The green mile by Stephen King

Author:Stephen King
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Nursing home patients, Prisons, Movie, Fiction - Horror, Fiction, Horror fiction, Horror, Stephen - Prose & Criticism, Tv Tie-Ins, Horror & Ghost Stories, supernatural, Media Tie-In - General, King, Executions and executioners, Southern States, Correctional personnel, Prisoners, Death row inmates, General, Capital Punishment, General & Literary Fiction, African American prisoners, Media Tie-In, Horror - General
ISBN: 9780743210898
Publisher: Scribner
Published: 2000-10-03T07:00:00+00:00

3

Percy was standing with his back to us when Brutal and I came into the storage room about twenty minutes later. He had found a can of paste furniture polish on a shelf above the hamper where we put our dirty uniforms (and, sometimes, our civilian clothes; the prison laundry didn't care what it washed), and was polishing the oak arms and legs of the electric chair. This probably sounds bizarre to you, perhaps even macabre, but to Brutal and me, it seemed the most normal thing Percy had done all night. Old Sparky would be meeting his public tomorrow, and. Percy would at least appear to be in charge.

'Percy,' I said quietly.

He turned the little tune he'd been humming dying in his throat, and looked at us. I didn't see the fear I'd expected, at least not at first. I realized that Percy looked older, somehow. And, I thought, John Coffey was right. He looked mean. Meanness is like an addicting drug - no one on earth is more qualified to say that than me - and I thought that, after a certain amount of experimentation, Percy had gotten hooked on it. He liked what he had done to Delacroix's mouse. What he liked even more was Delacroix's dismayed screams.

'Don't start in on me,' he said in a tone of voice that was almost pleasant. 'I mean, hey, it was just a mouse. It never belonged here in the first place, as you boys well know.'

'The mouse is fine,' I said. My heart was thumping hard in my chest but I made my voice come out mild, almost disinterested. 'Just fine. Running and squeaking and chasing its spool again. You're no better at mouse-killing than you are at most of the other things you do around here.'

He was looking at me, amazed and disbelieving. 'You expect me to believe that? The goddam thing crunched! I heard it! So you can just - '

'Shut up.'

He stared at me, his eyes wide. 'What? What did you say to me?'

I took a step closer to him. I could feel a vein throbbing in the middle of my forehead. I couldn't remember the last time I'd felt so angry. 'Aren't you glad Mr. Jingles is okay? After all the talks we've had about how our job is to keep the prisoners calm, especially when it gets near the end for them, I thought you'd be glad. Relieved. With Del having to take the walk tomorrow, and all.'

Percy looked from me to Brutal, his studied calmness dissolving into uncertainty. 'What the hell game do you boys think you're playing?' he asked.

'None of this is a game, my friend,' Brutal said. 'You thinking it is well, that's just one of the reasons you can't be trusted. You want to know the absolute truth? I think you're a pretty sad case.'

'You want to watch it,' Percy said. Now there was a rawness in his voice. Fear creeping back in, after all - fear of what we might want with him, fear of what we might be up to.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.