 back with another short story. I know it's been a while since I've done these, but I don't feel like I get enough traction on my channel for these story times. And for those of you who are not aware, if this is your first time tuning in, I do, what do you call it, verbal story times because I do have the ashes to ashes that you guys remember a couple of months ago. I just don't know where to go with that story. I know what the ending is gonna look like. I know the ending. It's just getting to that ending that I'm a little perplexed. But this is a short one. It's a mystery slash psychological, grain or sacrum. It's just mystery, okay? Story is called The Last Favor. Gonna go over the characters, the main characters at least. We have a mother and her son. We have a grandfather named Paw-Paw. And then we have the mother's brother. So the mother is named Angela. They call her Angie, Angela. The little boy who is around four years old, four or five. Let's make him four. Four, his name is Tyler. Paw-Paw is Paw-Paw. We don't know his name. He's Paw-Paw. And the brother is named Damien. Now the mother moved down from Ohio to Kansas. Do black people believe in Kansas? Yeah, they do. Kansas, Kansas. This is like on a little acre, one, two acre, and everybody lives on this lot. So you have the mother and the son in one house and you have Damien and Paw-Paw in another house on this big, not big, like an acre, two acres. You know what I mean? Well, they live in Kansas. So the mother unfortunately had to leave her abusive husband in Ohio with her son. And the grandfather was like, baby, come on home because they're from Kansas. You know, that's when she was raised and when she was born. He said, come on home and I can help you out with your son. Damien's already here. So that's just an overview of what the story is about, okay? So you have Tyler, again, who is a four-year-old and he just got him a new dog. Dog is named Wilson, oh, Willie. Now the dog is not a baby. It's like a five-year-old lab. Is that a dog? Yeah, I don't know. He was thinking about dogs. Lab-a-doodle, lab-a-doodle, girl, it's a dog. And Tyler has been asking for this dog all this time. So because they live out in Kansas and where they live at you have to drive all the way down and boom, you get to their houses. But their neighbors are probably a five-minute walk away. That's how far they are from their neighbors, okay? They're out in the middle of nowhere. There's woods and stuff surrounding the farms and all that they have a clearance. But if you go too far, you're gonna hit the woods. So Angie, I can't eat Angela, let's her son Tyler play out in the yard every now and then. She keeps the window open so that she can see him playing. And so one afternoon he's playing and playing and playing and he's playing with the good old dog Willie. And she tells him, she's like, now come on Ty, you know, you only can be out there playing for the next 10 minutes. And then you need to come in, clean up because we have to have dinners almost at the clock. And so he's like, okay mama, can I just play like for five more minutes? And she looks at him, she's like, okay baby, you can play five more minutes. And after that, you have to come in. So while she's in there cooking, you know, she's making dinner and what Angie likes to do, this is Sunday, Sunday dinner. Every Sunday she cooks dinner for the entire family, Damien and Paw-Paw. And so they can all, you know, be together as a family. So she had been calling her father Paw-Paw and he had been answering. So she figured he was probably busy working in the back because Paw-Paw is, Paw-Paw's in his early seventies. Yeah, you'll make him a little seasoned. And so, but he's still, he's pretty active and all that. So she's working, you know, you know how with moms, you get busy and all of a sudden she realizes that the five minute has already passed. And so she's yelling again for Tyler. She's like, Ty, you need to come in. You know, it's time to go ahead and watch for dinner. She continues preparing dinner and she's not hearing anything. She's singing herself this boy. So she goes outside and she yells his name, expecting him to run around the corner, right? Cause that's what he normally do. Sometimes he goes around the back of the house. Well, she's okay with that because it is fenced off. Okay, the back is fenced. So she's like, Ty, you need to come on. We need to, you need to quit playing. No answer. Now she starts to get a little anxious. And so she walks down their stairs down in her porch and she goes around the backyard. She looks around, it's empty. Now her heart starts racing, starts racing a little bit. She goes to the front. She starts screaming his name. She's like, Ty, you need to come out. Where are you? Nothing. Suddenly she sees the little dog come racing up towards her. What is his name? Wilson, Wilson. And she's like, Wilson, where's Ty? Wilson turns around, looks at her and then looks back towards the forest and she's thinking, oh my God, he's Tyler went into that forest and there's no telling how long. And the sun is about to set. Like I said, it's six o'clock and in about 30 more minutes, if they can't find him, it's gonna be really hard to see out there because there's no lights. So she looks at Wilson. Wilson turns around, looks at her, turns around, looks towards the forest and Wilson darts out toward him. He wracked his tail and he darted out towards the forest. That's when she's like, oh my God, I have to find him. So she puts her shoes on, gets her slippers and she grabs her flashlight. But before she does that, she go towards her father's house, which is like, you can even see the house right next door. She runs over towards her father's house, knocks on the door, he doesn't answer. She just goes ahead and lets herself in. He typically just leaves the front door unlocked. She makes herself in. She's like, daddy, daddy, where are you? And then that's when she hears, I'm back here, baby. So she makes her way to the back of the house and he's just in the back. The back of the house is where his living room is, excuse me. So he's just sitting in his favorite chair, reading a book or something, girl. I don't know, read beside you. So she heads to the back of the house and at this point, she cannot control her anxiety. She's like, daddy, daddy, please come help me. He's like, what's wrong, baby? He's like, it's tight. He's like, what are you talking about, baby? She's like, it's tight. He must've made his way out into the woods. We gotta go find him. And he's like, he gets up. Even though he's older, he's pretty with it. So he gets up and he goes find his flashlight. He's like, all right, we gotta hurry up because you know, we can't find him in about 21 minutes, he's gonna be pitch dark and we're gonna have to call the sheriff's office. And that's when she's like, oh my God. So make her a way out and he follows her. He's like, you know what, baby, stay right here just in case he makes his way back into the house. You stay here at the house and I'll go find him myself. And she's like, are you sure? He's like, yeah, I mean, I know these woods better than anybody. Let me just go out here and find the boy and then you just stay here in case he comes back. She's like, okay, she shakes her head. So her father goes out into the woods looking for Tyler. She's pacing back and forth. She's, I mean, she's afraid. You know, her baby's four years old out in the woods by himself. She's looking down. She's looking around, cut to the grandfather making his way out into the forest. And this man has been on this piece of land for years, 50 plus years. So he knows it, it could be pitch black and he knows exactly where he's going. He's making his way through the woods and there is a path you guys. So he's, you know, going through the path. And he has taken a little title out here every now and then. So he has a feeling he knows where Tyler is at. A couple of days ago, prior to him running out into these woods, him entirely was sitting under a tree. Girl, I don't know if they had carved their initials in the tree, meaning the grandfather and Ty had carved their initials in the tree. So he had an inkling that perhaps a little boy was out there at that particular spot. So about, I would say about six to eight minutes. You know, he makes his way and that's when he can hear whimpering and it's the dog. And, you know, Paw-Paw yells out his name. He's like, Ty, is that you? And sure enough, coming around the tree, it's little Tyler. He's like, Paw-Paw, what are you doing here? He said, boy, are you gonna give your mama a heart attack coming out here by yourself? Why did you come out here? And a little Tyler was like, I wanted to see the tree, Paw-Paw. And he smiles at him. He's like, that's good, but you can't come out here by yourself anymore. And so he shakes his head, okay. They make their way back up to the house and poor Angie finally sees them. She's like, oh my God, where was he? And the grandfather is like, I'm so sorry, baby. I had showed him this tree a couple of days ago and I guess his little toe wanted to go out there and look at it again and Tyler runs. And he's excited mama. And she, you know, she gets down on his level. I level with Tyler. She said, don't ever do that again. You scare me to death. Never go out in those woods by yourself. She tells him, you go in the head, go in the house and wash up so we can get ready for dinner. He says, yes mama. Little Tyler runs his little bad butt up in the house and she looks at her at her father. She said, thank you so much, daddy. He said, that's okay, be a little go ahead and go to the house and wash up and I'll be back. She said, okay, I'll write that. While her father runs over to the house or walks over to the house, excuse me, that's when a truck comes up and she can see it's her brother Damian. You know, he's in a F-150 white trucker. You can see it. And she's like, hey Damian, you will not believe what happened. He's like, hey, I've been trying to call you. What's, why didn't you answer my call? She's like, what are you talking about? I've been trying to call Pawpaw and he's not answering his phone. He's like, that's what I want to tell you about. I don't have any missed calls. She looks down and she's like, I don't have any calls. And he's like, it must be something with the tires again. He's like, look Angie. He's like, look Angie, it's about daddy. I just saw him, what is it? And Damian kind of looks at her kind of funny. He's like, look sis, earlier today when I got off of work because Damian works overnight at a plant. And so he gets home at like five o'clock in the morning. He said earlier today when I got home from work, I went into the kitchen and daddy was on the ground and I didn't want to wake you. So I took him to the hospital myself and unfortunately he didn't make it. They said it was a heart attack. And Angie looks at him and she shakes her head and she's like, that's not possible. He said, what do you mean? She's like, he just helped me to find Ty in the woods just a few minutes ago. And he looks at her like, you crazy. I just left the hospital. So Angie, with this new, she runs over to the house. She looks around. She's like, daddy, no answer. She goes into his favorite area, nothing. He's not there, the smell of pipe because he smokes a pipe, you guys. She can still smell his pipe. So she runs out to the front of the porch and she can see her brother Damian holding little Tyler's hand. And he's looking up at her with tears in his eyes and she walks down and she gives her brother a hug. And she's like, I guess Papa wanted to give us one last favor. All right, you guys, that's it for this story. Hopefully y'all can catch up with this other ashes to ashes story, but you never know girl. Thank you so much for watching y'all. Bye.