08 Innocence

Light blue eyes. Blonde curly hair. This must be what cherubs look like, she thought. The baby closed his eyes and went to sleep. No, she thought, he is more beautiful than a cherub could ever be. This is innocence in its purest form, and I’ll keep him that way. She shielded him from the world in her arms.

When he grew too big for her arms, she kept him in the house, and when he needed even more space than that, she made sure that he did not leave the garden. When she found little dead mice and frogs on the doorstep, she complained to the neighbours about their cat. When she found a dead cat, she complained to nobody in particular about “young people nowadays”.

The day came when she could no longer keep him anywhere, but she always asked him where he had been when he came home.

Then the police brought her little boy home for the first time, and she resolved to keep a closer watch on him. But that did not prevent him from going to the courtroom. The judge found him guilty.

‘No!’ she screamed, ‘he’s innocent! He couldn’t have done it! Your honour, he’s just a child!”

But no one else in the courtroom would call the two metres tall, scarred, hard faced man a child. No one would dream of calling him innocent.

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Posted by Beatrix MGN on January 1, 2012

https://abolg.wordpress.com/2012/01/01/08-innocence/