The life and times of Lafayette Ryder

There’s already a crowd of three thousand people loitering in the courtyard when we pull into Haven, every one of the people there has a right to witness the hanging but I still wish it could have been done in private rather than in public. Twilight and I exit the truck and walk over in front of the gathered masses.

“Good morning sheriff.” I say to Chuck.

“There ain’t a damn thing good ’bout this morning,” he grumbles, “come on now; let’s get this business dealt with.”

We start to walk over to a nearby oak tree and the prisoner waiting beneath it but a sudden shout stops us in our tracks.

“Why are you going to hang him?”

Chuck and I turn around to see Twilight glaring at us and waiting for an answer.

“Miss Ryder,” Chuck says respectively, “this feller we’re fixin’ to execute… he deserves it, that’s all I’m sayin’.” Chuck walks away from us and over to the tree where he lights a smoke and waits for me.

“Lafayette,” Twilight looks to me, “why are you doing this?”

“You’ll see in a moment.” I tell her and leave to join Chuck. Twilight follows me but stays back a bit. Sheriff Towery stands and addresses the crowd as I lean against the oak tree and deftly tie a noose at the end of a length of hemp rope.

“Citizens of Haven,” Chuck announces, “we are here today to hang Gerald Bloodworth for crimes worthy of the death penalty. Just two nights ago he raped, beat, and then tried to kill young Jenny McCommic. He was identified by Jennifer herself and eluded myself and Officer Brown,” Chuck points at a man in uniform with a bandaged arm who is scowling at the condemned, “when we confronted him. After a lengthy chase we cornered Gerald and he stabbed at and injured Officer Brown. We held a court session yesterday afternoon where Gerald pleaded guilty and a jury of twenty five of his peers voted for this punishment, since then both our acting mayor Mr. Neil and our governor Mr. Ryder have agreed with this decision. Governor Ryder is here now and will be carrying out the punishment.”

That’s my cue.

“That’s why,” I say to Twi as I leave her and take the noose over to the tree. In one swift toss I send the rope over a sturdy branch and catch the noose end as it swings back at me.

“Gerald Bloodworth,” he stands slowly and walks over to me, “you are to be hung until death for your crimes, would you like to speak to a priest or a preacher one last time before your punishment is dealt?”

“No sir, I’ve already sorted all that out.” he speaks so softly that I have to resort to lip reading to be sure of what he said.

“Would you like to be given your last rights or confess anything now?”

“No sir, I’ve taken care of that as well.”

“Very well, have you any last words or requests?”

“Yes, two; I hear that you enjoy fine cigars, could I have one?”

“I suppose so.” I conjure a Cuban and place it in the shackled man’s mouth; I light it and let him take a few deep drags before pulling it away so he could tell me his second requests and last words.

“Could you speak to Jen…” his voice cracks and he chokes back a sob, “Jenny for me… just… just tell her I’m sorry, so sorry for what I’ve done to her. Please tell her that.” I let him take a few more puffs as I talk.

“I will do that but I can’t guarantee that she’ll forgive you or even listen when I try to tell her, but I will tell her. Any last words?”

He looks at me and the scans the crowd.

“Please forgive me for what I’ve done, the last thing I wanted to do was hurt her. That’s all.”

“Are ya ready?” Sheriff Towery asks from my side.

“Yes sir, may I smoke a bit more while you set it up?”

I nod my head and place the blunt back in-between his lips. I dawdle and take my time walking Gerald over beneath the branch, I fiddle with the rope a bit and slowly slide the noose over his head, safely past his half smoked cigar, and then snugly around his throat.

“I hope it’s not too tight.” Chuck mutters in an unusually cruel tone.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” Gerald murmurs, ignoring the sheriff’s insult.

“Ready?” I ask and offer the crying man a blindfold.

“Yes, no. I mean yes to being ready and no to the mask, I’d like to get one last glimpse of this world before I go.” He inhales deeply and nods his head. “Take your time Mr. Governor, I’m ready, I can take all the pain death has in store for me, I can take it, go ahead.”I take the Cuban back and toss it on the ground trampling it underfoot as I take my place behind Gerald and grasp the thick rope.

“Women, children, ponies, and any of y’all wit a faint heart should look way now.” Chuck warns. I notice Twilight out of the corner of my eye, she flinches as I start pulling but doesn’t avert her gaze like so many in the crowd do.

I pull the rope taught and reset my grip; with two strong pulls I lift Gerald completely off the ground and four feet into the air. I tug and he ascends further until I stop. I can hear his muffled grunts as his throat is constricted and air ceases to flow to his lung, I could swear that every noise he makes is an attempt to say “I’m sorry” again just before he dies. He doesn’t flail or jerk around in any attempts to escape; he doesn’t even twitch as I kill hm.

I hold the rope and count as I keep him suspended in air; 1second… 5... 10… 20… 30…45 and he’s out cold. He whines a bit just before his head slumps to the side; one last apology, one last plea for forgiveness, and one or two last words too quit to possibly hear. I wait another fifteen seconds before finishing the execution; I wouldn’t want him alive for this last bit, he’s paid his dues already I think. I let the rope slide a foot, holding it firmly enough that it wears my palms raw as it slips through my fingers, and then I jerk it back. People in the crowd winch and Sheriff Towery looks down at his boots when a sickly snap sounds from Gerald’s neck. He’s dead now, that’s for sure.

I lower the corpse down, allowing the rope to further burn my hands as I do so, and walk up to the slouching body. I kneel down, undo the noose, and pick Gerald up. I sling him over my shoulder and stand again to address the crowd.

“THIS is the punishment for such crimes as rape, murder, whether it be planned, attempted, or committed, or assault on one of your neighbors. ANYONE who commits such acts WILL be hung as soon as they are convicted and proved guilty. I hope I will never have to perform such a morbid task as this again but I WILL if I have to. WE were handpicked by GOD to be here, we should be doing better than RAPING and MURDERING! I know of the drugs going through here, not the weed or the shrooms but the coke, the heroine, and the meth, I know of the budding prostitution rings, I know of the illegal gambling halls, the underage drinking and smoking, the mindless fucking, and the general failure to act like good human beings. These things WILL STOP NOW. Anyone caught committing such crimes from here on out WILL HANG. Now go home, pitch the booze, flush the drugs, quit turning tricks, and act like GODDAMN civilized people. I’m ashamed I even have to say this to you all and I expect things to change for the better or else this tree WILL see much more use. Now go.” I turn my back on the shocked crowd and walk away.

Neither Twilight nor Sheriff Towery catch up with me until I’m in the cemetery we so recently designated. I’ve already set the body down and started on the grave when my wife and the head of police call my name.

“Twi, Chuck what’re you two doing here?”

“Was gonna help you with burring this bas… fella.” Sheriff Towery explains, abandoning the swear halfway through due to a ladies presence.

“I want to talk to you,” Twi says and then nods at Chuck, “in private. Also, you’re my ride home.” She half jokes.

“S’OK Chuck,” I tell him, “I’ve got this, you go check on Jenny and her family, I’ll be there in a bit.”

“Yes sir.” He replies and promptly leaves.

Once he’s outside of the cemetery’s fencing I look to Twilight.

“So what did you want to talk about?” I ask as I heave another shovelful of dirt out of the shallow pit and onto a nearby pile.

“I wanted…” She starts. “You just… earlier…”

“I executed a convicted criminal who has ruined the life of a little girl, I feel no remorse for ending Gerald’s life, but I do feel sorry for Jenny, and pissed that I couldn’t stop this from ever happening. It’s a bit like the evil apple I guess, even if Eve hadn’t eaten it then and tempted her husband there someone else would have done it sometime, somewhere else, this would have happened eventually whether I was here or not.”

I toss another shovelful of dirt out of the hole and stand back as a hundred and eight square feet of dirt levitates out of the ground and comes crashing down next to me.

“Look at me when you talk to me…please.”

I drop the shovel and turn around.

“You weren’t talking, you were mumbling.”

“You killed him…”

“Yes.”

“You people killed him for committing crimes, you kill killers?”

“Yeah, that’s what we do back on earth and here under my rule; you kill one of use and we kill you back.”

“That’s…That’s…”

“That’s the best form of persuasion we have Twi, you don’t have murderers, repeat offenders, and serial killers, rapists, arsonists, thieves here. We had them back home and apparently we have them here too.”

“So you just kill them and hope to “persuade” others not to do the same?”

“Yes.”

Twilights just sighs and looks at the body.

“So why are you burying it?”

“That’s just another thing we do.”

“Bury your dead? You’re kidding right?”

“Nope, we don’t have a cremation furnace yet and I’m not gonna bar-be-que this guy so I’m digging a deep hole and dropping him in.”

“How… odd.”

“Odd’s ditching dead bodies in a forest to rot and be eaten by scavengers.”

“Don’t judge our traditions! Besides nopony actually does that anymore, we cremate all the dead these days.”

“Whatever.” I unceremoniously toss the body into the hole and start scooping dirt on top of it only to have Twilight do my job with magic once again.

“Hey.”

“What?”

“Don’t do that to me.”

“Why not? I just helped you out.”

“I killed him, it was my job to bury him, there’s rules about this kind of thing Twi.”

“I’d like to read that book.” Damn sarcasm.

“It’s not in any book Twi, there’s just unwritten rules about killing; you can loot the body but don’t take pictures or sentimental things, don’t desecrate bodies, and unless it’s in the wake of battle you bury those you killed.”

“Oh.”

“Oh’s right. Now come on, it’s getting dark and I still have to go talk to Jenny and her family.”

Together Twilight and I leave the fresh grave without so much as a prayer and head back into town.