and continue the exploratory journey with all the newcomers. Then it took a final look at what it had hoped to steal.
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This is how stability is achieved! This is how stability is achieved! All the letters cheered as they lifted their leader on their shoulders.
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But one dissenting letter stepped out of line and condemned the leader:
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“We should have fortified the book with a wall! I’ve told you a million times that the book should be surrounded by a wall! Now, those numbers have found a place and will attack us with their massive numbers!”
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The letter K responded: “A wall cannot be built. Letter G went on a journey long ago and hasn’t returned.”
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Suddenly, the letter D spoke with wisdom:
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“It could have been better than it was. The book could have evolved by adding those numbers, and that would have been a beautiful step toward promoting diversity and co-existence, not to mention gaining new contributors to enrich our nation in ways we can’t even imagine!”
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Whispers and murmurs spread among the attendees:
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“A noble idea!... A symbol of love!... I agree... Beautiful!... Why not?... That would have been wonderful!”
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The letter T responded:
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“You are truly a misguided letter, and your error is your ignorance! The problem is adaptation. This environment is made for letters, not numbers. Besides, we are productive beings, while they are mere numerical values that will consume our products without giving anything in return.”
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Whispers continued:
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“That’s true!... Yes, adaptation… How did we not think of that?”
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On the fixed path of numbers, one blamed the leader:
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“Why did we retreat? We could have crushed those worthless letters and destroyed their place, then occupied it! There were only 28 of them, while we are 280,000 or more!”
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The leader stopped, smiled, and patted his head:
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“The idea is not about aggression or recklessness, and there’s no need to take risks, even if our enemy is weak. Furthermore, a military success can be achieved with a single move, and the results would yield an economy and abundance of resources. Do you understand now?”
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The other number signaled yes and asked about the next step, to which the leader replied:
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“These letters don’t understand trade, meaning they don’t understand goods, meaning they don’t understand the poisonous goods!”
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The number stood frozen, stunned by the shock. Poisoning was possibly the most dangerous thing it had ever heard of before… Then, after the shock wore off, it added:
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“But you condemned aggression and recklessness!”
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The leader interrupted, laughing:
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“But not wise aggression or careful recklessness!”
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The number praised the leader:
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“What an impressive leader! You exploited their ignorance and proposed a solution that will annihilate them without any losses! But how will we give them the poison? As a gift?”
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The leader: “Yes, as a gift.”
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The number: “A gift for what?”
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The leader: “As a token of gratitude and generosity.”
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The number: “Gratitude for what?”
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The leader (with growing impatience): “For nothing! Just because! Be quiet and keep walking!”
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The number (apologetically): “As you wish, I apologize.”
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The numbers continued on their journey.
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From nowhere, the absent letter G descended to the ground after many years. It had heard the wicked conversation. This conversation had taken place in a socially isolated area rich in inanimate objects, one of which was the "tractor" vehicle that letter G had made from metal, forming shapes similar to the letters R and A and moving ahead of the numbers for all that time.
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Letter G realized that the numbers came from the place of its writing, so it rushed to it eagerly, warning them.
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Upon reaching the book, the letters greeted it warmly, with longing suppressed in their hearts.
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It sat down, and in awe and wonder, it spoke, expressed its feelings, and shared the conversation it had overheard, along with a solution that was not strange to its kind:
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“The solution is to build the protective wall, and now its construction is easier than ever.”
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One of the letters screamed in fear:
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“Poison that kills! Is it directed at us?! Let’s build the wall!”
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The leader (proudly and arrogantly):
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“You heard, my followers! Build the wall!”
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The letters D, A, and R rushed to build the wall, and G remained silent, head bowed.
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All the letters (in one voice):
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“What’s wrong? Why the bowing?”
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Letter G replied:
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“Truthfully… the reality is that protection, despite its importance, should not be prioritized over prevention, which is the true priority.”
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Confusion spread across the faces of the letters from A to Z, and they exchanged quiet analyses.
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The leader stood from his seat and asked for more clarification, which was granted:
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“I heard from one of the humans – I’ll tell you who humans are later – that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
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This means that self-preservation is important, even more so than the means of protection itself, without diminishing its value. Therefore, it is crucial that we never fall prey to ignorance, which would allow the predators to devour us. This is a matter of extreme importance and should be considered a basic need for survival.”
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The message I want to convey is that we desperately need to study poison, sciences, history, and more in order to strengthen our existence. After building the wall, do we intend to build our future?”
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All the letters cheered joyfully and eagerly, united in a loud voice full of enthusiasm:
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“Build the wall, build the future! We work and we learn!”
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The leader promised letter G a prestigious position before they began building the wall that would keep the invaders away forever.
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