Summary
The narration picks up again in the Georgia Pine nursing home where Paul is kept awake at night with thoughts of Wharton. He goes down to the TV room at dawn to watch an old gangster movie. One of the actors reminds Paul so much of Wharton that he feels he has seen a ghost. Elaine, a close friend of his who also lives in Georgia Pines, comes downstairs to find Paul shaking. Paul enjoys her company and feels that if he were not so old maybe they would be more than friends. She calms him down, listens to him, and encourages him to keep writing.
Wharton models himself after Billy the Kid, a notorious outlaw in the American West who lived in the late 19th century. He was killed at the age of 21. At 19, Wharton is also young and, as one of the guards observes, “he just doesn’t care.” The narration returns to the scene of Wharton strangling Dean. Paul can see Dean dying before his eyes, but cannot get a clear shot at Wharton. Suddenly, Brutal arrives, he shoves Percy aside and hits Wharton with his baton on the back of the head. The force of the blow knocks Wharton unconscious, and the guards drag him into his cell. Harry and Brutal take Dean, who is hacking and gasping for breath, to the infirmary. Paul sends Percy to Warden Moores to report the incident.
The incident temporarily distracts Paul, but with the emergency over, his fever and the pain from his urinary infection return. He stumbles to the bathroom and notices that he’s sweating profusely. Paul checks on Coffey and Delacroix: Delacroix is shaken by the events, but Coffey is sitting calmly on his bed. Coffey insists they need to talk and presses Paul to come into his cell. After recent events with Wharton, Paul is hesitant. Yet Coffey is visibly distressed. His hands are grasping the bars of his cell so tightly that his knuckles are pale. Something about Coffey’s urgency convinces Paul, who enters and sits next to Coffey on the bed. Paul asks Coffey what he wants and Coffey responds “just to help” before placing his hand on Paul’s groin. Immediately, Paul starts to protest yet at that moment he feels a jolt of energy; it’s not painful, but his body jerks and he locks eyes with Coffey. After a few moments it’s over, and with it his fever and the intense pain of the infection. Paul is shocked. All of a sudden Coffey bends forward, his throat and eyes bulging. He begins to retch and out of his mouth flies a cloud of black insects, they swirl around his knees and then turn white and disappear.
With all the other guards temporarily away from E Block, Delacroix is the only witness. He panics, repeatedly asking Paul what Coffey is doing to him. Paul questions Coffey about what happened. Coffey responds, “helped, I helped it didn’t I.” Paul presses for more information, but Coffey simply curls up on his bunk. Paul can see numerous scars across Coffey’s back. Paul then leaves to calm Delacroix, who accuses Coffey of “gris-gris,” meaning black magic or voodoo. Paul returns to his desk, his pain mysteriously gone. He attributes what happened to a miracle and decides not to tell anyone.
The next day, Paul decides to travel to Tefton where the murders happened to learn more about Coffey. After Coffey cures him, Paul is more curious than ever and starts to doubt whether Coffey could have committed such a heinous crime. Paul stops at the home of Burt Hammersmith, the local reporter who covered Coffey’s trial. Hammersmith recounts the details of the murder that were too graphic for the paper to publish. They discuss the brutal scars all over Coffey’s back that he received as a child. Hammersmith tried to investigate Coffey's past, but found nothing. He attributes this to the Great Depression. With everyone moving all over the country looking for work, it’s easier for someone, even someone as striking as Coffey, to get lost in the crowd. Hammersmith figures out Paul’s real motivation for visiting and, in response, tells the story of how their family dog bit his son. The Hammersmith family had a gentle dog who never bit anyone. One day, the dog attacked his son. The attack was unprovoked and left his son with a disfiguring facial scar. To make his point, Hammersmith calls over his four-year-old son. Caleb is missing an eye and has a huge scar running across his face. He is clearly ashamed of his face and keeps his head down. Hammersmith says that Black people are like dogs: they seem tame but will bite without provocation if they get the opportunity. Hammersmith is adamant that Coffey murdered the twins and the only way to prevent more harm is to kill Coffey, just as Hammersmith did with their family dog. Paul leaves shaken.
Wharton is a source of constant trouble on E Block. The day after he strangles Dean, Wharton urinates onto Harry’s pants as Harry walks by his cell. Using a water hose to subdue him, the guards put Wharton in a straightjacket they keep for unruly inmates and lock him in the restraint room. The following days fall into a pattern. Upon leaving the restraint room Wharton acts submissive and promises to behave, until his next act of trouble causes the guards to lock him up again. The guards give him the nickname Wild Bill, after Buffalo Bill, which Wharton hates. Paul and his wife Janice visit Warden Moores’ wife Melinda. The doctors say there is nothing more they can do for her brain tumor and have sent her home with morphine pills to await death. Melinda looks incredibly sick: she has lost a lot of weight, has dark circles under her eyes, and her skin is as white as a sheet. After some small talk, Paul heads to the kitchen to have a whiskey with Warden Moores. The entire visit, Paul hears Coffey’s comment of “I helped didn’t I” ringing in his head.
The guards need to practice for Delacroix’s execution. To get Delacroix out of the way, they invent a story that the prison officials want to see Mr. Jingles perform. Meanwhile, the rehearsal goes well; Percy is on surprisingly good behavior, and everyone is in a good mood when Delacroix returns. Percy jokingly lunges at Delacroix, who falls to the ground before running off to his cell. Percy follows him to apologize, but gets too close to Wharton’s cell. With surprising speed, Wharton grabs Percy. He places one hand around Percy’s throat and, with the other, he runs his fingers through Percy’s hair and kisses him on the ear. Percy is terrified. The guards raise their guns and batons but Wharton lets Percy go, saying it was just a joke. A heavy silence stretches over everyone, until Delacroix breaks out into uncontrollable laughter. Delacroix gleefully points out that Percy has wet himself. Percy is completely humiliated. He shoots Delacroix a look of hatred and runs off to change.
The night before Delacroix’s execution is unseasonably warm for October. It’s muggy and a lightning storm gathers overhead. Before their execution inmates are usually preoccupied with ideas of the afterlife, but Delacroix is much more concerned about the fate of Mr. Jingles. Paul struggles for patience as they talk through who will care for Mr. Jingles after Delacroix is dead. Brutal comes over and casually mentions Mouseville. He invents an entire story about a place in Florida that takes trained mice and puts on a circus-like show. Paul plays along and Delacroix is enthusiastic, believing it's the perfect place for Mr. Jingles. Coffey watches through the bars of his cell as Percy comes over. During the conversation, Delacroix has been throwing a spool and having Mr. Jingles retrieve it. In his excitement, Delacroix throws the spool too hard and it bounces into the hallway. Mr. Jingles darts after it and with force Percy stomps on Mr. Jingles. There’s an audible snap of Mr. Jingles’s back and blood gushes all over the floor. Delacroix screams in horror. Percy smiles and then walks off, saying he always knew he’d get Mr. Jingles.
Analysis
While there have already been hints of the supernatural, King explicitly introduces the theme in Part 3 when Coffey heals Paul. In his feverish haze, Paul notices that Coffey is strangely present for the first time since he arrived at Cold Mountain. Although Paul knows it’s against regulations to go into Coffey’s cell alone, especially after Wharton almost killed Dean, something compels him to do so. Coffey seems to need Paul with him so deeply. Society underestimates Coffey, constantly calling him stupid. Yet it is Coffey who intuitively understands what is plaguing Paul and feels a sense of urgency to do something about it. Coffey absorbs Paul’s sickness and then expels it through his body as a swarm of black insects. These insects are a symbolic manifestation of Paul’s pain and illness. When Paul asks Coffey how he healed him, Coffey answers simply that he helped Paul. This phrase, “I helped it, didn’t I?” is the same one that is on repeat in Paul’s head when he visits Melinda. King is foreshadowing events later to come, although Paul is still unsure why this phrase pops into his head.
Paul is a religious man and, along with others in his community, believes in miracles. Rather than giving Coffey credit for curing him, Paul decides Coffey is a conduit for God’s work. He keeps waiting for the pain to come back but it does not. Paul is conflicted as to why God would send his healing through the hands of a child murderer. He comes to the conclusion that God wants something from Paul. Delacroix, the only witness to the healing, has a different interpretation. He accuses Coffey of gris-gris, or black magic. Gris-gris derives from West African traditions. As practiced in Louisiana at the time, it was thought to provide spiritual protection or to curse or harm others.
Paul is more curious about Coffey than ever and turns to Hammersmith to find out more. Paul hides his true reason for coming, understanding how unpopular it would be to admit that he thinks a Black man found guilty of raping and murdering two white girls might be innocent. However, Hammersmith is sharp and figures it out. Hammersmith shares the story of his dog and son in an effort to convince Paul that, despite Coffey’s seemingly docile character, Coffey could be guilty of heinous acts. Hammersmith’s story reveals the rampant racism in the South at the time. Hammersmith claims to be an enlightened, educated man, but he has no qualms about comparing Black people to dogs. He views Black people as lazy, dependent on white people, and unthinkingly violent and cruel. He firmly believes that Coffey, like any Black person, is capable of committing appalling acts of unprovoked violence, just as his dog did when it almost killed his son. The scars on Hammersmith’s son’s face add to the horror and tragedy of the story and leave Paul shaken. Hammersmith’s son's life will be forever changed by the accident. Hammersmith’s grief for his son fuels his conviction that Coffey must die in order to prevent anything similar from happening again.
Wharton is out of control and proud of it. The guards know what to expect from Wharton and they are tough on him. After his first punishment in the restraint room, Wharton promises to make their lives miserable. He sticks to this promise with a persistence that Paul finds alarming. Wharton considers himself a true outlaw and hates the nickname “Wild Bill,” because he considers Wild Bill to be a fraud. Anytime the officers let their guard down, Wharton takes advantage. Percy has never listened to the older guards’ advice, and his carelessness in walking too close to Wharton’s cell gives Wharton the opportunity to grab him. Wharton sexually harasses Percy, kissing him and making lewd comments. The proximity and threats terrify Percy. For Delacroix, seeing the bully terrified and made to look weak is sweet revenge. Delacroix savors the moment, laughing at Percy and enjoying his humiliation. This act further deepens Percy’s hatred of Delacroix and seals Delacroix’s fate. Percy’s first act of revenge is to kill Mr. Jingles, who has become Delacroix’s close companion and source of joy during his time on E Block.
