Hey everyone. I’m Harper. I’m pretty sure you’ll find this story
hard to believe. If I heard it, I probably
wouldn’t believe it either. But I know that it’s true
because it happened to me. My mom had a difficult time
when she was pregnant with me. She had to stay in bed for 7 months
because of the risk of miscarriage. As a result, she refused to have another baby
even though my dad wanted to. After I was born, they both used all their
time and energy taking care of me. They organized their life around me. I’m not complaining about it because I had
a great childhood and adolescence, but I wish they had some other interests too. Two and a half years ago,
I moved to another city to go to university. After I left, there was a huge hole
in my parents’ lives. For 18 years I was the center of their universe. They had no idea what to do with themselves
after I left home. First, they got a cat. Then a dog. Then a parrot. My mom started taking art lessons. My dad started playing golf again. But none of it was enough. One day, I was on the phone with my mom. As usual, she was crying about how much she
missed me and I was trying to console her. All of a sudden, I had a great idea. “Mom, what about adopting a child? If you’re really missing taking care of
a kid, maybe you could adopt one? This time it could be a boy. You already raised a girl. It would be a new experience.” The first thing she said was, “Sweetie,
I’m too old to be taking care of a baby now.” I wish I had stopped there but I didn’t. “Well, it could be an older child. Maybe like 9 or 10 years old. You’d provide a home for a child
that needs one, and you’ll also have someone
to take care of which you clearly miss.” She said, “Maybe it’s not such
a bad idea. Let me talk to your dad” and hung up. She called back half an hour later. She sounded very happy. “Your dad is very excited. We decided we’re going to adopt a 10-year-old
child just like you said. We’ll start looking into it tomorrow.” I was so happy for her when I heard the news. I didn’t know then that something terrible
was going to happen to my family because of me. Overnight, their entire focus changed. They contacted the necessary
governmental agencies right away, and dealt with the bureaucratic stuff. They went around to foster homes. They talked with officials who deal with adoptions. Now, whenever my mom called me,
this is all we talked about. Finally, they reached the most exciting part: They were going to start meeting children
that fit their criteria, and then choose one to adopt. One day, I was sitting on a bench on campus,
relaxing in the sun. I got a text from my mom. I opened it and saw a photo of a cute but
shy boy smiling at me. Below the photo, it said: “Hi, I’m your new brother Beckett. Nice to meet you.” I called her immediately. She was so happy. She said that when they first saw Beckett, they knew he was the one they were looking for. He was so mature for his age. They didn’t want to miss their chance with
such a great kid, so they started the adoption process right away. My dad was so cheerful now that he had a son. “He is a perfect fit for our family. We’ll give him all our love,” he said
and I teared up. I got so emotional because
I’m very close to my parents, and I had missed seeing them so happy. I met Beckett via Facetime. He really did seem like a good kid. I was going to visit them after I finished
my exams. I wanted to bring a gift for Beckett. I asked him a bunch of questions to find out
what he liked but he wasn’t very talkative. I felt like I was making him uncomfortable. Maybe he didn’t like talking about himself. So I ended up just buying a game that I thought
any kid would like. I met him a month later. But I was disappointed
after spending some time with him. He was so arrogant – which is something
I really hate. What my parents saw as mature behavior felt
so irritating to me. I thought “Maybe he’ll grow out of it”
to make myself feel better. Next morning, something weird happened. I was staying in the guest room because my
parents had given my room to Beckett. This room had its own bathroom. I took a shower in the morning. Then I was going to brush my teeth but realized
I left my toothbrush in my bag. I opened the bathroom door and I saw Beckett
standing right there. Thankfully, I was wearing a bathrobe. He got so nervous and stammered, trying to
say something. What was he doing in my room in front of my
bathroom door? I was about to ask him, but he ran away before
I could say anything. I didn’t say anything to my parents because
I didn’t want to upset them. But I was suspicious. After breakfast, my mom and I were sitting
in the garden. “Does Beckett have a family?” I asked. She lowered her voice. “He doesn’t have anyone. In fact, he was homeless. Two months ago, the police found him and placed
him in a foster home. The officials didn’t know
anything about his past. We didn’t ask so as not to upset him.” I was surprised. “Mom, this doesn’t make sense. What do you mean they don’t know anything? What if he is a runaway and he’s lying about
not having parents?” Meanwhile, my dad was planting new flowers
in the garden and Beckett was helping him. My mom said, “Harper, look at how innocent he is. You think he’d lie? Who knows what he’s been through? All we need to do now is try
to heal his emotional wounds.” I kept watching Beckett
over the next few days. Something about him didn’t feel right but
I couldn’t put my finger on it. On the other hand, my parents were so happy. So I thought it was best to keep
my thoughts to myself. Anyway, what could I say? I just had a bad feeling
about him, that’s all. I was still bothered by the whole thing after
I went back to school. Finally, I decided to call the adoption agency. There was no point in lying. I explained the situation
to the woman on the phone, and asked her to keep
this conversation between us. She understood where I was coming from. “It’s true, we don’t know anything
about Beckett’s past. But there are so many kids here like him
whose past we know nothing about. The kids who grow up in the streets are
especially unlucky in that sense. Some of them can’t express themselves, and some think that what they’ve
experienced is normal, and is not worth talking about.” I felt ashamed when I hung up the phone. I looked at Beckett’s photo. He did look innocent. My mom was right. All we could do now was to try to help him
heal his wounds. I didn’t want to keep feeling guilty, so
I thought I would talk to him. I called my mom and asked for him. “You loved him, too, right?” she said,
sounding so happy. I had a hard time keeping
the conversation going since I wasn’t used to talking to a 10-year-old. I said stuff like, “How are you? How is school?” He didn’t say much, so after 30 seconds
I ran out of things to ask. I had a friend in high school
whose name was Beckett. He had once told me what his name meant. I remembered that. “Do you know what your name means? It has a really beautiful meaning,” I said. Right away he said, “Of course I know it. It means warrior.” I laughed. “Don’t be so sure. It doesn’t mean warrior. It means stream” I said. “No” he insisted. “Earl means warrior.” I was shocked. “Earl? Who is Earl?” I asked. He didn’t reply. He stuttered like that day when I found him
in front of my bathroom. I was right. He was hiding something from us. Even his name was fake. I didn’t say anything about it then. I just said “I have to go to class, we’ll
talk later” and hung up the phone. I was shaking from anger. I thought, “His real name is Earl. Why is he hiding it? What could such a young child
possibly be hiding?” I decided to do some research and find out
who he really was. I thought I’d start with Google. But what could I search for? All I knew was that his real name was Earl. I typed in Earl and clicked search. Thousands of results came up. I was randomly clicking on things as I thought
about what I could do. I ended up in Google Images. Suddenly I had a great idea! I could upload his photo to Google Images
and search for similar ones. I transferred his photo to my computer. Then I uploaded it to Google Images,
and clicked search. The results were not what I was hoping for. There were a bunch of random images. I started going through them anyway. I was almost at the end of the page. Then I saw something that caught my eye: “Man who looks like a child steals diamond
ring by swallowing it” I clicked on it right away. It was a news site. A woman went to a jewelry store with her child. As she was trying to distract the jeweler,
the little kid took a ring and swallowed it. The jeweler saw it and pressed a panic button
which notified the police. So the police came and arrested the woman
and the kid as they were leaving. The part that interested me came after this. When the police interviewed the kid, they
found out he was actually a 29-year-old man. Apparently, he had a condition caused by a
growth hormone deficiency. He stopped growing at 10 years old. These people are technically dwarfs, but they
have normal body proportions. The article included the man’s mug shot. Yes, this was Beckett. Or rather Earl! The news was from 3 years ago, which meant that a 32-year-old man was at my parents’ house! I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I grabbed my phone in panic. I had to call my dad and warn him. Then I thought, “Well, what is he going
to do?” Is he going to drag him to the police? He’s not a boy but a 32-year-old criminal. He could do anything. So instead of calling my dad,
I called the police. That was probably the longest day of my life. I told the police what happened. They went to our house and were able
to arrest the man without incident. I visited my parents that evening. Thankfully, everyone was safe. My parents were trying to get over their shock. This Earl guy was already in jail. We don’t know what he was planning to do. Either he was going to live there as long
as he could by pretending to be a boy, or he was going to steal something,
and then run away. We’ll probably find out the reason during
his trial. We don’t think that this was his first time
pretending to be an orphan. The trial should also reveal whether he had
other victims. Thanks for listening to my story. If you like true stories, subscribe to this
channel. Bye.
