Just dont expect to get what you want unless we decide its what you needthis isnt a hotel. Still with me?
He nodded again.
This is a quiet place, big boynot like the rest of the prison. Its just you and Delacroix over there. You wont work; mostly youll just sit. Give you a chance to think things over. Too much time for most of them, but I didnt say that. Sometimes we play the radio, if alls in order. You like the radio?
He nodded, but doubtfully, as if he wasnt sure what the radio was. I later found out that was true, in a way; Coffey knew things when he encountered them again, but in between he forgot. He knew the characters on Our Gal Sunday, but had only the haziest memory of what theyd been up to the last time.
If you behave, youll eat on time, youll never see the solitary cell down at the far end, or have to wear one of those canvas coats that buttons up the back. Youll have two hours in the yard afternoons from four until six, except on Saturdays when the rest of the prison population has their flag football games. Youll have your visitors on Sunday afternoons, if you have someone who wants to visit you. Do you, Coffey?
He shook his head. Got none, boss, he said.
Well, your lawyer, then!
I believe Ive seen the back end of him, he said. He was give to me on loan. Dont believe he could find his way up here in the mountains!
I looked at him closely to see if he
might be trying a little joke, but he didnt seem to be. And I really hadnt expected any different. Appeals werent for the likes of John Coffey, not back then; they had their day in court and then the world forgot them until they saw a squib in the paper saying a certain fellow had taken a little electricity along about midnight. But a man with a wife, children, or friends to look forward to on Sunday afternoons was easier to control, if control looked to be a problem. Here it didnt, and that was good. Because he was so damned big.
I shifted a little on the bunk, then decided I might feel a little more comfortable in my nether parts if I stood up, and so I did. He backed away from me respectfully, and clasped his hands in front of him.
Your time here can be easy or hard, big boy, it all depends on you. Im here to say you might as well make it easy on all of us, because it comes to the same in the end. Well treat you as right as you deserve. Do you have any questions?
Do you leave a light on after bedtime? he asked right away, as if he had only been waiting for the chance.
I blinked at him. I had been asked a lot of strange questions by newcomers to E Blockonce about the size of my wifes titsbut never that one.
Coffey was smiling a trifle uneasily, as if he knew we would think him foolish but couldnt help himself. Because I get a little scared in the dark sometimes, he said. If its a strange place.
I looked at himthe pure size of himand felt strangely touched. They did touch you, you know; you didnt see them at their worst, hammering out their horrors like demons at a forge.
Yes, its pretty bright in here all night long, I said. Half the lights along the Mile burn from nine until five every morning. Then I realized he wouldnt have any idea of what I was talking abouthe didnt know the Green Mile from Mississippi mudand so I pointed. In the corridor.
He nodded, relieved. Im not sure he knew what a corridor was, either, but he could see the 200-watt bulbs in their wire cages.
I did something Id never done to a prisoner before, thenI offered him my hand. Even now I dont know why. Him asking about the lights, maybe. It made Harry Terwilliger blink, I can tell you that. Coffey took my hand with surprising gentleness, my hand all but disappearing into his, and that was all of it. I had another moth in my killing bottle. We were done.
I stepped out of the cell. Harry pulled the door shut on its track and ran both locks. Coffey stood where he was a moment or two longer, as if he didnt know what to do next, and then he sat down on his bunk, clasped his giants hands between his knees, and lowered his head like a man who grieves or prays. He said something then in his strange, almost Southern voice. I heard it with perfect clarity, and although I didnt know much about what hed done thenyou dont need to know about what a mans done in order to feed him and groom him until its time for him to pay off what he owesit still gave me a chill.
I couldnt help it, boss, he said. I tried to take it back, but it was too late!
3
I been having trouble with that peckerwood since the day he came here, I said, gingerly, pulling my pants away from my crotch and wincing. Did you hear what he was shouting when he brought that big galoot down?
Couldnt very well not, Harry said. I was there, you know.
I was in the john and heard it just fine, Dean said. He drew a sheet of paper to him, held it up into the light so I could see there was a coffee-ring as well as typing on it, and then tossed it into the waste basket. Dead man walking. Must have read that in one of those magazines he likes so much!