John and Claire

This is the story of tiny zero. Who was not an absolute zero but almost, and almost was good enough. He had a sister, tiny one, who was not really a full blown one, but almost, and almost was good enough.

Both of them were positive - for life is about being positive, and as any really good pair, they were complete opposites, two halves that made a full. They were called many names, but to those who really knew them, they were simply John and Claire. Claire was taller, and full of life. She filled the world with her laugh whenever she went. Contrastingly, John turned down everything, and an eternal void could be guessed in his look.

They were never in the same place, though both could be in many places at the same time. It was the contrast they made which turned them famous. People actually started to invite them to parties in such ways that could predict the results of simple arithmetic and such.

Soon enough, though, they realized that hand-made invitations were pretty dull, so they started to print them and have them mailed. But this was not enough. So a few clever folks designed a whole miniature world only for the pair and gave them instructions. Every time Claire was on a new place, she'd turn on the lights, and if John happened to visit the same place later, he'd turn them off.

Of course, randomness is no good, so these clever folks gave them a path to follow every now and then, and that turned out to be a fascinating thing, for more machinery, that would perform differently under different light conditions was also created. Thus turning the little game Claire and John played to any sort of stuff.

They found that if a certain path was taken by the two of them, then simple logic could be performed, and arithmetic could be performed.

Claire and John would never get tired of running in this maze, for everyday it was more and more complex, and they were oh so positive and curious as to whether it would end.

This is the story of Claire and John, bits and bytes thrown together as a path for them to follow. Nowadays it's a path so complex that no human would be able to follow it, but they have gotten so fast at doing so that you don't even hear their footsteps anymore while reading this.