Redemption of Virtue
With tear stains and dark hollows instead of eyes due to sleepless nights, he walked down the street with folded trousers, ruffled hair and an unironed shirt that he had worn for days. A lady looked at him with suspicion, he immediately touched the back pocket of his trousers to check if his weapon was visible, but it was well concealed.
He knew what he was about to do, he had thought about it more than a thousand times at workplace and at his solitary home which was incomplete or rather emptied. He visualised how the dagger would run through his victim’s abdomen and blood would splash on clothes.
He believed that justice delayed is justice denied. He knew what he was doing, he remembered the day when his child was kidnapped, the phone calls and then watching his son brutally killed right before his eyes in a gruesome scene. Guilt paralysed him as he couldn’t take the call for action at the time. His wife couldn’t make it through the trauma and passed away a week later due to the cardiovascular disease she had. Since that day he was completely downcast. He was unable to shift his mind off the incident. The doctor told him that he maybe suffering from post traumatic syndrome but he begged to differ and believed that his condition was such because his son’s assassin was out in the open and he was helpless before the political connections he had.
He looked around and walked through the gates of the murder’s residence. He knocked at the door and out came the murder’s son. He grabbed him by the collar and vaulted to do as he had visualised, but he staggered before his hand could even reach its destination. He pictured his dearest son James, calm and contained, always beaming with hope and joy. For a second the murder’s son looked exactly like him. Questions arose “Would my son be glad to know that his death had met vindication in such a manner, Would Lily approve of my decision from wherever she is?”. His heart sank and he couldn’t execute his heart’s greatest desire which was to avenge himself but he paused before things took the incorrect direction and without a word sauntered slowly down the street.
The murder’s son was bewildered and wanted to inquire further about what this could have been all about. Unlike his parentage, he was a man of high moral grounds. After knowing the truth, he did what was right, meanwhile the deceased son looked proudly upon his father’s decision.