As I was watching a fairly interesting documentary about Jesus, I noticed that my phone had rung three times. I put the documentary on hold and glanced at the little screen; It was an unknown number. A lot of question marks filled my head. Who would call me right now? Moreover, I just couldn’t understand how the person even got my number? My curiosity took over and I called the number back. Instantly a girl answered the phone. She said her name was Susan… At first, I didn’t realize who she was, but as soon as she started to tell her story, I was amazed: she was the girl who had a really bad influence on our son! I immediately wanted to put the phone down, but something in her voice, kept me from doing so. ‘It is about your son, madam’ she said. I pricked up my ears. What was going on? She took a deep breath and continued: ‘Paul is addicted to drugs and it becomes worse. I am so sorry, madam. I should’ve told you earlier. I just didn’t have the courage to do it.’ And that was the moment where you could hear a pin drop. My son addicted to drugs? That’s impossible! She went on: ‘His friend, Brian, gave him the pills the first time. But of course, he yearned for more. He became more and more addicted to that stuff.’

After Susan’s phone call, I thought long and hard about it. Where did it go wrong? Paul once told us that he had stolen some candy in a shop with somebody named Brian. So maybe it wasn’t Susan that had a bad influence on Paul, but it was that Brian. Even when they were both two little guys there was already something off about Brian. I felt so sorry because I’ve never noticed that he influenced Paul in a bad way and I feel even more sorry for Susan because I and my husband have blamed her for every little thing that had gone wrong.

-Mrs. Edwards-