When my socks started disappearing, I thought it was just something that happens at times because they do get devoured by the dryer every now and then.
But I found it strange since only one sock from several pairs suddenly vanished.
It showed Dylan sneaking into the laundry room and carefully picking a sock from the newest pair I had.
He stuck the sock inside his school beg, put his coat on, and walked through the door.
I am a single dad to my son Dylan, and we don’t really have visitors that often, so I thought, could it be my son who “steals” my socks? But then again, why would he need just one from a pair.
Something wasn’t adding up, and no matter how crazy it sounds, I decided to install the old nanny cam in the laundry room and “catch” the culprit.
The following day, as I was having my morning coffee while going through the footage, I almost spilled it over the computer.
Curious about what he was doing with my socks, I decided to follow after him.
Soon enough, I found him going towards a street I never drove through. It led to a poor neighborhood with old and abandoned houses.
Then, he stood in front of one of the houses and knocked on the door, looking as though he had done that a million times before.
I made sure I stayed out of sight, but just as I heard Dylan telling the old man in a wheelchair who answered the door that he got some new fancy socks for him, I made a sound and both Dylan and the man turned towards me.
“Dad, I can explain,” Dylan said, worried that I would tell him off.
But that wasn’t my attention. I just wanted to know what was going on.
The old man approached closer and said, “You must be Dennis. Your son is making sure my leg stays warm during the cold days.”
It was then that I realized the man only had one leg.
He used to serve in the Navy and once his children moved to other countries, he was all by himself.
But Dylan, who met him by chance one day while walking to school, made him company every now and then.
“Dad, are you mad?” Dylan asked. I said I wasn’t. In fact, I was proud of my son’s heart of gold.
From that moment on, we visited the old man regularly, helping him with the errands and around the house.
The lost socks led to a beautiful friendship.