into a book repository, a dance studio and eventually into the exclusive café that stands where Aunt Lucia’s building used to be, after it was demolished and deemed its very existence a violation of habitable standards. A few blocks further down Main Street was an old building that was slowly being renovated into an office, and a year later, Sebastian found himself standing outside the glass doors of The Mint, the city’s first daily newspaper that was run by none other than the city mayor’s daughter. After school, Sebastian would stand outside the glass doors of the building, watching every man and woman who walked past through the whirling doors. He watched as the sun caught their beaming skin and their freshlypressed suits, as the sun slowly crept through the glass windows, and lingered on the dark marble floors of the lobby. Every now and then he heard a sweet chime walk past through the lobby’s main doors, taunting him to come inside. That day, he decided he would. The Mint had been running for a few months now, and he himself was impressed with how hard-hitting and straightforward the paper was. Sebastian was someone who was not impressed easily, and in his heart he knew, this was where he was supposed to be–as cliché́ as that sounded. He took his first few steps towards the lobby doors but then he bumped into a woman well in her thirties, a bejeweled tote on one hand and a cigarette on the other. Sebastian knew who she was—Agatha Castro. On his desk, Michael started scribbling a few lines for Mr Romano’s article. Magpies. New species. Raven and yet with red streaks. Squawks louder than most magpies. Never been seen before by birders. He kept fiddling with his pencil every now and then, looking at the minutes that slowly ebbed away from the old circular wall clock that hung near his desk, on the walls that had its paint peeled away by years of seeming neglect over deadlines, scoops and rumours. That reminded Michael of the smug that Mr Torres had on his face as he made a fool of him at the lobby, in front of the senior editors. He knew himself as a resolute man after all that had happened in his life, and yet he was starting
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