On my way past the living room I heard the news reporter talking, and something caught my ear, I quickly turned back only to see the object that was upstairs under my bed on the news report. I made a dash for the remote control and turned up the volume, and listened eagerly. The news reporter spoke “This is what the missing UN nuclear activity detector looks light, as you can see it has a series of coloured LEDs, when these flash violently it signals that the area it is locked on to has dangerous nuclear reactive material present” the reporter then went on for a while and said “The specially made one of its type UN detector was made to carry out tests on Saddam’s mass weapons facilities to see if he is manufacturing nuclear weapons, it is known that this is the last destination that the detector was left locked on to, and some reports suggest that before it was lost it was flashing, signaling a presence of nuclear reactive material in Saddam’s weapons facilities, but this has not been confirmed by the UN as of yet”.
I sat there horror-stricken, I couldn’t believe what I had just heard! I muted the TV and sat there thinking what to do, then suddenly the image of $4,000,000 flashed upon the screen, I quickly un-muted the TV and sat there, to find to my horror that that was what the detector was worth! $4M! Thousands of ideas and concepts where rushing through my mind at this moment, and without my even thinking I just ran upstairs to my room, only to hear my dad shout from behind me “DON’T RUN UP THE STAIRS! WALK!”. When I reached the box I didn’t dare open it, the lights were still flashing as I could see from the gaps in the opening, and I swiftly pushed it back, I decided to let it rest for today, and get on with the day gibing me some thinking time to make a decision on what to do.
I stayed up that night, just thinking, I had been all day already, but it was the only thing on my mind, and however hard I tried to move it out of the way and start to think about something else, the worse it got, so I decided to take it in the face and make a decision. My choices where the following, either to give it up to the UN and hope for a reward, try to sell it off to a mate for a few bucks, or give it to dad and see what he thinks we should do with it. I decided to give it to dad, he was elder than me, and when he took it into his hands it was no longer my problem, and so he would have to sort out what to do with it, knowing dad he’ll probably take it down to the local police station, but that’s none of my worries, I just need to get it out of my possession and preferably out of my house.
I knew that this night would be one of the worse nights ever, but I just lay there motionless, trying to sleep, in the silence of the night. “Hey get up! I told you already that we needed to leave early this morning, and look at you sleeping like a log! Get up! Come on, get dressed and go get ready to leave!” I couldn’t believe me luck, I had such a quite night’s sleep, no nightmares, no middle of the night crying, no sweating, it was such a good nights sleep that I even overslept holding back the whole family from starting the journey to my grandma’s house. It was a 3 hour drive, and I got bored the way there, while we were there, and all the way back, it was such a waste of time, and I hated it so much that it was starting to make me hate my grandma herself!
I got dressed and crawled under my bed, I unlocked the padlock on the tray, and hesitantly and very slowly tilted the lid up by about 5 mill waiting for it to explode any second, but to no avail, so I lifted the lid and looked and the flashing detector. I thought to myself wow… $4M sitting in my hand, and I was going to give it all up, but I had to for the best and so I slid it into my jacket pocket and closed my tray, heading downstairs towards the family waiting impatiently in the car outside.
In the car it was like a nightmare, my dad kept on talking to my mum about the news, particularly about the object sitting in my left jacket pocket, they kept on making comments like “Which idiot is it with now I wonder!” and “What the hell would whoever stole it want it for anyway!”, but I took all the comments in my stride and by the time we got back I was waiting to burst. I was the first one out of the car and into the house, and the first one to head to the fridge for a drink!
Later that evening I noticed my dad sitting alone watching the news, so I made my way to him making sure that I had everything planned out, and I sat down next to him. Fortunately they were talking about the detector on the news and as soon as it finished I had a chance, and I made my move… “Dad, you know that detector on the news?” “Yes son?” “Well dad, I have a problem, a very big problem, and dad I don’t want you to get angry with me because it wasn’t my fault! I just found it!” “Ok son, calm down, don’t worry I understand, what is it that you wanted to show me?” I slowly made a move for my trouser pocket, and I put my hand in feeling the metallic surface of the detector, I took it out and placed it on the table, and I waited.
Suddenly my dad made a quick head movement and stared at the detector and then at me and all he said was “You found this thing?!” I was amazed that he didn’t freak and I answered his question straight out, he took it in his stride and picked it up and slipped it in his pocket “We need to head straight to the police about this! This may be dangerous!” I stood up with my dad, and followed him without saying a word, he went to the car and I followed, and as he started the engine and pulled out of the drive, he sped off in the direction of the police station.
