Man Finds 3 Kids Secretly Living in His Basement Alone, Learns They're His Relatives – Story of the Day

When burnout knocks on Josh's door, he decides to adopt a dog, Baxter. But when Baxter makes himself at home, he helps Josh uncover three teenagers living in Josh's basement. Who are they? And how did they get there?

The burnout had finally gotten the better of Joshua. Since his wife, Grace, had passed on the year before, he threw himself into his job. He continued to spend long hours at the office, building up evidence for his cases and meeting clients, until he was ready to return to the courtroom again.

And when his partner pushed him to go home and take a break from it all, he usually took his work home with him.

Joshua depended on his work – although it had been a year, he struggled to accept his grief. He still felt Grace's death with a deep sadness that he didn't think was possible. His parents had relocated a long time ago, so there was no escape to their home for weekends when he needed a change of scenery.

He also had no siblings – well, his sister, Lily, was out there somewhere, but she had become a stranger a long time ago, when she ran off with an ex-firefighter just before her graduation. Joshua never heard from her again. If anything, Joshua wasn't even sure whether his parents knew where she was either.

The last time he spoke to them, his mother said, "I don't know what became of my girl, but I'm sure she's happy somewhere." And that was the end of the conversation.

"I'm sorry, Joshua, it's burnout. I'm booking you off for a week. If you continue like this, you'll end up on medication or in hospital," Doctor Grant said, already writing away on his pad.

"So, what am I supposed to do for a week?" Joshua asked.

"Put your feet up, watch some television. Go running or swimming. Get a pet. Take a cooking class – anything that doesn't relate to work. Do you understand?"

"Yes, I understand," he said.

It had been two days since Josh was booked off work. He spent the first day grocery shopping, finally stocking up his fridge, tired of the Chinese takeout conveniently located across the office. Day two was spent going to the office and clearing out his desk, which was a ploy.

He wanted to see if there were any new developments on the case they had taken on the day he was diagnosed. Unfortunately, his partner Chantal has thrown him out, yelling at him to go home and rest.

Josh was driving home when he ended up at the animal shelter. It was the Doctor's orders to get a pet, after all – and besides, getting a pet would force him to get home at a reasonable hour – not for himself, but to feed the little guy or girl.

"Good day, Sir. What furry are you looking for?" a young woman asked as she dragged a massive bag of dog food into the reception area.

"Well, I'm looking for a companion," he said. "A reason to leave the office and go home every evening on time."

The woman laughed, mistaking his reality for a joke.

"Come meet Baxter, he's an old boy. He's been here for a few years now, and I believe he needs the most love."

When Josh met Baxter, he could understand the woman's words entirely. Baxter was an old boy with the most prominent and kindest eyes Josh had ever seen. If anything, his eyes reminded Josh of his father's – which was why, it was no surprise that when Josh drove home less than an hour later, Baxter was sitting in the front seat.

"This is good, Josh!" his mother said when he video-called his parents to introduce Baxter to them.

"I think so, too," he said. "And doesn't his eyes remind you of Dad?" he laughed.

Josh put Baxter's bowls and bed in the hallway, across from the basement door. Although he hadn't been down there since Grace's funeral, he always kept the doorway clear, hoping she would open the door and come in.

Even if he closed his eyes at that moment, he knew he would see the two long green couches covered with the white and gold throw pillows Grace had sewed in that room. When Josh had been made at the firm, Grace had re-done the third bedroom for him, making it into the mahogany dream of a home office he had always wanted.

So, when Grace went away celebrating her sister's Bachelorette weekend, Josh had re-done the basement for her. He turned it into a library and craft room where she could take a quiet moment when the headaches threatened to appear. He had installed a row of bookshelves on one side and stocked them from floor to ceiling.

On the other side, he had assembled a long craft table for when Grace needed to get her hands busy but needed more strength to do it in the kitchen.

He also re-did the bathroom – changing the showerhead for her because sometimes she got too cold and needed to let the boiling water heat her body again. He chuckled, thinking about the four unnecessary blankets covered in cartoon characters he had bought and placed on the couch.

"It's for when you feel so cold that one isn't enough," he had told her, making her laugh until tears ran down her face.

There was also a mini-fridge, a kettle, and a microwave – everything she needed when she was too tired to climb the stairs. Josh knew that he would have to face the basement at some point – especially because a few weeks before Grace became sick, the area was put on a high-alert weather warning.

Grace had dragged Josh to the store, and they had bought cases of canned food and bottled water, toilet paper, and other non-perishables that Grace was convinced they needed. Josh knew that he needed to sort through those things at some point.

Damon knew something was different when he heard footsteps in the house way earlier than usual. Their Uncle would always get home long after the sun had gone down – Damon had grown accustomed to looking at the clock above the microwave when he heard the front door close in the evenings.

The past two days, Uncle Josh was at home more and seemed to move around the house in a hurry – his footsteps moving across the floor quickly and deliberately. Damon knew that his younger brothers were also feeling uneasy about the situation.

Now, they were both sitting at the craft table drawing a game of crosses and noughts to occupy themselves. It was difficult for Damon to remember that they were fourteen years old. They had been in the basement for almost a year now, and while Damon allowed himself to escape through the basement side window, he had never allowed them to do so.

Damon would wrap their empty food cans and water bottles in one of the blankets, wait for Uncle Josh to leave in the morning, count twenty minutes on the clock, and then go through the window to drop them off at the empty dumpster at the end of the road. He would sneak back just as quickly.

They had no money and no way of contacting their mother. All the boys had were the worn photograph of their mother and Uncle Josh and the torn piece of paper with his address.

Damon watched his brothers playing and thought about the day they found the house. They knocked on the door for about ten minutes before realizing that despite it being after-dark, he just wasn't home. Dylan was the one who suggested that they go around to the back of the house, where he saw the basement window.

There wasn't a lock on it – all they had to do was open it and slide in.

After that first night in the basement, they lost the courage to sneak back out and knock on the door, ready to explain who they were. Instead, they grew comfortable with what they found – the twins were skinny and shared a couch, leaving Damon alone.

The boys found the cans of food using the microwave when they knew they were alone in the basement. If Damon had to be honest, he had no idea how they had gone undetected for so long, and he always wondered whether it was a blessing or a curse that they remained hidden rather than meeting their Uncle.

"We can just stay here for a little longer," Dylan whispered that night.

"Yes, let's just rest and listen to what type of person he is before we knock on the door and introduce ourselves. What if he's bad?" David asked as he wrapped himself in one of the blankets on the couch.

Damon watched the twins for a little longer, David doing a silent dance when he won the round they were playing.

After a moment, Damon sighed. He had just remembered today was his birthday. "Happy seventeenth birthday to me," he thought.

Josh was having a problem with Baxter. He was the sweetest little dog, but he had taken it upon himself to scratch and whine at the basement door. Josh assumed that he needed the bathroom.

"Do you need to potty, boy?" Josh asked him, leading him to the back door.

Baxter would whine and then get distracted by something outside.

"There's a dog!" Dylan woke Damon up by shaking his shoulder.

"What?" Damon asked.

"A dog! He has a dog! I heard it scratching and barking at the door," Dylan said. "The dog will pick up our scents and know we're here."

"Just go to sleep," Damon told him. "We'll sort it out tomorrow, I promise."

When Josh took Baxter back inside the house, he gave him a few biscuits the woman at the shelter sold him. Josh had just put the TV on, picking up his half-drunk beer, when Baxter began whining at the door again.

"What's wrong, boy?" he asked him. "Do you think that there's a rat in there? Should we go check it out?"

The thought of entering the basement and not finding Grace there tugged at his heart. But he decided to go downstairs instead and ensure that everything was as it should be – without rodents gnawing at Grace's things.

Josh couldn't remember whether he had bolted the window from the inside – something Grace always ended up doing, not him.

"Okay, let's go!" he said to Baxter, putting his bottle down and shoving his feet into his slippers.

Josh opened the door, putting the light on before he even took a step inside. Baxter, on the other hand, had already sped off down the stairs.

It took Josh a moment to realize what he was about to do – he hadn't been down here in an entire year. He took a deep breath and walked down.

Damon's heart pounded as he heard the dog scratch on the door. When the door opened, he thought he was going to pass out. The twins had moved and were standing pressed against the bathroom door.

The dog almost flew down the stairs and landed at Damon's feet, sniffing his socks. The basement smelt damp. Damon knew that. They washed their clothes in the sink and left them to dry on the chairs around the table.

Damon heard footsteps coming down the stairs. He felt dizzy.

"Baxter?" Josh called as he started down the stairs. The dog made no sound.

When Josh got to the bottom of the stairs, he understood why. Baxter sat at the feet of a pale teenage boy, sniffing at his feet. The boy looked as though he was going to pass out. Josh looked around the room and saw two more boys standing by the bathroom door.

"Hey, guys," he said calmly. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

Josh could see that the boys were too stunned to speak. They looked afraid and malnourished, and the two pressed against the door looked like they hadn't seen the sun in a long time.

"Okay, I'm going to get some food for you, and I'll be right back," he said.

Josh ran up the stairs and didn't know what to do. He thought about calling someone, but who would he call? The police would frighten them; he couldn't chance it if the boys needed help. But what if they were dangerous – it was a valid concern, even if every fiber in his body disagreed.

"You know what?" he said to Baxter, who had followed him up the stairs. "Let's bring them upstairs and make them some food. My mom always said that a kitchen is a safe space."

*

"What are we going to do?" David asked. He was shaking in fear.

"It's okay," Damon said. "But I'll do the talking, alright? It's okay. He's our Uncle, and he'll listen to us."

And then they heard footsteps coming down the stairs.

"Boys, come with me," Josh told them.

The boys followed him slowly up the stairs. He could tell that they would listen to everything he said from that point.

When they were seated around the island in the kitchen, Josh took out ingredients to make sandwiches.

"Okay, tell me everything," he said. "And be honest, whatever it is. I promise we can figure it out together."

The oldest boy spoke first.

"I am Damon, and I am seventeen. The twins are Dylan and David, and they're thirteen. Our mother, Jess, is your sister," he said. He pulled a worn photograph from his pocket and pushed it toward Josh.

Sure enough, it was a childhood photograph of his sister and himself.

"Did you get this from your mom?" Josh asked.

The boy nodded and bit his lip.

"We got your address from her notebook, too."

"So, where is she? Where's your parents?"

"Dad left a long time ago," one of the twins said.

"And mom got sick," Damon said. "Our neighbor took her to the hospital. We went to see her the next day, the day before she was to have surgery. She told us to find you and was scared they would separate us. So, we did exactly what she said."

"Mom said that she would come here or contact you when she was out of hospital," another twin said. "Did she do that?"

Josh shook his head.

"No, but maybe she's still recovering? She'll call when she gets stronger, maybe. If she had my address, I'm sure she has my number, right?"

All three boys nodded.

"When was her surgery? And which hospital was it? I didn't even know that your mom was back in the state – she left long ago and gave up contact with all of us," Josh continued.

He pushed the plate of sandwiches toward the boys and gave Baxter a slice of ham.

"So, when was the surgery?"

"About a year ago," Damon said, looking down at his hands.

"A year?!" Josh exploded. "And where have you been this entire time?"

"In the basement. We're sorry! We knocked on the door the day we got here, and there wasn't any answer. We were cold and just wanted to rest. And saw that the window to the basement was open, so we just slid in," Damon explained, on the verge of tears.

"And after that? Didn't you hear me moving around? Why didn't you come then?" Josh asked.

"We got scared," a twin said. "And we got comfortable. We were also worried about our mom."

"And what about food? What did you eat? Why aren't you eating now?" Josh asked.

"There were cans of food and other things in the basement …" Damon's voice trailed off.

A few weeks had passed. Josh was slowly growing accustomed to life as an uncle of three teenagers and dad to Baxter. He still couldn't believe what the boys had endured in his basement. But he was grateful to have provided that safety for them, even if he didn't know it then.

The twins had moved upstairs into the spare bedroom, but Damon still went to sleep in the basement.

Josh had tried to find answers about his sister, but every question was blank.

She seemed to have vanished again.

The boys had grown accustomed to Josh, and once they had gotten some proper food in them and some sunshine on their faces, he could see his sister's eyes in theirs.

"You're safe here," he told them one evening. "We'll find your mom, or at least what happened. But for now, we'll get you into school, and I will take care of you. Then, we'll go to your grandparents for Christmas. Is that okay?"

"Thank you, Uncle Josh," Damon said. He was sitting on the floor with Baxter, who was drooling all over him.

"Don't thank me, this is what family does."

"If only Grace could see me now," he thought as he went to bed that evening.

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