“When this man inherited an abandoned trailer from his deceased father, he was confused. The young man hadn’t seen his father in over 15 years, so to find out he was dead and to get the keys to this trailer out of the blue came as a huge surprise. And what he found inside made him burst into tears: son inherits dad’s abandoned trailer, bursts into tears when he enters it.
There he stood in a random forest in front of a trailer he never saw before. The 18-year-old Mark had no idea why he received this gift from his apparently deceased father. Mark hadn’t seen his father or mother in over 15 years, but his father had a very good reason for gifting it.
Mark walked around the trailer a couple of times, trying to inspect what was so special about it, but there was nothing out of the ordinary he could find. The thing looked worn down like it was neglected for years, but that was because he had not seen the inside yet, and it was time to explore that now. Mark used the key that came with the letter to open the door. The trailer door creaked open, and Mark could now venture inside.
The smell of mold and animal feces rushed toward his nose. Everything looked rotten, and Mark couldn’t imagine that his father had lived here. But he would soon make a shocking discovery amongst the pile of rubbish inside. Mark looked around, opening drawers and pinching his nose while he did it. Then something startled him. He heard a loud noise coming out of one of the kitchen cabinets. Something was definitely in there, and the scare did not end with just sounds emanating from the cabinet because whatever was in there had noticed the presence of Mark, and it was ready to come out.
Mark saw the cabinet’s door moving violently, and the sight of the vibrating door built up the nerves inside his body. At first, his instinct was to run out of the trailer, but for some reason, he also felt curious. He regained his composure and moved towards the cabinet. Mark placed his hand on top of the door and opened it slowly. That’s when he saw what was hiding inside: a huge possum came rushing out of the kitchen cabinet and jolted past the young man. Mark jumped backward out of initial fright and landed harshly on the ground. When he realized, however, that it was just a possum, he laughed out of relief.
But that’s when he saw what else was hidden away in the cabinet. Hidden away in the corner of the cabinet, Mark saw a small notebook. It was covered in dust, but when he crawled closer, he saw the name of his father clearly written on top. It was the first non-disgusting thing he found, and the name of his father intrigued him. Nervously, Mark opened the small notebook, wondering what could be inside. It was strange to hold something that belonged to his father. The last time he saw him, he was a small boy.
So when Mark saw what was inside, he got a bit emotional. It turned out to be a diary detailing the life of his father. But this diary turned out to be much more than just some written words about his father because after a couple of pages, Mark dropped the notebook in shock. He picked up the diary again and stared at the page in front of him. There was a letter in there, and it was addressed to him. His father, first of all, hoped that Mark was doing well, and then it said that he and Mark’s mother never wanted to leave their son’s side. But it said that they did not have a choice because, if they did, they would put the life of their son in grave danger.
The writing continued with his father saying that he hoped his son was now doing well. He was glad that Mark could grow up in safety. But now, my son, it’s time you know the truth. Mark was completely confused. He stared at the pages with an open mouth. What danger and what truth, he blurted out. The page ended with the promise of telling Mark the truth. So when the confused Mark turned that page and saw a phone number written in the center of it, Mark felt his heart skip a beat. It said, ‘Call this number as soon as you read this.’
Mark stared at the phone number with tear-filled eyes. With the notebook in one hand and his phone in the other, Mark stepped out of the trailer. He tried to remember where it all went wrong, trying to make sense of why his parents left him. He was just 3 years old when they vanished out of the blue. The mysterious circumstances of their disappearance were never fully understood. Mark was placed on the doorstep of his grandmother’s house, and from that point on, his Nan took care of him. She never understood what happened either. They searched for Mark’s father and mother for years, but not a single trace was ever found.
And now, out of the blue, Mark stood on the precipice of finally finding out what might have happened. He was nervous to call the number, but he knew that he wanted to find out the truth. So with shaky hands, he pressed in the numbers, wondering who would answer the phone. The phone rang for a few seconds, and then a woman appeared on the other end of the line. Mark wanted to introduce himself, but before he got the chance, the woman interrupted him. She called him out by name, and that fact frightened Mark. How does this woman know that I’m calling?
Mark held his phone at a distance, staring at the number. Who is this woman, and why does she know who I am? Mark was confused and asked the woman who she was, but he did not get the response he hoped for. The woman refused to give up her name, but she did do something else. The woman started talking in a quiet tone, as if she was afraid that someone would hear her. She didn’t hesitate to get to the point, though. The woman pleaded with Mark to head to a spot behind the trailer. ‘There should be a white garden chair there. That’s where I want you to start digging,’ she said.
Mark was taken aback by the woman’s detailed knowledge of his surroundings. He walked around the trailer and indeed saw the white garden chair. He asked why he should dig and why he should trust her, but the woman only said that it was of grave importance that he did. The woman continued by saying that beneath about a foot of dirt, there was an object buried there, and it was of the utmost importance that Mark dug it up from the ground. The woman asked Mark to call her the instant he found it, and after that remark, she disconnected the call abruptly.
Mark hesitated for a moment. He didn’t know this woman, and she was handing out demands to him without even telling him her own name. ‘Why should I listen to her? This is all so strange,’ Mark said to himself. But curiosity got the better of him. So, using a broken-off table leg, he started digging. It took him just a few minutes, but pretty soon, he dug up enough dirt to see something hidden beneath it all. It was rectangular, white, and covered in a plastic-sealed bag. Mark didn’t want to admit it, but the sight of the object he was commanded to dig up excited him.
Mark pulled the object out of the ground and saw that it was a large white binder. It was still in decent condition because of the tight seal that surrounded it. ‘What could be inside?’ he wondered. Mark dusted off the exterior and removed the plastic seal, revealing a binder inside. Mark opened the binder and saw dozens of documents. They seemed to be filled with legal stuff he didn’t understand. The papers dated back years ago, and the names on the documents didn’t ring a bell.
Below that was a large stack of bank transfers, and at the very end of the binder, Mark found one sealed picture. The documents and transfers seemed too much like gibberish for the 18-year-old Mark. He didn’t like economics in high school, so why would he try to make sense of it now? But the picture was something that did pique his interest. The image showed five men with their faces clearly visible on camera. He wondered what this all meant. What made these documents and this picture so important? It all felt a little bit shady. He wanted answers, and the woman on the phone did seem to know more.
So Mark decided to listen to her demands and call her back now that he found her binder. He called up the mysterious woman once more, and it only took one ring for her to answer. It was clear to Mark that she was eagerly waiting by the phone for his call. ‘And did you find it?’ she asked him. Mark replied by saying that he dug up a white binder. Mark could hear the woman crying on the other end of the line. She must have thanked him over 20 times. ‘You have no idea what you have just done. This is going to change everything,’ she said to Mark.
It went quiet for about a minute after that, but then she said something extraordinary. The woman let out two low-sounding and long breaths, like she was building up to something. ‘Now that we know you found this, I can finally tell you the truth. What I am about to say to you might come as a complete shock, but try to listen. Keep an open mind,’ the woman said.
The woman on the other phone then gave Mark news he was not expecting. She told him that she was his mother. ‘My name is Judy Peterson, and you are my son, Mark.’ The woman started crying and added that she was so sorry for everything that happened. But there was more; that wasn’t the end of the shocking news the woman brought. Because what she said next hit Mark like a ton of bricks. Judy told him that she wasn’t waiting by the phone alone. ‘Your father, Henry, is not dead. He is alive and well, and he’s here with me.’
Judy put the phone on speaker and asked Mark to talk quietly when he answered. That’s when the young man heard an older male voice appear on the phone. The man told him that he was his father. Judy then added that both of them had been stuck in witness protection for over 15 years. Mark couldn’t believe it. This day was like a roller coaster for him. He went from not knowing anything about his parents to finding out his father was dead. And now he got told that both of his parents were still alive. ‘How can this be?’ he asked while wiping the tears from his face.
Judy told Mark that she and his father got put into witness protection after unwillingly being involved in criminal affairs. ‘The documents you now hold are the key evidence to take down that criminal organization once and for all. We placed them there in the ground for you to find.’ She said the illegal documents and transactions are the main part of the evidence. She said there were large-scale bank transfers and contracts that proved the immense fraud scheme these criminals were involved in. But the key that connected all of it together was the picture Mark now held firmly in his hands.
‘The sealed picture in the back, do you see it?’ Judy asked him. Mark answered by humming in a positive manner. ‘Well, that picture shows you the five heads of the crime organization the police have been trying to find for years. And you now have all the proof to identify them. But why was all of this evidence in your possession?’ Mark asked his parents.
His mother tried to explain the situation delicately. ‘We gathered it all over the years because we were deeply embedded in their organization. It’s not that we had criminal intent ourselves; we had no choice, you see. Your father was an accountant; he did the bookkeeping for a major corporation. But what he didn’t realize was that this criminal organization had infiltrated every part of that company. He did their bookkeeping for years without realizing it. And when he did finally find out, we were in too deep to get out of their criminal web. So that’s when we started collecting evidence to incriminate the organization. But once we had enough, we knew that we had to make the toughest choice of our life.’
His mother said that leaving Mark was the single hardest thing they ever had to do. ‘But we had no choice.’ She said that the evidence Mark now held in his hands put a target on his parents’ back, and as the organization grew more and more suspicious, Henry started to notice that they were secretly being followed everywhere they went. Eventually, it all became so bad that they had to go into witness protection. ‘We didn’t want you to grow up in an environment where danger was always lurking around the corner. We didn’t know if tomorrow was going to be the day when those criminals would find us. You were so young, and you deserve to grow up carefree. So that’s why we gave you to your grandmother.’
After the explanation was done, there was only one thing left to do. Judy asked her son to deliver the entire binder to the police station. There, the evidence could be sorted, and maybe then all of this could end. ‘But don’t go to the police station downtown. Anywhere but downtown,’ she said in a panic. Mark was quiet and listened like his mother had asked him to. He was distrustful at first, but as her story continued, Mark started to believe her. He knew his mother was telling the truth and understood why they did what they did. Tears were streaming down his face as he got ready to answer.
After a short moment of complete silence, Mark started talking. He thanked his mother for making that tough decision and assured them that he had a good life with Grandma. But after hearing everything explained, there was one thing he didn’t understand. ‘Why didn’t you just go to the police back then?’ His mother let out a sigh of despair. She told her son that this was exactly what they did 15 years ago. They went to the police and told them everything they knew. The police seemed to take it very seriously and promised us that they would help. But then something strange happened.
After coming clean to the police, we were sent home. We waited days for a response, and a response we got, but not the one we expected. When we came home late one day, we opened the front door just to find out that our entire house was trashed. Clearly, people had been searching every inch. The police were the only ones who knew about the evidence against the criminal organization. Luckily, we had a personal friend within that precinct who could help us. He confirmed that a growing fear arose that the organization had even infiltrated his own
department. Nobody could be trusted, and the evidence had to be hidden. That’s when that friend within the force made the brave call to go rogue. He put us into witness protection without anyone within his own precinct knowing about it. We were totally off the grid, but not before hiding the evidence somewhere where nobody would be able to find it.
His mother finished her explanation by saying that this was the exact reason why Mark could not go to the police station downtown. They didn’t know which officers there could be trusted, and even bringing it to their friend was risky. “We don’t know who’s watching in there,” Judy said.
Mark understood completely now. He promised to help them take down these evil men. So after hanging up the phone, he did not hesitate for one moment. Mark got into his car and drove as fast as he could to the police precinct two towns over. And that’s when it all went really fast.
Mark walked into the police station with the binder tucked tightly under his arms. He asked for the commanding officer, and after waiting for a minute or so, a stern-looking man stepped forward. Mark shared his story and presented the man with the binder. They stepped into an interrogation room, and together with a few other cops, they inspected the evidence. It was a lot, so it took a little while for it all to make sense, but Mark could see the eyes of all officers grow in shock as they put together the puzzle pieces.
One pointed at the picture that lay on top of the documents. “That is the head of the police in North County!” The other officers now saw it too. They needed to investigate this further. So they told Mark to go home and wait for a phone call. Mark agreed and waited eagerly for their response. Luckily for him, he didn’t have to wait long.
It was Sunday morning, and Mark was just about to finish a hearty breakfast with his grandmother when the doorbell rang. “Who could that be?” his grandma asked. But somehow Mark already knew. He had a gut feeling that policemen would greet him once he opened the door.
Mark pulled on the front door, and he was greeted by a man in uniform. “What is it, officer?” Mark said. “Do you have news about the thing we looked at?” Mark asked carefully. The policeman nodded. “We can confirm that because of your evidence, we arrested all the involved parties, including the three police officers in North County.”
The police officer then smiled again as he turned his bulky body sideways. He was blocking Mark’s view of what was behind him, but now Mark could clearly see a police car parked on the road. Out of it stepped two individuals, two individuals who had waited to hug Mark for a long time.
The officer said that everything was safe once more. Now that the entire organization is behind bars, we see no reason for your parents to remain in witness protection. So that’s why we exchanged information with their friend over in North County, which led to their address. “Are you ready to meet your parents?” Mark didn’t have to think twice about his answer.
He stepped past the policeman and walked over to his parents, who were already in full sprint. It was a heartfelt moment. All three of them had tears in their eyes as they hugged each other again for the first time in 15 years.
