This short story is narrated by a math teacher who frequently utilizes mathematical terminology and notation in his musings on the human condition. A key metaphor throughout the story is the idea that the relationship of parents to children is like that of factors of a whole number to the number. According to the narrator, this makes orphans analogous to prime numbers. The title refers to the fact that when you divide a prime number by any natural number other than itself or one, you would get a "decimal". So, orphans like himself (and one of his students who recently lost his parents in a car accident) are "decimal people".
This story appeared in in issue 7 of the online literary magazine Variety Pack. |