xso
Tribune
Damm good story B!14. High noon. The work details have returned to Crux Hill Correctional Farm, but rather than proceeding directly to the mess hall the prisoners have been drawn up in neat ranks on the parade ground ... everyone facing the gallows, women on the left, men on the right.
View attachment 321031 They lead me out across the parade ground, passing between the ranks, positioning me out front of everyone at the very foot of the scaffold, Clem at my side, holding my arm in his iron grip, a fellow guide close by. I am naked, and in shackles.
Three hooded executioners wait above on the scaffold as my three "freedom rider" friends ... condemned to die for allegedly helping me escape from the "Farm" last night ... are led up the steps on the right side. They are naked, wrists bound tightly behind their backs.
The executioners take charge of the condemned as they arrive, positioning each of them over one of the three hinged trapdoors in the scaffold decking, slipping nooses over their heads, and tightening the nooses near their left ears.
I have never witnessed a hanging. I watch the preparations with morbid fascination, but also with gut-wrenching guilt and a gnawing sense of regret. These our my "freedom rider" friends, girls who left their quiet and secure college campus life and joined in the cause of combating racial injustice with a commitment as deep as my own.
I feel guilt over how my own rebellious impetuousness has put them up on that scaffold to die for me. They are innocent. I regret the fact that I never got to know them well. Sure, we rode the bus, sang songs, protested together, but I never really talked with them.
I turn to Clem and say, "You know they had nothing whatsoever to do with my escape last night. Executing them as accomplices just isn't right. Isn't there anything I can do or say to save them?"
"No, nothing. Warden says they must hang, as an object lesson to all prisoners."
"Even sweet, innocent Thessela over on the left?"
"No exceptions, Moore"
"But what about me?" And what about my other three friends?"
"I wouldn't be so quick to assume you have any friends here Moore. But to answer your question, you and the other three will die tonight."
"Why not now?"
"Two reasons. First, there are only three nooses up there AND second, a special "after dark" execution awaits you and the other three. Now, shut up and watch!"
The time has come. The girls on the stage know it. The fidget nervously, shifting their feet and twisting around nervously to look up at the long ropes that lead from the nooses around their necks up to the heavy gallows beam overhead.
One of the executioners passes in front of them, offering each a drag on his lit cigarette. He gets no takers, shrugs and nonchalantly walks over to the lever that releases the trap doors under their feet.
The moment has come. Tears run down cheeks. The one on the right, who had spoken to me so harshly in the cellar, begins to blubber and beg for mercy. The one in the center, stares straight ahead, a tear running down her cheek. Thessela opens her mouth to bravely declare. "We have no choice, but we shall overco.......awrkkkkk."
The trap doors fall open with a snap and a bang and all three plummet through, but their drop is abruptly cut short by a lack of slack in the suspending ropes.
View attachment 321030 I watch in horror as they dance the slow dance of death, silhouetted high above me against a bright blue Mississippi midday sky.
Their movements are desperately frantic. They kick, twist and jerk about wildly. Sometimes they move their legs like they are running a race; at times they rest and hang limply, only to resume their desperate struggles once again.
They bump against one another. Their breasts and ass cheeks shake and quiver with each frantic move. For a while the one in the middle locks her legs around poor Thessela and tries to leverage herself up to relieve the pressure on her neck.
Gradually the girls weaken. Sweat sheens their nude panting bodies, their faces contort and redden. All movement finally ceases, as one by one they give up the struggle and three still bodies slowly twirl at the end of their ropes.
The smell of pee and excrement drifts slowly in the heated still air. I wretch, close my eyes tight, and hang my head.
The warden appears, struts across the scaffold, pokes at each corpse with his little riding crop. Satisfied he turns, comes to attention facing the silently cowed prisoners on the parade ground below, and bellows, "Dismissed."
The ranks dissolve, though few head for the mess hall.
"Come with me Moore," says Clem, tugging at my arm, "it's back to the cellar for you until dark."
TO BE CONTINUED
We perverts are desperatly awaiting the 'after dark story'............
Will you be crucified in a traditional way then set ablaze.....?