Ah, the summer. The most wonderful time of the year, a time of relaxing and traveling. And what's more fun than traveling? Discovering new culture, meeting new people, gaining new experiences. The only thing better than traveling, is traveling with the family. Who would disagree?
Paul Travis would…
He wasn't always like this, bitter about the perspective to leave his house, distrusting every form of authority. A couple of years ago, he was a happy man, a joyful family guy. He enjoyed life with his family and had a great passion for traveling. The further, the better. It was the summer of 2003, that he and his family traveled to Istanbul, Turkey. Enjoying the sun and the culture of this country. When reaching the final day of their trip, Paul persuaded his wife to go visit a small village nearby Istanbul, a village in the mountains. He, his wife, and his daughters drove over mountain roads and watched as other cars pass. Occasionally there were wanderers traveling with a donkey who passed by. When they entered the picturesque village, they started to notice something strange.
The people stared at them when they drove by, slowly. It was like they were not welcome here, like the people didn't appreciate their presence. The women wore Nikabs, maybe the clothing style of his wife and their twins was provoking the locals. But everything went wrong when a little kid, not much older than 7, crossed the street. When Paul noticed the boy, it was already far too late. Even with his low speed he couldn't stop in time to avoid hitting the boy. A hard bump and his car stopped, with the kid in the middle of the street, half under his car. He ran out of the car, and carefully pulled the boy from under it, only to be surrounded by the villagers. He kneeled by the side of the boy. The kid was breathing heavily, while crying for his mother. His head was bleeding. Paul stood up and walked to one of the older villagers.
"Sir, it was really an accident, I didn't see the boy. We have to call an ambulance."
The man replied calmly: "We will take care of it. But we have to go to the police, you understand that right?"
"Yeah, sure. But first, this kid needs some medical attention."
"We will take care of it! Let's go to the police now."
"Can't we simply call them?"
"It will be faster to go then call them. It isn't far."
He continued as he noticed Paul's intentions to return to his car: "No, sir. You don't need your car for this, the police office is just a few streets further. Come on and hurry!"
It was quite clear that this wasn't up for debate. With no other choice than to follow the man to the office, he told his wife and his children to wait in the car: 'I'll be back in minute, honey. I have to go to police office."
His wife looked around with a scared expression on her face and asked him: "Do we have to come with you, Paul?"
The older man looked annoyed to him and nods his head. "No, Mary. Just stay in the car with the girls. I'll be back in no time."
As he left his family, he saw someone calling. At least someone was calling an ambulance.
After a short walk to the police office, they entered the small police office. As his old companion spoke to the officer, he looked out the window. He looked up when the officers called him: "So, sir. We have heard that you have had an accident? Can we see your passport, please?"
Paul gave him his passport and the officer looked at it for a brief time before giving it back to him.
"Let us go to the scene of the crime, shall we?"
"Yeah, sure. But officer it was really an accident, you have to believe me. I didn't see him coming, and I couldn't evade him anymore."
"OK, sir. It's not that we don't believe you, but we have to see the scene first before we can agree with that."
"OK, let's go then."
As they returned to the scene of the crime, they smelled a strange scent. He ran to the car and fell on his knees with the police officer behind him. The officer looked at Paul and told him: "Sorry, Mister Travis, but we were a bit tired of tourists who think they can race through our streets. We had to do something."
He turned his head, now looking at Paul's car and continued: "And like you already could guess, the boy died!"
Still crying, he raised his head and looked at his burned out car with the charred corpses of his family inside…
Written by Belgiansparten