4 The Conference...

Alex makes a perfect French braid out of my waist length bulky hair. Trust me, out of all things I am proud of, my hair ranks the first.

"Well this suits your sun-tanned face!" comments Alex.

"Whatever you apply on me suits me.." I chuckle.

Alex rolls her eyes then asks, "Hey what did you dream today ? Battlefield, garden, court, city life or balcony or what??".

"Battlefield." I replied shortly.

"This is the 3rd time you said this to me Sal...and are these dreams a continuation of the last night??" enquiries Alex with wonder on her face.

I everyday tell her everything I see in my dreams. She listens to them patiently with a spellbound look. She never challenges their existence in my dreams like my mom does. She too believes that my faint visions mean something. As if they have a message.

"I can't say if they are a continuation or not because I barely remember much after I wake up. But I feel that those incidents have occurred before in reality... but there is no way that those can occur in 21st century. " I conclude.

"Right.." Alex agrees.

Then we both come & try to find a place to sit in the forward rows in the huge auditorium. It has started to get filled. Students from only Science category classes are allowed to attend this conference. We both are from Architecture class as well as various other Science subjects. We argue with few students to make place for ourselves in the second row of benches.

"Hey you can't be so mean can you??" demands Alex. Ben who is himself sitting on one seat & capturing 2 other seats for his 'not yet arrived' friends make an unaffected face.

"You both are late. I have booked their seats because they had told me to do so. They will be here any moment." says his friend William.

I don't like to sit at the back. " Well you have to spare the seats as we are standing. Or else we have other methods to capture the seats & that won't be very graceful..." I confirm.

"Well what will you do?" questions Ben with a tone of sarcasm.

"Well I will see to it in the next BASKETBALL class. Oh it's today after the conference!!" comments Alex.

A streak of doubt & fear crosses over both Ben's and William's face but they maintains their composure.

Alex is the best & the most aggressive Basketball player in the school. Even the best male players are in scare & doubt when it comes to competing against her. She alone can turn the match. For winning she is always ready to go to any extent. When she says she will do something in the next class, she does it.

I give my assurance, "When do we have the next Judo class?"

"After BB class...also today we have the audition for the next month intercity competition so everyone will give their best" answers Alex.

I conclude with stress, "If you care about your bones then vacant the seats...". Within a fraction of second Ben turns back, see something and murmurs, " William let's go back. Stuart & the others are there. They are asking us to get back." Then he drags William with him & goes back. We are quite satisfied with our victory & grin at each other.

After the whole auditorium is filled the conference starts.

" As far as I can remember this is the first conference we are attending right ?" asks Alex.

"Yeah I guess so. Last session we did not qualify the age range. The scientists came last year as well." I remember.

First, our Principal Mrs. White delivers her speech. Then she introduces the guests (the scientists) one by one. They all sit down on the sofas kept on the stage.

"We all are quite happy to share a conference with you kids..." Dr. Edmund starts, "We won't be dealing with anything very serious or hard to understand but we will be dealing with your brain's thinking extent. So kids think before you answer." Then Dr. May questions with a sweet smile that can only be compared with that of an angel, "Students how many of you love to dream or dream quite often?"

I do not care about the response of the audience & stand up raising my right arm up...