The Choice

He nodded.
“Tell me about your son,” I said.
Something broke loose in Jason. A new feeling. I saw it pass over
his face.
“He looks like me,” Jason said.
“Like father, like son.”
His eyes were no longer focused on me or the gun, his vision was
someplace else. I couldn’t tell what the new feeling was yet, but I
could sense that something had shifted. I followed the thread.
“Do you want your son to be like you?” I asked.
“No!” he said. “God, no.”
“Why not?”
He shook his head. He wasn’t willing to go where I was leading
him.
“What do you want?” I said it quietly. It was a question that can be
terrifying to answer, a question that can change your life.
“I can’t take this! I don’t want to feel like this!”
“You want to be free from pain.”
“I want that bitch to pay! I’m not going to let her make a fool of
me.” He raised the gun.
“You’ll get your life back in control.”
“Damn right I will.”
I was sweating now. It was up to me to help him drop the gun.
There was no script to follow. “She did you wrong.”
“Not anymore! It ends now.”
“You’ll protect yourself.”
“That’s right.”
“You’ll show your son how to handle things. How to be a man.”
“I’ll show him how to not let other people hurt him!”
“By killing his mom.”
Jason froze.