The Conversation

The Conversation

Written by Thomas E. Stone

“I have waited a long time for this, Stranger.”

I am here now. You called earlier than expected. Curious.

“I simply could not wait another second. I needed to see – no, needed to know what it feels like. It is time.”

Perhaps.  This decision would typically be my own. And this is quite premature. I am not comfortable.

“I am aware. But this is the right time, I assure you.”

Indeed. You know what it is you ask.

“I do.”

You ask me to take the life of an innocent man.

“An innocent man? How, I ask, is he innocent when everything he touches withers, dies or crumbles. He lets people get just close enough for them to let their barriers down and then he takes whatever he wants and leaves people wounded, hurting and broken. Hell, he is barely a man so you can forget ‘innocent’.”

I see. Then you ask me to take a loving son from an aging mother.

“Tell me more of this ‘loving son’. A man who can’t even bring himself to pick up the phone and speak to his own mother every now and then. Never mind getting off his sorry backside to actually go and see her. A son who has told his own father that he hates him far more times than he’s told him that he loves him. Does this sound like the sort of person that deserves any form of consideration?”

I understand. But you do want me to end the life of a devoted husband.

“Devoted he may be but I hardly think that makes up for his many failings. This is a man that risked everything he had on a Hail Mary. And lost. This amazing woman put her complete and total trust into him and when it mattered the most he let her down. If anything we will be doing her a favor by taking him out of the equation.”

If you say so. Well then finally. What of his daughter.

“His daughter…”

Hmm.

“I – I would never deprived a child of their father.”

Then I think I shall leave.

“No, wait. I said I would never deprived a child of their father. But is that truly what he is? That’s not what I see. I see a man that’s never there. He lives this life of fantasy’s, so desperate for a way out of the hole that he’s spent his whole life digging that he spends each and every single second focused on escaping the truth to his reality. It would be a shame for any child to grow up with a parent that they can touch, but never truly feel. She is better off without a man like that in her life”

I see. If this is how you feel then it shall be done.

“Thank you. You truly are making the world a better place by doing this.”

If you say so. Now it is time. Follow me. As promised. Your life is over.