Boy Flees from Shelter, ‘I Found Mom!’ He Calls Little Brother 15 Hours Later — Story of the Day

A boy escaped from a shelter, promising his little brother he would return after finding something about their long-lost family that had abandoned them several years ago. "I found mom!" he called his brother 15 hours later, and his voice was choked up with fear.

Georgi sat by the window seat of the bus, his slender face gracefully pressed on the glass and his breath gushing against the tiny vapor droplets. Blood shot into his pale complexion, and his eyes slammed shut as if that would protect him each time the bus stopped at the station to pick up passengers. His own sigh startled him. His little heart raced with panic that somebody he knew would find out he was on that bus and drag him back to where he came from.

13-year-old Georgi was so restless that day. He constantly looked around at strangers with a hunted stare, hiding his face behind his backpack. His heart pounded in fear, literally shouting to the bus driver to go fast and not stop anywhere.

Georgi's alarmed eyes grew into wide circles, an uneasiness spreading in his hazel eyes when he looked at the time on his phone. There were only another seven hours until the bus would reach its final destination, and the boy was sliding his fingers on his phone screen, typing a message to his little brother, Bruno, who was at the shelter.

"Going to look for dad and mom. Stays between us, okay? Don't tell anyone, particularly Mr. Kurt," read the message as he tapped send and switched his phone

off to avoid being tracked...

Georgi's brows rose in a surprised arc when he took out a chain with an amulet he had worn close to his heart since childhood. It was all he had when he and his little newborn brother Bruno were abandoned at the shelter's doorstep eleven years ago.

Nobody knew how the boys got there. They found nothing that could help connect the missing dots to the children's origins. Moreover, no one could guess the significance of the strange-looking talisman, a puzzle-like half-pendant clinging to the chain around Georgi's neck. The boys were immediately taken in to be raised with the other children.

"This amulet is the only thing I had with me when my brother and I were abandoned," said the boy. The older man gazed closely at it and revealed something that Georgi had not come prepared for.

As Georgi and Bruno grew older, they did not find a suitable family to adopt them together. So they lived in the shelter and went to a public school. Georgi had nothing to recall about his origins until one day when he was in history class during a presentation.

A particular slide in his classmate's presentation bearing pictures of ancient artifacts drew his attention. It was a photo of an amulet similar to the one he wore around his neck. As the voices in the class intensified, Georgi clenched his talisman, his eyes turning ice cold.

For years, he could not determine what the amulet and its strange symbol in the pendant's center meant. He even assumed his mother or father would've put it around his neck before abandoning him and his brother.

Smitten by curiosity, Georgi turned to the internet to find out about his mysterious half-pendant amulet. Most of all, he wanted to find out who possessed the other half and how they were related to him.

"Not sure, pal. I found those on the internet. I just made a collage of all the pictures," the classmate told Georgi. "I just found one picture, and I thought it looked interesting and different!"

"Alright, thanks, Ralph! I got to go. 'Tis getting late. See you!"

Georgi still wanted to unravel at least one clue about the talisman. If he had only guessed where this curiosity would land him soon.

Georgi marched to the locker to take out his phone. He clicked a snap of his amulet and searched online for similar pictures using Google's image search feature.

His lips parted in surprise when he found not one or two but nearly a dozen similar photos of amulets bearing a strange sign in the heart of the pendant. When he clicked one of the links, he landed on a page explaining that a particular sect of people wore such amulets several years ago.

Georgi froze still in tears when he discovered the half-puzzle-like amulet he had been wearing all these years was a symbolic representation of a cult in a mountain town not far from where he lived.

A secret society? Were my parents in a cult? Does that mean Bruno and I are... Oh God, what happened to my parents? Are they alright? Georgi's gut churned in fear.

That whole day, the boy was lost in deep thought about his connection with the cult and why 'whoever' abandoned him and his brother left the talisman with him.

There's got to be something to do with this amulet and me...and the cult, he thought. But who put this thing around my neck? Who has the other half of this pendant? I need to find out.

Unable to derive any answer, Georgi approached Mr. Kurt, his caretaker at the shelter, for help.

"Mr. Kurt, I found this on the internet. This place is mostly in the next town. Can you please take me there?" he asked the caretaker but was turned down.

"We are not allowed to take children far from here, Georgi. I cannot take you there."

"But Mr. Kurt, I need to find out about this place. Maybe my mom or dad is there, and it's my only chance to get to them. I'm afraid something has happened to them. I need to go, please...take me."

"Georgi, I said no, and that's it. No more arguments. Nobody came for you or your brother all these years. Quit overthinking and get some rest. Goodnight."

Kurt walked away after putting off the lights. Georgi had pretended to sleep, and once the caretaker was out of sight, he crept to his little brother Bruno who was fast asleep on the bunk bed and woke him up.

"Are you serious, Georgi? What if you get caught? They will take you away from me. Mr. Kurt will go mad if he finds out..." Bruno recoiled in fear at hearing his older brother's plan.

"Nobody will know, Bruno. I need to get out of here and go to that place. It's our only chance to find out something about our parents and us. What if it's our mom out there? Or dad...They could've been in trouble and never found help at all. I read unpleasant things about that cult. I have to find them, and I promise I'll come for you, alright."

"When are you going?"

"Tomorrow after school! I want you to stay calm and act like you know nothing. I'll go to that town, find out about the cult that wears similar amulets like this one, and get back as soon as possible. I know Mr. Kurt will be mad at me. But I've got to do this. It's our only chance to find our parents."

The next day after school, Georgi ran to the bus stand and sneaked into the bus leaving for the town nearby. It was going to be a long, exhausting road trip, but Georgi was hellbent on connecting the dots to his past.

Georgi's own sigh unsettled him when he suddenly woke up as the bus came to a jolting halt at its final destination. The boy stepped down under the evening, starlit sky, looking around the new town and the flock of people returning to their homes.

Nestled between huge hills and thick mountain mist, the village was eerily calm as Georgi looked around for help. For a moment, he hated himself for not listening to Mr. Kurt. A sickened wave of terror welled up his gut as he marched to a group of older men in a roadside café at the town's entrance.

"Hey there! I am new to this place. I've come from the city and want to know if..." Georgi greeted the men and paused, digging into his pocket to take out the amulet.

"Do you know about the people who wear this?"

A tingle rushed across the men's skin as they paused sipping their coffee and turned around, stunned at seeing what the boy was holding.

"Take that thing away...go away from here," one of them screamed, backing off from Georgi. The rest crouched behind the other guy and hurried out as though they'd seen a ghost.

And only one older man remained, his eyes growing impossibly wide and brows shooting up in surprise.

"H—How did you get this??" asked the man, throwing his feeble hands out to grab the talisman from Georgi's hand.

"Do you know what this is?" Georgi asked him.

"This amulet is something everybody in this town fears wearing, young man," replied the older man, his gaze fixed still on the pendant bearing the strange symbol. "Where did you get this from?"

"I had this all my life," said Georgi. "This amulet is the only thing I had with me when my brother and I were abandoned, and I don't remember who gave it to me."

The older man gazed closely at the amulet and revealed something that Georgi had not come prepared for.

"Did you say you were from the city?"

"Yes!"

"And how old are you and your brother?"

"I'm thirteen, and my brother is eleven!"

"Which shelter did you say you lived in?"

"I didn't tell you anything about the shelter...how did you know that?" Georgi gasped.

The muscles in the older man's jaws tensed, and his face grew ashen.

"I think this belongs to your mother!"

Georgi's eyes bulged from the sockets in disbelief.

"MY MOTHER??! Do you know her?" his lips trembled.

"Yes! Your mother, Dorothea!"

The older man then told Georgi about his mother's whereabouts. She was in the woods nearby, and as soon as he found out, only one thought, among many, haunted his mind.

"What is my mother doing there in the woods?"

He bolted toward the dense forest to find his mother, guessing little about what he was about to bump into there.

"My mother lives here??" Georgi gasped on arriving in front of an old, shabby cabin not far from the entrance of the dense forest. Thin fumes of chimney smoke indicated it was lived in.

The muscles around Georgi's eyes twitched when he knocked on the door. When nobody answered after the third and fourth knocks, he pushed the door with trembling hands. As it creaked open, his eyes pressed shut and opened wide in horror at seeing a sick woman in a bed.

"Who is it?" her frail voice spoke from the dark corner, followed by an eerie silence and then her loud cries as soon as she saw the amulet in Georgi's hands.

"SON...IS IT YOU??" she exploded into tears.

Georgi wanted to speak, but he could not find his voice. He tried to walk to her and look closer, but his feet were glued to the ground. He was terrified at hearing those words. He was shaken by someone calling him 'son.'

Suddenly, he felt two skinny hands push him from behind. Alarmed, Georgi turned around, his eyes pleading for them to stop. His mouth opened in silence when he saw who was standing right behind him...

"You?!" he gasped.

"Didn't I tell you, boy? Your mother lives here in this cabin," said the older man he'd met earlier.

Georgi still couldn't piece himself to believe that the bedridden woman who was sick and coughing was his mother. When he approached her, she grabbed his arm, hugged him, and showered him with kisses and tears.

"My baby! I'm glad that you found me!"

Too much was happening in such a short time, and Georgi couldn't process anything. Before he could question further, the woman took the other piece of the amulet she had and gave it to him.

Moments later, the boy exploded into wild tears and threw himself into her arms. The half of the talisman he had fit like a perfect puzzle with the one the woman just gave him. She was his MOTHER!

"Mom, I'm so happy I found you! But how did you get here?" he bombarded her with questions, one after another. "Why didn't you come for Bruno and me?"

"Your dad and I met and married here, sweetie. After your brother was born, I met with an accident and was paralyzed waist down. Your dad left me and married another woman. Women were not allowed to be a part of the cult if they were disabled or abandoned. So I moved out of the secret society. I couldn't raise you and your brother, so I asked Fernandes here to leave you somewhere safe where you could get a better life."

Fernandes, the older man standing behind Georgi, had left the boy and his little brother at a shelter in the nearby city.

"I didn't look for you after that because I was hoping somebody had adopted you two. I knew I was wronging you, but I had no choice. I didn't want my disability to ruin your future," cried Dorothea.

"Your mother was alone after that. Since the cult sternly followed certain practices against the beliefs of people in town, nobody came forward to help her in her hard times though she was no longer a part of the secret society. My daughter and I often come here to give your mother food and medicines and make sure she's alright," added Fernandes.

Georgi had the sensation of a trapdoor being opened in his belly. His heart pounded with grief as he took out his phone and switched it on. He wanted to share the news with his little brother, but who knew Mr. Kurt would be right beside Bruno when Georgi called?

"I found mom!!" he cried on the phone. "Bruno, I found mom! But..."

The line went blank for a few seconds. Georgi then heard the receiver scraping against a coarse beard. His gut churned with fear because Mr. Kurt had grabbed the phone from Bruno, and he was terribly mad at Georgi for running away.

"You better have a good explanation, Georgi. I'll be waiting for you," he said and hung up.

Georgi promised his mother he would come soon for her and hurried back to the shelter. When he reached the next day, Bruno hugged him with tears of joy, hurling question after question about how their mother looked, what her name was, and if she asked about him. How excited Bruno was! But Georgi wasn't.

"She is paralyzed and cannot take us in, Bruno. We will not be allowed to live with her in the woods...in that old cabin," Georgi revealed.

Bruno was disheartened, but a gush of hope sprang into his eyes when he said, "You're thirteen already, Georgi. Just three more years...Only three more! We can move out and go live with mom!"

The boys hugged each other joyfully because that seemed like a wonderful idea. Just as they wiped each others' tears, the approaching sound of Mr. Kurt's footsteps horrified Georgi.

"Where the hell have you been, Georgi??" the man yelled. "You better have a good reason or..."

Georgi threw himself into Mr. Kurt's arms and cried. The older man was stern and hard with children, but he was not a cold man. It was his way of dealing with children, particularly teens, to maintain decorum.

"I found my mother, Mr. Kurt!" Georgi cried. "She's paralyzed, and that's why she left us here."

Mr. Kurt's anger melted into tears.

"You did?! Well...when are you leaving?"

He sure loved the boys and knew they would soon leave the shelter to begin a new life with their mother. Mr. Kurt was hurt, but he was happy for them.

"We are not going anywhere, Mr. Kurt," said Georgi, lighting up the man's teary eyes with a sliver of joy. "Not until I turn sixteen!"

So for the next three years, Mr. Kurt took Georgi and Bruno to meet their mother in the next town every weekend. He took it upon himself to help the boys give a better life to their mother so that she would be eligible to take them in soon.

Three years passed by in a wink. Georgi worked part-time and, together with Mr. Kurt and his brother, fixed his mother's old cabin to make it liveable for the time being. The boys were still in school and promised each other to work hard, find good jobs, and give their mom a better life.

Surprisingly enough, Mr. Kurt agreed to help them in whatever way he could, and only time will reveal the beautiful future Georgi and his brother Bruno have envisioned for their mother.

What can we learn from this story?

• No truth remains concealed for long, and it will unravel itself in surprising ways. Georgi and Bruno were abandoned when they were little. They had no clue that the amulet Georgi wore around his neck would help them find their mother, who they had never seen.
• Determination paves the path to success. Despite being turned down by Mr. Kurt, Georgi fled the shelter to find his family. Although it was quite a risky feat, his determination eventually led him to find his birth mother, who had abandoned him when he and his brother were little due to circumstances.

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A single father begins to worry when he learns his teen daughter has been skipping school. His fear doubles when he finds wads of cash in her backpack and decides to follow her. Click here to read the full story.

This piece is inspired by stories from the everyday lives of our readers and written by a professional writer. Any resemblance to actual names or locations is purely coincidental. All images are for illustration purposes only. Share your story with us; maybe it will change someone's life. If you would like to share your story, please send it to info@amomama.com.