567: What’s Going On In There?

Intriguingly, nailed to a wall was a rosary and a plastic red poppy. Canadians use the poppy to commemorate fallen soldiers on Remembrance Day up there. Here in the States, all this got a little bit of coverage, but in Canada it was big news.

Or maybe somebody was going to build a meth lab in the tunnel, or an operation to grow marijuana. Or they would use the tunnel to hide foreign athletes from the Pan-Am Games who might want to stay in Canada illegally. On Twitter, it was #terrortunnel. But the truth of what was going on in that tunnel and what its purpose was was nothing like any of that.

And the way the Canadian police figured it out-- OK, first of all, can I say, sometimes one is reminded of what a very different country Canada is from the United States. As part of the manhunt for whoever built the tunnel, a policeman tweeted, "If you built a tunnel near the Rexall Centre in Toronto, give us a call, OK?"

The Toronto police pointed out that it is not illegal to dig a hole. Apparently, no law was broken. From the start, they said they saw no evidence of terrorism, and they did not want to jump to conclusions. For instance, here's an exchange between then-Toronto deputy chief Mark Saunders and reporters after he showed them a photo of that rosary and plastic poppy.

(SUBJECT) MARK SAUNDERS: This was found inside the actual tunnel itself, and it was nailed on the wall.

(SUBJECT) REPORTER: What does that tell you?

(SUBJECT) MARK SAUNDERS: That tells me that this was nailed inside the tunnel on a wall.

[LAUGHTER]

(HOST) IRA GLASS: The police basically went on TV and showed pictures of the stuff that they found in the tunnel-- a ladder, and the generator, and the sump pump. And they asked the public, this jog anybody's memory? Anybody know anything about this stuff? And that turned out to be exactly the right move. Because watching that coverage was a guy named Boko Marich. He sees that ladder--

(SUBJECT) BOKO MARICH: And I said to myself, that look exactly my step-ladder, and I bet you any money this is mine.

(HOST) IRA GLASS: I bet you any money this is mine.

(SUBJECT) BOKO MARICH: And then when I saw sump pump. And I said, oh-ho-ho, my step-ladder and sump pump. But I couldn't believe. I couldn't believe. Like, I couldn't believe myself. I couldn't sleep. I was thinking about that.

(HOST) IRA GLASS: He couldn't sleep, because he knew who he'd given the stuff to. Bob is a contractor, and he lent that stuff to one of his favorite employees, this young guy, just 22, Elton. What was Elton doing? And come to think of it, Elton had been asking to borrow a lot of tools lately.

(SUBJECT) BOKO MARICH: He was asking me for shovel, for pick, for another shovel, another tool, so many tools. I just would say, OK, if you need, take.

(HOST) IRA GLASS: Boko loves Elton. He loves that Elton's a great worker. He loves that, unlike other young people Bob's worked with in the past, apparently, Elton always wants to learn, asks lots of questions.

(SUBJECT) BOKO MARICH: What do you do when you do the roof? How do you connect this? How do you put joist hangers? What is the distance between this and that? Can I do this instead of that? Is this going to carry this support? Unbelievable, you know? And I joke with everybody, if everybody asked me who is that guy? This is my adopted son, Elton. Always, I used to say, this is my adopted son. OK? So I would lend him any tools he wanted.

(HOST) IRA GLASS: So the morning after he sees the police pointing to a photo of his ladder and sump pump on television, he goes to pick up Elton to bring him to work, like always. Elton gets in the truck.

(SUBJECT) BOKO MARICH: He brought two coffees for me and him. And I said, Elton, tell me one thing. That sump pump-- I didn't even ask full question. He said, Boko, yes, I did. Oh my god.

(HOST) IRA GLASS: Boko went to the authorities and made sure that Elton would not get arrested or go to prison for this and then turned him in. The police talked to Elton, satisfied themselves that Elton was not a terrorist or an evil criminal mastermind but just some guy, and they let him go. They didn't even give him a fine, though they did suggest that he not dig more tunnels. Canada.

So who is Elton? Why did he do it? Why go to the trouble? Well, Elton has not given many interviews, though he did allow one reporter, named Nick Koehler, to spend a couple days with him and his family to write it this long story about them in Maclean's Magazine, and Nick was able to tell us a lot about Elton. Elton turned down our request for an interview.

Elton was maybe two minutes from the ravine and woods where the tunnel was found, in a kind of rough neighborhood in public housing. Nick says both of his parents are from Jamaica.

(SUBJECT) NICK KOEHLER: He lives with two sisters, an older sister and a younger sister. And they all live with their mother.

(HOST) IRA GLASS: Elton's the quiet kid in the family. Nick says everybody else is a big talker.

(SUBJECT) NICK KOEHLER: And I think in particular his older sister, Anora, she has a lot of ideas about how Elton should be living his life. And she's not shy about sharing that with him. She's a big fan of self-help books. And so I think Elton is often in the position of listening to life talks, as they put it.

(INTERVIEWER) IRA GLASS: Advice.

(SUBJECT) NICK KOEHLER: Advice. And Elton found refuge, ever since he was a kid, in the ravine.

(HOST) IRA GLASS: In the ravine there were no life talks. And from the time he was little, Elton was this introspective kid who loved to build, to take machines apart and put them back together. He fixed up old lawnmowers. He built clubhouses. And like he said in a short interview that Nick recorded for a video that Maclean's Magazine made, He'd go to the ravine.

(HOST) IRA GLASS: Again, here's Nick.

(SUBJECT) NICK KOEHLER: The tree house of the future. That it's underground because one of the fundamental things he wanted from this was that it be secret. It was his secret place that he could go and just relax and be alone.

(HOST) IRA GLASS: And not always alone. A friend helped Elton dig the tunnel and build it, excavating, he thinks, two dump trucks of dirt by hand. And once it was done, they would go there together-- watch movies, listen to music, barbecue.

His other sister, Tracyann, found the rosary, actually sitting at a bus stop, and gave it to Elton to protect him.

(SUBJECT) ELTON: As soon as she gave it to me, like an hour later I was already down there, I nailed it up. Every day after that day, I would go there, I would sometimes make a prayer. Not every day. Some days, I would forget. But sometimes I would remember to have a little prayer, just so I'm safe and it's some peace of mind. Yeah.

(HOST) IRA GLASS: The reality of Elton's tunnel, it was so different from what people thought it was when it was first discovered by police. And I think what that's about is, I think, when we encounter something inexplicable or mysterious, our imaginations, we are such hacks. You know? We go to the most standard, stock, seen it in 100 TV shows version of what something probably is. Like, oh, it's a terrorist attack. Oh, it's drug dealers. You know?

When the reality of what this tunnel really was, it was this dreamy guy who just wanted a place to get away from his sisters and be alone for a little while. It's so much smaller, but so much less predictable and way more interesting. Well, today on our program, what's going on in there? We have stories where people think that they know exactly what is going on in situations of various kinds, and we get inside and find out just how much more interesting the reality of all of it is.

From WBEZ Chicago, it's This American Life. I'm Ira Glass. Stay with us.

And Courtney, the radio producer, was not sure that Rainy was ready to tell that story. It just seemed so soon. But Rainy wanted to, and the school principal thought it would be a good idea, because it would give Rainy a reason to come to school, which, at the time, she needed. So Courtney said, OK. Here's Rainy back then.

(SUBJECT) MAN: Are you recording?

(HOST) RAINY: Or as Nicole would say, "cheesing OD."

(INTERVIEWER) RAINY: You tried punishing me, tried to take my things away.

(SUBJECT) RAINY'S MOTHER: Punishment, taking your things away-- it didn't matter.

(SUBJECT) RAINY'S MOTHER: No, they wouldn't let us file a report. We tried to, any which way, get him for something, and we couldn't because you were over 16. There was no proof that he was having sex with you before that age, so I couldn't have him arrested. They told me I needed to go to the DA.

So I called the DA, and they didn't want to be bothered with it, because it was consensual, which isn't the law. The law is that he's an adult, and he shouldn't have been having sex with you. That's the law, and he should have went to jail.

(INTERVIEWER) RAINY: I'm so done with it. I'm just like, free like a bird and wings on a cage. I feel great. You know, it feels good not to feel bad.

(SUBJECT) RAINY'S MOTHER: Thank God, thank God.

(SUBJECT) NICOLE: I hate him.

(SUBJECT) NICOLE: He would be the one that I would kill. I would keep his boxers on, but cut him up into little pieces, put cement in the body bag, dump him down in the ocean, and just smile, smile with happiness.

(INTERVIEWER) RAINY: And just smile, ladies and gentlemen.

(SUBJECT) NICOLE: The monster is gone. We gotta get rid of these monsters. I'm just telling you. I'm gonna be the one. I'm gonna be Dexter.

I insisted that, if we were going to keep producing this story together, that she meet with someone from an organization called Day One. They work with young survivors of intimate partner violence. I brought her to meet with their community educator, Sarah Gonzales.

On average, it takes seven to nine times for someone to leave. So just because someone went back doesn't mean that they're never going to leave.

(INTERVIEWER) RAINY: I mean, every time we get into a fight and things start getting really bad, I'm just sitting there, like, you should be leaving right now, you need to get your stuff, you need to get out the door, you need to go home. And I never do it every single time. And every single time, I blame myself. Because I have feet. I could walk if I want to, but I don't.

(SUBJECT) SARAH GONZALES: Have you ever asked yourself the other question? What makes me stay? What keeps me here?

[RING TONE]

(INTERVIEWER) RAINY: Hold on. Yo. Hello? Hi, [BLEEP].

What are you doing? No, are you drunk? You promise?

(SUBJECT) NICOLE: Naw, man.

(SUBJECT) NICOLE: What happened? I feel like he doesn't take you serious.

It's just coming to a point where I'm pretty much unhappy all the time. I can't do this much longer. I get told all day, every day, that I'm an evil monster. And men? Men are the ones that made the Verrazano Bridge. That's what he says to me. Women are evil, and if you're born with a vagina, you deserve to suffer. He yells at me and tells me that I'm not learning. Because I don't agree. Why would I agree that I need to be punished just because I was born.

(INTERVIEWER) RAINY: You also kind of take care of Pop Pop like he's your child more than you take care of me like I'm your child.

(HOST) Pop Pop is my grandpa.

(SUBJECT) RAINY'S MOTHER: You're not a child anymore.

(INTERVIEWER) RAINY: So am I.

(SUBJECT) RAINY'S MOTHER: And I love you with all my heart, all of my heart, all my being, and all my body. And I don't want to see you with him. I really don't. I hope you can find somebody better, somebody that you deserve, someone that deserves you.

(INTERVIEWER) RAINY: All right. I guess we'll end on that note.

(HOST) IRA GLASS: Since Rainy completed this story, she's graduated high school. She hopes to attend college. She's moved out of state and has no plans to reconcile with her ex-boyfriend. We did get a hold of the ex-boyfriend, of Tony. And we asked him for an interview, which he didn't want to do. We told him what was in the story. He sent back a short response, saying that many of her claims were inaccurate, but he did not specify which ones. He also said that in a couple cases she left things out.

Rainy's story was produced in partnership with Radio Rookies at WNYC and their staff, Courtney Stein, Andrew Mambo, and Kaari Pitkin. They have a podcast where you can check out more of their stories. Find out more at wnyc.org/shows/rookies.

Coming up, getting a chance for the first time to really, truly find out what somebody has been thinking of you all these years. That's in a minute, from Chicago Public Radio, when our program continues.

So Larry's 20 years old. He's a student. And he's wondered what's going on in there his whole life about his own father. Larry's dad emigrated from Fujian province to America before Larry was born. He came here with nothing, worked 15 hours a day at a Chinese takeout restaurant that he owned. So Larry never saw him much, let alone talked to him.

Larry's parents never tried to teach him Chinese, so Larry only speaks English. His dad only speaks Chinese, which Larry says is something that happens in the Fujianese community. Some of his friends can't talk to their parents either. And in Larry's case, he has always wondered what was going on in his dad's head. Bianca Giaever has the story.

(HOST) BIANCA GIAEVER: Larry's dad spoke two dialects of Chinese-- Fujianese and Mandarin. Larry could barely tell the difference between the two. Larry's mom spoke to him in English. She felt that since he lived in America, learning English was his first priority, and she assumed that he'd just pick up Chinese. He didn't.

So without anybody meaning for it to happen, Larry wound up completely unable to speak to his dad. They've never had a single conversation.

And Larry's feelings shifted. He remembers thinking, oh, I was the testing ground. I was a mistake. He figured that his dad realized his blunder, not teaching Larry Chinese, and made up for it with his little brother. Which was great for them, except he didn't make much of an effort to fix his relationship with Larry.

Six years later, he's still never had a real conversation with his dad. If he couldn't do it in Chinese, he figured it'd be the same as it always was. But a few months ago, he started writing a letter to finally respond to the letter his dad sent years ago. We hired a translator to turn the letter into Chinese. And our translator coached Larry on how to read it. We recorded Larry reading the letter and edited the sound so it would all be perfect.

The plan was to get Larry's dad on the phone from China, play him the recording of the letter, and then they'd talk with the translator's help. Larry was excited to finally get a sense of who his father was, where he came from, what he thought about. And that's what we did.

[SPEAKING CHINESE]

(HOST) BIANCA And here's the English translation read by Larry.

[SPEAKING CHINESE]

Before all this, Larry thought he'd feel closer to his dad if they talked about who his dad's friends were when he was young, what his dreams were. But his texts are the dumb small things you text with anyone you love. Larry's dad reminds him to buy his mom a present for Mother's Day and complains that his little brother is ignoring his texts. He tells Larry to be careful walking home late at night.

Larry texts, "School's good. Weather's starting to cool down." His dad asks him how his new job is, and finally, "Make sure to take care of yourself and eat more food." Larry sends him a thumbs up emoji.

(HOST) IRA GLASS: Bianca Giaever-- she's a filmmaker. She's actually made a few videos with our show, a series called Videos 4 U, where Bianca would help somebody say something they were having trouble saying to a friend or family member by making a video to help them do it. They're great. They're at our website, thisamericanlife.org.

[MUSIC - "WHAT'S ON YOUR MIND" BY GREYHOUNDS]

Research help today from Julie Beer, Michelle Harris, and Christopher Swetala. Music help from Damien Graef and Rob Geddis.

[ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS]

This American Life is delivered to public radio stations by PRX, the Public Radio Exchange. Thanks, as always, to our program's co-founder, Mr. Torey Malatia. You know, at his job running Rhode Island Public Radio these days, he is always asking the tough questions. No detail is too small for him.

(SUBJECT) BOKO MARICH: What do you do when you do when you do the roof? How you connect this? How you put joist hangers? What is distance between this and that? Can I do this instead of that?

(HOST) IRA GLASS: I'm Ira Glass, back next week with more stories of This American Life.