Measured Drop

Measured Drop

I

Those last few words you mumbled could’ve blinded a bull at 20 paces. A backward jerk: sharp, vicious and without warning. Black Jack Ketchum’s head actually popped off when the noose eye winked. I’ll never understand Death until I get there. It’s so difficult to contemplate anything so absolute when space and time are buzzing by at the speed of life. I can hardly discern bullets from hummingbirds.

II

Funny, the weather man called it an “uneventful day.” I’d guess that he would’ve said the same thing about the day on which Christ was crucified. Perspective is the key to every lock.

 

III

It’s all planned days before it happens: the height & weight are put into an equation that makes the breakneck moment as crisp and painless as is possible. The executioner calls it a Measured Drop. Nobody’s ever survived it.  

Author's Note

* Measured Drop - A method of execution by hanging. This process, also known as the long drop, was introduced to Britain in 1872 by William Marwood as a scientific advancement to the standard drop. Instead of everyone falling the same standard distance, the person's height and weight were used to determine how much slack would be provided in the rope so that the distance dropped would be enough to ensure that the neck was broken, but not so much that the person was decapitated. The careful placement of the eye or knot of the noose (so that the head was jerked back as the rope tightened) contributed to breaking the neck predictably.

Reviews

[Crowley]

Ahhhhh...technology of sorts. We seem to spend alot of time thinking of better ways to kill each other, is it because when our time comes we would like to think that it will be as quick and painless as possible, our fear of death. I guess it might boil down to that anyway. Great thought process here and killer writing....as always.

[SkinlessFrank]

Reminds me that I feel as though mine(my measured drop, that is) was all calculated on Day 1, and I'm just sort of biding my time now, not doing much of anything, waiting for the walk.

[roarke]

Interesting prompt material.... casual reading?

... as simple as one, two, three.... but what glorious leaps of abstract yet concrete thought brought together. One is my favorite, but embellished by the banal perceptions of the present in two, to be polished off with the tell it like it is precision of three.

I prefer breaking necks with my bare hands... but that's a different tale. Try reading the funny papers once in a while, your pup is house broke by now isn't it?

btw... nice stuff

[Kenneth The Poet]

excellent. favorited.

[Boldpen]

Brain storming write.
Loved the second para.
Your piece beautifully pictures the scene of this execution. Well done!
It was really fantastic.