Chapter 4 The Black Hole

Chapter 4 The Black Hole

“The sun is at the center of the solar system, moving around it are the planets…”, Laila Rodriguez lectured. She is 60 years old. The head of the Astronomy division of the council. She is like a walking encyclopedia. Though her voice seems a bit low and her lectures are a bit boring. Focus is what we need to understand her lectures. She is by the book. All the assignments, quizzes, recitations, seatworks, mid terms exams and finals exams will be found in the book she instructed us to study. She is the only professor who lectured the first day. She brings with her the Astronomy coin. Each time it comes heads, it will be a fine day for her. She lectured perfectly.

Dr. Arvin John Kaliwanagan is the head of the Sociology division of the council. He instructed us to introduce ourselves. Give a short introduction, name, age, course, city, hobbies and interests and each will write in the board what are our expectation in the course or anything relevant about ourselves. Dr. Arvin has the “Sociology Watch”.

“Luke Isabel Pimentel, 17, Chemical Engineering, Caloocan City, I do research.”, I introduced myself. I wrote, “I want to be a scientist.” Then, the next person.

“Miguel Gregor Diaz, 16, Chemical Engineering, Quezon City, I do research.” He wrote, “I want to be a scientist.” Next was an accelerated student.

“Liezel Austria, 13, Chemical Engineering, Manila, I do research. She wrote, “I want to be a scientist.”

“Are you the daughter of Dr. Leopold M. Austria?”, asked by Dr. Arvin.

“Yes, I am.” “We are very sorry for your loss.”, said by Dr. Arvin.

It has been two months since the death of Dr. Austria. We graduated in the SCO Charlie batch, the 50 of us. We started as 100. Miguel and I became really good friends. Little that we know that Liezel is our superior. She didn’t know also. She took care of the affairs of Dr. Leopold. She took a 1 year leave in the Golden Corps of Cadets (GCC). She is part of the recruitment of Spy Association. One of the directors of Member at large. Spy Association is one of the goals of each member of the GCC. As of the moment there are 265 member of the association. On the other hand, there are 265 members of the Alumni Association of the GCC. Each has a counterpart.

Next is Monica Dudley, Then Edward Solis, Joey Gatmaitan, Paul Singay, Justin Duremdes, …

The board is filled with our aspirations and expectations of the course.

One of the comments was a question mark. What does it mean? Who wrote it? We are 50 in his class. Just attend my class and enjoy. I know you will all pass my subject but be aware of other subjects. Some are called squareroot; some are half. We all startled and in great mystery about it. “Is that part of an exam?”, Monica said. “You will know.”, Dr. Arvin said and ended the class.

The next subject was mathematics. “Who like numbers?”, asked by Dr. Jonathan Inciong. 90 percent of the class raised their hands. “For those who raised their hands, you will pass.”, the professor exclaimed. “For those who do not, better like numbers for we will be dealing with it more than the usual.” Most of the students are engineering. Here are your assignments. Define and give example of each. We are handed with conjectures, number theories and a lot more.

Dr. Jonathan is the vice chair of the Mathematics division. He is also an inventor. He created fun mathematical games. He is also the holder of the fastest at the biggest sodoku. He is a former holder of the Engineering wand. For ten years of ownership, there is no catastrophe that has happened to the university which Dr. Jonathan had wished. Then now, the murder of Dr. Leopold Austria.

The fourth professor was Dr. Arni Minerva. She was the vice chair of the Psychology division. She has published various research about human and animal psychology. She joked us that she owns a unicorn. She was a very funny person. It is believed that your most precious pet will die first before you die. It takes the place of the owner. The Psychology chair owns the Psychology hat. Who knows what power it can grant?

We speak up what is bothering us. What motivate us. What discussions do we want. What are our aspirations. What are our dreams. What are our passions. Each has a narration to tell. Some tell about their family situations. Some tell their work. Some their hobbies. Some boast about their family and wealth. We shared laughter and tears.

The fifth professor was teaching history class. He is professor Edgar Bustamante. He gave us an activity. The human bingo. Each card has a characteristics or a written command. For example, the prettiest. We will go to that person and let her sign it. The total is 25. The funniest is who wears a green underwear. We might forget our classmates but the laughter still remains in us.

Professor Bustamante holds the History book. Again, there are the Psychology hat, the Engineering wand which was surrendered, the Mathematics ring, the Sociology watch and the Astronomy coin. The first five professors were really interesting.

There are now 4 magic items in the University excluding the Theologian stone which is kept in the Austria residence. Other magic items are distributed evenly. The University of the Philippines has 5 magic items. The De La Salle University has 5. The Ateneo de Manila has 5. Adamson University, Far Eastern University, National University, University of the East each also has 5. Arellano University, Emilio Aguinaldo College, José Rizal University, Mapúa University and others universities have lesser magic items.

It is strange that it comes tails this day. A black hole occurred. Was it coincidental? It is several light years away. By principle any object could be a black hole, by squeezing it into a tiny enough volume. Is this the power of the Astronomy coin?