I was ten when my dad said I was old enough to see a hanging. He argued with my mother for a long time but she eventually agreed. So here I am, standing at the tree with my father and most of the town, waiting for him to be brought out of the jailhouse. They say he murdered his wife and two kids. Why would anybody ever want to murder another human? I wondered this a lot that day... I was so naïve. I turned my head towards the sound of loud jeers. They had brought the man out. I was expecting him to look evil or scary... but he looked like anybody else. I never would have guessed that he was a murderer. I should have been more intuitive.
They look him to the steps under the branch with the rope. He climbed the steps and they put the noose around his throat. Next thing I knew... he was swinging. I couldn't look away even though I wanted to. What finally pulled my attention away from the now dead man was the sound of a girl crying. I looked around for the source until I found her. She was standing next to her father, crying. Her father put his head down next to her ear and whatever he said made her cry harder. I stared at them until people started to leave
"Son, are you coming home?" my father asked me
"Could I find my friends and play for a while?" I asked him
"Of course, but be home by dinner" he told me before walking away. I felt bad for lying to my father, but I couldn't tell him what I was really going to do. And it had nothing to do with my friends. I looked and saw the girl still standing with her father, and she looked as if she was trying not to cry. I hid behind a tree and watched them. They stayed until the last person left. Then he turned to her and pushed her over
"I told you that you would not cry! You were going to handle this like a woman and not a baby!" he shouted as he stood over her. He kicked her once in the side before leaving her there. I just stared at her for a long moment before I shook myself out of it. I rushed over to help her
"Are...Are you okay?" I asked her. She gasped a little, I guess I scared her. She hesitated before she looked up at me. I smiled a little at her and offered her my hand. She stared at it a while before she took it and I helped her up. "Are you hurt?"
"No, I'm used to it" she told me. She glanced behind me, at the man, and shuttered before she started walking away
"Where are you going?" I asked her, rushing to her side
"I've gotta go home or my daddy'll be mad" she said
"I don't think he cares... he just left you there" I tell her. She stopped and looked at me
"You're right... and I don't wanna go home" she told me, her bottom lip shaking a little
I wanted to tell her that she didn't have to go home. But she did have to go eventually. I tried to take her home with me but my parents didn't believe me about her father and I got sent to bed without supper for lying to my father. He took her home and I didn't get to say goodbye.
But I never stopped seeing her. We stayed best friends for many years. I tried to get her away from her father, but she was unwilling
"He'll just hunt me down... and then I'll get a real beating" she told me. But I hated having to leave her there every night.
We were sitting up in the hanging tree one day talking about it all. A strange place to hang out, I know, but we considered it our tree, because it's where we met.
"The only way I'll be free of him is if I get married, and he'll still find a way to beat me; if he dies, but he's perfectly healthy; or if I run away" she says
"But you always say he'll find you" I tell her. She looks toward the fence that surrounds our town
"Not if I go over the fence" she says quietly
"Over the fence? And then what? There's nothing on the other side; you'll have nowhere to go" I insist
"I think there is something beyond the fence... far, far away. It might take me a few days, but... I'm sure I'll find something eventually" she tells me, still staring at the fence
"You want to leave me?" I ask her. There is a long pause before she answers me
"No... I want you to help me. I don't just want to get away from him by going over the fence, though... I want him dead. I need him dead, I'll never be able to sleep peacefully unless he's dead" she says
"What are you saying?" I ask her. She finally looks at me
"I have to kill him" she whispers "And then we can leave together... and be happy. I don't want to live here anymore, I hate it here. please... please" she says with tears in her eyes
"...okay" I tell her. What did I just agree to?
"You don't have to do anything, I'll do it" she tells me. So we come up with a plan
We are both going to get our things packed and we are going to hide them at the tree... the hanging tree. I would sneak over to her house in the night and get her after she had... done what she needed to do. Then we would go to the tree and get our things and go to the fence. And we would leave to be together forever.
I snuck out of the house and made my way across town. All was quiet until I heard yelling. I ran to the house and found her in the kitchen with a knife
"You little bitch! I'll kill you!" her father yelled at her. He had blood on his side, and he was clutching it. She was crying hysterically
"I'm sorry, I tried but I couldn't do it" she said, still holding the knife tight in her hand. Her father tried to run at her, and she screamed, but he fell and writhed in pain on the floor "What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?" she kept asking. I grabbed her shoulders and made her look at me
"Ok... I'll do it. I want you to run, okay? Flee... to the tree and I'll meet you there, and then we'll run. You will be free of him, I promise. Okay? I promise" I told her, taking the knife from her hand. She hesitated before she ran out the door. I held the knife tight in my hand. I remember thinking who would ever kill another human... I guess me. I stepped closer to him, and he tried to grab my leg, but he was too slow. I bent down
"You will not ever hurt her again" I told him. I thought I would hesitate, but I didn't at all as I dragged the knife across his throat. Then I watched the life leave his eyes before I ran out of the house
I get to the tree... and she's not here. How is she not here? I look for our stuff and her bag is gone. She left me... she left me! How could she leave me? I start shouting for her, but I get no answer. Where did she go? I continue yelling, and people show up. They are yelling things at me, but I don't know what they are saying. I can't focus on anything right now but she left me. Before I know it I am being dragged to the jailhouse. They ask me if I killed him, and I tell the truth. I don't care anymore. The love of my life left me... she left me
They take me outside, two people, one holding each of my arms. But I'm not going to struggle. I don't argue or hesitate as I climb the stairs. They put the rope around my neck and it reminds me of the necklaces I used to make for her; we would sit in the meadow and I would make her necklaces out of long grass... I wonder if she ever kept any of them... that's all that's in my head as the stairs are moved out from under me...
Everybody leaves quickly, leaving me alone. I wonder where she is. I wonder if she'll be happy now... she should be with me. She should be right here next to me. But I told her to run... I stay here in the tree for what feels like forever. Every night I sing to her, hoping she'll return to me. I wait until midnight, and then I start
"Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where they strung up a man they say murdered three.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree
Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where the dead man called out for his love to flee.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree
Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where I told you to run, so we'd both be free.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree
Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Wear a necklace of rope, side by side with me.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree"
I don't know how long I sing, but to me it's an eternity. And she never shows up