Hey, it's Lavar. We're getting more new episodes ready for you later this month.

And to help us celebrate the new year, we're releasing new 3D immersive remixes of some

of my favorite episodes about new beginnings. I sincerely hope you enjoy.

Hi, I'm Lavar Burton and this is Lavar Burton Reads. In every episode I hand-pick a different

piece of short fiction and I read it to you. The only thing these stories have in common,

I like to say is that I love them and I hope you will too.

Today's story is by the Austin-based writer, Nikki Dredin. Her debut novel, The Pray of

Gods, what a title, The Pray of Gods, is said in a futurist South Africa with a fun mix

of mythology, demigods, robots, and hallucinogenic hijinks count me in. It was featured in The

New York Times, Best of New Science, Fiction and Fantasy. She's written tons of short fiction

now, along with several very good novels. But I think it's possible that for the story

I'm reading today, Nikki applied her mind for design and her job as a systems analyst.

The simplest equation is a really gorgeous story about math. Yes, I know I'm a words

guy, not usually a numbers person, but in this story, equations are about creation, storytelling

and the connection between beings, both alien and human. So, if you're ready, let's take

a deep breath. And begin. The simplest equation by Nikki Dredin.

I'm doodling in the margins of my math to 20 syllabus when she walks into the classroom

like a shadow, like a nothing, like an oil slick with pig tails. She scans the empty

seats in the most calculating manner, and I shudder when she spots the one next to me.

Her knees bend all the wrong ways in her jeans as she walks up my aisle, and her head is

a near perfect ellipsoid that could have fallen out of any geometry primer. She sets her

backpack on the floor between us, then maneuvers into the chair with the grace of a lame giraffe.

...