Liam visits his Grandpa’s neglected grave to say goodbye and finds cryptic coordinates engraved on the tombstone. He follows the trail to a railway station’s cloakroom and uncovers an unpleasant truth: In the last years of his life, his grandpa tried to fulfill Liam’s dream when Liam’s sneaky father almost ruined it. But the final chance is in Liam’s hands now…18-year-old Liam’s heart pounded as he approached his late Grandpa’s grave with a bouquet of white roses.
He had gone to say goodbye that breezy autumn afternoon and nothing hurt him more than the thought of abandoning the town he grew up in. “I’ve come to say goodbye, Grandpa,” Liam gingerly knelt beside the tombstone and whispered. “Dad’s lost all the money in gambling. We’re moving into a trailer out of town…fifteen miles west. Dad promised to get me a job as a mechanic in a garage. I’m sorry, Grandpa…
I’ll never be able to achieve my dream…I’m not going to build airplanes and fly around the world. It’s over!” As Liam cried his heart out and talked to his Grandpa while scraping off the moss on the tomb, he discovered strange numbers engraved in a peculiar format on the marble…Liam hastily scraped off all the moss and stood back, surprised.
The etchings on the tombstone looked like coordinates. He recalled how he and his late Grandpa Robert used to play treasure hunts using such codes. Suspecting the etchings were some kind of hints his Grandpa wanted to convey to him, Liam searched for the coordinates on his phone. “A cloakroom?” he exclaimed when the code indicated a baggage room at a railway station in town.
“Is Grandpa trying to convey something to me?” At first, Liam thought it could be a prank. But when none of his assumptions made sense, he bicycled to the railway station to find out.”Good afternoon!” Liam approached the receptionist. “I wanted to know if there’s any locker registered under the name R. Hudson…Could you kindly check?”The lady scoured through the records and looked up at Liam. “Ah, yes, sir! It’s locker number 417…One with a combination lock. It’s been in use for over a year.” Liam was baffled as he thanked the receptionist and marched to the baggage room to check the locker.
”What is the code to open this thing?” Liam mumbled as he tried different combination codes to unlock the locker. But everything failed. Eventually, the boy realized that whatever the code was, it had to be a combination of numbers only his Grandpa and he knew. But nothing struck him until he heard a faint rumbling sound of an airplane in the distance.”That’s it!” Liam’s brows shot up in excitement.
With trembling hands, he entered the digits 1-7-1-7. It was the model number of his first toy airplane that he and his Grandpa Robert had made 12 years ago. Liam’s heart started pounding when the locker creaked open. “No…this can’t be true!” his jaw dropped at seeing wads of hundred-dollar bundles and an old brown diary.As Liam turned to the first page of the diary, his eyes grew moist at reading the words: “Dear Liam, if you’re reading this, you’re a wonderful grandson who truly loved me!
And I’m glad you haven’t forgotten about your Grandpa. This is where I met your grandma and realized the true purpose of my life. I want you to accomplish great things in life as well. And I hope you haven’t abandoned your dream of becoming a flight engineer.Before you decide the fate of the $150,000 in this locker, you must know something about your father. 12 years ago, in the summer of July 2005…”It was a pleasant Saturday afternoon, and 6-year-old Liam was painting his wooden toy airplane in his Grandpa Robert’s garage. “There…Flight L-1717 is ready for take-off, Captain Liam!”
