WHOSE DEDUCTION SHOW?

4: A DEDUCTION FARCE?

Chapter 4: A Deduction Farce?

LORELEI

 
BEFORE anything else, let me give you an FYI already.
Loki and I are living under one roof. Nope, don’t get the wrong idea. We are not live-in partners or a married couple.

Noong nag-transfer kasi ako rito sa Pampanga at nangailangan ako ng matutuluyan, my aunt Martha, who happened to own an apartment complex, offered me a room in Loki’s unit. Occupied na kasi halos lahat kaya hindi na niya ako ma-accommodate. Hindi rin puwede sa kanyang sariling kwarto dahil maliit lang daw ito.
At first, I was reluctant to the idea to share the unit with a man. Walang problema sa akin kung babae ang makakasama ko. Pero kung lalaki, medyo ilag ako. But Tita Martha assured me that Loki was harmless. He wouldn’t take advantage of me kahit na nasa iisang unit lang kami.

What she said was proven right. On my first day with Loki, he seemed to be extremely busy with reading cryptic messages written on sticky notes. May ilan pa ngang idinikit niya sa screen ng TV kaya hindi ako makapanood ng evening newscast o isang cliché telenobela. He was too absorbed with the codes that he barely noticed my presence.

Fast forward to today, Loki and I are still good flatmates. However, I wish that he would do the household chores sometimes. Lagi kasing ako ang nagliligpit at naghuhugas ng mga pinagkainan namin.

He might forget sometimes that I’m his flatmate, not his housekeeper.

At six in the morning, gising na kaming dalawa ni Loki. I prepared my oatmeal while he only drank two glasses of water. When I asked kung gusto niyang gawan ko rin siya ng oatmeal, he refused, saying that his brain works better in an empty stomach. Of course, he was quoting Sherlock Holmes on that line.

“Do we have a case today?” I asked as I took a spoonful of oats. I could tell that he’s working on something when he’s up this early. Usually kasi, nagigising siya ng bandang 6:30 or 7 AM.

“Someone sent our Facebook page a code,” he replied. He was still in his pajamas. “I’m trying to crack it. Do you wanna give it a try? To test your cryptography skills?”

“Pass,” I said. Cracking codes this early was not one of my morning routines. “Okay na ako sa oatmeal. Hindi ko na kailangang gawing almusal ang code na ‘yan.”

If there’s a cryptography subject in Clark High, I’m a hundred percent sure that Loki will ace that. Sa dami ba naman ng pinag-aaralan niyang code araw-araw, not to mention the months before, he is supposed to be an expert by now. He once told me that his enthusiasm for codes led him to dream of becoming a detective.

Nakarinig kami ng tatlong katok sa pinto bago ‘yon bumukas. From the doorway emerged a middle-aged woman wearing duster dress. Her eyes had that glint of shock and gladness at the same time.

When I was trying to escape from my dark past, Tita Martha took me in and let me start a new life here. My mother died early. My father was too busy with his work that he probably forgot that he has a daughter. No one else was there to comfort me except for her.

Thanks to her, I crossed paths with the eccentric Loki. Maybe I would have also met him in Clark High, but our level of interaction might have been entirely different.

“Lorie, Loki!” she called us with brimming enthusiasm. Iwinawagayway niya ang dyaryo sa harap namin. “Nakita n’yo na ba ang balita sa local newspaper natin?”