Elinqua had just resumed the third term of JSS 1 in the only school in town-- Ede. Meanwhile, many of the plebeian parents couldn’t afford to send their children there due to the hefty tuition fees—a clear hushtag of the school’s renowned quality.

  Though the high cost of maintenance barred many students from joining the sole congress of learning in that town, some parents managed to stay afloat amidst the harsh economic tide, sacrificing to enroll their children in C.D.S.S.

  "Escaped again," Elinqua muttered with a grin as he walked toward his class, his lopsided gait still noticeable.

  "I was just lucky today. The soldier I met wasn’t one of the fierce ones," he mused, aware that the school was swarming with soldiers—men molded by the cruel experiences of their past.

  "Behind their red eyes are dense experiences. Sleeping didn't paint those eyes, cruel experiences did!" He said as almost every soldier he had encountered all these years had red eyes which prunned out this conclusion.

  He said these as he kept walking to the class, the sun releasing the heat that blended the temperature the cold zephyred, giving a legal permit for a pleasantly thermoregulated breeze to ventilate.

  "Even though I have to be early to school and act responsibly, escaping the clutches of the soldiers at the gate is no easy feat," he thought. He knew he couldn’t keep relying on explaining away to slip past them.

  "Anyway, I need to get home early today. There’s something about this glass I need to uncover," he said, pulling out the peculiar infrared glasses from his bag.

  His mom comes home late from work and sometimes, comes early. So, whilst he meets her at home atimes, and they stumble to each other on their way home some times, he comes home before her the other times.

  His interest had been piqued ever since he studied infrared vision a few days ago.

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  He didn't refuse to acknowledge the series of coincidences that bumped into him these days in a packeted array.

  He didn't know why!

  He was just studying about light rays some days ago, unbeknownst to him that a pragmatic situation in his 5-days-from-now was patient, waiting for him to bump into it.

  And here it was and it is.

  "And about the morse code on the picture. How could a infrared glass be able decipher a writing?"

  "It doesn't just make sense!" he said to himself as he turned the temple arm experimentally, comparing it with his usual glasses, he confirmed it—it was definitely an infrared glass.

  But what unsettled him most wasn’t that discovery. It was the realization that this wasn’t even his glass.

  "They look so identical to each other that, one could mistake them for identical twin brothers!" He said as somewhere --deep down in his conciousness laughed but his face remained steely.

  "If it’s not mine, then what was it doing under the drawer?"

  "Did Mom put it there?"

  "But Mom never wears glasses… at least not that I’ve ever seen."

  "If it wasn’t her, then whose could it be? An alien’s?"

  Questions bombarded his mind, each leading to a deeper, unanswered mystery. He was just a few meters from class when he made a silent vow:

  "No matter what this is, or what’s coming, I promise to uncover the truth."

  He folded the glasses and carefully placed them in his bag as he hoped, he will make it home today just in time. Just as he zipped it shut, a voice interrupted his thoughts.

  "ELINQUA!"

  He turned around.

  "Philip, good morning."

  Looks like it was not his mom this time, It was a fine-looking young schoolboy, Philip—his best friend and classmate.

  "You look great today! Did you just conquer 51 countries in battle?" Philip teased.

  "No, I just gained 51 new problems," Elinqua replied with a smirk.

  "Haa, not again!" Philip sighed.

  "Understandeth never thou the power of negative words?" he added, slipping into his dramatic old-English tone.

  "Oh, King James Version! Do you have the Revised Standard Version with you?" Elinqua quipped, tucking his lips in and holding them in place with his incisors, forming a dimple in the process.

  "The truth is, it is with me at home," Philip admitted.

  "What are you saying?" He said as they both laughed lightly

  You could have just said it was fast asleep, taking it's nap at home" Elinqua said as they both burst into deeper trenches of laughter.

  Then Elinqua’s expression turned serious. "So… you were late too?"

  "Due to unforeseen circumstances, yes."

  "Seems like you’re copying my lexicon these days."

  "Is that pride I hear, or is my sensory antenna picking up the wrong signal?"

  "Congratulations! You just spoke the one sentence that wasn’t copied from me."

  "Just end this eristic nonsense already," Philip sighed in surrender.

  As they entered the class, Philip quickly changed the topic.

  "Have you done the assignment?"

  "Which assignment?" Elinqua asked as they took their seats.

  "The Basic Science assignment, of course!"

  Elinqua's eyes drifted upward as he racked his brain, searching for any memory of the task. But his mind had only one response:

  "No match."