Fractured [SHAWN MENDES]

~47~

Shawn read the article for a third time. Gretchen sent it to him that afternoon with a note that it would be up on Rolling Stone magazine's webpage at midnight as well as being published in the print version. Almost six weeks had passed since they'd spoken in New York, and he'd started to wonder if she'd scrapped this article, too. He was glad she hadn't.

Her piece carefully examined cancel culture, citing several famous cases. Some were more serious than others, though what they all had in common was the fact that people had jumped on the online cancelation bandwagon with a frightening fervor. She made careful distinctions, just as he had when they'd talked, about how some offenses warranted this punishment but that others were one-time lapses in judgement.

Then she jumped to Shawn's story, giving a blunt but honest recounting of what had happened. It was both condemning and sympathetic, which was fair since he'd done a very bad thing. Gretchen traced the immediate cancelation of Shawn Mendes to where he stood now, both as an artist and person. She talked about how he'd willingly accepted his sentence and had gone into self-imposed isolation in Toronto after getting out of prison.

Ultimately, her point was that he'd chosen to accept being canceled and then essentially embraced it as a type of penance for the crime he'd committed. She concluded by saying that the danger of cancel culture was its lack of forgiveness, which in turn meant that those who are deemed "over" often can't overcome the label. Gretchen stated that the public needs to look at the crime and at the person, and that each individual should decide for themselves if they still support the artist, rather than go along with a trending hashtag.

Shawn couldn't wait for Taryn to read it. Looking at the time on his phone, he saw that it was currently the slow period at the bar. He grabbed a hoodie and hurried out the door.

"What a nice surprise!" his girlfriend declared when he arrived at the bar ten minutes later. There were a couple customers, and one of the guys who worked nights was wiping down the bottles on the highest shelf.

"Gretchen sent me the article," he said in a low voice after taking a seat.

"Oh my god! How is it?"

"It's...it's really good. I think she really understands me. It's not like she excuses what I did, but she talks a lot about forgiveness."

"Do you have it? Can I read it?" Taryn asked.

"Of course, yeah. That's why I'm here. Can you take a break? It's pretty long."

"Let me tell Brad he's got the bar for awhile and then we can go sit down. Do you want a coffee? Or maybe a beer?"

"Coffee."

She stepped away and explained to her co-worker that he was in charge for the time being. Then she got them each a cup of coffee and took it to the most remote table in the corner. Shawn opened up the document on his phone and handed it to her to read.

When Taryn was done, she looked up at Shawn who had been nervously chewing his cuticles while she took in each line. "It's a good article. Even if I didn't know you and didn't already have a strong opinion about this, it would definitely make me pause and think. The fact that Rolling Stone picked up up for publication says a lot. They wouldn't have done that if they didn't think this perspective had some merit."

"I was shocked considering the things they said during my trial." Talking about the press he'd gotten back then made his stomach turn, even if most of it was deserved.

She reached over and took his tattooed hand in hers when she saw his face darken. "Let's focus on the future. You can't change the past, so there's no point to dwell on it."