THE KILLING STICK
Years ago, while I was living in northern Vermont, I met and became friends with the two daughters of Shirley Jackson , the writer of the well known story “The Lottery”. It was the early 70’s and, in retrospect, always summer with another epic party going down.

One afternoon, at the farmhouse of the youngest daughter Sarah, I wandered into a side room to listen to James Taylor and his “Sweet Baby James” and for some reason, I started, absentmindedly, poking around amongst the contents of the open top drawer of a bureau.. Finding a long, slim black box, I opened it up. Inside was a wand that could have been made of ivory or bone. It was about ten inches long, a smooth cylinder with black markings and heiroglyphic-like symbols along the length of it.

“Don’t mess with that thing” Sarah said. She had come into the room and stood behind me “That’s my mother’s killing stick”.

Does any reader have any knowledge of something like this? It was malevolent, obviously, something to stay away from but intriguing, nevertheless. Has anyone out there heard of such a thing? Any answers?