| The detective followed the girl into the building. 'Girl', he thinks to himself, really she's a young woman of 18 years of age, but to him she seems someone oblivious of most of the world's evils and machinations. Perhaps she's not a total innocent though, she's a suspect after all and the detective wants to have a talk with her and perhaps he can steer her on a straight path before she gets the idea that going straight is no longer a real option open to her. He hates to see the "lost ones".
He follows her to the rooftop of the building. He quietly follows through the access door, looks around and doesn't see her and then walks to the edge of the rooftop and looks over. 'Nothing below but a blind alley 12 stories down. "Hello there detective" a voice booms at him out of nowhere. Joshua turns around and sees an older man with his arm around the young woman's neck and his other hand is holding a rather sizable pistol to her temple. "Hi dad", the detective replied. "Fancy seeing you here". "Happy to see me are you?" said Joshua's father. "Taking care of business against the sinners I see". "It's not my job to be judge, jury and executioner." "That's not why I'm here." "My concern right now is saving this young woman." "But she's imperfect in my eyes", boomed his father, "she's descended from a family of no-good people and in my estimation she deserves to be tortured for just that reason alone if nothing else!" "Tortured?" asked Joshua. "Yeah, burned nice and slow", said his dad, "ain't I merciful?" "Is this the kind of mercy you showed the babies you killed uptown?" asked Joshua. "They had it coming to them!" barked his dad in reply. "Now these people know who their dealing with here!!" "So, do I torture the girl or what?" asked his dad. "I have every intent to save her", said Joshua. "Well now "savior", I'll make you a deal. I want you to jump off this building to your death." "If you do, I'll give her at least a small chance of avoiding a slow torture with a blowtorch. If you don't, then I'll torture her for certain. "Please take this deal from me, I don't want to die" said Joshua. "Oh, but you don't have to. You are innocent in my eyes and your very existence doesn’t fill me with rage and disgust" responded his father. "Please don't ask me to do this", repeated Joshua. "Those are my terms", said his dad. "Once again and for the third time, please don't make me jump off this building to my death". "Look, I'm through talkin'" said his dad. "Jump or don't, it's up to you, but you said yourself why you're here" said his dad. Joshua, under duress, and who was by every account a good and innocent man, jumps to his death to save the young woman from certain torture. By every account, Joshua didn't deserve to die in such a way. The Detective's father slaps handcuffs on the young woman, spins her around and gives her an option. Some would call this offer evil. "Now, tell me that you love me no matter of how I behave even though I don't respect you or your kind at all. Tell me that you worship me and are my "willing" slave and the choice I forced on my son by extorting him into accepting his death is "good" and the highest form of morality or I'll burn you slowly with my blowtorch. Oh, you won't die right away. I'll make sure of that. I'll burn you for a very, VERY long time so even if you BEG me to kill you, I won't. Go on, tell me that your inexorable fate being in my hands is an example of my "mercy" and that you love me for it. Ha-Ha-Ha!!" This tale is a parable. Click here for a full explanation. |
| The Detective and the Terrorist
(A parable) |
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