The Green Mile(78)

When I woke and saw that the patch of sun which usually lies on the floor at six in the morning had made it all the way up to the foot of my bed, I hit the deck in a hurry, so alarmed I hardly noticed the arthritic flare of pain in my hips and knees and ankles. I dressed as fast as I could, then hurried down the hall to the window that overlooks the employees' parking lot, hoping the slot where Dolan parks his old Chevrolet would still be empty. Sometimes he's as much as half an hour late -

No such luck. The car was there, gleaming rustily in the morning sun. Because Mr. Brad Dolan has something to arrive on time for these days, doesn't he? Yes. Old Paulie Edgecombe goes somewhere in the early mornings, old Paulie Edgecombe is up to something, and Mr. Brad Dolan intends to find out what it is. What do you do down there, Paulie? Tell me. He would likely be watching for me already. It would be smart to stay right where I was... except I couldn't.

'Paul?'

I turned around so fast I almost fell down. It was my friend Elaine Connelly. Her eyes widened and she put out her hands, as if to catch me. Lucky for her I caught my balance; Elaine's arthritis is terrible, and I probably would have broken her in two like a dry stick if I'd fallen into her arms. Romance doesn't die when you pass into the strange country that lies beyond eighty, but you can forget the Gone with the Wind crap.

'I'm sorry,' she said. 'I didn't mean to startle you.'

'That's all right,' I said, and gave her a feeble smile. 'It's a better wake-up than a faceful of cold water. I should hire you to do it every morning.'

'You were looking for his car, weren't you? Dolan's car.'

There was no sense kidding her about it, so I nodded. 'I wish I could be sure he's over in the west wing. I'd like to slip out for a little while, but I don't want him to see me.'

She smiled - a ghost of the teasing imp's smile she must have had as a girl. 'Nosy bastard, isn't he?'

'Yes.'

'He's not in the west wing, either. I've already been down to breakfast, sleepyhead, and I can tell you where he is, because I peeked. He's in the kitchen.'

I looked at her, dismayed. I had known Dolan was curious, but not how curious.

'Can you put your morning walk off?' Elaine asked.

I thought about it. 'I could, I suppose, but... '

'You shouldn't.'

'No. I shouldn't.'

Now, I thought, she'll ask me where I go, what I have to do down in those woods that's so damned important.

But she didn't. Instead she gave me that imp's smile again. It looked strange and absolutely wonderful on her too-gaunt, pain-haunted face. 'Do you know Mr. Howland?' she asked.

'Sure,' I said, although I didn't see him much; he was in the west wing, which at Georgia Pines was almost like a neighboring country. 'Why?'

'Do you know what's special about him?'

I shook my head.

'Mr. Howland,' Elaine said, smiling more widely than ever, 'is one of only five residents left at Georgia Pines who have permission to smoke. That's because he was a resident before the rules changed.'

A grandfather clause, I thought. And what place was more fitted for one than an old-age home?

She reached into the pocket of her blue-and-white-striped dress and pulled two items partway out: a cigarette and a book of matches. 'Thief of green, thief red,' she sang in a lilting, funny voice. 'Little Ellie's going to wet the bed.'

'Elaine, what - '

'Walk an old girl downstairs,' she said, putting the cigarette and matches back into her pocket and taking my arm in one of her gnarled hands. We began to walk back down the hall. As we did, I decided to give up and put myself in her hands. She was old and brittle, but not stupid.

As we went down, walking with the glassy care of the relics we have now become, Elaine said: 'Wait at the foot. I'm going over to the west wing, to the hall toilet there. You know the one I mean, don't you?'

'Yes,' I said. 'The one just outside the spa. But why?'

'I haven't had a cigarette in over fifteen years,' she said, 'but I feel like one this morning. I don't know how many puffs it'll take to set off the smoke detector in there, but I intend to find out.'

I looked at her with dawning admiration, thinking how much she reminded me of my wife - Jan might have done exactly the same thing. Elaine looked back at me, smiling her saucy imp's smile. I cupped my hand around the back of her lovely long neck, drew her face to mine, and kissed her mouth lightly. 'I love you, Ellie,' I said.

'Oooh, such big talk,' she said, but I could tell she was pleased.

'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.'

'Don't you fall down and hurt yourself, woman. I'd never forgive myself if - '

'Oh, stop your fussing,' she said, and this time she kissed me. Love among the ruins. It probably sounds funny to some of you and grotesque to the rest of you, but I'll tell you something, my friend: weird love's better than no love at all.

I watched her walk away, moving slowly and stiffly (but she will only use a cane on wet days, and only then if the pain is terrible; it's one of her vanities), and waited. Five minutes went by, then ten, and just as I was deciding she had either lost her courage or discovered that the battery of the smoke detector in the toilet was dead, the fire alarm went off in the west wing with a loud, buzzing burr.