A Dangerous Freedom by John Ruane

Author:John Ruane
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Permuted
Published: 2021-03-31T15:43:40+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The skies shouldn’t have been blue—so blue! The sun shouldn’t have been bright—so bright, so warming! The temperatures shouldn’t have been pleasant—so pleasant, so inviting that Thursday morning!

And the soft breeze blowing shouldn’t have felt so refreshing, sweeping across Dylan’s face. He stood on the fringe of the large shadow that was cast across the bright green grass by the very tall, gray, metal statue of the Good Shepherd in the center of the cemetery. All around this devastated and mourning man were headstones, brown and gray and black. It was a scene of sadness and death, lit by a heavenly sky and bright sun.

Dylan brushed aside his long brown locks, staring at the casket of his wife, set upon the mechanism that would lower her into the grave where she would sleep forever.

No, this day should have been cold and cloudy with terrible winds and pouring rain. There should have been thunder and lightning. Mourners should have struggled to attend, because it was such a rotten day. But they knew they had to be there; had to stand in the wind and the rain. The sorrowful gathering needed to pay their respects to such a wonderful woman, so beloved by all.

But no, this would not be a day that mirrored the anguish that Dylan felt for his murdered wife. Perhaps God wanted the day to reflect the soul of Darlene, so beautiful. That’s how Dylan justified it, and accepted the ironic conditions, so bright and beautiful, just like Darlene.

As Darlene’s favorite song, “The Sound of Silence,” played over the Sonos speaker, Dylan, his family, friends, and relatives stood around the gravesite. Several dozen mourners gazed at the coffin with Darlene’s mother crying uncontrollably at the forefront. Her father stood beside her, struggling to stay strong with a look of bitter anger and sadness across his face. Behind them, so many others stood with a collective look of pain, feeling numb and depressed by the loss of such a lovely young lady, taken in the prime of her life when she was doing so much good for so many.

Why? Why? A crazy man! That’s why!

The tragic reality of the unwelcomed, unplanned incident plagued Dylan’s mind since leaving Northwestern Hospital on Saturday. Over five heart-wrenching and lonely days, his sorrow grew and mind raced toward an unquenched, unfulfilled anger he had never felt before.

A crazy person is just a crazy person, he thought, until someone provides a gun. Then they become a dangerous crazy person.

Dylan couldn’t stop focusing on those who were to blame for the killing of his wife. It wasn’t just Peter Stephens’ ill-willed mission to randomly kill innocents. No one would ever know his motive since he was gunned down by the Chicago Police SWAT specialists. No one would ever know what drove him to such horror. But what did that really matter? He was a disturbed individual.

The blame fell directly on the low-life, bought-and-paid-for-politicians who allowed those types of automatic weapons to be placed into society.

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