THE EVENT
What is an event? How do you define it?
An event is a day or a segment of time in which something out of the ordinary is about to happen. Events can be special times that mark weeks or months of preparation. When I played sports, game day was an event. The game started at a specific time. You get up. Eat breakfast. Arrive early. If playing baseball or basketball, you came early enough to warm-up, get instructions from the coach. Set the roster. Take the field. Then the game would start.
An event can be a vacation that has been in the planning for weeks or months. You get up. You arrive early at the airport. Then you board a flight and finally take off.
A birthday party can be an event for all the planning that goes into one. As is the act of being born into this world. The birth of a newborn child.
A wedding is an event as the bride and groom may have been planning for a year or more. On the wedding day, the wedding party may have been up early for final preparations of the food, reception, and everything that’s involved long before the ceremony begins.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………........................................................................................
An execution is unlike any event that a human being can experience. For one thing, it’s final. A person is forcefully leaving this life to never be seen again. The final good-bye. Unlike other events, it’s a one-way ticket. The veil of death is a one-way door. There’s no second-guessing the decision. Once it’s done…It is done.
Like a wedding, it takes a minister to perform the ceremony. In an execution, it takes an executioner to perform the act of forcefully removing the condemned from this life. Forcing them through the veil of death into whatever lies beyond, which is one of the greatest mysteries all mortals must face.
But few ever consider or question until it’s too late and death comes upon them when they are least expecting it.
Not so with the condemned. It’s an event! There is time to plan. To know what to expect. What’s going to happen and how it’s going to happen. Then there’s the actual act of carrying out a prescribed method, like a choreographed dance that professional dancers would perform at the ballet.
Like many events, there is no sleeping in. For sporting events, you must be at the starting line, ready to go before the start of the game, or the sound of a starting gun. There must be time to warm-up, talk to the coach, and take the field.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..............................................................................................
The final event for Sarah Maddux, age 33...begins now.
“Cheri…rise and shine time to get up.” Cheri with a groggy, sleepy face turns on my couth, looks up & back at me. “Okay, I’m coming.”
Kim is already up looking half-asleep, standing in the walkway.
I have orange juice and bagels for the girls to eat for breakfast. I plan to eat light so as to not put too much acid into an already nervous stomach.
The drone from Amazon arrives and Steve is out in the backyard to receive our package and unpack it putting the terms in order.
Sarah kneels on an outdoor yard chair right where we left her last night. Although I had offered her the spare bedroom. She was too nervous to sleep as would I be, if I were in her place. The burden of the “event” fell upon her soon after the last piece of pizza was eaten.
What is her state of mind? I ask myself. Does she still have fantasies of going to the cross? Or is she having second thoughts? Did my “heaven” comment have any effect on her willfulness to go through my planned choreography that will (hopefully) give us the best time in the crux-timed race? I must know what I’m up against if this whole thing goes south.
“Sarah, how are you feeling honey...want something to eat? It’s almost time.”
Sarah’s eyes lock on mine. I see the apprehension in her eyes...there is fear and she is scared. To her credit, she has gotten herself undressed down to a thong and still in her bare feet. I have a light white bathrobe my wife used to wear and I order her to put it on and use the flip-flops for her feet. She is not walking to the starting gate...to the awaiting cross in the nude until she undresses with the other women. Working with my Chinese agent, I’ve arranged to have Sarah undress with the other condemned women in the women’s ward. With the women that are, scheduled to be executed by archery. The last of the women...and men...on this, the last day of the 2035 Executioner’s Tournament of Champions.
I will not rip her clothes off her, as the ancient crucifiers of old would have done. Being commanded to strip down for execution can almost stop the heart of a woman. To uncover their bodies in the exact way in which it came into this world can be the most dramatic event anyone can be made to endure. She has been alone while all this was happening to her sisters. I thought best that she does not strip alone.
Steve finishes packing all our gear with the Amazon terms. The over-sized sledgehammer that I’ve been forever practicing with is gathered with the other stuff. This is the equipment we will use to put Sarah to death by crucifixion. As novice executioners, we are about to make our first mistake of the day.
Sarah and the girls are ready for transport to the speedway. For security reasons, I must put the wrist and ankle cuffs back on Sarah. Before the vehicle arrives, Sarah catches a glimpse of our equipment and especially the over-sized huge hammer with the custom polished spikes we ordered from Amazon.
She looks down at them… And I almost come unglued! “Steve, we need to take separate cars to the speedway for obvious reasons.” Steve nods his head…grabs the terms...gets them out of sight as quickly as possible.
“I’ll meet you at the gate,” I tell him as our Chinese agent’s car pulls up. The girls get into the front. As onlookers, they will be dropped off in the parking lot. Sarah and I will be taken straight to the women’s ward. With control of her shackles, we slide into the back seat.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….............................................................................................
My throat is going dry as it did last night when I first set eyes on her. Oh God, she saw everything.
Governor Tarketen has his reasons for cutting the timed race crucifixions down to two-man teams. First off, it’s great entertainment for the sports starved fans of Vegas if a team has to drag the condemned woman to the socket. If on the other hand, the woman cooperates…what a show it puts on to watch a willing victim go to one of the most brutal methods of killing someone known to man next to drawn & quartered and blood eagle practiced by the Vikings.
I dare not say a word to Sarah right now. Steve may be right. By mentioning heaven and her seeing the crux terms—I…we…may have shot ourselves in the foot. We have to be prepared to manhandle her straight to the socket. One of us will have to carry her, while the other carries the cross and the equipment. Having bad backs from years of truck driving with all the loading and unloading…we are in danger of looking stupid before the Governor and his family.
But that’s only half of it…The crucifixion teams from Malaysia and Indonesia, who have been mocking us all week…will laugh us right out of Las Vegas if we look silly out there today.
I’ve spent much time practicing with my hammer. With the goal of setting each spike with a total of three blows. But I didn’t think to work on my core and back muscles so much because they hurt. Now if I really need back strength, I’m screwed.
The mocking overseas crux teams are right about one thing: The art of crucifying has only been a fantasy in our minds for both Steve and me. What will happen when that sledgehammer hits the head of one of those spikes sending blood into the air as the victim screams at the top of her lungs?
(RW) A local school was having a fund-raiser through one of the mortuaries in town. To be paid, all the students had to do was to get people to take a voluntary tour of the facility. I was one of those people. On the tour, I turned pale and got sick to my stomach when they described in detail how the dead were embalmed. The smell of the embalming fluid made me break out into a cold sweat.
(FW) The car pulls up to the women’s ward at 7:30. Plenty of time to make final preparations on our cross, the equipment, and Sarah.
Steve makes sure the holes that were drilled into the upright lineup with the rod and sedile & cornu kit. A double-check on footrest attachments ensures we truly have prepared a “feminine cross.”
At 8:30 sharp, the commandant steps into the woman’s ward to make the announcement…The same announcement she has been making for the last two days.
When Sarah sees her, she almost faints. “What wrong Sarah?” I ask. That’s the whore, the bitch that is responsible for the deaths and crucifixions of all my sisters. The witch of the UN peacekeepers from Mexico.
As far as I know, she’s the chief overseeing executioner over all female crucifixions.
I tell Sarah not to look…just ignore her. She won’t touch you today.
“ALL CONDEMNED PRISONERS STRIP!!”
Sarah compliantly undresses and strips herself down with the other women.
The archery female executioners start making lists of which of the condemned females they would like to execute.
Sarah places her wrists back into the cuffs. (Just then, a scripture jumps into my mind---Matthew 27:31…”And led her away to crucify her”)--we head towards the starting gate of the timed female crucifixion.
The stands have been filling with thousands of Vegas fans who have been arriving since dawn. Many by bus. As we walk to the gate, Governor Tarketen’s helicopter lands and his family takes their usual place in the VIP section. Cheri and Kim have special places reserved for them as relatives of the condemned. I can see them out of the corner of my eye.
Stripped and the flip-flops removed...Sarah stands in the nude; in her bare feet. Steve holds a bag with all the stuff in one hand, while the other holds my oversized hammer. I place a piece of cardboard on the ground and have Sarah kneel on it with her right knee as I place the cross’ crossbeam were it intersects the upright in a vertical position on her right shoulder. The cross is one solid piece to save time. I insist Sarah rest the left corner side of the crossbeam on the ground. I want her to just steady the cross. “Don’t let it put any weight on your body Sarah until just before 9:00—then the gun will fire.” Sarah nods an okay with her head.
The gun will sound at straight-up 9:00. The 200,000 fans are already beginning to stand to their feet in anticipation of what is becoming the most popular event in the whole of the games. The timed female crucifixion.
@ 8:50…I kneel next to Sarah and helped steady her cross.
“You know Sarah, Jesus loves you with an everlasting love that no one can ever take away.”
She looks away from me. But where’s she going to run?
“Sarah, Jesus promises to never leave or forsake us no matter where we walk… what we’ve done, or how far we drift away from him. He has written our names on the palms of his hands. He will always remember us.”
“ Remember us!?”
Sarah’s face looks up as her eyes fill with tears. “Of course Sarah, when you gave your heart to Jesus all those years ago…and made Him your personal Lord and Savior…did you ever believe He would forsake you? Not remember you?”
Sarah’s tears are rolling down her cheeks and dripping onto the ground.
“I heard what you and Steve said about me in the kitchen. That I might die and go to hell today. It’s different when you’re condemned you know?”
“I sat in a chair on your patio from 1: to 6: watching the clock you have on the wall counting down my last hours. Those who die suddenly will never know this kind of stress, or the chance to recap their lives to see if there are any regrets.”
“My deepest sorrow is for my sisters and what is about to happen to me…I prayed to the goddess---Then I prayed to the goddess…..I prayed to the goddess again……until…..I heard laughter. I prayed to the children that surround the goddess….and again I heard laughter. Then the deepest, darkest fear wrapped its claws around my throat till I thought I would die. I saw the death angel stand in front of me with its black cloak and hood. The Grim Reaper inviting me to join him at his place. But I was scared! I felt no peace but great fear…this can’t be right!”
“OH JESUS PLEASE HELP ME!!... Then it all lifted…and they were gone. Then the scripture came back to me: TRY THE SPIRITS TO SEE IF THEY ARE OF GOD---As says First John Chapter Four Verse One.”
“How could I be so stupid…I never tested the spirits. All I wanted to do was to touch the unseen world. To draw power from it. To use it for my own selfish purposes. The prophets of Mormonism never test the spirits either. All they want is to prophecy, show-off that they’re some kind of spiritual giants. Using gifts that no one else has so they can lord it over people with some kind of priest-class.”
“I left the Church because I was offended. It never accrued to me that Churches that represent true Christianity will always be under attack…always be in a state of warfare.”
‘I had dreams of going to the cross. Of dying as Jesus did. All the scriptures that talk about his crucifixion from Palms 22 to Isaiah 53, to Zechariah 12:10. were MY scriptures. For the sisters, the goddess, and me. Now…I’m lost!”
“YOU ARE NOT LOST SARAH!” With both knees on the ground, I hold Sarah’s tear-soaked cheeks in both hands. Sarah places the other knee unto the ground as Steve holds the cross for her. With a sobbing, broken, naked, barefooted, condemned, 33-year-old young woman’s face leaning on my hands…I say this:
“Lord Jesus we recommit Sarah’s life to you today. We pray that the spirit of the bride of Christ will come to Sarah now. We pray that boldness, courage, strength, the lion of the tribe of Judah will enter Sarah today…this moment. And as followers of Christ…for His sake and in His name…we may be asked to endure the sufferings of crucifixion in the fulfillment of Matthew twenty-three verse thirty-four…..’ And some of them ye shall kill and crucify’…… AND WE WILL BE REMEMBERED!”
IN JESUS’ NAME…AMAN!
“REMEMBERED!?” Sarah's eyes came alive. “That’s all that Kelly could talk about is being remembered!” That right Sarah: In Psalm 112:6 it says that the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.
(Steve and I couldn’t believe what was happening before our eyes. A miracle was taking place. A transformation of what was a minute ago fear and death was now life and hope. A born again moment that is hard to find in today’s world. But Sarah had it. She was now ready to face the greatest event of her life…her final going home ceremony.
Steve and I were now the ‘Masters of Ceremony’.)
15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10….200, 000 Las Vegas speedway fans were on their feet and the roar of the crowd was filling the air! The huge electronic screen was counting down the final seconds to straight-up 9:00.
9, 8, 7, 6, 5….” DIDN’T KELLY TELL YOU TO BE STRONG SARAH?”
Sarah jumps off her knees and looks startled as if she just heard something….Steve and I, heard, said---nothing.
3, 2, 1……………………..The starting gun fires off and Sarah throws her right shoulder into the crossbeam & upright intersection, picks up the cross, takes off in a full run across the Vegas speedway asphalt towards the infield socket. The bare skin of her feet making a slapping sound as she runs.
Steve and I take off after her. She is out-running us. It is all we could do to catch up with her.
The Vegas crowd is roaring so loudly it sounds like a basketball game I played years ago when I made the winning basket when there was no time left on the clock.
Sarah reaches the socket; un-shoulders the cross to the ground. Steve throws the hammer with the bag into position, while putting three polished spikes between his teeth. We both quickly position the cross correctly, right next to the socket…and everything’s ready………………
MY STOMACH JUMPS INTO MY THROAT…Oh….shoot…Sarah is unshackled. I’m holding no chain on her…If she runs; she might outrun both of us.
Never mind getting the best time. We’ll be lucky to get it done in twenty minutes….I whip around to look for her and find…………OH SARAAHHH!!!....Where are you???................................................................................................................................