THE SENTENCE

The truck pitched, the truck rolled.
We could hear the noise of the truck engine, the gear changes, the accelerations, the brakings.
The air was sultry into the tank where we were both shut up.
It stank. Our bodily smells were mixed with diesel relents and old rusty metal odours.
Jolts threw us to the other, knocked us on the metallic walls, makin us moaning.
I was aching all over and I was bathed with sweat.
I opened, I closed my thighs to relieve my tortured sex. With each inspiration the clip bit more and more my nipple. But It was especially my hands. My tied wrists were burning and I could not move my fingers any more.
I nevertheless tried hard to do it. And little by little I succeeded. Groaning.
My hair stuck to my face, to my eyes, made me cry and sometimes I tried to blow them away or to push them away with my knees. But to no effect.
The spectre of the future was preying my mind.
The woman and me had talking about. Just a little.
But we were too much terrified to exchange another things that banalities.
A sudden silence!
Muted voices.
-… terrorists! Put them on display at the Punishments Place. This evening, they will appear before the public court…
We were thrown backwards when the truck started again. Then forwards when it slowed down.
A time. A silence.
Movements. A metal shock up there.
The sun, suddenly coming into the tank, blinded me.

- Put the rope round your neck. Schnell!
We hesitated, the fear paralyzing us.
- Oh whores… Beg your pardon,Sister. Get a move on. There is a fire hose and I am going to fill the tank if you don't move you’re ass.
We obeyed. It was difficult, the rope was continuously slipping away but I did it.
- Go ahead Karl. Haul up that.
I had time to take a great breathing before the knot was tightening, before the rope lifted me up, strangling me.

The sun started to set, glowing red.
I was beyond exhaustion. My skin was sunburnt. My throat was dry like leather and I could see only blurred forms through sweat, salt and tears which clouded my vision. They had washed us with the hose, regularly watering us. I had succeeded to lap up some water drops but it did not ease the heat of the sun and it did not appease the thirst wrinkling my mouth.

After taking us out of the tank, they had hoisted us, always by the neck, on these narrow trestles. They had tightened the ropes perching us up there, on the tiptoes, suspended by the neck and by this slipknot which blocked our whistling breathing.
I had slipped several times ( perhaps with the unconsciously despair to put an end to the torture) but a guard was there.

Who had put me back striking my calves with a baton.

The sun had vanished. The darkness, the evening wind gave us some coolness.

There were some movements, some murmurs, some hummings.

Suddenly, spotlights lit the gallows and our tortured bodies.

I started when the light dazzled me but I saw people fell into line in front of us.
Women and men in work dress. Then a person in town suit came uo, interposed between these people and us.

Guards appeared, stopping on both sides of the scaffold. The man took hold of a microphone, cleared his throat :

- Ladies and gentlemen ! I know that you are exhausted but happy to have fervently worked for the good of our community. However this evening, we have to pass sentence.

We have to decide if we accommodate with us these two women strayed on the path of sin.
The verdict of each one will be ours.
This one seriously fished. Under the dress of holiness, the demon of the lie and the demon of the parricide slipped. This lost creature has worked to murder our father, our glorious President who devotes his body and his heart for our Fatherland. This creature has confessed her criminal and underhand will, without shame, to kill our beloved chief.
What do you think about it, Ladies and Gentlemen? May this creature redeem herself her unforgivable crimes with work?
I don't think so Ladies and Gentlemen! What do you think about it ?
A mutterring crossed the crowd :
- Noooo !
So be it. She will pay for. Your sentence is yours and it's a good sentence.

But before applying your sentence, we have to snetence this one.

She is a Jerusalem' girl, a jewish trollop. She wanted to libel our beloved President in one of this vile judeo-communist newspapers. We fortunately could put an end to her abominable intentions. This creature has confessed her sinister plans.

Ladies and Gentlemen ! May this creature redeem herself with the saving labour ? I do think so.

And you too, ladies and gentlemen ?

People roared again and the gallow seems to shake :

- Yeeees !

- Ladies and Gentlemen ! This sinner had to be chastised. I think so. And you think so ?

- Yeeees !

The air vibrated again. These criminal are us !

The man spoke again. The amplified voice, dreadfull, reverberating on the high walls, told the sentence.

My god ! They were speaking about me.

- Ach so. Her crime deserves a triple punishment. Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, she will be whipped on the sole of her feet.

So that she will not can fly from. Is it a just punishment ?

- Yeeees !

- Tomorrow morning, you'll punish the trollop, whipping her private parts. Is this second punishment just ?

- Yeeees !

And tomorrow in the evening she'll serve you. You are free to use this trollp as you want.

Ladies and Gentlemen. Is it a just punishment?

I think so, Ladies and Gentlemen ?

- Yeeees !

Ach so. Your sentence is ours And it is a good sentence.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it's time to give the punishment. The obnoxious criminal have to pay.

Now !

Suddenly the gallow rocked. The rope dreadfully vibrated. I was unsteady on my tired legs, but I succeeded to keep my balance.
God of Israel, have pity. At the maximum of my visual field, I saw the poor woman flapping her legs, searching a foothold she had not no more. I heard her grumbling, groanning. Hideous noises.

Her convulsive movements made a light cold airstream that frozeneded me.

I started to shake with cold, with fear. The vibrations of the gallow went down. Gradually. The noises fade away, some liquid flowed down on the sand then it was the silence. Awful. I gently cried, in despair.

- Ladies and Gentlemen, the just punishment had been given and the criminal had been chastised.

Ladies and Gentlemen, let us pray for her lost soul.

A moment. They were praying. The poor woman was turning round on her.

I thought she was watching me. Oh.... her empty eyes, her twisted face... I closed my eyes.

---

- Well. Kneel down the criminal, so that she'll humbly receive her first punishment.
The rope was loosened, I swayed.

 

The knot tightened when they pulled me back. My feet lost their hold, I felt that I was coming down. But they held me, guided my tights and my legs. My knees hit the wooden trestle.

They kneeled me down.

They worked on the slipknot, they lowered it, moving it, tightening it. Now I felt the harsh hold on the base of my neck. It tied me up withoug strangling me.The other end of the rope running through the hook of the gallow, was fastened to my wrists.

I was swaying from forward to bacward, I was leaning forward, I was straightening up, balancing between the garotting and the dislocation of my shoulders, when a voice shouted : "Derecha" ( right) .

A whistling and the first blow hacked at my right foot. The sharp pain made my knee lift up. The rope held me back, strangled me.I whined. The torturers put me steady back.

- Don't move, slut. We'll not catch you next time.
- Senestra.
The rod lashed my left feet.

- Derecha !
The rod lashed my right foot.
- Senestra…

"Derecha ! Senestra !" The stokes were alternating on my right foot, on my left foot.

Despite of the rope choking me, I yelled.

How long did it last ? I don't remember. As I have forgotten the number of blows.

---

The rope.

It was strangling me. Anew !

I thought that my feet didn't exist no more. That they were been cut or taken out. Only my neck was pain, burning.

I was coming round little by little.

Something was forcing my anus, sinking into me.

They were letting me down, they were spreading my thighs, they were impaling me.

I clenched my legs, tried to find a foothold.

That bit my feet and they came back to life. Suddenly.

I let go : the infamous thing rammed into my bottom.

I attempted to find back the foothold. Vainely.

The rope got me by the neck and the wrists. The claws of the pale tore the bared sole of my feet.

I curved myself, the knot tightened but the driving in stopped.

The guards spoke to me mais I didn't hear them. The roaring of the air clearing the way to my lungs prevented me from doing that.

In the dark fog stuking my mind, I succeeded standing on tiptooe. The nails was hurting me but it was nothing, comparated with the impression of ripping, with the fire burning my throat and my breast.

They kept me here all the night, like a spitted fowl...

---

On the morning they set me free, they heaved me up by the neck, pushing away the pal that went out with an horrible sucking noise. Then they dropped me on the ground.

I stayed here, breathing deeply the morning fresh air.

I heard nothing, I saw nothing, I felt nothing.

I was still alive.

They lifted me up, they stood me up and they cropped me.

What did I care, I was still alive.

It was only when they tied my anckles, when they lifted me upside down with my quartered thighs, when I saw a woman brandishing a long black leather crop, that I went out from the beatitude where I was bathing.

Then I remember the sentence...

I yelled with the first stroke, I yelled with the second, I yelled, I yelled.

Like a damned, while the crop strokes were hacking at my sex.

I continuously yelled until I was speechless, until they unhooked me, until they threw me into the shovel of an excavator on the dead nun's body.