Excerpt of The Hanging of Samuel Ash by Sheldon Russell

The knot on the rope, big as a man’s fist, scrubbed under his ear. It smelled of hemp and horse sweat. Heat lightning flashed on the horizon, an empty promise of rain, and thunder rumbled over the staked plains. The breeze fell still as death, and from somewhere crickets struck up a dirge. The rope zinged over the cantilever of the railroad wigwag signal, its tail dancing just within reach. A snap of the rope jerked him onto his toes, and he looked up into the star-lit night. Blood rushed beneath his eardrums, and he sucked air through his teeth. Somewhere beyond the darkness, the whistle of a westbound train rose up. He turned his head against the rudeness of the rope to search out the engine light. His ankles burned, and his legs trembled under him. The rope, cinched tight, cut into his flesh. His thoughts gathered like a moment in eternity.

Hanging done right, he’d heard, proved a sweet way to die, the weight snapping the neck, so powerful its force that a miscalculation could pop the head from its mooring. The headless body, they said, sometimes stood and walked about. But such mercy would not be his, no drop to oblivion, no void, no pity this night.

The thunder rolled once more, and he wondered if it might rain. But then it never rained. The rope jerked tight. He reached for the ground with his toes and found it gone. Grasping the rope, he hung on with all that he had.

The roar of the westbound broke on the horizon. The lights of the wigwag signal, red as blood, flashed back and forth. The bell clanged in alarm, and the train whistle screamed from out of the blackness.

His arms trembled and burned, and when he could do no more, he released the rope. As he rose into the air, his eyes bulged, and his tongue swelled from between his teeth. His back arched, and his engorged genitalia stood erect. A light burned into his eyes, bright as the sun, and then receded to a point in the universe.

The train raced off into the darkness, and the night stilled. Lightning flickered on the horizon, but far away now and silent.