Volume 2, Issue 11, November 2021
Margaret Karmazin
Pages 86-101
Prevention
Would you murder your own child to protect his classmates? In this work of philosophical short fiction, Sharon is divorced from her husband, Karl. Karl has a new, younger wife, and she is taking care of their 17-year-old son, Ethan. Their older daughter, Haley, is off starting her own successful life. Ethan, however, is struggling with life. On a fateful day, Ethan forgets his backpack after being dropped off for school. His mother searches the laptop and finds a discussion where he, and a few others, have set a date to shoot up the school. She checks his bedroom and finds the guns described in the exchange as well as drugs. Sharon doesn’t want to risk the lives of the classmates or Haley’s future. The next morning she uses Ethan’s own drugs to spike his coffee and cause him to overdose and die. She hides his guns and the laptop that proves what he was planning to do. Her son is dead, the school is safe, and her daughter’s reputation remains untarnished for a bright future. She considers her endeavor a success.