The last note of the course

Leonides, was a bad student. It was difficult for him to understand the world around him because, even the simplest element, it complicated him greatly. He never understood why they had put such a fancy name, he would have preferred a simpler name. With a Paco or a Pepe, with some of them, he would have settled.

But the thing was twisted when he started going to school and met the world of mathematics, language, physics, chemistry and science. Why was the world so difficult and complicated when everything could be simpler? I did not understand.

But Leonides had a will and a long time, and these two elements were the ones that propped up his future as a student from the bottom.

It was passing course like the one that climbs a mountain, step by step, centimeter to centimeter, until it arrived at the University.

There he continued to use that binomial that had given him so much success, will and time.

Thus came the last year of his career, where he encountered the most convoluted subject of his whole life: Quantum analysis of refractory optic bipolarization. This subject was taught by Professor Euclides, who was reputed to be one of the hardest in the university and had always seen in Leonides a mediocre student, not very intelligent and with little future as a telecommunications professional.

Leonides dedicated himself to the subject, because he knew he would have problems. He took the time and the will from where he did not have them, even left some subjects for February to dedicate himself, with all his might, to climb one of the most complex routes of that mountain of five peaks, which was the university.

When the day of the exam came, he was ready, sure of himself and confident enough to know himself to be victorious, until he turned the exercise around. At that moment he realized that it was not going to be easy. Just as the professor said in his laconic voice, "The exam begins," their eyes met; he looked cold and distant and the teacher with a forced smile and cynical.

The next day he went to look at the notes. He looked in the list that was hanging on the bulletin board. He followed with his index finger each of the names that formed his course, as he heard his heart begin to rush. He stopped in his name and with a single glance, saw the note: 4.99 - Suspended.

He looked at the schedule of tutorials of Professor Euclides, every day from 13:30 hours. He turned his wrist and noticed that it was 13.15 and decided to wait. I wanted a reasonable explanation, if there was one.

When the hour was made, he knocked on the door of the teacher's office, heard how he invited him to pass and he said:

"You did not take too long to come and claim the note."

• I have come to see my examination and to give me a logical explanation of that tenth that has left me outside the approved.

"A logical explanation?" I do not know if my explanation will be logical.

• But a tenth is nothing.

-Nothing! This affirms what I think of you, gentleman. A tenth is a lot, so much that it can, for example, put an end to all scientific research.

"Yes, but this is not scientific research, it's just a test. I think I have been a good student, I have never missed class and I have done all the work you have proposed.

• True, but the exam is the exam and you have not passed it. Simply and plainly.

• Yes, for a tenth.

"To see how I explain it to you so that you can understand me. A tenth can be the border between life and death, between staying or passing, between going up and down. Understands?

"No, I do not understand.

"Well, if you do not understand, there's nothing more to talk about." You are suspended and that is not going to change anyone, "he said sharply, looking at his papers.

Leonides looked around, wondering why things were so complicated. He watched Professor Euclides's desk, with mountains of papers that barely left the least space for work and which remained lost between his papers, giving the conversation finished.

He turned around, opened the door to get out, but he could see that there was a six-inch yellow cutter on the shelf. He stopped, picked it up, pressed the button to remove the steel blade, turned and said to the professor:

"I've thought of that, that a tenth can be the difference between life and death. And you're right.

The professor raised his head, and just then Leonides cut his throat. He sat down in front of the professor watching as he blew himself trying to stop the bleeding with his hands, but nothing could do, the blood spurted splashing everything he found in his path.

Leonides got up, approached the teacher, moved the chair back and looked at the computer screen his chip. He looked for the box in which the four coma ninety-nine was, selected it with the mouse and changed it by a five. He closed the grading program, put the cutter in his sweatshirt pocket, and when he left, he thought,

• What things have to be done to change a tenth.