The Most Powerful Weapon
By: Ruchi Thalwal
Tags: Life Lessons, Short Story, Fiction, Love, Life

A teenager got influenced by a local gang and desperately wanted to join it. The gang leader asked him to prove his loyalty and spine before being made a member of the group.

Intoxicated with the dream of power, he shot the first person he saw on the street.

Before he could disappear, the police apprehended him and later, produced him in the court.

The courtroom was full of people. Among them sat in a corner, the mother of the victim with teary eyes and an angry face.

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The court convicted him for the murder.

Before being taken to the juvenile prison, the mother of the victim met him. She looked into his eyes and said in anger, “You killed my only son. I will take revenge. You will also die.”

A year passed. On an odd day, a woman came to meet him. He instantly recognized that face and was alarmed.

The woman was the mother of the victim who had threatened him in the court.

She talked to him for some time and then offered him some clothes and said, “These are my son’s clothes and shoes. He doesn’t need them anymore. But then it occurred to me that you might need them.”

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She then said, “If you need something else you can tell me. I can arrange it for you.”

He said, “No, ma’am. But thank you for the clothes and shoes.”

She started visiting him now and then, and he started to open up to her gradually.

She would bring him food, clothes, and other stuff. It kept on, and 3 to 4 years passed.

He was about to turn eighteen in a month, and his time in prison would also be over next month.

She came to meet him for the last time in prison and said, “You will be soon out on the streets. Have you ever thought about what you will do?”

He said, “No, Ma’am. I don’t know what I will do. No one would give me any work given my past.”

Photo by Kai Pilger on Unsplash

She replied, “I know a man who owns a restaurant. He needs a delivery boy. I can talk to him if you want to work there.”

He replied, “Yes. I would love to.”

She then said, “And what about a place? Do you have a place to live?”

He, “No.”

She, “Well, I have a spare room. You can stay there for some time if you want to.”

He agreed to this offer and came to stay with her after prison.

One day she called him in her living room and said, “Do you remember what I said in the courtroom?”

He replied in a feeble voice, “Yes. How can I forget? You threatened to kill me.”

The woman said with a smiley face, “And I have done that. Haven’t I? I have killed you.”

The boy was puzzled, “What?”

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The woman said, “I have killed you. You killed my son, and I vowed to take revenge and kill the beast who could kill an innocent in cold blood.

I didn’t want any other parent to suffer the way I suffered. So I killed you. Today I saw you helping an older man and realized that I have successfully killed the beast who killed an innocent.

The person standing in front of me is a kind human who helps others.”

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

The time she stopped explaining, the boy was already in tears. He fell at her feet and thanked her for giving him a new life.

It is the right revenge. The mother showed us the right way to kill. He killed her son with a bullet, and she killed the beast in him with kindness.

In a real sense, she gave him a new life.