) The chain was "Y" shaped, the three pieces joined in the middle to a ring about an inch in diameter.) The chain was "Y" shaped, the three pieces joined in the middle to a ring about an inch in diameter. He lifted my lower back up and passed the chain under me, adjusting the ring under the center of my back. I wasn't thinking very clearly or I would have been relieved at the sight of chains. It could have been plastic garbage bags and a meat cleaver. Well, knowing J it couldn't have been, but my imagina- tion was in overdrive. He pulled the ends of the chain together. They overlapped and he adjusted them until there was no slack at all, fastening them with an open link of the same chain. With some large pliers, he bent the open link back into shape, and went back to lighting the torch. I twisted my head this way and that, watching everything, bug-eyed. The noise was what startled me. I had never been that close to a blowtorch before, and loud noises scare me. It popped and made a kind of hissing roar. Actually, it wasn't that loud, but the fact that the roar was made by a very hot flame was not a reassuring thought, believe me. |