Story #18: "This Means Peace"

It's still Day 19, and here's Story #18 of my #astoryaday June Writing Challenge. I don't know where these wildly diverse ideas for stories come from, but I like them. Writing the same kind of story over and over again would quickly become terribly boring. Enjoy!  ~  JH

"This Means Peace"

You killed my father. Prepare to live. For what you've done to destroy my family, you deserve the opposite.

A lesser man would freely indulge in hatred and bitterness and allow them to control his life. But I refuse to let you win like that.

I wish you a long life, spent in quiet contemplation of this and all other acts of violence that you may have committed. I wish you unfulfilled loneliness, heart-wrenching sadness, and enduring despair. But I want you to live through it, now and for a very long time. Death is early parole, and I'm sorry, but you haven't earned that.

I could wage war against the system that kept you on the streets for months, years, and decades after perpetrating your heinous acts.

I could rail against those who, for a fee or out of genuine affection, defended your character and proclaimed your innocence.

But these efforts would consume my time and profit little other than wasting the life with which I have been blessed.

As much as you do not deserve it, I offer you my forgiveness. It doesn't make what you did alright. It doesn't mean that I will forget it. I won't, and neither will you. I will and do forgive you so that I can move forward with my life.

I don't expect you to understand or even to care. It doesn't matter. You don't matter to me. All that does is gone, buried six feet deep and marked with carved granite sentiments.

I am at peace, and I fully intend to remain so. And in this peace, I've finally found my rest.