Last time, we went a little deeper inside the treehouse; and saw what really happened from close quarters. But as undeniably important it was to be witness from the inside, the world obviously hadn’t stopped moving on the outside.

The incident in the treehouse was as significant as it was serious, and I don’t think we can deny that. After all, you can’t just bring a body back home and dismiss it casually. It was a secret; one I can tell you with some level of confidence the two boys – Bandem and Mompy – will not want to speak about for many years to come. And what happened to the man we heard in the last episode who wasn’t dead? That’s a thread we’ll pull at a few episodes later.

Patience is, after all, the mother of all virtues. And I intend to exercise that.

The point I’m trying to make is that no secret is ever airtight. Because, well, there’s always someone who knows.

We heard about Mompy and Bandem secretly smoking in Mompy’s treehouse in the first episode, did we not? Much about it could not be said back then – for we did have more pressing issues to discuss – but that scene warrants being looked into more deeply. It certainly wasn’t just a case of two teenage boys sneaking out for a smoke. Mompy’s dad knew his son smoked, after all.

But as we – the audience – find ourselves in the treehouse currently occupied by not two but three people, we learn what the matter truly is. But who is this third person?

Spoiler alert: it’s neither Shanky nor Anpag. Another spoiler alert: Bandem is glad they’re not here.

The world beyond the walls of the little room was unaware of the trouble inside it. And the trouble is that he has started talking…

In every group, there is a member looking inwards from the outside. One who is reluctant to be included in the band, but for a reason finds themselves being part of one. Even though no one has given him a tangible reason to feel so, Anpag believes he is like an outsider. That he is “different” than the other three boys. One who is looking at Shanky, Mompy and Bandem from the outside.

And what he sees apparently bores him.

Maybe there is a bit of arrogance, an air of self-believing superiority, in him.

It wouldn’t be entirely surprising if he is the first of the four to leave the group. But that is something we will not be talking about; at least not now. For there are other things we need to learn about the four boys.

Have you heard that saying about the saint and the sinner? How every saint has a past and every sinner a future? I think it’s one of the best representations of how things are never – nor should they ever be seen – in black or white.

Everyone called Mompy’s father The Cool Dad. And why should they not? He was cool, after all. And, you know what? The boys even felt envious of Mompy.

But The Cool Dad… well, let’s just say he had a past. Whether that past is what birthed the coolness in The Cool Dad or merely jolted it into action can be put up for debate. But I think it’s worth trying to understand how he, like most people in our lives we think are enviably cool (which is perhaps college talk for unconventional or unorthodox in the way they are and the way they think), became who he eventually became.

After all, we are all shaped by our experiences. Are we not?

Friends fight, right? Don’t they say the more intense the fight, the closer the friendship? The more heat, the brighter the flame and all that?

Okay, I’ll be honest. I don’t know anyone who said that.

But I did know of two people once upon a time – whose real identities will of course remain concealed – who once proclaimed to me they were proud to never have fought in the ten years of their friendship. I knew they were lying; but I also felt envious. Deeply envious.

Bandem, who you may remember from the previous episode, and Shanky Vai sparred today. It came from somewhere deep within the two of them, and the effects lasted for a considerable length of time.