An entire weekend — I was sure that would be enough to solve three equations.
At least that was what I believed when I first opened the homework on my tablet. The moment I began working, however, the confidence faded quickly. When the first equation refused to make sense, I decided to skip it for the moment and moved on to the second and third.
Surprisingly… those were much easier.
Within a short time I had worked through both of them without much trouble, which only made the first one more irritating.
"Ugh… why won't you work?" I muttered while staring at the screen.
My mind still felt strange — restless and unusually active — yet I forced myself to stay calm and keep focusing on the problem. Every time I thought I had reached the right path, the calculations collapsed somewhere in the middle.
"Hm… maybe this variable is wrong," I whispered while adjusting the equation again.
Just then a voice echoed from outside my house.
"Come out, nerd!"
Anthony.
Even though our houses were built underground, his voice somehow managed to travel all the way down.
I leaned back in my chair and sighed.
Heh… that guy never knew how to stay quiet.
For a moment I thought about going outside, but the equation on the screen dragged my attention back.
No distractions.
Not this time.
So I ignored him and continued working.
Hours passed. Attempts piled up. Numbers changed.....Still the equation refused to cooperate.
"Damn… this thing makes no sense," I murmured while rubbing my eyes.
By the time Saturday ended I still hadn't solved it, but something inside me refused to stop trying.
On Sunday afternoon I started again, rewriting the equation from the beginning and slowly working through each step.
Then suddenly something clicked.
"Huh… wait."
One small change — a tiny shift in one of the variables — and the entire structure of the equation suddenly began to make sense. I stared at the screen while the final numbers aligned perfectly.
For a moment I simply sat there, making sure I hadn't made a mistake somewhere.
Then I leaned back slowly in my chair.
Finally.
After hours of trying, the answer was sitting right in front of me, A tired smile crossed my face as the tension in my shoulders slowly faded.
That had been harder than I expected....By Sunday night exhaustion had completely taken over. I closed my tablet, stretched for a moment, and dropped onto my bed.
Within minutes I was asleep. Just like every other night.
The next day everyone submitted their homework.
No one wanted to lose grades — for their own sake.
When the class ended, I went home feeling satisfied. As usual, once the students had left the campus, the massive outer walls of the college slowly retracted into the ground.
After learning about the tragedy of 2072, I understood why this mechanism existed.
Nothing built above the surface could be trusted anymore.
After reaching home I rested for a while, and later in the evening I went out to play hockey with my friends along with a few other students from college.
It turned out to be a surprisingly fun day.
My team had scored twenty-nine points while William's team barely managed eighteen, which of course led to Anthony laughing so loudly that people across the field could probably hear him.
But that part of the day was completely normal.
What made that day unforgettable was something else entirely.
At around three in the morning, there was a knock on our door.
Actually… my father heard it first.
I only came out of my room after he checked the entrance screen and allowed the visitor to come down through the lift.
When the lift doors opened, I froze.
It was my professor.
What was he doing here at three in the morning?
He was completely soaked from the rain, his hair dripping water onto the floor as he stood there breathing heavily, as if he had run all the way to our house.
In his hand he held a tablet.
"Mr. Brown…" my professor said between breaths.
My father glanced at me briefly before stepping aside and gesturing for him to come inside.
The professor entered the house and quickly used the wall dryer to remove the water from his clothes before sitting down on the couch.
The atmosphere suddenly felt heavy, my father and I sat across from him while he silently picked up the cup of tea that had been placed in front of him.
For several minutes none of us spoke - We simply watched him as he drank the tea slowly, his expression still tense.
Five full minutes passed - Then he finally placed the cup down on the table and looked directly at me..
"Justin... There's something you must know..."
My heart started beating much faster, and the sight of my professor standing in my house at three in the morning with such a serious expression was terrifying.
He turned toward my father and handed him some papers.
"Research by Dr. Elias Varga."
My father looked down at the documents while the professor took a deep breath before continuing.
"Mr. Brown, three days ago I gave the class homework regarding field interactions. Before giving that lecture I had been reading research by Dr. Elias Varga, and the paper clearly stated that one of the equations in that study was unsolvable. Unfortunately… I mistakenly included that exact equation in the homework."
My hands froze where they rested.
The professor paused for a long moment before speaking again.
"Everyone except Justin solved only two equations. I realized it was my mistake to give an unsolvable equation only when I checked the submissions… but Justin—"
He looked directly at me.
"He solved it."
My father stood up from the couch immediately.
"what are you saying? How's that poss—"
"I know," the professor interrupted quietly. "But it is true. I checked the solution myself."
My father began pacing around the room with one hand covering his mouth while trying to process what he had just heard.
The professor kept his eyes fixed on me while my father walked back and forth.
"Justin," he said slowly, "you're brilliant. I still cannot understand how you managed to do it."
He leaned slightly forward.
"How did you solve it?"
I shifted in my seat while my fingers tightened together.
"I… I don't know," I said slowly.
I tried to remember the moment I solved it, I struggled to keep my thoughts fixed on remembering the moment I came up with the right approach to the problem.
"It just felt normal," I continued while struggling to explain it. "I didn't look at it as something unsolvable. I just thought it was a homework equation I wasn't understanding properly, but the more I worked on it… the more the structure started making sense."
I hesitated before finishing.
"And eventually the terms cancelled out."
The professor shook his head slowly.
"That, Justin… could not be a fluke."
That day became one of the most shocking moments of my life. I can still remember every detail of that night as if it happened yesterday.
He sat there for nearly an hour more — most of the time filled with silence. My father and I remained seated across from him while the professor slowly finished his tea, occasionally glancing toward me as if trying to understand something that still made no sense to him.
Finally he stood up from the couch.
"Hank…" my dad said the moment my professor got up to finally leave the house.
The professor paused near the lift and turned around.
My father continued — his voice firm.
"Don't tell about this to anyone."
For a brief moment the professor looked toward me… then nodded slowly.
"Don't worry, Mr. Brown — I won't."
He stepped inside the lift. The doors slid shut… and the platform carried him toward the surface level.
The next day I went to college.
I couldn't sleep the entire night — the events of yesterday kept replaying in my mind again and again.
It was unbelievable what had just happened.
It was physics class again…
Anthony and William — as usual — were busy in their banter and nonsense.
I went to sit next to them, but whatever they were talking about barely reached my ears — my mind was still affixed on last night.
"You know, Anthony…" William said while adjusting his glasses and smirking slightly. "You should ask Sarah for her clothes — perhaps they will look better on you."
Anthony jumped up instantly, grabbed William's glasses, and ran across the lecture hall.
"Take them if you can, fatso!" Anthony shouted while running.
William chased him through the rows of seats, the two of them laughing like idiots until the classroom door suddenly opened.
They stopped immediately, because the professor had arrived.
He walked to the front of the class and began the lecture… not even looking at me.
It felt like nothing had happened.
I wasn't sure whether I should feel relieved about that — or disappointed.
My father clearly didn't want anyone to know what had happened… yet I had done something extraordinary.
Still — I chose to remain silent.
And looking back now… that was probably the best decision I ever made.