The Current - The Rivers School

Osa Okoh Midday Church
Molly Steinfeld Absolute Sacrifice
Alone. He sits alone. He jiggles the handcuffs that restrict him to his own personal hell. He can see the deep red the cuffs have already left on his
wrists after hours of sitting; thinking about what he did; how he ended up here and now. He raises his head in shame and looks curiously around this new
room he knows will be his final home. The jail tender walks back towards him and unlocks him from the walls that seem to grow farther apart. They walk
backward to the door of the cell that the jail tender unlocks. They back away and he pulls the tender along with him, straining to not enter this abode; wishing
for a second chance.
They walk backwards up the stairs. Once reaching security, he retrieves his only belonging: a picture of her. They walk back out the front door of the
prison and the door of the car swings into the hand of the jail tender and he slides into the car. The car shifts into drive and they journey backwards to the
courthouse. They cross through intersections and wait once they reach the other side for the light to turn red. He sits in the back seat horrified by what has
just occurred and distraught by his new situation. He pulls the picture out of his pocket and a tear comes off his shirt, touches his face, and returns to his eye
as he reads “reverof dna syawla”. He reaches to his pocket, picture in hand, yearning to see her face again.
As he lifts his head he sees for the last time the front steps of the courthouse covered with people holding video cameras and microphones describing
the results of the trial. He walks backwards out of the car, up the stairs, through the courtroom, and to the witness stand with his head down the whole
time and a police officer on either side holding him with unbearable force. He just now realizes the ramifications for the answer he has just given to the
question of who committed the crime at hand. “I”, he said. He looks up from the stand and sees her, maybe for the last time before what he is about to do. He
admires her childlike features. The way her eyes reflect even the most dismal of light found in a courtroom, and even now have hope streaming out of them
where he could find none before. He remembers the night it happened. Her eyes had looked the same then except for the hope. The hope had disappeared.
She thought it was the end, but here she is now sitting in the courtroom and as he entered the stand he knew that whatever punishment was given was worth
seeing that look of hope in her eyes just once more to know that she was safe.
He backs away from the stand and sits in his chair behind the desk. His lawyer preps him once more for the questioning he is about to endure. He
recalls the night perfectly. He knows he cannot lie or even bend the truth. He knows what he must do. He remembers how he felt the same way when it was
happening. How it felt like the right thing to do at the moment and for him that was all that mattered. Except on that night, the feeling that felt right was one
of watching the bullet as it returned to his gun as he loosened his grip on the trigger.
33
Absolute Sacrifice // Molly Steinfeld