"Wordsmiths Fiction Week 2: Season 24 – The Envelope"

My Most Respectful Greetings

With an utmost respect and a deep appreciation, I dearly extend my greetings to the Team Wordsmiths for consistently creating for us a platform that stirs our imagination and sharpens our storytelling skills. It’s an honour for me to engage in this beautiful journey of fiction writing with my fellow creatives.

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Introduction

• Fiction has always been the power to mirror reality in some ways that tug our heart and spark the mind. This very week’s prompt carries more an eerie, suspenseful vibe, yet so grounded in reality that really compels one to wonder, What if it was me?

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My Review of the First Half

The setup is so striking. Diego, just an ordinary worker in a mundane night shift, is always pulled into an unexplained pattern of silence and of course mystery. The rusted blue sedan. The emotionless stare as well. The repeated appearances at just exactly 2:17 AM. And finally, the envelope. These unique details build suspense effectively, hinting more at a deeper emotional thread hidden beneath the surface. It’s definitely not horror, it’s psychological.

• And now the second half of the story

What Was Inside the Envelope?

Inside the envelope ✉️ was nothing else than a photograph. An old, a slightly torn black-and-white photo of a young boy, hold happily beside a man in a military uniform. Tapping to the back of it was a short handwritten note:
“You left before you could say a 👋 goodbye. – J.”

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The image found inside really struck Diego like lightning. The boy in the picture was no one else but him. And the man? That was his late father, Javiera. The man he had not seen since he was eight.

Who’s Behind It All?

The man in that blue sedan wasn’t a stranger at all. He was "Jorge", Diego’s estranged uncle, his father’s younger brother. Diego’s mother did had severed ties with the family after a fallout, never at least telling Diego the full story. Jorge here had been searching for him for years, hoping to help deliver a final message from his dying brother which is Diego’s father.

The only reason Jorge came every night at exact 2:17 was that, it's the exact time Diego was born. His father, despite this separation, had never stopped keeping track at him.

Why Did the Man Keep Returning?

Jorge at first, didn’t want to scare Diego. He just didn’t know how well to approach him. The very note in the envelope was his last try before giving up. A man which was torn by grief, guilt, and desperation.

• Diego finally confronted Jorge on the eighth night. That very meeting unraveled all the years of buried pain and long-lost love. Diego did learned his father had written letters to him which was unread, unsent and Jorge had kept them all.

Conclusion

In the end, Diego didn’t only uncover a family secret. He also reconnected with his roots. He had to forgive the past and opened a new chapter. The 24-hour gas station, which was once a quiet place of routine, had become the unlikely ground where a young man rediscovered the father he thought he had really lost forever.

• This story is just a reminder that not all ghosts wear a white sheets, some actually drive old sedans and carry memories too heavy for just words.
  The Realism in this fiction shines perfectly when it reflects emotions we all understand: the loss, love, regret, and reconciliation.
  I once again Thank Team Wordsmiths, for this thought-provoking Learning challenge.

i invite my distinguished scholars: @nsijoro, @spektro223 and @bossj23.

         «Thanks for Reading»