Chapter 12 - Graduation Day

Richclar did not delete the text messages. Four more days to wait, she would be with her mother. As for the remaining waiting days, she spent them in familiarising her speech.

Unaware of Richclar's plan, Joshua was quite hopeful that he would be able to convince her not to leave him anymore. In fact he prepared for his marriage proposal with her by purchasing a diamond ring as a symbol of their formal engagement. As one of the professors, he was one of those school authorities to hand down the medals to the recipients. He was so proud that her woman stands out among the thousand graduating students. He made sure that his looks would make Richclar proud that was why he went to a parlour where he had undergone some doting for himself. He had a whole body spa, a new stylistic under brush hair cut, he had a facial treatment, a manicure and even a pedicure. He even requested from the administrator a new educational or graduation rite gown for him to wear so to be more elegant looking and handsome in the eyes of Richclar. That's how obsessive he was to win the heart of Richclar.

Graduation ceremony came. Like what she requested from her mother, no one knew about their conversation through text messages. She told her husband not to go with her anymore as they were unsure if their daughter would attend. She also hid from the eyes of Joshua as she would like to avoid him. Through the text messages in a new unknown number, she was able to meet her daughter furtively. At first, she did not recognize her as she was wearing a tuxedo. Before the processional began, she covered her tuxedo with her toga and a hood.

Having been the lone Summa Cum Laude, she was required to be up on stage. Naturally, this requirement would enable her to see Joshua in person as he was also on the stage. Still approaching toward the stage, she already saw him in his well-groomed attire, looking proudly and elegance emitted all over the venue. She would be hypocrite if she would deny that she was not affected by just looking at him. However, she tried to keep the memory of her sexual training from him at the remotest part of her heart and mind. She calmed herself to remain composed just the way she used to be. On stage, she noticed that Joshua was seemingly looking for someone. Not her mother for she was seated up front just below the stage where they were. When he looked at her, he grimaced and was more puzzled. Was she triumphant in letting a barber cut her hair in barber style? In fact, she also wore a mask when she went up stage pretending to be coughing. Her identity was only revealed when she delivered her speech as a Summa Cum Laude. When the master of ceremony called her name, she immediately removed her mask before she proceeded to the rostrum.

She enthusiastically greeted her fellow students by cracking a joke putting her right hand under her chin then asked them, "Am I handsome with my new looks?"

Everybody applauded and yelled, "Very! you are more handsome than us!"

"Thank You!" And she began her speech.

Busy with her speech delivery, she did not notice that Joshua left the stage. He went down and stayed at the back of it. He removed his graduation rite attire as a professor. He stayed there in melancholic state thinking what to do with her and how he would have his planned marriage proposal with her

Meanwhile, with or without Joshua on the stage, the ceremony continued. Her mother was called to put the medal in her neck. Instead, Richclar asked her mother to wear the medals for her as she deserved to receive them being an ideal parent. The recessional was called for when Richclar hurriedly grabbed her mother's hand, pulled her beside her until they were out of the gate of the campus and hopped inside a vehicle whose driver was waiting for them to drive as quickly as he could, not giving Joshua a minute to glance their whereabout at the midst of the crowd in that venue.

The driver drove them in the place adjacent to the city but not within it. It was in the outskirts of the city for Richclar was so cautious that she did not bring her mother in the shanty she was residing. She knew that she still needed that place for a week or two before she could be gone for the vast capital city very far away from Joshua. There she would apply as a cop if she would have passed the Napolcom examination. It would be in that place where he would look for her woman.

On the other hand, much as Joshua was also smart and quick, still he failed to see them in the crowd. They were nowhere to be found. He wandered from one restaurant to another until he did not leave any of them not to be inspected. He blamed himself for not asking his group to watch Richclar and her mother. He even went to a small time restaurant or carenderia to look for them. Still no Richclar or her mother could be seen. They disappeared like a feather in thin air. He had no one to inquire about her whereabout as she was an expert in hiding. No wonder why she became a medal recipient.

Joshua, take it easy. Be calm so you can think of the best means to raise her white flag in front of you. Anyway, she would still get her transcript of record and her certificate or diploma. This was an assurance to himself.

Indubitably, he talked with his men and those in the registrar's office. He instructed them to notify him of her presence. Those men of him will be watching closely for her tricky disguise.

It would be a shame on her part if she would be nabbed like a criminal. Therefore, because she was in a man's appearance during her graduation day, and she was chosen as an outstanding college graduate, she had to outsmart Joshua and his cohorts. She knew that he would be more prepared to track her. She went to her school as a refined elegant female who used the magical facial enhancement with contact lenses, a bangs and a shoulder length dark brown hair with yellow dye at the end, inquiring for the requirements for the enrollment. After her inquiry she presented the authorization made by herself for herself to get her pertinent papers. To her dismay, the registrar officers told her that an authorization is not being entertained. The requested pertinent papers should be handed to the owner personally. So she instructed her to tell Richclar be the one to get them.

When she was in her rented shanty, she tried to think for an alternative acceptable and reliable alibi. Good she was close to her former coach when she was still in high school who happened to have a physician niece. Her secret was divulged to her so she helped her a medical certificate certifying that she was under medication and was advised to be in complete bed rest. The next step she did was to write a letter of request to send her pertinent papers to the hospital where the physician niece of her coach was connected. The following day she went to the post office to mail it in a disguise of an old woman. Besides, she also sent it through the e-mail ad of her school. While waiting for the positive result she seldom went out of her rented place. Instead she devoted her time writing a novel to have an income for her daily needs as her money was almost spent.

Consequently, Joshua had been waiting for nothing. But he was quite happy when he read the medical certificate that she had to be in complete bed rest. He doubted that she might be pregnant with his baby. He thought that he might had impregnated her. With this presumption, he webbed a plan to continue tracking her by searching for the physician's working address. But behind him, the plan was that the physician would sent it to the e mail ad of her former coach or mail them to her coach's address in their hometown. Getting her pertinent papers was like riding in a merry go round wooden horses. It indeed, gave her the thrill as she found it like a training to have hide and seek between a detective and a felon.

During night time as she was about to sleep, she would recall the memories of her graduation rite and her elusive escape from Joshua as if she was a fugitive. As for her communication with her mother, she was still using from one unknown number to another and would tell her to leave without a trace of their messages by deleting them. Being a loving mother she protected her by being very cautious even from her husband so her daughter won't be trapped.

In her memory, she would always reminisce the time when she put her medals to her mother's neck as if they were gold necklaces with diamond pendant. She saw her glittering eyes full of pride.