I went to the diner after school to meet up with Marely but did not see her. Instead, Naomi was there. I sat at a table and she came over. She apologized for the way she reacted the other day in the cafeteria. She told me that if Marley wanted my help, then she did too.
"So where's Marely," I asked her.
"She went to a doctor's appointment with my grandmother, but they should be back soon," Naomi said right as they were walking in.
Marley came straight over to the table. "Hi, sorry for the wait guys, I had to stop by the house to grab this," she lifted up a small shoe box she was holding in her hand.
"Don't worry about it," I said.
Alan came from the kitchen. He was working a shift. "You guys ready for the meeting?"
"Yeah," Naomi said.
"Alright, let me take these last two orders, then I'll be right over."
The four were all sitting in a booth and going over the case.
"Benjamin since you're new to all of this. Naomi and I composed a box of clues. One year ago, we were roaming around our old house. The same house we lived in with our parents before our dad disappeared and before our mom got admitted to a mental hospital...we found some clues," she paused. "Here, read this," she opened the box and handed me a tan colored envelope.
I took it from her.
"It was sent from my dad's job, the T.S.I. Naomi found it in our dad's desk."
"Any NEW clues?" Alan asked.
"Not at all," Naomi said.
I pulled a white piece of paper out from the envelope. The words were typed. It read...
"Joseph Williams,
The T.S.I has sent you this letter to inform you of the property belonging to The T.S.I that you took. You have continuously dismissed our request to return what you took. This is the last and final warning to bring back T.S.I property. No further questions or letters will be sent regarding this. Thank you.
T.S.I, Dr. Maddison."
"It sounds like a threat," I said, handing the envelope and paper back to Marley.
"It is a threat," Naomi said.
They are much more dangerous, if they are willing to threaten someone's life. - I thought.
"That was the first thing we found that got us thinking that something wasn't right," Marley said.
"What did they mean by 'T.S.I property?" I asked.
"That's what we are trying to figure out."
"I say he stole some tech," Alan added.
Naomi looked at Alan. "Our dad wasn't a tech guy Alan," she said.
"Yeah, but people always get caught for that stuff. Stealing codes, Hacking into government files."
"He wouldn't do something like that."
"So what else is in the box?" I asked.
"There's just one more thing, a photo." Marley handed it to me.
The photo was of some kind of creature. The picture only showed a side profile of her face and upper body. She was wearing a dress with sunflowers on it. She had long, straight, dark blue hair. It looked just like a human little girl but her skin was a teal-ish blue color. I figured it had to be some kind of foreign species.
"Woah," I said.
"Weird right?" said Marley.
"Yeah it is."
"I say it's an alien," Alan said.
"But aliens don't exist," Naomi said.
I continued to stare at the picture. The weird thing was I had seen this creature before in a dream. In the dream I had, a mother that looked like the creature in the picture, was giving birth to her son, but it didn't end well. Doctors whose faces I couldn't see, ripped her baby from her right after giving birth.
Seeing the same creature gave me a gut wrenching feeling inside of my stomach.
"Where did you find the picture?" I held it out and showed them.
"Same place we found the letter," Marley said.
I nodded. "So where does this leave us?"
"Well considering, this thing looks like an alien, we all think my dad may have been abducted by aliens."
"But what about the threat, it seems like the T.S.I definitely has something to do with your father disappearing," I said, handing her the picture back. "I say we have two possibilities here and if we examine each one at a time, we'll figure it out." Everyone agreed.
The next few days, the four of us did our own research on the T.S.I., I even had James help out. We called him over the phone one day while in the cafeteria.
"Okay so it says here that the T.S.I conducts special projects with mining, but it's classified," James told us.
"Oh my gosh that would explain why our father came in with dirt on his clothes often!"
"You're right, I remember that." Naomi said.
"Maybe he found something down there and tried to expose it," James said. "I mean what stuff are these guys up to?"
"Thank you James." Marley said.
After we finished analyzing information, we hung up the phone with James.
"We're never going to find him," Naomi sadly said.
"Don't say that Naomi, we just have to keep looking."
"We've been looking for over a year, Marley. No one was able to find him. What makes you think that we'll find him?" Naomi left the table.
"I kind of agree with her," Alan said. "There's just too many variables and not enough clues." He left following behind Naomi.
Marley scoffed at Naomi and Alan, "Seriously guys."
"Marley, we can't lose faith. We never know what we might find next," I told her.
"I know, we can't. I have to remember what Jesus said. We'll find him."
"You want to take a break and go play soccer?" I said.
"You play soccer?"
"Yeah, I'm better at soccer than any other sport,"
"But have you played soccer in this heat?"
"Nope."
"We'll see how good you really are."
After school, we decided that we would go get a bite.
"Are you up for pizza or a sandwich?" I said.
"Are you asking me out?"
"No, no...um I was just..."
"I'm just kidding!" she giggled. "Let's go to Marcus's for a sandwich."
"Yeah, that sounds good," I cleared my throat. I was still somewhat shy around her. I didn't realize that I was starting to have a crush on her.
"Wait, wait. I've got it!" She stopped walking. We were standing by the street light about to cross the street. "I didn't remember until now. I have an Uncle by the name of Marcus! My mom called Uncle Marcus that night my dad disappeared to see if my dad had already dropped off Kayla."
"Who's Kayla?" I said.
"Right, Naomi and I haven't told you guys. My cousin had been staying with us. The night he disappeared, he told us that he was taking her back home to Uncle Marcus's after dinner. But he never returned. My mom called Uncle Marcus because she was worried that my dad hadn't returned. It had been hours. I heard Uncle Marcus tell my mom that my dad already dropped off Kayla and that she was with him. Maybe if she would have told the reporters or police, they would have questioned Uncle Marcus or something. But if he was last seen there, then we should ask him if he might remember anything else since he and Kayla were the last ones to see him."
I did not remember reading any of that in the article I had stumbled upon. Either clues were taken out or Marley's mother didn't mention anything about Kayla to the reporters just as she had said.
"That's a good idea, we should go talk to him," I said.
"Okay, Naomi and I will get his number. The thing is we have never met him in person or talked to him over the phone. We only know of him because our mother and father spoke of him to us. He also has never came to visit us. When Kayla, our cousin, came over, we were surprised that we even had a cousin, and mom didn't seem too happy about it. Dad said Uncle Marcus had gone on some kind of work trip, so Kayla would have stay with us for a little while," she said.
"How long did she stay with you guys?"
"Three months."
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