Breaking the Cycle

Summary: When the Paper requires him to prevent violence against a

supremacist leader's march through a town, Gary's efforts at saving

the man leads to some surprising consequences. "A March in Time"

inspired this very short story.

Disclaimer: Early Edition characters belong to their creators. No

copyright infringement intended. No profit is being made.

Author: Tracy Diane Miller

E-mail address: tdmiller82@h...
Breaking the Cycle

Blue Island could have been any town, but today it braced itself for

possible violence. Unexpected criminal activity, the garden-variety

car thefts and simple assaults, was one thing. But having to confront

a supremacist leader spewing his message of hate in one's own

backyard was something else. Darrel Foster was not wanted in their

community. They were going to be sure that he knew that.

Violence likely begets violence except when you're the guy who gets

tomorrow's newspaper today and you find yourself sandwiched between

the turmoil. It is a tall order even when you have a heads-up as to

where and when it is going to occur.

Was Darrel Foster worth saving? Gary had asked himself this

question. He admitted to himself that he didn't want to save the

man. It wasn't the first time that he had wrestled with this same

dilemma. A year earlier, the Paper predicted that Phil Pritchard was

going to be murdered by a disgruntled employee. Then, Gary told

Chuck that he didn't want to save his ex-boss. Yet, despite his

protestations and personal feelings towards Pritchard, deep down,

Gary knew that he would never be able to live with himself if he had

allowed the man to die without even trying to save him.

But the situation now was different, wasn't it? Notwithstanding the

very real reminder from his best friend that insinuating himself in

the middle of this conflict could mean a bashed skull for him, Gary

debated whether it was worth saving the life of a bigot. Yet, what

right did he have to play God, to decide whether or man lived or

died, just because he felt that that man's beliefs were morally

reprehensible? This situation was something for which neither his

upbringing nor the Paper had prepared him. His parents had raised

him to see people as people and not to harbor any kind of bias

against another person. Yet, Foster's ingrained bias was a legacy

that the man wanted to will to his son. Gary couldn't understand a

person like that. He didn't want to.

Still, Gary approached Foster and made an impassioned plea to the guy

about calling off the march. Foster's response was to send his thugs

to McGinty's to deliver a "message" to Gary about interfering in

other people's affairs. The bigot insisted that his son Lance go

along to witness the delivery of this message. As the men beat Gary,

Lance stood there in shocked horror. The boy got the message all

right, but not the one that his father had intended for him.

In the end, it was Lance's courage in defying his father that perhaps

was the catalyst in convincing Robert not to pull that trigger and

kill Foster. Foster called his son a coward for standing with the

citizens of Blue Island.

But Gary called Lance a hero and he was right. Lance's courage in

making the choice to break the cycle of hate was truly heroic.
The End