“You did it!” they all said.
“No, I didn’t!” was his defiant reply. It was malicious fantasy, designed to destroy him entirely.
But still they kept saying “you did it”.
It did not matter what he said. It did not matter when he demonstrated there was no evidence that he had done it, or when he showed evidence that it was not him who had done it. Still the world kept saying back to him: “you did it.”
He sought consolation from friends and family. “I don’t think you did it” was always their reply, with eyes that failed to meet his. Slowly he was abandoned. Isolated.
Soon he became a prisoner without a trial having ever happened. When he decided to venture from his prison everyone that saw him would stop, point, and say “you did it!”
But he hadn’t done it! He was sure of that, wasn’t he? Desperately, he clung to his innocence like a drowning man clutching at anything he could find. But just as a drowning man’s hand slips away from safety, so too did his innocence seem to disappear. The world said yes, and he kept saying no, quieter and quieter until yes was all he heard. Was that his own voice saying yes with the crowd?
Finally, the real trial did happen. “Did you, do it?” asked the judge.
“Yes, he did!” cried the world.
And he cried too, for he had forgotten the word “no”.
“Yes, I did” was his reply.
