Mason was devastated by the loss of his wife and son three years ago in a car accident. They were driving through the mountains when their car lost control and plunged into a raging river. The police couldn’t even find the bodies, and Mason was left to grieve and mourn without any closure or resolution. But then a miracle happened. Suddenly he saw them walking in a park hundreds of miles from their town. Mason couldn’t believe his eyes. So Mason ran towards them and embraced them both tightly. But as he held onto them, his wife’s tears began to fall. “I have to tell you something ….” Mason looked and looked, trying to figure out who they were! Sure, the accident had been three years, but he was still very aware of what his beloved wife and son looked like, and he knew who he was seeing!  He couldn’t believe it! Three long years without them, and there they were! He rubbed his eyes and kept looking at them. Many questions were to be answered: what happened to them, why did it take them so long to show themselves, and the most important question: was it really them?  Mason had no choice but to approach them. Every step took him a minute, as his mind raced. This was the moment his future would be decided. After approaching them, Mason was left in shock…  But how did they get there? Was it really them? And what happened when Mason finally approached them? Mason lost his wife and son three years ago during a fatal car crash. He survived the accident himself and woke up several weeks from a coma. That’s when he heard about the passing of his son and wife. He has lived at an asylum ever since, to recover both physically and mentally.  It took him all he had to learn to walk again. It barely gave him the chance to grieve. Naturally, his was quite unhealthy. He walked in a park nearby to recover both physically and mentally. He walked the same route every single day, but this particular day had something truly remarkable in store for him.  He was walking the park, enjoying the sounds of birds chirping and the smell of the recently mowed grass. He reaches the fountain. As a daily routine, he washed his hands in the water coming out of the fountain. He then sees a woman and little boy walking, quite far away. Something about them resonates with him.  Out of curiosity, Mason decides to get a little closer. He doesn’t seem to get any closer, as walking still takes an effort, and them being far more mobile. They disappear before he can get any closer. He doesn’t know anything about them, yet, he has a feeling. He wasn’t wrong…  The next day, he returns to the park. Since his stay in the asylum, Mason had become very precise. Naturally, that meant he’d go back to the next day at the exact same time and the exact same location. But they are nowhere to be seen. He accepts it and lets go of it. This would turn out to be too soon.  The rest of the week passes by without Mason seeing them or even being aware of them. Then, exactly a week later, Mason does his daily walk again. He sees them again! Again, the woman is holding the hand of the little boy and Mason can’t stop seeing the similarity between this woman and boy, and his wife and son. He’s in shock.  Back at the asylum, Mason shares his thoughts with his psychiatrist. The psychiatrist eases his mind: he tells him how these are probably just phases of his mourning. They’ll just pass. Even though Mason truly trusts his psychiatrist, he has a hard time accepting this as an explanation. He is convinced of what he saw.  Back in his room, Mason wants clarity. He knows he has to come up with a plan in order to see the woman and boy better. How will he do this? How would he come closer without scaring them? He comes up with something and goes back to the park the next day with a thought-out plan.  As his possible wife and son would show up at a very precise moment of the day, he thought of coming a bit early. This way, he could wait at the side of the park where they came from. This way, he wouldn’t have to follow them to see who they were. But Mason has to ask permission in the asylum first, as he has to leave earlier. It takes a long time, and Mason grows anxious.  Finally, Mason is allowed to leave a bit early. If he rushes, he’d still be in time. While he’s on his way, he can’t help but visualize his wife and son. He can’t shake the image. He’s nearing the place he had in mind and keeps walking as fast as he can. Would he be on time?  Mason takes place at the park bench. He feels restless and excited at the same time; this could change his life completely! He tries to close his eyes but keeps imagining his wife and son when he does. He tries to enjoy the sounds of the birds chirping, but can’t seem to appreciate it this time. Then, finally, the woman and little boy seem to appear…  Mason patiently waits. They are a lot closer now, but Mason doesn’t dare to come closer. He doesn’t really know what he is seeing. Are they really his wife and son? Weren’t they buried underground, didn’t he visit them weekly? Mason is terribly conflicted, and little does he know, time is running out. Mason goes back to the asylum. He feels strange, detached from reality. He doesn’t know whether to feel joyful or defeated. Did he imagine things, or did he really his wife and son? One thing was for certain: life at the asylum would drastically change.  Mason’s recovery stagnates. After the other day, he no longer goes for his daily walks. This meant a relapse, both physically and mentally. He didn’t leave his room anymore and frequently missed out on his therapy sessions. But this would soon change.  One day, Mason decides to visit his psychiatrist. Mason isn’t really eager to talk; he just wanted to leave his room for a little while. The psychiatrist tries to get through to him, but barely manages. He asks Mason to at least go for his daily walks again. Mason agrees, but on one condition… Mason demands less medication. He’s convinced that he imagines his wife and son and blames it on the medication. Besides, he doesn’t WANT to see them, it only hurts him if they aren’t real! The psychiatrist agrees on a trial time with less medication as long as Mason keeps him updated. Little did they know, this trial would be life-changing.  After a few days of less medication and feeling the difference, Mason starts walking the park again. He feels incredibly grateful. The weather is nice, and the fresh air helps him relieve his thoughts. It doesn’t take him long to reach the park.  Mason reached the fountain, where he washed his hands again. He’s completely relaxed. But when he looks up, he sees the woman and boy again! He doesn’t know what he’s seeing. He washed his face with the water to make sure he could believe his eyes, and saw them again! Perhaps, it wasn’t the medicine!  This time, Mason stays close. He walks toward them, but they seem to go in the opposite direction; he has to follow them. He can’t manage to get closer, so he starts yelling at them. At first: ‘’Madam!’’, but soon after (when he starts to believe it really is his wife) he yells ‘’Susie!’’, ‘’Susie!’’  The woman and the little boy walk up a path in the park, he can no longer see them. But he knows this path has a dead end, this would be his chance to finally see and identify them! He walks as fast as he can and takes the same path.  Once he’s around the corner and he can see the entire path, he sees the little boy and woman sitting on a little bench. He still has quite a distance to overcome but can clearly see them. He walks toward them as they look at him as well. They smile and seem joyful.  The closer Mason gets, the better the view of the woman and her little boy is. Mason realizes better and better how they really look, as opposed to how he imagined them. Their faces and bodies are getting more clear with each step, then he realizes something.  They may look like his wife and son, but Mason now sees that they’re not. He feels confused, unsure of what to do, while he rubs his eyes. Should he leave or stay? Did he trick himself into seeing this? Then, upon deciding what to do, something strange happens…  The woman speaks to Mason. She is friendly. The woman asks him what’s going on and whether he needs help with something. Mason doesn’t know what to say. The woman is so remarkably alike to his wife, yet she isn’t. He stutters while trying to answer her, then leaves. But he’d come to regret leaving….  After a few meters, Mason changes his mind and turns around. He sees the woman and the little boy getting ready to leave. They walk past him, while he’s unsure of what to say to them. He just knows he has to say something; ‘’E-excuse me, madam. Can I ask you something?’’ The question that would follow, was shocking to the woman.  ‘’Were you in an accident three years ago?’’ Naturally, the woman doesn’t respond at first. She only looks at him. Mason then repeats his question, this time more slowly and with more sensibility. A tear rolls down the woman’s cheek. Finally, she answers.  ‘’Yes..’’, she answers! Mason doesn’t believe what he’s hearing. Now, he’s the one that’s quiet! He starts to look around. Who set this up? What did they want from him? This couldn’t be real! He looks at her again, then he realizes something…  Mason’s running out of time! He has to be back at the asylum in only 12 minutes! He has many things to ask the woman, but simply doesn’t have the time to do so! He weighs his options, but realizes that if he came back too late with this encounter as the reason, they’d think he lost his mind! Luckily, Mason has a plan.  He says to the woman: ‘’I don’t know who you are, but we have to talk, don’t you agree?’’ At first, the woman doesn’t answer. Mason gently grabs her by her wrist and repeats his question. Finally, the woman agrees. They agreed to meet the next day.  Mason returns to the asylum, just in time. He’s completely overwhelmed but tries to keep his cool and look at this in a relative way. He refuses to look for answers and just wants to embrace all this as something supernatural. Finally, there was a light in his life, no matter how absurd it was.  That night, Mason keeps dreaming about the woman and her little boy. He gets up extra early to make sure he won’t be late. He can’t be too early as well, as he needs all the time he’s allowed to stay away to talk to the woman and her son. Unfortunately, a terrible obstacle would appear.  Mason reports at the reception and asks to leave. Just when he’s about to leave, he sees the gardener of the park standing next to some doctors. Mason greets them, but only the doctors respond. Then, out of nowhere, the gardener says something to the doctor and points at Mason! What could he mean by that?  The doctors approach Mason, and kindly ask him to come with them. But Mason doesn’t want to, he has to meet the woman and her son! What was he supposed to do? They would think he’s mad if he told them where he was heading, but on the other hand, he couldn’t afford to miss out on this appointment…  Mason cooperates for now but tries to make them understand that he really wants to go outside, like any other day. They keep responding by saying: ‘’Later… Later…’’ Then, they ask Mason to sit down. The moment of truth.  Mason tells himself to cooperate as well as he can. Perhaps he could still make it to the park on time. He friendly asks them to explain what is going on after he sits down. The doctors start explaining. Mason can not believe what he’s hearing…  They tell Mason that the gardener apparently reported Mason’s behavior at the park! Behavior? What behavior? The gardener told the doctors that Mason’s behavior supposedly was ‘offputting’ for the other park visitors, as he’s worried about their well-being after encountering what was ‘’clearly a madman’’. Mason is speechless…  Luckily, the doctors realize that the gardener is overreacting; he came to them many times before, with similar complaints. They didn’t take him that seriously but still had to respect them as they didn’t want any trouble. This led to some bad news for Mason…  The doctors tell Mason that he can’t go to the park anymore. He’s still allowed to go out, but the park is off-limits for the time being. This was disastrous for Mason; the park was all that mattered to him! He can’t believe it. The only chance of meeting the woman and her little boy again ceased to exist…  Mason leaves the office, feeling terribly discouraged. He had hoped with all that he had to meet the woman and her son again, but faith had other plans. He can’t shake the thought of what the woman and her son must be thinking of him now. Would they be disappointed or relieved?  Mason refused to go back to his room. He wanted fresh air, especially now that he had to digest such devastating news. He walks outside, takes a right (where he’d usually take a left to go to the park), and just starts walking. But he was about to make a life-changing decision.    Mason may have gone out to calm down, but he only gets angry! He questions everything; why would he allow an interfering gardener to ruin his life? Why would he let some doctors tell him what he can or can’t do? He turns around, and starts walking to the park as fast as he can!  Mason arrived at the park only shortly after, and sees that there was no gardener whatsoever! He passed by the fountain and was now only minutes away from the place where he was supposed to meet the woman and her son. He walks so fast that, despite his crutches, he’s close to running! He’s really close now…  He takes the path to the bench, looks in the distance, and sees a woman and a little boy sitting on it! Would it be them? Was he on time, or was he mistaken again? He looks over his shoulder to make sure he isn’t followed, and when he sees nothing, he approaches the woman and her little boy.  There they were; a woman, looking just like his wife. And a boy on her lap, just looking like his son! It’s the woman and little boy from before! Mason can’t believe it, he was on time! His disbelief took only a brief moment as they looked disturbed! He greets them but gets no reaction. What was going on?  He asks them if something’s wrong. Then, the mother replies: ‘’We were terribly worried. You were so late, we feared that you set us up or something. And now, you look so worried yourself. Are you okay, dear Mason?’’ Mason is glad to hear her so worried, as he realizes that she was genuine. Then, they finally reveal who they are.  Like Mason already knew, they weren’t his wife and son. However, they had an accident as well three years ago. They survived it, but her husband and the little boy’s father had died. The fact that Mason and the woman and her son ran into each other, was nothing but a coincidence or perhaps, destiny. They became close friends, and Mason left the asylum only weeks after.