"The platform rose on six-by-six wooden posts at least 12 feet off the ground, with enough room up top for a small deck party, and the staircase from the sidewalk was a steeply pitched ladder. This gallows had been raised to last-built not only by children but for them, since few adults would have the agility and daring to reach the top."
"A drop by the neck from 12 feet into midair would not be play. The designers of the Suicide Spot had been impressively serious. Rustin ran his hand over his own neck and forgot his mission. About 30 people were gathered around the base, spilling from the sidewalk into the street. Most were teenagers skipping school, though there was a scattering of grown-ups and a couple of families with younger children."
Doctor Rustin encounters a towering six-by-six wooden gallows raised about twelve feet off the ground, resembling a play structure with a steep ladder and a crossbar for climbing. The gallows is intentionally child-sized, built to be accessed by agile youths rather than adults, and fitted with a rope noose. A crowd of about thirty people—mostly teenagers skipping school, plus some adults and families—gathers at the base. Two girls in yellowish-gray clothing, identified as Guardians, flank a defiant boy on the platform who tests the rope. The Guardians exist to recruit and convert young people into agents of Together.
Read at The Atlantic
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]