I am 2x+5, i have been living away from my family for a long time. My mother is 4x+3, my father is 6x+7 and my cousin is x+2. They live in the Republic of Equation. I packed my bag because I came back to my family, my country. 

When I arrived, I realized there was a problem. Why was everyone waiting at the gate of the country? 

I found my father immediately.

2x+5: Daddy,what's going on?

6x+7 : Oh my son , a very bad thing happened in our country :(

President x+y departed us and locket the doors.

Then he gave us very complicated equations.

He told that unless we solve these equations,we can't get in the country.

I took the paper which was full of equations. It was really hard and complicated but I had to solve!

2x+5: I am going to solve this, where is my cousin x+2?

4x+3: She is on the phone with president.

x+2 was talking on the phone with President x+y.

She was trying to convince him.

But President x+y was a bad man. There was simply no way to convince him.

I went next to my cousin, pulled her arm and said:

“Come here. We are going” 

x+2: To where?

2x+5: To solve these equations.

We sat on a bench and glanced at equations. Some of them seemed familiar. Then suddenly I shouted!!!

2x+5: I found it!

x+y: You found what?

2x+5: Every equations consists of the places in our country.

Look at this equation, 12x-8 as you can see. It’s the name of the park right behind our house. 

x+y: We solved it my dear cousin! So what’s the plan?

2x+5: We will go to the places that written the equation then seek for a hint. 

Our plan was ready. Since that country shut down the gates for us, we had to sneak in then find all the hints.

Then finally, with the help of all the hints, we would have cracked the code. Saving the country was upon us.

We were very happy. And almost ready to open the gates of our country to get in. We still had one equation to solve. The hardest one. We asked for our family’s help. But... mmm our parents don’t remember anything from their school life. It is a pity. How could someone not remember anything from what they learned in the school? What kind of learning was that?

The only one who could have helped me was my cousin. 

I asked him:

2x+5: Do you think we could call the president again?

x+2: I am afraid it doesn’t help too much. But we could try. What can we lose? And if we have nothing to lose, maybe we have something to gain.

2x+5: OK, then, let’s try!

He called again the president, and told them that we were about to find all the hints. The president got very angry. As if he didn’t want us to come back home. How disappointing!!

So, he sent his army toward us, to chase us away. 

A battle started soon, but for our surprise, instead of chasing us away, they started to struggle with each other. The soldiers were digits and letters. The digits were very aggressive, but the letters were pacifists. What the digits didn’t take into account was the fact that they were in minority. You all know that they are only 10, whereas the letters are more than 25. Poor digits.

You will ask what was the battle for? 

The letters wanted to become digits, as they needed to have the equations solved, but the digits said that they are too few and they have too much to do. Instead of communicating, they preferred to struggle. How strange! I found out that the human beings use to do the same: struggling instead of communicating and agreeing upon a specific subject.

My cousin and I were just looking at the battle.

And as we came too close to each other, suddenly, the letter x came to us, accompanied by a digit.

The letter x asked us:

X: Are you relatives?

My cousin: Yes. How did you guess?

X: I belong to both of you. I need to go home. Please, replace me with this digit!

We looked at the digit. It was crying. It said: Please, take me with you. I fit to you both.

We asked: How did you guess you can replace x?

He said: it is simple. Just solve the equation: 2x+5=x+2. You will realize that (-3) is the solution.

While we were arguing there, we suddenly saw the flag on the country’s gate arising. It was the sign that our president accepted to open the gates and let us in.

So, as we solved the last equation, our equation, we got the approval to come home. That was the hint: get close to your family.

In that moment we both understood that family is a great social value.