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.  As a child, Mary had always been told that her father was a brave soldier who had died in the Vietnam War. She had grown up with this story, and it had always been a source of pride and inspiration for her. But when Mary turned 70, she decided to take a DNA test to learn more about her family history. She had always been curious about her biological family and wanted to see if she had any long-lost relatives out there. Even though Mary expected to be surprised by a few things here and there, she wasn’t prepared for this discovery at all! She was expecting to learn more about possible nieces and nephews, not a lie that changed everything! Mary refused to accept the discovery at first. She checked the result again and again, as it felt very unlikely to her. But no matter how many times she repeated the test, the results were the same…  Mary went back in her mind to all those years, to all those memories. How was it possible, she asked herself. For a lifetime, 70 years, she had been lied to and was left with nothing but a shock.  But what was this lie? Who kept the truth from her, and why?  Mary, who enjoyed her life as a mother and by now grandmother, became curious about her family’s past. Now that she was enjoying her own family life so much, it felt only natural for her to learn about the origin of what was most important to her. There was a lot to learn…  Mary started to look for a specialist, starting on the internet. She came across many options, but most of them relied on an online method of taking the DNA. Mary decided on a real specialist, preferably specialized in the era of the Vietnam War. This decision was a game-changer.  Mary finds a specialist located in a town that would take 40 minutes to get to. Mary thinks it’s worth it and tries to make an appointment. But when she calls, no one picks up. ‘’How strange’’, she thinks. But this was only the beginning.  After calling again a while later, someone picks up. The DNA expert says he is happy to help Mary and says there is an open spot a day later. He asks for her family name, and right before hanging up, he insists on bringing as many photo albums as she can. This was rather unusual; why did Mary need proof?  After agreeing to the DNA specialist’s request, Mary starts to wonder. To her knowledge, there was no real need for photo albums, as DNA tests do not rely on photos. She then proceeds to check the website again and sees nothing mentioned about photo proof…  All Mary really wanted here was to check if her DNA matched anybody, and because she still remembered that her father had gone to the Vietnam war when she was just a little girl, it seemed like that was her biggest chance of finding a match… As far as she could figure out, all soldiers had to be registered and DNA identifiable if they were in the US military. But if those samples only existed in military databases, then it could possibly be very difficult to access those for the DNA testing company. That could explain their need for the photo album Maybe they wanted as much proof as possible before they would take on the task of gaining access to all the samples they could compare to her DNA. If she was just making something here or only acting on a hunch, the company could waste a lot of time. But still, why was that not the standard procedure then? What made her an exception? Mary still decides to go for it. This DNA expert seemed to be by far her best option, so she was willing to take the risk. She told herself, that her curiosity led her to this point, and if she wouldn’t carry on, she’d remain curious forever. But risky, it was…  Mary decides to get started right away. First, she grabs the photos that are spread around the house. Her favorite pictures had all been framed so that she could see them as much as possible. But she had many more than these, and most of them she had not looked at in ages She had a couple of old photo albums which she had inherited a long time ago. This was also where all the framed pictures came from, and they were her only link to memories of her family. But they were stored all the way in her attic and not easy for mary to get. The staircase was very steep and small, and the attic itself was filled with old junk that she could not make herself throw away at the time. Mary was lucky she still remembered where the photo albums exactly were. Otherwise, she could have been searching for hours up there… The first album she opens up turns out to miss multiple photographs of her father. She looks at all the other albums and checks the areas around the photo albums; the photos are nowhere to be seen. Did she possibly keep them somewhere else, and did she simply forget, or was someone else involved?  She was very sure that there had been in there when she got the albums as she had gone through them excessively to find the perfect photo’s to be displayed in the frames. And she marked the empty spots of the pictures she picked so that they could be put back in the right order. But these empty spots had no markings… Mary decides to call her slightly older sister. She seemed to remember an exchange of photos many years ago, and perhaps her sister forgot to return some of them. Looking back, Mary was right to think so.  Mary’s sister answered the phone quickly and was happy to be able to talk to Mary again. They talk each other up to speed on each other lives. Then, Mary asks her sister about the photos. Her sister is happy to help and shows good spirit in wanting to find the photos. But, this was only because she wasn’t aware of why Mary was looking for them… Mary’s sister was fairly sure that she had returned all the pictures she had borrowed. It had nearly been a decade, and her memory was a bit foggy these days, so she could not 100% be sure. But she felt like she had no need to keep any of the pictures and had not seen them in a long time. Or did she? For some reason, Mary felt like her sister was not telling her the whole truth. In her mind, there was nobody else who could have taken the pictures, so she started to press her sister a little more about them. But this makes her sister get a bit suspicious regarding the situation… As a response, Mary’s sister suddenly asks: ‘’Why do you need them anyway? Don’t we have enough photos of father?’’ Mary tells her sister about the DNA test; then, her sister, without hesitation and without warning, hangs up the phone!  Mary tried to figure out what the meaning of all this was. Was their connection interrupted? Did she hang up? Could her battery be dead? Mary proceeds to call many more times, as she cannot believe that her sister would be this disrespectful to her. And only after the fifth call does her sister pick up…  Only seconds after picking up, Mary’s sister starts to speak with great hostility. ‘’Mary, don’t you take that DNA test! You should leave the past where it belongs!’’ Immediately afterward, she hangs up the phone. Mary is left completely baffled. What was going on?…  Mary doesn’t give it too much thought and decides to sleep on it. After all, her sister acted strangely before, and now that they were becoming older, it only made sense that she acted out once in a while. But the words of her sister just keep ringing in her head. Even when they were still in very frequent contact with each other, they did not discuss the topic of their parents or other family members much. Mary had tried to bring it up a couple times, of course, but he sister had always swiftly shut it down. Did she maybe know more than she did? Part of Mary wants to learn more from her sister before she goes against her will and takes the DNA test. But then she would probably have to lie about it, and she just does not feel alright with doing that. She is going to stick with her original plan and decides to go to her appointment with the DNA specialist.  Mary arrives at the DNA specialist. She feels very welcome; the specialist made time for just her as no one else was around and made sure she felt comfortable. Looking back on all of this, the only reason for his warm welcome was because he didn’t know with what family he was dealing…  After the welcoming, Mary starts the DNA test. First, she has to fill in multiple forms with some basic and specific information. Secondly, the specialist needed a little sample of saliva. Before the DNA specialist could finish, he needed a blood sample. Soon, he would stumble upon something highly unusual…  Taking the blood took a little while, and Mary made sure to get comfortable. As she had some time to kill, she decided to text her sister. She knew that she was going against her closest family members’ wishes by being here, but she figured it could maybe draw a reaction out of her… Maybe if her sister knew she was doing this right now, she would be willing to share what she knew in order to stop her. So Mary texted her a picture of the DNA clinic and told her sister about the test she was undergoing this instant. It wouldn’t take long before she would get a response… Mary got a text back right after. It read: ‘’Please Mary, leave the clinic while you still can! If you don’t want to do it for your own sake, do it for the family’s sake! I beg you!’’. Mary did not expect her sister’s reaction to being this extreme, but she made sure not to lose sight of her goal. She started to try and ask her sister for more details. WHY could she not go through with this? All her sisters were telling her was that it was a bad decision, but she had not heard a single good argument for it. And while her sister did respond to this, it was not what mary wanted to hear The inspiration had seemingly left the text messages that came in, and Mary could feel more acceptance of the situation. her sister told her that she could not tell her the reason and that Mwry just had to trust her. Mary felt some hesitation, but she had barely time to think it over as the DNA specialist walked in…  The specialist hesitated to come in any further and took little steps. He had one of the photo albums in his hand. He’d completely turned pale, and while he looked just at the ground instead of Mary, he couldn’t seem to find the right words. What did he find out?  Mary asks him what is going on. He asks Mary to leave. But Mary doesn’t accept; first her sister is acting out and telling her to leave, and now the specialist, after almost finishing the procedure! Wasn’t it time they would tell her the truth?!  But the specialist has made up his mind and leaves right away. It’s clear he has something to hide but isn’t keen on sharing it, even though Mary clearly has the right to know. He leaves the room and proceeds to make an urgent call. We all know who he was calling.  Mary follows him to the room and clearly hears him mentioning her sister’s name after picking up the phone. This raises so many questions, and Mary feels terribly fooled. She decides to take matters into her own hands and marches out of the building She just can’t understand what connection there is between her sister and this DNA clinic. How did the specialist know to call her, and what in the photo album had made him want to do that in the first place. All Mary could do was speculate, and after thinking long and hard, only one thing made sense… Maybe Mary had not been the first one to get curious about their mysterious family history. Her sister had always been the one with the more curious nature out of the 2 of them and so could it not have been possible that she had taken all the steps Mary was making a long time ago? The pictures she had borrowed at the time could have also been to assist in a DNA test at this same facility. Hence why the specialist had maybe recognized them in the books, and that would also explain why he knew to call her sister. But there was one thing still not making sense to Mary… What could the DNA test her sister might have taken have revealed that was so bad that she could not know under seemingly any circumstances. Even when keeping the secret was tearing the whole family apart! And in the end, it only made Mary want to know more… But Mary does need a new way to get answers. Both her sister nor another DNA test was out of the question, so maybe there were other family members that could help. Members that were as little further removed from the situation and had no reason to work against her… Mary decides to go to her niece, the daughter of her sister. It would take her a while to get there, but it would certainly be worth it. Her niece was a lawyer, and she’d therefore be interested in the truth rather than family sentiment. And this was much needed.  She arrives, and her niece, Jessy, is pleasantly surprised. They hug it out and talk each other up to speed since it’s been a while. And all these questions naturally soon led to Mary explaining her situation, without mentioning her sister. But Jessy already had a feeling…  ‘’It’s my mom, isn’t it?’’ Mary is stunned. Jessy then starts to explain the mystery surrounding the family. She starts to tell about her youth, during which she was told all sorts of heroic stories about all her grandparents. These stories were mostly about the family that was no longer alive. But it got worse…  At some point, as the stories kept changing, Jessy started to see the lies and confronted her mother. Her mother responded with nothing but anger and demanded the respect a mother deserves. Jessy knew she was hiding something, and when she started digging in by searching for photographs in the basement, she was forbidden to come there.  Mary is completely baffled! ‘’So you’ve never been to the basement since then?’’ Jessy shakes her head. Mary proceeds to ask Jessy what she still remembers from the basement. Jessy’s eyes open wide; ‘’Aunt Mary, there were so many photo albums, you wouldn’t believe it…’’ After this, Mary naturally knows where to go from here. She realizes this may cause some further family drama and doesn’t want to drag Jessy into it. She proceeds to stay for dinner and plans on leaving afterward. But when she leaves, something surprising happens.  Instead of waving her goodbye, Jessy steps into the car with Mary! After Mary tells her she is fine by herself, Jessy demands to be taken along. Mary accepts and drives off to her sister. She realized that she was getting close to the truth, now that there were two of them. And close, she was.  There was only one place that Mary could think to go to now. If she wanted more answers she needed to get into the basement of her sister’s house and just hope that the photo albums were still there. And Jessy could maybe even help to get her into the house! They arrive. No one seems to be around, since it’s completely dark inside the house. They knock on the door; no reaction. They walk around the house and call Mary’s sister but again, no reaction. Where could she be? At the DNA specialist, perhaps?  There is a way in, but this would come with a risk. Jessy had a spare key and proposed to go in. Mary is considering possible other options, but none of them were as effective as simply going in. However, they both realize that they are crossing a very clear line here… Even though Jessy is the daughter and she has keys to the house, they would still be going in without permission, and this could very much be considered breaking and entry if Mary’s sister wanted to spin it that way. But they dec died that this was not going to stop them and Mary and Jessy went in…  After making sure Mary’s sister wasn’t there, they immediately went to the basement. But sure enough, there was more trouble ahead; the basement was locked! All the more reason to go in, but they either had to find the key or break it open…  ‘’Why not both?’’ comes to Jessy’s mind. So, Mary starts looking for the key, and Jessy grabs a screwdriver to force the lock. Mary finds dozen of keys, but none of them seem to be from the same brand as the lock. Jessy has more success; with the help of a hammer, she manages to force the lock! But an ugly surprise was awaiting them.  A loud alarm went off! The ladies panic! What to do now? The alarm was really loud, and if they didn’t manage to shut it down, someone would call the police! They try and try, but can’t seem to deactivate the alarm. A decision has to be made, and Mary is the one taking responsibility… She tells Jessy to leave right away! The police would arrive soon, and her arrest would harm her work as a lawyer to a great extent. Jessy agrees and leaves right away. However, even though Mary managed to protect Jessy, there was another decision to make. Would Mary go in the basement now that she had the chance?  At this point, the situation can’t get much worse, so why would she not just push through when she had the chance and go to get what she was looking for? She went back and forth in her mind for a little while,m but very quickly, the right decision was obvious… She decides to take her chance. After all, wouldn’t she be able to come up with some excuse for the police, considering her age and the fact it was her sister’s house? She grabs a flashlight and goes in. And well, Jessy wasn’t wrong about the number of photo albums…  It doesn’t take Mary long before she finds the missing photos from her own photo albums. ‘’But why…’’ she whispers. However, these photos still don’t answer all the questions she had. She kept looking and looking, but with a distracting alarm in the background and a completely dark basement, it was quite hard.  All of a sudden, there’s another light shining into the basement; it’s the flashlight of a police officer. He tells Mary to come up immediately. He has the forced lock in his hands and says to Mary, sarcastically: ‘’I’m guessing you don’t live here, little lady?’’  Mary tried to play the little confused old person that was just looking for her sister, but the officer was not buying it one bit. And Mary could not blame him as all the signs did point to her coming here to look for something. Mary was arrested on the spot… And there Mary goes, off to the police station. What a terrible tragedy all of this became. It started with an innocent woman, curious about her family’s past, and ended up with an arrest. And still without any answers! Luckily for Mary, the story wasn’t over yet.  But before she would get answers, she had to provide some herself. The police wanted to know why she was there and why she broke into the basement. Mary blamed her age and tried to tell them this was something between the two sisters. She was sure not to involve the police in this family drama. But could she manage?  But the police don’t fall for fit. They demanded some real answers after they didn’t find a spare key on her. They understood she either broke in or was helped in by someone else. Mary understood she had to give them something but was very clever in getting something in return…  Mary demands to talk to her sister. ‘’She’ll be here in no time if you tell her I broke in..’’ she says to the officer. The officer looks somewhat confused and asks if she’s sure. But Mary was sure, and like she said, her sister would arrive only 20 minutes later.  Mary’s sister comes in and sits next to her. They don’t say a word to each other. A new team of officers arrives and tells them to come clean. Mary starts to tell everything, from beginning to end! It wouldn’t take one of the officers long before he realized what family he was dealing with…  The officer walks out and comes back in with some documents. One of the documents is an old photo of their father! He asks them to confirm. And with stale faces, they do. Mary’s sister looks down as she knows the truth is about to unfold. Mary can’t wait. ‘’What is it, officer?’’  Mary’s father turned out to be a war hero during the Vietnam War. Back then, he made sure to keep a Vietnamese political leader in safe hands. This same leader became, shortly after, a deciding factor in the much-needed peace between the two armies.  Her sister had known this all along. She wanted to protect her sister, because the family had received a lot of backlash; the protection of the enemy was frowned upon because most people didn’t know why their father did it. Later, their father was awarded for it. With those awards and the many photos, Mary and her sister opened a little museum celebrating their hero.