Posted by Morbidia on March 30, 1999 at 15:00:21:
A Hanging in Deadwood. Epilogue: To the Deadwood Funeral Parlor - by Barbanne
I'm Barbanne, the proprietess (ain't that some word?) of the
Deadwood Funeral Parlor. I got the funeral parlor when my no account Paw
died. The town done give me the business to prepare and bury poor Annie
Coldfield after they hung her. They did a cold thing to her and I had
some cold things to do with her after she was hung but it's a cold world
and business is business.
Annie Coldfield wuz a ranch lady from over Horizon way, that's a
no account two bit town to the east of Deadwood. She pizened her husband
Jacob and drilled his lady friend Kathleen Noxton betwixt the eyes. It
wuz all pretty much of a bloody mess and should'na happened all along
the way. I mean, Kathleen wuz young and purty and her husband died of a
snake bite which left her alone and lonely in the cold plains nights and
Jacob wuz a good husband to Annie from what folks said, but he was a man
and when Kathleen showed him her charms, well, he did what any sensible
man would do, and fixed her up to ward off the loneliness of cold nights
and sexual frustration. I don't much suffer from that myself what with
Mister Samuel and Doc and my beautiful Melissa. But I can feel for
Kathleen and it seems she suffered a awful fate for a little
indiscretion.
As fer poor Annie, she just had a rush of blood and the evil
jealousy got her, goddamn but it gets all us ladies now and then. She
musta got in a fit and pizened randy old Jacob and then went and kilt
Kathleen. That Kathleen was a gorgeous girl, Melissa and me went over to
Horizon and buried her on her farm, the day after Annie skittled her. I
can tell ya we had the time of our lives getting her fixed up. She was
all sorta surprised and cute looking. Annie musta been a real good shot,
she got poor Kath right between the eyes. As perfect dead centre as I
ever seen.
Anyways, the sadness of it all wuz that Annie confessed and they
brung her over here to Deadwood for trial, which was a bit of a farce
cause there's a passel of sanctimonious dead shits in this town and she
got all of 'em for a jury. Jury let her off on shooting Kathleen, on
account of Kath pointed a shotgun at her, but they decided to hang her
for pizening Jacob. I reckon if'n half the shit men in town thought a
wife could get off killin' her husband just cause he wuz a turd, they'd
never sleep at nights and the ladies of Deadwood would go on a killing
spree.
Poor Annie.
Anyways, she wuz fer hanging and it wuz business fer me. I went
over and fitted her for a coffin, town was paying fer that. She wuz a
bit surprised I reckon, me bein' a kid and all, but she wuz really nice
about it. She was a lady and she wuz a looker. She wuz kinda plumpish,
but she looked like a woman, not like a scarecrow like me. I reckon
plenty of men woulda been proud to call Annie wife. Jules Pratt, he wuz
the hangman, he came in from out of town on account of we don't have too
many hangings in Deadwood, he woulda liked Annie fer a wife. I never
seen a man so smitten. He says to me after visiting Annie and measuring
her for his speciality, "Barbanne, I feel the deepest regret I gotta
hang that woman, she's a lady in every sense of the word."
"Yeah, and she's good fer business too." I said.
Jules looked at me like I was loathesome and walked from the room
and ignored me ever after that.
She was good fer business though, Annie was. As well as the
souvenirs, we were going to get photos of her corpse and sell 'em to the
east coast newspapers. You know, "Murderess hanged in Deadwood", stuff
like that. And I was going to have her corpse on display for a dollar a
time. For a couple days anyway. Hank was going to bring folks in from
the outer settlements to view her in his coach. Yep, Annie was going to
be worth a bit to the Deadwood Funeral Parlour Inc.
The day of the hanging came and me and Melissa went along together
with Doc, he had to declare her dead, and Mister Samuel, he was going to
pray for her soul. I don't much like that prayin' shit, but lotsa folks
reckon it does 'em good.
Miz Vicky, the banker's wife, and I went in and helped her get ready.
She was real scared, who wouldn't be, and couldn't do nothin' for herself.
We helped her get her dress on and braided her hair for her and I even had
to put her shoes on her feet cuz she was shakin' so hard. Like I say, I
ain't much for that prayin' shit, but I sang a hymn or two with them to
help settle poor Annie down. We left before they were ready to take her
out.
I met Melissa by the jail door and we went together to watch. We got
front row by the gallows cuz we had to help get her down when it was over.
They brought Annie out, she looked lovely in that brand new dress. It
was white with black piping around the collars, cuffs and hem. I thought
it was very fine and wished I was more her size as I coulda grabbed it
when she was in the mortuary. She had these really nice black slipper
things too. She walked really slow up the steps and looked sad and
frightened but resigned, like she was ready to pay for her sins.
The crowd yahooed and called for a speech. I thought they sucked.
Real quiet and dignified Annie said, "I did what I did. I'm sorry.
Let's get this over with so we can all go home."
I thought it was sad, especially as Annie's home wuz gunna be with
me.
Then they tied her hands behind her and roped her some and placed
a hood over her head and Jules adjusted the noose over her and spoke
quietly to her and it was ready.
The platform dropped away and Annie dropped down and the noose snapped
against her neck and from the faint crack that I heard I reckon it was
over quick. They left her there dangling and twitching and finally just
gently swaying in the breeze with the toes of those little shoes just
peeking out from under the hem of her dress.
Her bladder had failed her as she died. The yobbos in the crowd made fun
of her and I shouted out. "Let her be. She was a better woman than you
are men." They just rubbished me. I knew they would. Most of Deadwood's
men you wouldn't piddle on. Pity you didn't pee on 'em Annie I thought.
After a bit, Jules and the sheriff's guys got her back up on the
platform, and Doc went up to examine her. They took the hood off and her
eyes was just sort of half open and all starey and opaque and her tongue
had been forced from her mouth. Her neck was all stretched and reddened.
They untied the ropes and Doc opened her dress and listened for a heart
beat and felt for a pulse. There wasn't any and he declared Annie Coldfield
dead.
Mister Samuel mumbled some words and then the sheriff thanked him
and Doc and said, "She's all yours Barbanne."
Most of the crowd had wandered off, entertainment over for the
time being. Still, a few ghouls stayed and stared at Annie's corpse and
at me and Doc and what was being done. I covered Annie's face with the
hood she'd worn during the hanging, just laid it over her so that her
awful deadness would be hidden from the view of the ghoulish. Melissa
and me went and fetched our trolley cart. It was one of my new things. I
had improved my services since the day when Paw had left me to manhandle
and lug that poor schoolmarm's body along the main street of Deadwood.
Melissa took Annie's heels and I got my arms under her shoulders and we
lifted her up and tottered down the gallow's steps with her. She was a
well built girl and her dead weight tested a couple of weedy wimmen like
Melissa and me. Nobody offered to help of course, nobody ever did. The
menfolk of Deadwood reckon the saloon's where they should be and wimmen
are the mules of the world whose natural purpose is to do everything
including pouring their likker and even, as I've often seen, carrying
their stupefied, vomit covered carcasses home. Anyway, I wouldn't have
let any of them skunks handle Annie's body, it woulda been a sacrilege.
Bastards!
We settled Annie's body on the cart and I covered her with an old
blanket I kept for the purpose and we wheeled her back to the funeral
home.
The photographer was waiting there. He was from Santa Fe and the
Santa Fe Times was paying for the right to the pictures which they would
circulate America wide. Some colonial called Murdoch from Awstralya had
just bought the paper and he was a go getter I kin tell ya. I was
feeling a bit iffy about heaping this indignity onto Annie, but I needed
the money bad. Given how Paw had had his accident what kilt him, I was
just a little sympathetic to a gal who was driven to murder a damned
abusing man!!!
Hell, but I needed that money.
We had a board that Paw had used to exhibit dead criminals and,
although I'd never had anything to do with it, I knew how it worked.
We got Annie off the cart and onto the board. It had notches along
its length and we tied her, on her back, to the board with ropes that
went around her knees and just under her bust and one around her neck.
That held her in place and then we propped the board upright and dragged
it over to where we could stand it against the front door of the
parlour. She sorta drooped against the ropes and her head lolled
forward. Finally I got it to stay upright although it was leaning
sideways a bit. She sure looked dead. No-one looking at the pictures
would think she was fooling. Her eyes was still sorta half lidded and
vacant and staring, what you could see of 'em and, despite whatever I
tried, her tongue still drooled from her mouth and lay across her cheek
and chin. If nothin' else, there was that deep red mark across her throat.
The photographer was set up with his flash powder and all and he
shot a couple of plates of Annie. Some onlookers had gathered and where
making ribald comments and clapping whenever he shot a plate.
It was gross. Annie's dress was hanging open where Doc had examined her and the
photographer said, "Barbanne, pull her dress apart so's my pictures can
show her tits."
"Don't be disgusting."
"We'll pay you another twenty bucks."
"Thats sick."
"Alright, twenty five."
"Shit! OK, but be quick."
Money's money after all's said and done and I guess Annie was
beyond caring.
I pulled her dress open and exposed her breasts. They were quite
large and soft and round and sorta sagged down a bit on account of her
bad posture (tied to my board) and splayed apart and her two large brown
nipples were looking away from each other and sorta downwards. I was
surprised to see that they were erect and when I touched them lightly
they were quite hard.
"Now who's being gross." Shouted the photographer when he saw me
fingering Annie's nipples.
"Get fucked and get on with it."
I stepped aside.
He shot more photos.
Annie's head fell forwards again. The board was mostly meant for men who'd
been shot, not for women whose necks was broke and stretched out. Melissa
and I spent a couple of minutes getting her to face the camera again. Once
her head turned clear around facing almost backwards until we got it right.
Jules sure musta knowed what he was doin' to break her neck so clean.
"How about you two gals stand either side so's you look like she's
your trophy?"
"Jeez you're feeble." I spat at him.
"'Nuther twenty five."
Shit we need all the money we can get.
"Come on then Melissa."
We stood flanking Annie. He took photos.
"Look towards her and point at her."
We did, he photographed.
"Barbanne, touch her breasts like you did before."
"Rack off."
"I'll give ya......................."
"Are you fuckin' finished?"
"Well, if you won't touch her tits?"
"I WON'T."
"I'm finished."
We used the board to carry Annie inside and down to the laying out
room.
Melissa helped me and I undressed her. When she was nude, we
carried her to the preparation bench. The one that's zinc lined and has
drains. I got a bucket under the drain and then filled my wash bucket
with warm water and got some soap. I lathered up Annie's body and washed
away all the sweat and grime and down where she'd messed herself at the
last. I lathered her pubics and rinsed them clean. She musta sweat some
in her last moments and who could blame her? I reckon if I was for the
high jump, I'd pee myself and probably poop and puke and everything.
Melissa lifted Annie's head whilst I washed her hair until it was
gleaming clean. I got a towel and patted her dry and we transferred her
to one of the other tables.
Lying there, clean, very white skinned from her months in prison
and pallid in death, she looked beautiful. I was getting aroused and I
could see Melissa touching herself and looking at me, lips apart and
eyes glistening.
"Shall we love her one last time Barbanne?"
"She was a good woman. A good woman deceived by bad men. Of course
we will."
I won't desecrate Annie's privacy by telling you what happened
next, but those who've read my story can guess. Melissa and I locked all
the doors and stripped and together we afforded Annie sex one last time.
Afterwards we re-donned our aprons and I managed to get Annie's
tongue back into her mouth to stay and we closed her eyes and then we
laundered that lovely dress and while Melissa ironed it, I made Annie's
face up. I used bright coloured lippy and powder and some eyeshadow and
got her to looking cute but mischievous. Melissa brought her undies and
dress and we dressed her in those and then we put her in a medium range
coffin, town wasn't prepared to pay for my best, and put her in our
front parlour.
The next day the lookers started arriving and I sat and took their
money while Melissa stood by Annie's bier in her best black mourning
outfit, wearing black makeup and looking like Morticia Melissa. She
recited a potted version of Annie's sad fate to any who cared to listen.
At the end of two days we'd taken near three hundred dollars and
considered it a huge success. Laughingly I said to Melissa "I should do
for you and make heaps showing you're corpse."
"Why not?" She had a huge wicked grin and we closed up and went
upstairs and made love to each other as never before. No, not
love............sex. Pure animal sex. Sex and death belong together.
The next morning Annie was to be buried. I sat with her. She was beautiful
and it was unfair and I cried and my tears fell on her coffin. I kissed her
goodbye and we took her to boothill. Me, Melissa, Mister Samuel and the Sheriff.
Jules had wanted to see her buried real bad, but when I allowed
the photographs and then had the showing, he came around and told me I
was a mean, selfish, thoughtless, heartless, nasty, stinking little
bitch! Then he pissed off.
I'm not really stinking....am I?
I stood and looked as Annie's coffin dropped into the earth,
watched by only us four. It set in to rain and everything turned muddy.
Not much at the end of a life.
I cried.