ABSTRACT
Richard had decided somehow, sometime ago, that if he ever felt like killing himself, he would use car exhaust. Certainly, he hadn’t the temperament to cut his wrists. He had even measured the diameter of the exhaust pipe on his car. His thoughts turned to where he could buy some rubber tubing…. About a mile down the road he noticed a hardware store open. He parked and went in, nervously. He walked up and down the aisles looking for likely tubing. He found the water hoses but they were too narrow to fit over the exhaust pipe…. He hesitated, but approached an assistant. “How much do you want sir?” “Ten feet. No, make it two ten feet pieces.” Would that be enough? Probably. How was he going to fit it over the exhaust pipes? He needed some clamps. He found them just as the assistant returned, carrying two long poles. He noted Richard’s alarm. “It’s the freezing weather, sir. They harden up. They’ll get flexible when they’re warm. ”… Richard carried them out and opened the trunk of his car. He put them in crosswise, but they extended too far to fit into the trunk completely. They resisted. He would get one bent into the trunk but, when he tackled the second, the first one would spring out. On the fourth try, the trunk closed. “Damn the blasted tubes.” (Taken from an account of a client of one of the authors who never did attempt suicide.)
