Characters in The Green Mile

He'd come just after we did Anthony Ray, the hatchet-killer - and he hadn't actually participated in an execution yet, although he'd witnessed one from the switch-room. 'He knows people,' Harry said. 'He's connected.

Their little hands.' He nodded, as if confirming this to himself. 'He played with them; used to lick Arden's face until she giggled.

… either the Indian from Oklahoma (his name was Arlen Bitterbuck, but we called him The Chief or, in Harry Terwilliger's case, Chief Coat Cheese, because that was what Harry claimed Bitterbuck smelled like), or the fellow we called The President. But then Brutal started to laugh, and we hurried to …

… Mile: The Chief, Arlen Bitterbuck; and The Pres, Arthur Flanders. That mouse. That goddam mouse. Delacroix loved it, but Percy Wetmore sure didn't. Percy hated it from the first. 2 The mouse came back just about three days after Percy had chased it down the Green Mile that first time.

Aunt Hermione was too old, she wouldn't understand Mr. Jingles's frisky ways, and suppose Mr. Jingles outlived her? What would happen to him then? No, no, Aunt Hermione just wouldn't do. Well, then, I asked, suppose one of us took it? One of us guards?

… was in my office, with guards Ringgold and Battle standing in the corners and keeping watch. Schuster looked up at Del, smiled, and then addressed him in French. It sounded stilted to me, but it worked wonders. Del smiled back, then went to Schuster, put his arms around him, hugged …

… warrant should be read under the name of Beverly Matuomi. I guess her spirit-father didn't give her any first name, or one she could make out, anyhow. I said yes, okay, fine. One thing those years serving as the bull-goose screw taught me was never to refuse the condemned unless …

'Bill Dodge is in charge of that detail - ' 'I know he is,' I said. 'Go and help him.' 'That isn't my job,' Percy said. 'This big lugoon is my job.' 'Lugoon' was Percy's joke name for the big ones - a combination of lug and goon.

… had answers to these, he said: 'I'll call Bobo Marchant. He's got dogs. You stay put, Miz Detterick. If your man and your boy come back, make them stay put, too. Try, anyway.' Her man and her boy had, meanwhile, followed the track of the abductor three miles to the …

… Klaus would almost certainly have been wakened by Bowser, the family's big old half-breed collie, if he had barked, but Bowser didn't. Not that night, not ever again. Klaus was up at first light to do the milking. The porch was on the side of the house away from the …

Brad Dolan, his name is. He's always combing his hair, like Percy was, and he's always got something to read stuffed into his back pocket. With Percy it was magazines like Argosy and Men's Adventure; with Brad it's these little paperbacks called Gross Jokes and Sick Jokes.

Dean Stanton, Harry Terwilliger, and Brutus Howell (the men called him "Brutal," but it was a joke, he wouldn't hurt a fly unless he had to, in spite of his size) are all dead now, and so is Percy Wetmore, who really was brutal not to mention stupid.

… Tefton Intelligencer first, and they told me that Burt Hammersmith, the fellow I was looking for, was most likely over at the county courthouse. At the courthouse they told me that Hammersmith had been there but had left when a burst waterpipe had closed down the main proceedings, which happened …

Caleb used to pull his ears, and when he was first learning to walk, he'd sometimes go around the yard, holding to …

… how long it has been since my grandchildren, Christopher and Danielle, more or less forced me into Georgia Pines. 'For your own good, Gramps,' they said. Of course they did. Isn't that what people mostly say when they have finally figured out how to get rid of a problem that …

'What about Chuck Howland?' I asked. 'Is he going to get in trouble?' 'No, because he's in the TV room, watching Good Morning America with about two dozen other folks. And I'm going to make myself scarce as soon as the smoke detector turns on the west-wing fire alarm.'

… Bobo shortleashed them into a pack, then ran Cora Detterick's torn nightgown under their noses, to kind of remind them what they were doing out on a day when the temperature would be in the mid-nineties by noon and the noseeums were already circling the heads of the possemen in …

… and then passed on to a note from Curtis Anderson, the warden's chief assistant. It said that he, Anderson, expected a DOE order for Edward Delacrois (Anderson's misspelling; the man's name was actually Eduard Delacroix) very soon. DOE stood for date of execution, and according to the note, Curtis had …

'You get to know it, and often you grow to love it. It is of no particular use, but you keep it around because you think it loves you. If you're lucky, Mr. Edgecombe, you never have to find out any different. Cynthia and I, we were not lucky.'

10 The dates have mostly slipped out of my head. I suppose I could have my granddaughter, Danielle, look some of them out of the old newspaper files, but what would be the point?

… while screwing a seventeen year-old black girl named Daphne Shurtleff. There was a lot of talk about that, with him always sporting his wife and six boys around so prominent come election time - those were the days when, if you wanted to run for something, the saying used to …

Dean Stanton, Harry Terwilliger, and Brutus Howell (the men called him "Brutal," but it was a joke, he wouldn't hurt a fly unless he had to, in spite of his size) are all dead now, and so is Percy Wetmore, who really was brutal not to mention stupid.

'Dr. Haverstrom wants her to go in hospital up to Indianola,' Moores said. 'Have some tests. Head X-rays, he means. Who knows what else. She is scared to death.' He paused, then added, 'Truth to tell, so am I.' 'Yeah, but you see she does it,' I said. 'Don't wait.

… they almost never made you vomit the way Dr. Sadler's sulfa pills did. Back in '32, there wasn't much you could do but wait, and try to ignore that feeling that someone had spilled coal-oil inside your works and then touched a match to it. I finished my butt, went …

… Delacrois (Anderson's misspelling; the man's name was actually Eduard Delacroix) very soon. DOE stood for date of execution, and according to the note, Curtis had been told on good authority that the little Frenchman would take the walk shortly before Halloween - October 27th was his best guess, and Curtis …

My special friend, Elaine Connelly, feels the same way. Elaine is eighty, tall and slim, still erect and clear-eyed, very intelligent and refined.

At the execution of Elmer Manfred - in July or August of '30, that one was, I believe - we had nine witnesses pass out. On the left side of the storage shed - again - there was life.

… he had taken a room in town, at Eva Price's. There was a lady named Eva Price in Tefton, and she did rent rooms, but she hadn't had a boarder that May who fit the description of Detterick's hired man, just the usual fellows in checked suits and derby hats, …

'May be keepin you young,' said George, the other cook, 'but it ain't doin shit for your looks - ' We all had …

The prosecutor, George Peterson, objected like hell, but the judge allowed it. Old George could have saved, his breath - juries around these parts don't buy all that psychology crap about how people who've been mistreated just can't help themselves. They believe people can help themselves.

… after all - a scrawny old trusty named Gibbons dozing away in the corner with a Wild West novel in his lap and his hat pulled down over his eyes. The heat wasn't bothering him, nor were the grunts, thumps, and occasional curses from the infirmary upstairs (where it had …

… ruffling the wrong set of feathers, who was Hal Moores going to put in my place? Percy? It was a joke. 'I really don't care what you do, Percy, as long as you get out of here for awhile.' For a moment I thought he was going to stick and …

Hank Bitterman, who had the guard-post near the front of the meager group of spectators, never took his eyes off Klaus Detterick. That was per my orders, but Detterick never made a move in John 's direction that night. Detterick seemed to be on some other planet.

Dean Stanton, Harry Terwilliger, and Brutus Howell (the men called him "Brutal," but it was a joke, he wouldn't hurt a fly unless he had to, in spite of his size) are all dead now, and so is Percy Wetmore, who really was brutal not to mention stupid.

… back in those days), and every time Sheriff Homer Cribus sat down in one, I waited for the dry crack that would signal collapse. I dreaded that day and hoped for it, both at the same time, but it was a day that never came. Not long after - couldn't …

Country families went to bed early in those days - "soon as 'twas dark under the table," my own mother sometimes said - and slept soundly. Certainly Klaus, Marjorie, and Howie Detterick did on the night the twins were taken.

… over being put in the switch room with Jack Van Hay for the Bitterbuck electrocution; he was too green to know if he was being given a good spot or a bad one. What he did know was that he had a rectangular mesh window to look through, and although …

But a man's got to eat, and his wife has to eat, too. Also, we were used to sending our daughter and son-in-law twenty bucks whenever we could afford it (and sometimes when we couldn't, if Jane's letters sounded particularly desperate).

… the present - Percy Wetmore to Brad Dolan, Janice Edgecombe to Elaine Connelly, Cold Mountain Penitentiary to the Georgia Pines old folks' home. And if that thought doesn't keep me awake tonight, I guess nothing will. I made as if to go in through the kitchen door and Brad grabbed …

Mostly, though, it was the fall that John Coffey came to E Block, sentenced to death for the rape-murder of the Detterick twins. There were four or five guards on the block each shift, but a lot of them were floaters.

… he tried to use it on Cora and Kathe Detterick. When it didn't work, he broke down, crying and hysterical. Which is how they found him.' 'Why didn't he stay there, where he found them?' Brutal asked. 'Why take them south along the riverbank? Any idea?' 'I bet he did …

'Edgecombe!' Kent Avery rasped, hanging onto his walker with one hand and yanking obsessively at the crotch of his pajama pants with the other. 'Real alarm or just another falsie? What do you think?' 'No way of knowing, I guess,' I said.

Klaus Detterick owned one of them. By the standards of the nineteen-fifties he would have been considered only a rung above shirttail poor, but by those of the thirties he was considered well-to-do because he actually paid his store bill in cash at the end of most months, and he …

On the evening after she found out he was cheating, she stood waiting for the unfortunate Lester McCall, known to his pals (and, presumably, to his extremely short-term mistress) as Cutter, at the top of the stairs leading …

… been blocked out in the laborious printing of Magnusson, the old trusty in Registration: Numerous. I looked up. Coffey had shuffled a bit to one side and I could see Harry standing across the corridor in front of Delacroix's cell - he was our only other prisoner in E Block …

'Kill him twice, you boys!' Marjorie Detterick suddenly screamed. Her ragged, strident voice was like a slap. John cringed against me and moaned. 'You go on and kill that raping baby-killer twice, that'd be just fine!' Klaus, still looking like a man dreaming awake, pulled her against his shoulder.

… the young; by the time its sufferers reached Melinda Moores's age, they were usually getting better, not worse. And now this weakness of the hand. It didn't sound like nervous tension to me; it sounded like a damned stroke. 'Dr. Haverstrom wants her to go in hospital up to Indianola,' …

… I heard Mickey - maybe not the best orderly in the place, but certainly the kindest - singing "Red River Valley" in his good tenor as he went around dispensing the evening meds: …

… to the outer office by then, where old Miss Hannah sat bashing away at her Underwood as she had ever since the last ice age had ended, it seemed. I was happy to go. All in all, I felt as if I'd gotten off easy. And it was nice to …

He got three deputies, they went out to the Wharton place, set Missus Wharton aside when she started to weep and wail, and then they warned Mr. …

'Be still, Mr. Jingles,' Delacroix said, and the mouse stopped on his left shoulder just as if he had understood. 'Just be so still and so quiet.' In Delacroix's lilting Cajun accent, quiet came out sounding exotic and foreign - kwaht. 'You go lie down, Del,' I said curtly.

… squeak of a shoe in the corridor, or Mrs. Javits's little TV tuned to the late news. I lie here, and if the moon is in my window, I watch it. I lie here and think about Brutal, and Dean, and sometimes William Wharton saying That's right, nigger, bad as …

'Well?' I asked. 'Come on home with me, we'll talk there,' he said. 'This place is a mite too public for my taste.' We had our conference on Rob McGee's front porch. Both. of us were bundled up and chilly, but Mrs. McGee didn't allow smoking anywhere in her house.

'Sure,' Norton said, 'but it's stone-cold dead in the market. You runnin late this morning.' 'I am,' I agreed, 'but I'm hungry.' 'Only take a minute to make some fresh and hot,' George said, reaching for the bread.

'She wants to have Pastor Donaldson over, and I know he's a comfort to her, but how can I ask him? Suppose that he's sitting there, reading Scripture with her, and she calls him a foul name? She could; she called me one last night.

… was no love lost between Percy Wetmore and Paul Edgecombe, and this was still summer, remember - long before the real festivities started. 'You'll do better,' Dean said, 'if you think of this place as like an intensive-care ward in a hospital. It's best to be quiet - ' 'I …

Percy Wetmore was on one side of him, skinny little Harry Terwilliger was on the other, and they looked like children walking along with a captured bear.

Ringgold and Battle tensed, but I raised my hands to them and shook my head. Schuster listened to Del's flood of tear-choked French, nodded as if he understood perfectly, and patted him on the back.

… cat when it was someone else - Deputy Rob McGee, for instance - who'd actually risked a broken collarbone by going up the tree where Mistress Pussycat was and bringing her down. McGee listened to Marjorie Detterick babble for maybe two minutes, then cut her off with four or five …

He told Rolfe Wettermark that he ate strawberry jam out of his wife's pussy.' 'What did Rolfe say?' 'That he wasn't married. Said it must have been his mother Wharton was thinking of.' I laughed, and hard. That really was funny, in a low sort of way.

One of these was a man named Roy Delfines, who lived with his family about two miles down the road from us when I was six or so.

… to take him back to his cell while Sam Broderick, who was head of the shop guys in those days, was found and tinkered some more. I gave a final, extra-hard shove with the heels of my hands and the clamp on my side closed. John 's leg jerked and …

… to motion the biggest man among them - Sam Hollis - to keep near Klaus Detterick. On the other side of the alders there was more open ground stretching back to the woods on the right. On the left was the long, gentle slope of the riverbank. They all stopped …

'Prayin for patience, just a little goddam patience.' 'Actually, Bitterbuck's a Christian - he says,' I told them, 'and he's perfectly happy with the Baptist guy who came for Tillman Clark. Schuster, his name is. I like him, too. He's fast, and he doesn't get them all worked up.

Sheriff Catlett wanted to know what I thought I was doing. I told him. Catlett thought it over and then told me something interesting. He said he'd deny he'd ever said a word if I spread it around, and it wasn't conclusive anyway, but it was something, all right.

'We had us a dog named Sir Galahad,' he said, and cocked a thumb at the doghouse. 'A good dog. No particular breed, but gentle. Calm. Ready to lick your hand or fetch a stick. There are plenty of mongrel dogs like him, wouldn't you say?' I shrugged, nodded.

Sainte Marie, Mčre de Dieu, priez pour nous, pauvres pécheurs, maintenant et ŕ l'heure de nôtre mort. Amen. 13 1956. Alabama in the rain. Our third grandchild, a beautiful girl named Tessa, was graduating from the University of Florida. We went down on a Greyhound.

… happy with the Baptist guy who came for Tillman Clark. Schuster, his name is. I like him, too. He's fast, and he doesn't get them all worked up. On your feet, Toot. You prayed enough for one day.' 'Walkin,' Toot said. 'Walkin again, walkin again, yes sir, walkin on the …

Old Toot-Toot, the trusty who ran the food-wagon in those days, had been by with his holy-rolling cartful of goodies, and Brutal had stocked up for a long night - three sandwiches, two pops, and a couple of moon pies.

6 When I was eighteen, my Uncle Paul - the man I was named for - died of a heart …

… do is show Mr. Detterick a picture of William Wharton his mug-shot should do ' Brutal and I exchanged an uncomfortable look. Dean was looking a bit hopeful, but Harry was staring down at his hands, as if all at once fabulously interested in his fingernails. 'What's wrong?' Janice asked.