Cynthia Hearne Darling

Hardened Hearts Cynthia Hearne Darling

Arabella is dead. She waits passively on a mountain pointing upward. He comes - Michael the Archangel - he swoops her up in his terrifying wings. They go back, back to review her life. She winces as Michael points out to her the lack of affection she has shown her children, her rigidity and her avoidance of any communication with God. Michael allows Arabella to see her eldest son Rock use his anesthesiology skills to perform randomly what he calls "assisted suicides." Next, she watches Rock, as an old man in a nursing home, convince himself that a fellow patient, Charlotte, must die to stop her suffering. Another Michael now takes the stage. He is a Catholic priest who argues with yet maintains a relationship with Rock. He suspects that Rock will kill again. Michael puts his own vocation in peril in an intense act of bravery, stopping Rock from killing Charlotte. The priest Michael cannot know that Arabella has been allowed to be in the room to speak to her son. She asks Rock's forgiveness. Arabella turns to Michael the Archangel, begging him: "Please let me take his place. Please let me pay for what he has done." The Angel smiles at last. "You finally understand. Let us go now," he says.