INTRO

• Chapter 2

The morning after their wedding night, the couple were busy working on what they had discussed even before getting married.
Mira held a scarlet ring, as her husband imprinted a little diagram that signified something unknown on the ring.
The diagram was heptagonal in shape with a line crossing over it from left to right. A sign they alone understood.
***
Mira remembered all these as she held the ring in her hand. She was not ready to cry again. She had wept so much, that she no longer saw tears as an option. Facing the wind with great zeal to fight was, to her, the best thing she could think of.
She heard a knock at the door and called for the person to come in. Her voice brought no sound, so she cleared her throat and called again.
"Come in."
The door opened and Michel emerged.
"Am I welcome?" Michel said smiling.
"Don't kid me girl." Mira said with a friendly tone. Michel hopped on the bed.
"I bought some groceries on my way home. And guess who I saw?"
"Who?"
"Just guess."
Michel stood up and walked to Mira's side. She whispered into Mira's ears. It made Mira jump up from excitement.
"I saw a guy that looks so much like your husby." Michel had said.
"But, when I talked with him, I realized he was not the one."
Mira sat down back.
Dejected, she spoke up.
"Do you have his contact here with you?"
"Hmm, no. I forgot to get it from him."
"What! That's foolish of you!"
Michel stared at Mira for a while.
"Alright, we will do it this way. We are going to search for that person right now!" Mira stated trying to calm down.
"Right now won't be good."
"Why?"
"I saw him leave before I was done."
"I don't care. I will search for him. At what spot did you guys meet?"
*****
Diago could not have been mistaken. He just saw someone walk out and he was pretty sure the face was familiar. Diago ran after the person and called out "Shika!!"
The person stopped moving and turned slightly to look at the caller. He didn't see the caller in time before the car at his front began to horn. The person walked closer to the car and entered. Diago began to yell, but the driver seemed impatient.
"That was Shika! No, it wasn't. How can that be Shika? Are you dreaming Diago? That looks like Shika exactly." He was arguing audibly with himself.
"But, Shika is in the class, so how is that Shika?" He began to think fast of how he was going to unravel the mystery. Then he got an idea.
*****
It was a beautiful dawn, and Michel was sitting on the floor with Mira. They were waiting at the door of the grocery store that Michel met Mira's husband's lookalike.
Finally, the store owner, a lady in her thirties arrived, in an old ash-coloured car.
She parked and stepped down. She had a confused look as she saw the two of them seated by her store.
"What's wrong Mrs Mira?" The store owner asked.
"Good morning Miss Isabell." Michel greeted.
"Good morning. Why are you both here as early as this?" Miss Isabell asked curiously.
"Remember the gentleman I spoke with while I was paying up for what I bought?" Michel smiled as she stood up.
"Yes, I do."
"We came cause of him."
Miss Isabell raised her brows as she got enlightened. She began to open the door of the store.
"So why do you want to see him?" Miss Isabell asked.
Mira was watching everyone that passed their front. Every leg. Every car. Her husband must be around somewhere.
Mira and Miss Isabell after discussing, came outside to help Mira come in.
While they were helping her up, she could feel the baby kicking strongly.
She froze in mid-air and when the baby stopped, she just smiled and continued.
They were all talking about the man. They were trying to describe him to Mira.
*****
Diago sat away from Shika and was monitoring to see if Shika would behave secretively.
Shika finally came and sat beside Diago. It was already time for break.
"Diago."
Diago kept mute. But, his curious mind wanted to answer Shika.
"Diago." Shika called again.
Diago did not answer. He just kept looking.
Shika stood and turned around.
"What?" Diago eventually responded.
"Nothing."
Diago stood up and left the class. A thought struck him and he began to look around ensuring no one was watching him. His eyes caught Shika's as Shika kept staring wondering what was wrong.
Diago walked fast to the staff's quarters. Then when he noticed that he could not see Shika anymore, he changed directions. He sneaked to the archives. He had the intention to get to the root of this mystery without revealing his plans to anyone.
The archives door was locked. He ran as fast as he could to the security room where spare keys to all doors in the school were kept.
Finally, at the entrance, he peeked and saw no one inside. He studied around and noticed that luckily the officer on duty must have gone to use the washroom.
He opened the door to the room silently and entered. He began to search for the spare key of the archives and his heart beat increased terribly.
'The keys are labelled. It must be here somewhere.' He thought.
He looked at the wall and noticed that the keys were hung there.
He found the spot where the archives' keys should be, but it was missing.
"What are you doing here?" He heard from behind.
'It's all over!' Diago thought.