“And that counts as one?” Ruby asked.

“Each time, yes.”

“And it won’t kill me?”

“Shouldn’t. Anyway, it’s against the law to kill you.”

Ruby looked down at her fingers. They were old and fat and rough. She thrust her hand back at Lady Mae.

“Just this finger,” she said, pointing to the one with her wedding ring. “Been trying to get this off for years.”

Lady Mae took up her chart and began writing the treatment. Her hand shook, and she thought it was because she was afraid. But Ruby must not have been that dangerous. If she were, she’d be accompanied by a Deputy or two and they would stand on either side of her dressed in their black coats and tall hats. They would make no motion, no movements when the screaming began. They would simply stare ahead at some imaginary spot on the wall and deafen their ears to the howling and begging. They would stand mercilessly and without regard.

“Alright, that’s one. What else?”

“I’ll do the current thing for the other two,” she said, and tilted her head toward the electrical box.

“You sure now?” Lady Mae shouldn’t have been asking and as such she spoke low, her hands gripping the sides of the chart.

“Yes,” Ruby said.

Lady Mae returned to the chart, wrote down the other treatments and signed the bottom. When she handed the chart to Ruby their hands touched, and Lady Mae thought of what Ruby must’ve done to end up in front of her.

She held on to the chart, pulled at it even, wanting somehow to release Ruby from her sentence. Had the woman kept track of her days, marking them off with chalk on the wall as each one passed?

“I’ll do the currents first,” Lady Mae told her. “Might help numb you for the finger.”

Lady Mae got up and took the electrical box from the table. Wires came out of two of the sides, at the end of which were small metal squares. She licked each square and put them on either side of Ruby’s forehead. “Just have to get them into place. Now don’t move or they’ll slip, and we’ll have to start over,” but as she said this she felt a deadening in her feet and a spasm in her belly.

The woman sat rigidly, her chest still and her eyes closed. “Your mama…” she said.

Lady Mae’s heart tumbled, and she froze. Her hands were on Ruby’s head, her fingertips tapping the small metal squares to flesh. They stayed there, unmoving, trembling, a deep, anxious taste on her tongue.

“Say again?”

“She was a good woman.”

“Aye, she was.” Lady Mae moved her hands again and adjusted the metal, tucked the wires behind Ruby’s ears.

“Always tried to do right, no doubt.” Ruby spoke loudly as if Lady Mae were not just inches from her.

“That she did.”

“Them Deputies called blasphemy on her.”

Lady Mae did not answer but took her hands away from Ruby’s head and turned to the electrical box.