Acceptance

He stumbled through the streets taking his flask out and realizing it was all gone. "You need to stop drinking so much Jared!" Randall yelled with disgust. "Shut the fuck up and give me a cig dude!" Jared yelled back. "Drinking isn't going to erase what happened and neither is smoking," Randall replied, complying with Jared by handing him a cig and lighting it for him. "Look, let's not talk about this right now," Jared replied more calmly with the cig between his teeth.

Jared still recalled the day everything had happened; he had killed a man in cold-blood and nothing he did could change that. The man wasn't supposed to be there and he still couldn't remember how he had gotten a gun in the first place. Jared vaguely remembered finding a gun earlier that day or was it the day before? The days meshed together on account of the drugs he had been abusing. He pulled the trigger without realizing it and killed the man in his intoxicated and incoherent state of mind.

He replayed the incident over and over in his mind with more guilt and depression hitting him in waves. Jared had never been the type of man who did the right things. He had been abusing drugs for years and never cared about his life or anything for that matter. He had lost his parents at a young age to a car accident which had rendered him as an orphan. He virtually had no family and worried that the man he had killed may have had a family of his own.

"I think I'm going to find out about that man's family,"Jared said to Randall. "What! His family would be furious, and besides that you don't even know the man's name and it's been a full year!" yelled Randall with surprise. "Actually, I did some research on the guy after he died and found his name. I just don't know about his family...yet,"said Jared. "Fine, do what you want, but don't say I didn't warn you about how the family would most likely react,"said Randall.

So Jared set out, determined to find the man's family and confront them with the truth. After a long few months of research, Jared finally located the family which consisted of two kids a boy and a girl as well as the guy's wife. The wife name was Denise and the names of the children were Jordan and Cynthia. He came to the house and the wife opened the door. "H-h-hi, my name is J-J-Jared, and I have something very important to tell you about your husband," Jared stammered. "Okay, come on in, I'm sure you must already know that it's been a year since my husband's passing," said Denise with sincerity and a hint of sadness. "Yes, that's actually what I needed to talk to you about," Jared said. As he walked into the living room he saw the children looking up expectantly at him.

He notice a picture-perfect looking family portrait hanging up on the wall above the fireplace; the picture was obviously taken before Jared had killed the patriarch of the family. The man was smiling with his wife and kids and they all looked so happy. The depression hit Jared again as he realized just how much of their lives he had ruined. The family that stood before him now, looked broken and incomplete. Jared had been living with the secret for too long; the family didn't know who had killed their father, until now. He expected the family to get upset and call the cops as he relayed the story to them about what happened that night. However, they forgave him for what happened as he explained that it had been an accident and he had never meant for it to happen.

Jared ended up sharing his own family story about how his parents had died and he had been left alone to fend for himself at an early age. He soon became apart of their family as somewhat of an older brother. He gave up the alcohol and drugs and he was no longer depressed. He felt as if a huge burden had been lifted off of his shoulders and he still couldn't believe they had forgiven him so easily. They said it was the grace of God that he had shown up on their doorstep and told them the truth. God forgives all, so it wasn't hard for them to forgive him as soon as it happened because they realized it had been an accident all along.