A strange case of the shattered Window

Ike had a nasty hangover the moment he woke up. He and his pals partied hard the previous night. He gingerly got on his feet and made his way downstairs. 

Madison, his housemate and close friend is busy making omelette in the kitchen. He easily notices Ike trudging towards the fridge to grab a soda. "Can't believe you're already up." Madison called out.

"Uh huh.."Ike sounded, as he made due with a milk drink, when he couldn't find any soda.  

"Dude, you were real high, when you dropped in yesterday"continued Madison. After Ike had drained the contents of the bottle and he left for the bathroom. "I understand the fact when you ain't sober you try crazy stunts, but that don't mean you outta go about breaking windows just to get into the house. I mean you could have just rang the doorbell for me to let you in" He said.

"What?" came the cry as Ike head popped back into view.

"Whaddya mean 'What' didn't you break the window of your room last night?" 

"I broke no windows yesterday. Not even to get in."

Confused, Madison still pushed his argument. By adding the story of the previous night

"I was dozing, when I heard the sound of windows breaking. I hurriedly got a bat and found my way to your room, where the sound came from. On reaching there I found you snoring on your bed. And your window broken."

"So you concluded, that while in my stupor I was still able to climb to the first floor unassisted, smash my window just to get in for a shut eye. Jeez" said Ike, bewildered.

"Yeah. You know you've done a lot crazier things" said Madison. Ike rushed up to his room and found truly, his windows were broken. The broken window left spaces wide enough for an elephant to sneak into the room undisturbed. Its no mystery, why Madison thought he was responsible. "When I came in yesterday" continued Ike "I had my keys on me, I came into the house as anyone with dignity would."

"I did not see you before going to bed, and I stayed up late last night. The next time I saw you was after the window incident" Madison argued as he reached the room.

"I definitely came in while you were already asleep. My window getting smashed in, probably happened while I was in bed. And no, the noise of the breaking glass couldn't have woken me up. Hell! even if a bazooka was fired in here, that wouldn't make me stir. If anyone had half of what I had last night, they wouldn't either".

Alas, Madison admitted defeat. Ike had a good point in this debate. But, who then could possibly have broken the window. He would have kept on trying to make sense of everything, had the food he left on fire, not gotten burnt and engulfed in flames. 

"There's no need calling the cops, they'd just warn us and ask unnecessary questions, that will get everyone worked up" said Ike as he munched his way through dry cereals, several minutes later in the kitchen after getting cleaned and dressed up. He silently cursed Madison for burning breakfast.

"Yes, but still if it was a way to threaten us, they'd get the message the cops are now involved"said Madison as he also munched dry cereals. He silently cursed Ike for drinking all the milk.

Jodie, a friend of Ike and Madison walked into their midst. "What's up gents! " She hollered, heading for the fridge, she did not see what she wanted."You guys are out of soda, what do spend your allowance on."

"Ike's room got broken into" announced Madison, trying to stir the conversation away from his fridge.

"Wow. They took anything? you guys phoned the cops?" she questioned clearly amused, sitting beside them. Suddenly, her face frowned a bit "Are you guys on diet or what?" She said noticing the plates of dry cereals.

"No. nothing was taken, and we haven't called the police. We can barely explain ourselves how it started out." Madison said, still trying to prevent Jodie from noticing anything else odd about them.

"So shoot… I'm listening" she said, balancing her hand under her chin and drew closer to them.

Ike narrated all that transpired prior to her appearance. Jodie listened carefully till the narrative drew a close. 

"All I can say is someone probably broke in, to rob thinking no one was in. Maybe he got startled by seeing Ike and fled" she suggested.

"Or probably some smart guy was tryna send us some message — could be a threat" Madison joined in. Ike shook his head in disagreement, calling others attention to himself then said,

"I wanna add something. That was my room. I got nothing valuable that is worth breaking a window for. Besides there are much richer folks around, why ain't their house burgled.." "And as for the threat" Jodie interrupted "the only person that's at loggerheads with Ike is Mr Morton, the school custodian. Ike is the only one who still calls him the 'janitor'. I cannot see Mr Morton going about threatening people by breaking their windows."

The three agreed it was indeed a conundrum, what happened to Ike's window. They started off their engagements for that day. Ike pay wasn't enough to get his window fixed and his dad will never give money away without first finding out WHY. So he relied on wood and cardboards for the meantime to replace the window. During classes he shared his case with several of his pals, who gave several outrageous explanations. Some connected it with UFOs, witchcraft, and even top secret government experiments. 

"Hey, I heard a new horror movie is getting aired on Netflix, you guys got a subscription right?" Hearing this, Ike turned and saw the question came from Jodie. "Um yeah." he managed to utter.

"Cool. See you then" She turned to leave, but she noticed Ike was downcast. She nudged him on the shoulder "I went up to Mr Morton. He seems to be the only one who knows about stuff like windows and all— since he cleans them. I gave him your address, and he promised to check it out" 

"Oh that was kind of you letting my enemy know my lair" Ike replied chuckling.

"Yeah right. Tell Madison 'bout our plans" She added while briskly walking to her next lecture.

It was already getting dark when the trio settled in the sitting room, and Madison has fiddled the connections that would enable them watch the film. Coca cola drinks, pizza and popcorns were set up on the table for refreshments. Then they sat back and streamed the show.

The movie started out boring, then it got to a part where 'a Female character opened her door to welcome a visitor, only to realize a hybrid of an old woman and a centipede on the doorstep asking "Could you please help me find my glasses, I can't find them" while stretching an appendage towards her'. Then, Knock! Knock! was heard from the front door. That sound rattled them. They wondered if it was still the old centipede–woman at the door. Ike bravely got up and opened the door, there he found Mr Morton. "Ah it's you" Ike greeted, in a flat tone then, ushered him in. Madison and Jodie welcomed him and invited him to sit with them. But seeing a 'centipede-like old woman eating another human' deterred him from accepting the offer. Mr Morton then followed Ike up to his room, where the broken window was. Mr Morton sighted what remained of the window as well as the shards and frames. He picked them up and observed each one. While periodically asking Ike questions "You saw the rock used to bust it?"

"Nah, was asleep by the time. If it were here I could have seen it while cleaning"

"Then it could be a bat or a stick. Something like that"

"Possibly. But Madison's room is next to mine, and when he rushed in he saw nobody about. So, he assumed I did it"

"He saw nobody… Hmm if it weren't a projectile. Hard to imagine somebody climbing up here to bust a window and disappearing into thin air in matter of seconds"

"Anything is possible."

"I got an idea what happened… all I need now confirmation". At that point there was 'crashing'

sound downstairs just as they heard a loud scream as well. Alarmed, Mr Morton and Ike dashed out and made their way to source of the racket.

The couch were Madison and Jodie sat was empty, the junk foods sprawled on the floor, another window was thrashed. The TV was the only thing unaffected. Ike and Mr Morton were confused, till Jodie slowly emerged from her hiding place, holding a broom in defensive stance. They then observed Madison do likewise, from under a table. When asked what happened duo explained while they focused on the movie. At a bone chilling scene, the window behind them suddenly got smashed by someone — or something. "It was real scary, I mean breaking two windows can't be coincidence. Someone's out for trouble" said Jodie.

"Yeah. Whether y'all like it or not the police must hear of this" Madison said "Has the old man found anything?" The question drew the others attention to Mr Morton who deserted their group and was already investigating the newly broken window. Aware of their stare, Mr Morton broke away from his enquiry and strode towards them. "I have checked about. Didn't find any stone, and Nobody's on the street. We heard no car speeding off, did we?" 

Impatiently Madison asked "You implying the window broke on its own?"

Mr Morton smiled "Ever heard of Spontaneous Glass Breakage?". The group said No. "It seems the windows.." he began "that is fitted around the house came from the same company. The breakage could be caused by nickel sulphide inclusion during manufacturing or while the glass is framed it's edges get nicked, even when installing the window can be a cause . It could be anything"

"You sure of that?" Ike asked, slightly not convinced.

"Sure. In my many years I've seen glasses shatter for no absolute reason. I know a window expert who'd come check em all on Saturday. Before then I'd advise you all not to stick too close to windows"

The Three thanked him for his presence and he bade them goodbye. As soon as Madison closed the door he sighed. "I bet you, windows breaking on their own is not the only thing he's seen." He added jokingly. Ike was about laughing when he realized he was too close to an intact window and shifted himself a bit from it.