Who Decides Who Is Good and Who Isn't?

"Do you have a date yet for our company ball?" Christine asked Stacy as they sat inside McDennet, enjoying their delicious barbecue chicken sandwich.

"Jonas was my pick, but he is so mean?" Stacy criticized as she bit into her chicken sandwich, then took a sip of her orange juice.

"I think he was raised by someone possessed," Christine replied, sipping her pineapple turmeric juice. "He is horrible, cruel, spiteful, vindictive, thoughtless, but cute."

"Cute," Stacy repeated. "His looks don't compensate for his horribleness."

"I know that," Christine said, wiping the sauce that ran down her chin as she bit into her sandwich. Chewing and swallowing, she said, "but he is still a handsome guy."

"I don't get it," Stacy said, sipping her juice.

"Don't get what?" Christine asked, looking down at her half-eaten sandwich. "His mother has a heart of gold," Stacy shared after swallowing. "She is a wonderful mother and a kind-hearted soul. Not only to him but to all of us, including Nickalus, his cousin."

"Now, Nickalus must have been raised by an angel," Christine remarked. "He has the most beautiful, kindest, and understanding heart of any male I know. He is also a good-looking guy. He got the entire package. Looks, brains, and good ways. Are you sure he is related to Jonas?"

"Now he," Stacy said, resting her half-eaten sandwich on her plate, "the devil raised him. Because his mother is evil, wicked, cruel, and thoughtless, she is nuts! And yes, Jonas' mother and Nickalus' mother are sisters."

"Did they have the same parents?"

"Yes, they do."

"But he is so kind, unlike Jonas. And he chooses a career that would allow him to be more thoughtful. He is a nurse practitioner, you know?

"Yes, and he volunteers at the community center to help children with their homework. He is the coach of our basketball and baseball little league team," Stacy shares. "Plus, he's better looking than Jonas. All of the females at the center and in our community are after him."

"Doesn't he have a girlfriend?"

"Yes, and he doesn't cheat. He is such a gentleman."

"And you think he was raised by someone evil?"

"When we were children, my mom and his Aunt had to intervene many times and threaten to call child services on his mother for the things she did to him. She burned him with a hot iron in his back because he came home late from basketball practice one night. She doesn't feed him. He often had to eat at my house or his Aunt's house. She beats him as a child, locks him out, and starves him until he faints at school and the doctor finds out that he is malnourished. She was also collecting twenty-five hundred per month in child support from his father. She is insane."

"Oh no!" jumped out of Christine's mouth. "Really? And she was starving her only child?"

"Yes," Stacy said. "I keep telling them she is insane, but they refused to listen to me."

"Think he was switched at birth?"

"Nah, he looks like her."

"Don't you think it is weird that the cruel mother raised a kind soul and the kind-hearted mother raised a cruel heart?" Christine said.

"So, you believe Good raised Evil, and Evil raised Good," Stacy remarked, finishing her orange juice.

Christine stares at her in awe, "where did that come from?"

Swaying her head left to right, Stacy said, "You don't see its logic?"

This piece happens to be authentic. I, too, find it unique that some horrible mothers raised good children in contrast to good mothers who raised children that they are ashamed of.

Who decides who is evil and who is good?

Thank you for reading this piece. I hope you enjoy it.