Electric chairs use about two thousand volts of current to kill the condemned.
The use of the electric chair declined over the decades as a more humane solution was sought. Lethal injection became the preferred method for execution and is still used in numerous countries. The idea was pitched in 1977 by a medical examiner named Jay Chapman. He believed three drugs should be injected in order to first cause the condemned to become unconscious, then paralyzed, then cause the heart to stop beating. This became the cocktail for lethal injections but was never medically tested or peer reviewed. Not every state uses this three-drug method but one thing is clear: opponents claim this is no less cruel or painful than previous methods of execution.
John Coffey dies by electrocution at the end of The Green Mile but assures Paul that his time has come. As Paul says in the novel, “we each owe a death, there are no exceptions.”5 Although he doesn’t know when death will come for him, he feels at peace knowing he put down in words the story of what happened all those years ago at the Cold Mountain Penitentiary. May we all feel this sense of tranquility when our time comes.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
Getting lost in the woods would be terrifying for anyone but imagine having it happen to you as a nine-year-old child. This is the premise of Stephen King’s novel from 1999, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. King compared the novel to “an unplanned pregnancy” and said the idea came to him during a Red Sox game. “Stories want only one thing: to be born. If that’s inconvenient, too bad.”1 Trisha MacFarland is on a hike with her family on the Appalachian Trail and gets separated from them. She’s left with only a backpack containing a Gameboy, a Walkman, a hard-boiled egg, a tuna sandwich, two Twinkies, a liter of Surge, and a poncho. She fights real menaces such as hunger, dehydration, and pneumonia but also feels like she is being stalked by the God of the Lost; a wasp-faced, evil entity. The pitcher, Tom Gordon, seems to appear to her and help guide her throughout the story.
In order to understand how to handle being lost in the woods, we spoke with Survivorman (2004–2015) star Les Stroud and got his advice in case we are ever in this situation.
Kelly: “In Stephen King’s book The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Trish is lost in the woods and ends up eating some flowers that she finds. What plants and flowers are edible and safe to eat in various parts of the country?”
Les Stroud: “There are thousands of edible wild plants across the globe and no ecosystem is void of many things you can eat. What changes is, are they in season, are you around the areas where they grow, do you know which parts are edible, do they have any poisonous look-alikes? There are hundreds of books available pointing to the plethora of plants that are edible as well.”
There are dozens of edible flowers in nature but it’s always safer to check a guide before tasting.
Meg: “The character in the novel remembers an episode of Little House on the Prairie (1974–1983) that recommended if lost to follow a creek. Is this good advice?”
Les Stroud: “It is hit and miss. Thousands of creeks lead to absolutely nowhere. As a general rule, sure, going downhill tends to be a good direction to take and most creeks flow into bigger creeks and into rivers and into civilization. But not all. Many people have become horribly lost because they attempted to follow a creek out to safety when in fact climbing up would’ve been the better choice.”
Kelly: “If someone finds themselves lost in the woods what advice would you give them?”
Les Stroud: “First, calm down. Then, practice the Survivorman Three Areas of Assessment: Take stock of what you have close at hand (backpack with food, friends, two people injured, a tent), then take stock of what is near (fresh water, one canoe left, plenty of firewood). Then, finally assess what is further out (a cabin one mile back up river, a highway one mile due east through the bush, a trail two miles down the river’s shore). Now you have a lot of information and you can make an informed decision on what to do next.”
Kelly: “Meg, I’m sorry to say if you were lost in the woods with me I’d probably only have a six-pack of beer and maybe some lipstick on me!”
Meg: “Just promise you’ll share!”
Meg: “The girl in the book is suffering from hunger and dehydration. What are the safety measures to take when finding water to drink in the wild?”
Les Stroud: “Search for moving water instead of stagnant. If it is deep, try to weigh down a container and lower it to the deeper areas of the water body before pulling up quickly, as there are likely to be less pathogens there. Remember that dew in the morning can provide a lot of liquid in some places. Look for changes in vegetation in the forest as that often indicates the presence of water. Collecting rain will be safer than ground water. Travel upstream if possible so you get to the purest spot of a stream where it is likely to be less contaminated by animal feces.”
Bear attacks happen about forty times per year globally.2
Kelly: “The character in The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon ends up in a confrontation with a bear at the end of the novel. What should people do if they encounter a bear in the woods?”
Les Stroud: “If a black bear, play tough, make noise, try to look big, fight back … do all you can to scare it off. If a grizzly bear, play dead and hope it gets bored with you. In both cases, never run. If it’s a polar bear … pray.”
Meg: “Do you have a favorite Stephen King book or movie? What is it about the story that draws you in?”
Les Stroud: “The Green Mile by far. I hate that I am drawn in due to this horrible fear of being wrongly accused but I am elated when there is redemption and payback at the end.”
Hopefully we will never find ourselves lost in the woods, but with Les Stroud’s advice, we feel more prepared if it ever happens!
Around two thousand people get lost in the woods each year.
Trisha is suffering from hallucinations from hunger or dehydration as the days go by in the book. Does this actually happen to the human body? People can survive for a period of time without adequate food or water but our bodies begin to preserve energy and live off of fat reserves before moving on to muscle breakdown. Various bodily systems will begin to break down after just a few days without food or water and side effects may include faintness, dizziness, a drop in blood pressure, a slowing heart rate, abdominal pain, body temperature fluctuation, heart attack, or even organ failure.3 Since children naturally have a lower fat and muscle reserve than adults, they are more at risk for developing symptoms and complications much sooner. Trisha absolutely could have been suffering the effects of starvation within this time period and hallucinating.