The Man They Couldn’t Hang

The Man They Couldn’t Hang

By Paul McCann

Miles was out with a good friend celebrating his birthday when a fight broke out in the bar . Miles stepped in to break it up and the next thing he knew he was involved with the local gang . The police had been called and were on their way . Three of them were kicking and punching him until he lay unconscious on the ground and then the gang members planted some narcotics on him before running out the back door . Miles was arrested by the police and went to prison for dealing drugs .

Unfortunately for Miles he was in the wrong country at the time of his arrest and now  was facing a death sentence . His head was shaved and he was fed awful food . In the first few months in the prison while awaiting his fate he had lost a lot of weight . The prison guards nicknamed him Skin.   They said he’d be dead before he turned 35 five but at 39, he was still alive and trying to survive in inside that hell hole .

He wished he had never tried to break up that fight all those years ago and every night he had to wrestle with his own self convictions like an acrobat ,doing somersaults over and over before finally letting go and accepting his fate . 

He was permitted two walks every day in the prison grounds under the watchful eyes of armed guards . Five days a week he was part of a closed chain gang cutting sugar came in the fields around the prison .

If you rattle someone’s cage long enough eventually, you’re bound to unlock the rage of a wild beast but with nowhere to run Skin kept his anger locked up until it was the right moment for him to break out  . In the dark night he heard the water dripping from the roof through a hole into his tiny cell and that dripping sound he couldn’t  stop . It was a constant pitter patter that echoed deep down in his soul . So in that desperate moment he reached for hope that had to be found . He called out for some help and when the prison guard came to see what the problem Skin lay himself down on the ground in the spot where the water was dripping from the roof . When the guard went opened up the cell the storm outside erupted in a furious gale that lifted the roof of the cell . When nothing matters anymore Skin went into an open slather and with every bit of strength in his body, he overcame the guard and climbed out through the roof . Making his way across the   . 
yard he saw the guards where much too busy attending to the damage the storm was making . It was a dark night but Skin found a light of hope that kept telling him to carry on and then he saw a ladder that was placed against a wall that one of the guards had used to repair some damage to the communications tower . Skin took the ladder and placed it at the wall and climbed his way upwards before reaching the top where he threw himself into the raging river that was gushing down through the sugar cane fields . He grabbed on to some bamboo that had been swept into the torrent and just went wherever the flow took him . The water was mucky and the current was strong but he imagined that he was a fish swimming against the flow that was going hell for leather down to an unknown destination .

When the raging river finally gave up its angry flow, he was alive and free at last from that hell hole where he had been for six years . He heard what he thought was the  bells of heaven ringing . Then he felt the hands of people around him dragging him from the river and overheard them talking .

They thought that he was one of the farmers from the province who had been swept  away in the flood . He had no prison clothes they had come off in the flood waters and he was unable to walk so they carried him to the church that was being used as a rescue mission house .

His body was black and blue from being tossed around in the river but after a little while with some rest and food he recovered .

He made up a story telling people that he was a tourist from Australia and that he was swept away in the flood and he needed to contact his family over in Australia .

When he was contacted his family , they were so happy to hear his voice ,

It was a miracle that he had been able to contact them , Plans were made to come over and bring him back home . Eventually he walked away as free as a bird back home to the place where he was  safe and without the fear of being hung in some hell hole of a prison his life had just began all over again .

They said he was the man they couldn’t hang . He said justice had been done because he had done nothing wrong . There is another spiritual law that exists , sometimes it takes a little longer for it to arrive.

The End