Belle and Barb have been there more than two weeks. Belle holds hope their death sentence would be commuted to some time in prison. Across the corridor from her a woman laughs and says “You don’t understand. The governor has never dropped a death sentence. The only reason we are still alive is that the prison board insisted that the gallows gets rebuilt before they hang us!”
“I don’t get it. If the gallows is to there to execute us how unsafe can they be” Belle says.
“It’s not for
our safety! It’s so they can hang more than one of us at a time and the guards are safe. The current one is over a century old and has room for only one hanging at a time!”
“When the new one is done the three of us will hang together with are tits shaking and legs kicking” she says. “We’re just the show in their eyes.”
Belle looks at the woman and asks “What did you do to be sent here?”
“I shot the balls off my lover when he told me he wasn’t going to leave his wife and kids. Best thing is he suffered damn good” she says with a small smile.
“I’m Diane Greer. The last Saturday of month is hanging day. The three of us are scheduled for the noose if the new gallows are done. Since they sell tickets I’m betting we hang then.”
A couple days later a reporter from the Crux Chronicle visits death row to interview Barb and Belle. Their case has wide attention as their crime was to spring the inmates of the Hooker, Oklahoma Reparations Farm and driving 137 MPH in a 25 MPH school zone. His name is ‘Spike’ Sharp and on television he looks rather dapper if not a bit dated. In person he appears to be just another drunken slovenly member of the Tree family.
He also shows about as much respect for the women prisoners as Tree might. He demands an interview. Barb and Belle indignantly refuse at first until he produces a copy of the cover of the edition of the ‘Crux Chronicle’ depicting the women bound and noosed. He belches and says “We have that picture you never posed for so you can either talk to me or I’ll make the whole fucking story up. The readers don’t give a shit.”
He offers them Madame Wu cigarettes. Barb refuses and Belle accepts asking “What do you want to know?”
“Smart woman, this Belle” he says as he leans towards her cell. “I want to know if when you got this scheme going if it ever occurred to you that you get caught and end up getting hanged?”
“We considered the possibility of failure but figured some prison time would be worth the effort if we failed” Belle replies.
Sharp burps again, wipes his mouth, and then says “Ms. South, your ‘prison time’ here is like a kid’s sand box. Have you ever seen a person hanged?”
“Just in movies” she replies. She draws on her Madame Wu and says “I’m sure it hurts but it is over fast.”
“Do you have any idea who your hangman is? It is The Hanging Tree! I’ve covered a lot of his hanging and no one- and I mean
no one- died before five minutes. Can you hold your breath for five minutes, Ms. South” he asks.
‘This is not going well’ Belle thinks. She can’t begin to imagine what it would be like to hang from her neck with a rope choking her to death. The thought of it taking five or more minutes to die while being strangled is incomprehensible. Belle, Barb, and Diane give their interviews to Spike Sharp. He leaves satisfied with what he heard and would embellish what he didn’t.
I sit caged in my cell knowing that I am a week from being hanged. Spike Sharp has assured me I will be awake and aware for at least five minutes as the rope closes around my neck to kill me. I dare not place my fingers between my legs. There is no need to do so. My pussy is wet. I dread hanging but am excited about having the rope around neck.
-Belle