Sometime In July (2024 edition)

Chapter One

Yssa woke up ten minutes before her alarm clock would sound. It was raining hard at 6:50 in the morning and the angry tap of rainwater outside her room's glass window roused her from sleep. She almost leapt out of bed as she remembered what happened yesterday. She had been in this city for almost a year now and this was the first time she felt excited waking up.

She could not tell if it was actual excitement, though. It was a mixture of anticipation and anxiety. It was quite unexplainable at the moment, more likely because it was something she had never felt before.

***

The boarding house along Olongapo City's First Street was small and old. Her room was in the second floor. Tiny and studio-type, with a jalousie window to the left above the bed, kitchen sink on the other side, and an unnatural combination of a bathroom and toilet in one corner. However, it was perfect for a single and independent elementary school teacher to settle.

She was twenty one and this was the first time Yssa lived alone.

Despite the customarily damp apartment complex and some protruding electric wires from the building's walls, her room was nice and clean. Everything was in order, from the clothes inside a plastic portable cabinet to the table napkins on the three-by-three dining table for two. Crisp school teacher uniform hanged at a dresser's handle and a pair of shoes polished spotless below it.

Classes began early this year for some reason. The school year usually began in the middle of June, but this time it opened earlier as mandated by the government.

By 8:00 am she will be giving the first short quiz of the semester to her third level pupils at Brightkids Montessori, a five-minute jeepney commute away.

Mornings were routine for Yssa. But there was something about this morning that made her heart skip a beat a little. No, it was not her fear of the pounding downpour outside or the knowledge that her boyfriend, Glenn, will be stopping by later for lunch. It was something deeper... something unexpected... something she had been waiting to happen for a long time.

She thought about him as she slipped out of her pajamas and stepped into the shower: Seth Santiago. Seth was an up and coming romance novelist who happened to be the uncle of her best student, Elisha. She had heard about him from some young female parents and co-teachers, although she had not read any of his works yet. Elisha's mom, Jeanne, who was Seth's elder sister, was a bit unwell so he fetched the little girl from school yesterday.

Yssa met him for the first time and was intrigued right from the start as she always had a thing for writers. Though his overall aura made an impression, she was not that convinced he was indeed the published novelist they were all talking about. She expected someone who was bossy and arrogant, more articulate and aggressive when it came to voicing out his opinions and demands, or someone who seemed to always say something insightful and quotable. No less than a person of wisecracking smartness.

Instead, she met someone with a humble smile and warm eyes. She could see he was meekly confident, a little gentle and unsure, with the eyes of a little boy. His eyes – yes, his eyes – she can't forget those eyes. Really can't get them out of her head.

"Who are you?" She remembered asking him in a rather unfriendly way after he told her he was the one picking up Elisha.

"I'm her uncle, Seth." His voice was almost inaudible while a gentle smile matched some unblinking eye contact that seemed to want to communicate credibility.

"So, where's your fetcher's pass?" Yssa was laughing inside her fake hostility, trying hard to stay in character.

"I'm waiting for you to give me one." His voice almost cracking.