Annabel and I are sitting at an outdoor café in the main square in Orvieto Italy I’ve been staring in awe at the ornate entrance to the city’s cathedral cathedral while Annabel scribbles on the back of a napkin It’s a piem she says as if that’s supposed to mean something to me Don’t you mean a poem A piem is a poem written in Pilish Annabel has told me about Pilish so this gives me a clue You mean the language where the number of letters in each word matches the numbers of Pi Exactly Annabel puts on a wicked smile and goes on The language that Greg and I shared when we visited your mom in Canada Annabel hasn’t stopped teasing me ever since we visited the dinosaur dig in Alberta I’d gotten upset that this guy who knew almost as much about the number Pi as she did was hitting on her 2 John Wilson
You’re never going to let me forget that are you I think it’s cute that you were jealous she says Her smile broadens And a little bit dumb that you thought I would dump you for someone like Greg Okay I say Enough about him Let’s see your piem Annabel turns her napkin around so I can read what she’s written I don’t know Pi to thousands of numbers like she does but I’ve learned enough to know that the number of letters in the words of her piem are the same as the beginning of Pi 3 14159265358979323846264 Very clever I agree but it just goes to show how weird you are But you’ve always known about my small obsession with Pi Two things I say One it’s not a small obsession and two we’re sitting in the sun in Italy across the square from a 3 Gold
seven-hundred-year-old building that’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen and you are doodling And what’s this bit about me in ice Nothing personal I needed a three letter word Don’t you think it’d be neat to visit one of Humphrey Battleford’s mansions and see some of the unique things he’s collected Stolen you mean but yes it would be cool However I doubt that he’ll invite us any time soon Oh I don’t know He seems to like us He even said he enjoys matching wits with us He did set up that Arctic cruise so we would be a part of his scheme And we have outfoxed him so far I say but that doesn’t mean he won’t win if there’s ever a next time He has unlimited money But we have brains Annabel points out with a smile Okay I have 4 John Wilson
most of them but you do help a little bit Thanks very much I say Then I point at the piem At least I’m smart enough to notice that you made a mistake Battleford is one word Poetic license I broke it up into six and four so it would work She looks up Here’s Mom and Dad I can see Annabel’s parents winding their way between tour groups and pairs of scruffy backpackers Even in the crowd they stand out For a start Annabel’s dad Jack is even taller than she is and towers above everyone He’s wearing his usual uniform hiking boots khaki cargo pants and shirt covered in bulging pockets and a wide-brimmed beat-up bush hat His long face is never clean-shaven unruly tufts of red hair stick out from beneath his hat and his piercing blue eyes are continually on the move taking in 5 Gold
