By Maya Petzoldt, TIWP Student

“Can you write a story about nothing?”
“Why couldn’t you?”
“Because don’t words have meaning?”
“Words don’t have to mean anything.”
“But they do!”
“That’s your opinion.”
“Of course it’s my opinion, what else would it be?”
“Facts, which it isn’t.”
“Don’t you agree that words have definitions?”
“Depends.”
“Depends on what?”
“Do you want them to?”
“Yes!”
“Then they have definitions for you.”
“And not to you?”
“Depends.”
“On what!”
“Am I hearing them?”
“Your hearing me right now!”
“And if I’m reading them?”
“Why does that change anything?”
“Why wouldn’t it?”
“Their still words!”
“Words with no tone, no emotion.”
“What do you think grammar is for?”
“What do you mean?”
“Grammar is to make you understand the words correctly.”
“Then what are definitions for?”
“For understanding.”
“Both?”
“Do you presume understanding has to come from one source?”
“Usually.”
“Unusually, I’d say.”
“That’s an opinion.”
“No, it’s fact.”
“To you.”
“Why?”
“What do you mean?”
“How can you determine that it’s my opinion and not fact?”
“Because that’s how I interpreted it.”
“So it’s your opinion!”
“Did you think it was someone else’s?”
“You made it seem like it was everyones.”
“Would that change anything?”
“Maybe.”
“So were you determining your opinion based on mine?”
“Where’d you get that idea?”
“You seem to ask my opinion a lot.”
“Why does that mean anything?”
“Why do words?”
“Because we decide they do.”