One night in early spring, I was alone in my state’s capital waiting for my partner to be done at a metal concert, and found myself with little to do. Despite being the state capital, and a fairly large one too, there was nothing to do at 9 p.m. on a Sunday.

After lamenting on Facebook that even the book store closed at 7 p.m., a friend of mine sent me to a link for a book store that was open until 11 p.m.! This was an independent store that boasted an impressive 32 rooms of books! I made my way there, and it was exactly the sort of time killer I was looking for.

After searching their vast inventory for an hour or two, I made my purchase (just a copy of A Man Without a County by Kurt Vonnegut) and went outside. I was sitting in their courtyard reading my new book when a young couple walked by. I assume they were a couple, especially a relatively new couple, based on the way they spoke to each other.

Regardless, as they walked by, the first thing my ears picked up of their conversation was the young lady saying, “I just think 17 is a really interesting number, ya know?” I was immediately listening. I love numbers and patterns, and I also love knowing why people like the numbers they like, so this was indeed a very interesting topic to me.

“Right, yeah,” the her assumed-to-be partner replied.

“Because, like, 51 can be divided by it, but it doesn’t sound like it should be. And that’s so weird,” she follows up.

“Yeah, totally.”

Now, I’m no genius at gaging peoples’ interest in topics, but I felt like this guy wasn’t quite digging her interest in the number 17 as much as I was. That said, I was just some guy reading a book in a dark courtyard in the middle of the city at eleven at night, so I refrained from joining in on the conversation by spouting more interesting numbers, but let it be known here that I could have!

I wonder what her thoughts would be on two being a prime number.