Recovering from her coma, Leila was brought home to her family. Thankful, her family held a welcome party for her. Leila enjoyed the event although she can’t recognize most of the people who attended.

After everyone has left, Leila decided to rest inside her room. She tried to recall all the events that happened to her before she went into coma. She wants to know who she is…

“Who am I? Who are these people?”

Leila fell asleep. She dreamt she was a school teacher. In her reveries, she was teaching some school children.

Leila woke up crying. She needs to go out and search for his identity. She needs an answer!

Each day Leila fell into depression. Her confusion about who she was grew even worse. Her family became worried and came close to sending her to a mental hospital.

When Leila found out about their plans, she decided to escape. She waited until everyone was asleep. With her backpack and some pocket cash, she went out through the backdoor of the house. Quietly she walked away from the place she has called her home. Arriving at the highway, she waited for a bus to pass by. It didn’t take long before a Groundhog bus came by. She boarded it and tried to take some rest while traveling. The bus is headed to New York City.

It was already too late when her family found out that she was missing. They tried to search for her but to no avail. Leila is gone!

The Groundhog arrived at the terminal hours later. Leila was suddenly awoken when the bus driver stepped on the brake after he has positioned it inside the boarding area. She wiped her face to remove the cobwebs.

Grabbing her bag, which is the only belonging that she has with her, she sauntered towards the door. Leila is about to hail a taxi when she felt her stomach grumble. She is hungry. Leila remembered that she has not eaten since she left their home.

Leila looked around for the nearest diner. She found one just a few meters from the terminal entrance. She hastily pushed the glass door opened and joined the queue of customers trying to give their order by the counter.

“Can you give me some fries, burger and a soda?”

“Would that be all, Mam?” the food service crew assigned at the counter asked.

“Yeah, that’s all,” she replied.

After getting what she ordered, Leila walked to a table located at the west corner of the fast food diner. She ate everything with gusto! All of a sudden, she remembered something from her past. When she was a teacher, she used to eat in a diner like this after school. She sometimes had company with her, like her friends and someone whose identity she had trouble recalling.

Leila finished her last bite at her burger. Then she sipped at her cold soda.

In the meantime, Daniel was contacted by his client. They wanted him to complete the building plans for their new infrastructure in the northern United States.

“Engr. Ibarra, please accomplish the blue prints as soon as possible. We need the structure up and going by the end of the month,” the voice on the other end of the line said.

“Yes sir! I assure you it will be done in three days,” Daniel answered.

A ended the call after saying this. He turned his desktop on and started working on the building design. It was already midnight when he decided to call it a day.

Leila roamed around the city. She rummaged the downtown area for a place to stay.

Minutes later, Leila chanced upon a row of apartments. She opened her wallet to see if she has enough cash to pay for one of them. Unfortunately, she only has enough for food. Desperate for a place to sleep in, she went around the apartments looking for a vacant one, lady luck must have been smiling at her coz she found one, the apartment of Daniel.

She stealthily crept inside the apartment. Using her skill as a detective, she was able to enter it with ease and without being noticed.

Daniel was about to go home when his phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Engineer, this is Architect Saavedra. I need you to rush to the site right now. They told me that the engineers are having making heads over tails on your design.”

“Sure sir.”

He is exhausted but he needs to go or he will lose his work. Daniel chose to grab something to eat from the nearest diner then drove towards the location of the construction site Archt. Saavedra asked him to visit.

The trip would take him at least 4 hours.

The sun is already peeping through the horizon when Daniel arrived at the site. He parked his Off road pick up near the barracks.

“Hello, Engr. Ibarra. Thank you for coming,” his comrades greeted him.

“No problem,” he replied

“So what’s the concern about the building design?”

“Oh that, we can’t seem to understand why the beams in the eastern wing has to be extended by 3 meters?”

“That’s easy. Here let me show you.”

Daniel took his laptop out of its carrying case and turned it on. He opened the building design file.

“The beam supports the veranda on the second floor. The 3 meter extension would compensate for the possible ‘turning effect’ once an earthquake hits the area.”

“Is this area earthquake prone, engineer?”

“Yes, did you not read the reports coming from the Zoning Commission?”

“No, engineer.”

“You should’ve. It is important that you go through all the details of that report and the other reports like it.”

“Sorry sir.”

“That’s okay. Now, is there anything else I can do for you?”

“I guess you have answered all our queries, sir.”

“I have to go then. Just message me through chat if anything comes up. I haven’t slept since yesterday.”

“Sir, may we offer that you rest in our barracks before you go back to your office? It’s our way of thanking you for travelling all the way here just to answer our queries.”

Daniel nodded his head in approval. After all, he doesn’t want to risk his health driving right now when he knows he is drowsy.

Before sleeping, he ate the complimentary breakfast given to him by the crew of architects.