Taxi Drops Old Lady off in Wrong Suburb, 'I'm in a Dungeon!' She Calls Son Crying — Story of the Day

Craving for her son’s attention, an older mother often calls him, pretending to be sick. The son eventually finds out and stops falling for her antics—until one day, she calls him crying and claims she’s trapped in a dungeon. Is she lying again?

"You have stopped visiting your old mother!" Mrs. O'Neil complained to her son over the phone. "Is it because you're tired of listening to my stories?"

"No, Mom!" Adam replied. "You know I don't have time. I spend most of my day at work, and then I must help my wife look after our newborn at home."

"Please take out some time for your mother, Adam!" Mrs. O'Neil cried. "I feel so lonely here."

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At 74, Mrs. O'Neil lost her husband, and living without him was a new experience for her. Moreover, soon after her husband's death, Adam married a woman he had been dating for months, but Mrs. O'Neil wasn't happy with his decision.

She didn't want her son, with whom she had lived all her life, to move out. She didn't want it years ago, when he was 18, and she didn't want it now, when he was 51.

All her life, Mrs. O'Neil had been a classic overprotective mom. She constantly tracked his movements, demanded to know everything about his social life, and never allowed him to date girls when he was in college. Because of her inability to let him go, Adam married his wife and had his first child only at 51.

After Adam had his baby, Mrs. O'Neil felt the loneliest because he had stopped visiting her. However, she soon devised a plan to grab her son's attention.

"Oh, Adam!" Mrs. O'Neil cried over the phone. "I'm not feeling well, son. My body is burning with a fever. I don't know what happened."

"Oh no!" Adam gasped. "Don't worry, Mom. I'll be there in fifteen minutes."

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Mrs. O'Neil felt happy seeing Adam sitting beside her bed just a few minutes after the phone call. She thought it was the best way to make her son visit her. Soon, she was pretending to be sick or hurt multiple times a week.

"Adam! I slipped in the kitchen and hurt my leg!" Mrs. O'Neil lied to her son over the phone one day. "I can't move! Please come and help me."

A few minutes later, Adam entered her house and saw her crying in pain. "Let's go to the hospital, Mom!" the worried son told his mother.

Since Mrs. O'Neil lied about her injury, she knew going to the doctor's was risky. She couldn't risk Adam finding out the truth! She had to avoid it at all costs.

"You don't have to spend hundreds of dollars on your old mother, Adam," Mrs. O'Neil said. "I'll be fine in no time with a few painkillers. Don't worry!"

For Adam, it was horrible seeing his mother in so much pain. That day, he did all the house chores for her — he cooked dinner, did the dishes, and cleaned the house so his mother didn't have to worry about anything.

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"Why don't you stay over tonight?" Mrs. O'Neil asked her son in a shaky voice. "I don't want to spend the night alone."

"Of course, Mom," Adam said. "I'll stay with you."

The following day, Adam had breakfast with his mother as he did before moving out. "I wish you could stay here with me forever," the older lady spoke wistfully and sighed.

After spending a few more hours with his mother, Adam left the house. "I'll visit you soon, okay?" he said sweetly, patting her cheeks before leaving.

On his way home, he realized he had forgotten his phone at his mother's.

He made a U-turn and drove towards his mother's house, unaware that he would soon witness something that would leave him shocked.

As he walked past the door towards the dining table to pick up his phone, he saw a glimpse of his mother running to her room.

"Wait, what is she—how is she running? How's that possible?" he wondered. "Was she...pretending? All this while?"

In a matter of seconds, Adam realized his mother had been lying to him for the past few weeks. He recollected all the sudden calls, the weird accidents, and the reluctance to go to the doctor. It had all been lies. And it made Adam furious.

He picked up his phone, steeled himself to stop an outburst, and left without a word.

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"Adam, I feel terrible right now. I can't explain what's happening to me, but I don't feel well," Mrs. O'Neil said over the phone two days later.

"Mom, please!" Adam snapped at her. "I know what you've been doing. You've been lying to me about all your illnesses. You are doing the same right now, so please stop!"

Adam hung up before his mother could respond. He wasn't going to entertain these shenanigans anymore.

But a few minutes later, Adam received a call from a nearby hospital.

"Yes," Adam replied.

"I'm Doctor Collins from the City Hospital Emergency Department, and I just checked your mother," the lady said. "I wanted to inform you that she called an ambulance to her place earlier today, claiming she was sick. However, she was perfectly fine when I checked her."

"What?!" Adam was shocked. "Unbelievable! I am so sorry for what happened."

"I just wanted to inform a family member about her strange behavior," the doctor said. "She could get into trouble if this continues, you know. Lying to paramedics and hospitals is no joke."

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Later that day, Adam visited his mother. "Mom, you can't keep pretending to be sick," Adam said.

"I wasn't pretending, son," Mrs. O'Neil replied. "I told you I wasn't feeling well."

"Mom, I know you called an ambulance for no reason," Adam looked into her eyes. "That's unfair to people who need an ambulance to see the doctor. Please don't do that again!"

The older lady lowered her gaze and nodded. "I didn't mean to hurt you, Adam," she said. "I'm sorry."

"You could get in trouble for calling an ambulance without a valid reason! Don't do that again, okay?" Adam warned his mother. "I'll visit you soon, but please don't lie to me. I won't come here if you do that!"

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A few days later…

"Adam, please help me!" Mrs. O'Neil called her son again. "I think someone is spying on me. Please come home and save me!"

"Not again, Mom. Please!" Adam yelled over the phone. "I told you not to lie to me again! Why do you keep doing this?"

"I'm not lying, Adam," the older lady cried.

Annoyed by his mother, Adam hung up and didn't answer his mother's calls. He ignored her and continued working in the office until he saw her name on his phone screen an hour later.

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"Why is she calling me again now?" he wondered while holding his phone.

"Yes, Mom?" Adam answered the call and heard unusual noises in the background.

"A-ddd-am!" Mrs. O'Neil's voice cracked because of poor network coverage.

"Mom? Where are you?" Adam was worried. "Can you hear me?"

"I'm in a dungeon... With Dirty Bill!" Adam heard his mother cry.

"Where? In a dungeon??? And who the hell is Dirty Bill???" Adam asked his mother before the call dropped. He called her again multiple times but couldn't reach her.

A dungeon? Like in a castle? It was easy to dismiss it as a lie, but the son knew his mother too well—and something was terribly off this time.

"I should call the police!" Adam said to himself before getting in touch with an officer. The worried son told the police everything that had happened and requested them to help him find her.

Soon, the police learned about Mrs. O'Neil's whereabouts through her phone. They told Adam that his mother was at a place far away from her house.

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"How did she get so far from her house? That's strange!" Adam thought. The police accompanied him to where Mrs. O'Neil's phone was last switched on. Soon, Adam found himself standing outside an abandoned house. Guilt flooded through him as he realized that his neglect had put her in danger. She was stuck in an abandoned property because of him.

Together with the police officers, Adam entered the house, but they didn't find anyone inside. Then, Adam suggested they should check the basement because his mother told him she was inside a dungeon.

When Adam entered the cellar of the abandoned house, he saw his mother lying on a mattress on the ground. "Oh, my God!" Adam gasped.

Then, an older man wearing dirty clothes emerged from the dark. By looking at his face, Adam could tell that he was not the kind of man anyone would want around their mother. The man's face was covered in dirt, and it seemed like he hadn't brushed his hair in ages.

"Hands up!" an officer yelled. "What have you done to this lady?"

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"Please don't arrest me!" the old man begged. "I didn't hurt her. She's only sleeping. I promise!"

Just then, Mrs. O'Neil suddenly woke up, jolted by the commotion. "Adam!" she exclaimed upon seeing her son. "You're here!"

"What happened, Mom?" Adam knelt on the mattress and hugged his mother. "How did you land up here? Did this man kidnap you?"

"No, Adam," the older lady shook her head. "Remember when I called you earlier today? I felt someone was spying on me, so I took a cab to your house. But the driver dropped me somewhere else instead of taking me to your place."

It turned out that Mrs. O'Neil couldn't recall the name of her son's street. She unknowingly asked the taxi driver to take her to another street with a similar name.

"I looked for your house everywhere but couldn't find it," she told Adam. "Then, I was walking towards the other street when I stumbled upon rail tracks. I wanted to cross the tracks to reach the other side, but I slipped."

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"I found her there," the stranger added. "I brought her here because this is where I live. I call myself Dirty Bill, and I have lived in this cellar for years. I used to work at a hospital before fate's cruel plans forced me to leave my job and live here."

"Did he bring you here?" Adam asked his mother. "Is he telling the truth?"

"Yes, Adam," Mrs. O'Neil said. "He's a kind man. I was scared when he brought me here, because it looked like a proper dungeon of a place! But Bill made hot tea for me and bandaged my foot."

Once Adam was sure his mother was safe, and the homeless man did not hurt her, he thanked the police officers for their help and asked them to leave. Then, Bill told him something about Mrs. O'Neil.

"I observed your mother, and I think she might have dementia," he said.

"Thank you for your advice, Bill," Adam said. "You seem like an insightful person. How did you end up on the streets, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Oh, that's a long story!" The man took a deep breath. "My stepdaughter kicked me out after my wife's demise. She took all my money and left me to beg on the streets. Nobody wanted to hire this old crock for anything. I don't blame them. I became an insufferable man after my Lisa died."

"Oh, I'm sorry you had to go through that," Adam said.

Adam thanked Bill for helping his mother and promised he'd stay in touch. "I'll visit you soon," he promised the homeless man before leaving the abandoned property.

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The following day, Adam took his mother to the doctor and learned that Bill was right. Mrs. O'Neil had dementia, which explained her constant panic about her health and why she felt someone was spying on her.

"It's okay, Mom. I'm here now," Adam said, hugging her like he was shielding her from the illness.

"I need to be more patient with Mom," Adam thought after returning to her house from the hospital.

He thought of ways to make things easy for his mother. A few items down the list, he had an idea.

"Hey! I have a job for you, if you're interested," Adam told Bill that evening. "How would you like to be my mother's caregiver?"

When the homeless man learned about Adam's plan, he couldn't resist the job offer. It allowed him to earn money and have a roof over his head while living with Mrs. O'Neil.

Meanwhile, Adam felt at peace knowing his mother was not alone, and that she was safe in Bill's experienced hands.

Adam visited his mother twice every week—once with his wife and kid, and once by himself—because he knew all his mother ever wanted was to spend time with her beloved son.

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What can we learn from this story?

• Don't resent your overprotective parents. Adam never understood why his mother was so overprotective. He felt annoyed when she controlled his life.
• Be patient with your old parents. As Mrs. O'Neil grew older, Adam didn't like how she had become so clingy. He couldn't understand why she felt lonely and wanted to spend more time with him.

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Click here to read another story about a boy who gets lost on a school trip. His mother gets a call from him and learns he is in a dark cellar.

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