The Choiring of the Trees - Donald Harington [137]
“Which one do you want us to do first hee hee, Your Honor?”
“Yeager, I’m not a courtroom judge anymore, you know. I’m not ‘Your Honor’ now.”
The newspaperman, behind his hand but audible to everyone, said to Yeager, “He’s ‘Your Excellency.’”
“Yeah!” Yeager said. “Hee hee. Your Excellency, which one of these men should we fry—should we electrocute first?”
The governor turned around in his chair to speak to the newspaperman. “Fletcher, where is Miss Monday?”
“I have no idea, Your Excellency,” the newspaperman said. “I haven’t seen her for several days.”
“Hmm,” said the governor in a tone of disappointment. “I was hoping she…” The governor did not finish what he was about to say. Was he hoping she’d show up? From what Viridis had told Nail, the governor couldn’t even stand the sight of her.
Jimmie Mac spoke up: “Warden, and Your Excellency sir, it’s almost sundown. The law says a man has to be dead before sundown, and there’s two of them to do this time.”
The governor stared at Jimmie Mac. “Who are you?” he asked. “Are you Mr. Bobo?”
“No, he’s the chaplain, Your Excellency,” the warden said.
“Oh,” the governor said. “You’re supposed to comfort the men, right? Well, go ahead and comfort them, don’t let me bother you.” He seemed to expect Jimmie Mac to pat Nail on the back or offer him a handkerchief. After a long silence the governor said, “Well, make them sit down,” and the warden motioned for his guards to get Nail and Ernest seated in a pair of the witness chairs.
A longer silence followed. Out of modesty and for the governor’s sake, Nail and Ernest kept their handcuffed wrists over their genitals and sat with as much dignity as they could. It was so quiet that Nail began to hear it. He had wondered at what point, this time, he would begin to hear it again: the choiring of the trees. Now it was very faint: the trees were still up there on that mountain top in Stay More, and their voices had a long way to go before they could be heard. He glanced out of the corner of his eye at Ernest, to see if Ernest was hearing it too. He had told Ernest all about the trees, to get him ready. Ernest was smiling, and was the calmest person in the room. The faint singing of the trees was interrupted by a spoken observation from the governor: “Well, it appears that…that nobody else is going to come.” He began to look back and forth between the two condemned men again, comparing not their peckers this time but their faces, as if trying to make a decision between them. Finally his forefinger came up and pointed at Nail. The governor said, “Let’s do him first.”
Ernest spoke up: “Your Excellency, if it don’t make a whole lot of difference one way or the other, I would sure appreciate it if you would do me first.”
The governor gave Ernest a look that had a touch of compassion to it. Certainly, Ernest’s words had been well chosen and fine spoken, but his voice had been that of what he was: a boy just sixteen years old. The voice was out of place, out of keeping with the other voices in this dark, still room. But the governor did not understand why Ernest wanted to go first; nobody, not even Nail, wanted to try to explain to the governor just how it was. The governor misunderstood. “That’s commendable and brave,” he said to Ernest, “but Mr. Chism was here first, and he’s older, and he’s going first.” The governor gave an impatient flap of his hand, and the two guards lifted Nail out of his seat and walked him to the electric chair, and this time he was careful not even to show any sign of struggle as they strapped him in. This time they remembered to put the metal cap on top of his head, and this time, given the warmth of the merry month of May, the metal cap wasn’t so cold as it touched the raw skin of his scalp.
Jimmie Mac prompted the warden: “Now you’re supposed to ask him if he has any last words.”
“Right hee hee,” the warden said. “Mr. Chism, before we solemnly carry out the sentence of this state which has been imposed on you hee hee, would you care to address the gathering with any concluding remarks hee hee?”