Diana had heard the blow and was yelling his name twisting on her cross to see.
Dilla watched the scene of horror before her with wide, terrified eyes.
“Why….?”
“Why what?”
“Lots of whys. Why are you doing this? Why must we be nude? Why is Emil.. excited? Why didn’t you…. do me before Emil?”
Lukas had finished nailing Emil’s right wrist to the beam, and both Emil and Diana were screaming, so conversation with Dilla was challenging. I looked at Diana, and then at the topless Dilla. I wasn’t surprised at Emil’s erection.
“We’re doing it because one of you murdered your master and you must all be crucified in that case.”
I took off her loincloth. “You must be nude because your clothes would be worthless after maybe two or three days on the cross. Emil has an erection because…. well, Diana is nude and so are you now, though men get hard-ons anyway. But it’ll soon go away now we’ve started nailing. And one of you had to be first, it happened to be him.”
Diana had watched me stripping Dilla. “You’re…a bastard,…. Aulus!”
“Is that his name, Diana?”
“It… should be… ‘Scumbag’. …. But yes.”
“Did you hear what he just said? We might be up there for three days?”
Diana groaned, and, as I looked up at her, a shaft of sunlight broke through the clouds and fell onto her tortured body. Dilla and I looked up at her with entirely different emotions.
Emil screamed as Lukas began to drive a nail through his left wrist. His erection was indeed dwindling.
“Can I go to him, Aulus, please?”
“No,” I said. “Your cross is this way.” I took her arm and steered her towards her cross. Stupidly, I took her under Diana’s cross just as a large blob of blood dripped from her wrist. It hit Dilla on the forehead.
“Oh…”
“Come here.” I turned her to face me. I still had her loincloth in my hand, so I used it to wipe her face.
“Aulus, you know I couldn’t stand this for three minutes, let alone three days? Just listen to poor Emil! Look at poor Diana!”
What could I say to her? Gnaeus had told me before that I shouldn’t talk to the condemned, but I couldn’t help it. I was a human doing something inhuman to another human.
“It doesn’t usually take three days,” I offered, lamely. I waved to Gunter to help me get her down onto her cross.
“Don’t bother,” she said. She sat down on her cross by herself, and watched them crucifying Emil a few feet away. Lukas was now nailing his heel to the cross.
“I just… I just can’t believe you’re about to do that to me. I know you are, but maybe this is just a terrible nightmare, and soon I shall wake up.”
I just looked at her. She looked down at herself.
“I’m sitting here, naked, in this terrible place, with these terrible things happening around me, talking to a man I don’t know.” She looked up at me. “I know Diana doesn’t like you, she calls you a ‘scumbag.’ I shall probably hate you too, soon, but thank you for listening to me, and for answering my questions. All except one.”
“Which one?”
“I want you to be honest with me. How long will I hang on my cross until…. until… the end?”
I looked up at the clouds in the sky. Tonight would probably be mild, too warm to bring mercy to any of them. I looked at her. She was fit, and healthy. Tiburcus had at least provided food, and Dilla had used it and cooked it to ensure that all in the household were well nourished. I sighed. They were in for the long haul.
“Tell me!”
“Dilla, I think you will remain alive until the day after tomorrow. All three of you.”
“WHAT? NO!!” Lukas hit the final nail, and Emil renewed his shrieks of agony.
“The day after tomorrow? I can’t bear it. I just can’t bear it. Strangle me, Aulus. Now. Please?”
Gunter passed behind me on his way to raise Emil’s cross.
She gazed up into my eyes. She looked so vulnerable, tears flooding down her cheeks. Could I really hold Dilla down while Lukas nailed her to this cross?
“Strangle me! Quickly, they are raising Emil!”
I reached out towards her neck.
The things you do for love (or rumpy pumpy anyway).