Tight on letter

...which is head: Date Of Execution."

DISSOLVE TO:

INT. PAUL'S HOUSE - NIGHT

Paul is at the kitchen table in the wee hours of the morning,

drinking buttermilk and listening to SOFT MUSIC on the radio.

JANICE EDGECOMB appears, shuffling sleepily downstairs.

JAN

Paul?

PAUL

Hey, you. Music too loud?

JAN

No. There's just this big empty

spot in the bed where my husband

usually sleeps.

PAUL

He said to tell you he's having a

little trouble with that tonight.

She comes into the kitchen, strokes his hair. There's an easy

familiarity and a deep love between these two.

JAN

Worried about Melinda and Hal? Is

that what's got you up?

PAUL

Yeah, that. Things.

JAN

Things.

She sits on his lap and gives him a crooked smile--you're not

getting off that easily.

PAUL

Got a new inmate today. Big,

simple-minded fella.

JAN

Do I want to hear what he did?

PAUL

No. One sleepless member of this

family's enough.

(softly)

The things that happen in this

world. It's a wonder God allows it.

She gives him a tiny kiss above his left eyebrow, in that

special spot that makes him prickle.

JAN

Why don't you come to bed? I've

got something to help you sleep,

and you can have all you want.

PAUL

Don't I wish. I've still got

something wrong with my

waterworks, I don't want to pass

it on.

JAN

You see Doc Sadler yet?

PAUL

No, because he'll want me to take

sulfa tablets and I'll spend the

rest of the week puking in every

corner of my office. It'll run its

course all by itself, thank you

very much for your concern.

She kisses that spot above his eyebrow again. He smiles.

JAN

Poor old guy...

DISSOLVE TO:

IN TIGHT ANGLES: Copper plugs are cleaned, switches are

oiled, circuits are tested...

INT. EXECUTION CHAMBER - NIGHT

...as maintenance is performed on Old Sparky by JACK VAN HAY

and a small crew. Paul is carefully sanding a connector plug.

Dean is waxing Old Sparky's wooden arms to a gleam.

Paul and Dean pause, thinking they hear a LAUGH drifting in

from E Block...and then Brutal calls softly to them:

BRUTAL (O.S.)

Paul? Dean?

INT. E BLOCK - NIGHT

Paul and Dean enter to find Brutal trying not to wake the

cons in their cells by laughing too loudly. They follows his

gaze down the Mile, see nothing, turn to him like he's crazy.

BRUTAL

I guess the legislature loosened

those purse-strings enough to hire

on a new guard.

(off their looks)

Look again. He's right there.

Paul and Dean look again and this time they see it:

A tiny brown mouse is coming up the Mile. It trots a short

distance, peers right and left as if checking the snoring

inmates in their cells, then makes another forward spurt.

PAUL

He's doing a cell check.

This gets them all trying not to laugh. The mouse draws ever

closer. Dean starts to look worried.

DEAN

It ain't normal for a mouse to

come up on people that way. Maybe

it's rabid.

BRUTAL

Oh, my Christ. The big mouse

expert. The Mouse Man. You see it

foaming at the mouth, Mouse Man?

DEAN

(dubious)

I don't see its mouth at all.

That does it--Paul and Brutal burst out laughing. The mouse

stops before them and peers up, curling its tail primly

around its paws as if to wait. The guards fall silent,

fascinated. Bitterbuck stirs in his cell, sits up to watch.

Brutal tears off a piece of his half-eaten corned beef

sandwich, holds it delicately out with two fingers. The mouse

rises up, appraising the morsel with shiny black eyes.

DEAN

Aw, Brutal, no! We'll be hip-deep

in mice around here...

BRUTAL

(to Paul)

I just wanna see what he'll do. In

the interests of science, like.

Paul shrugs. Brutal drops the scrap. The mouse grabs it and

eats, sitting up like a dog doing a trick.

The mouse turns and scurries back down the Mile, vanishing

under the restraint room door at the far end. Dean throws

Paul an " I told you so" look.

DEAN

He's in the damn restraint room.

You know he's gonna be chewing the

padding out of walls and making

himself a nice little nest.

Brutal give Paul a sheepish look--well? Paul sighs.

PAUL

All right. Let's get the damn

mouse.

They stride grimly down the Mile to the restraint room door,

men on a mission. Coffey's awake now, peering from his cot.

COFFEY

Saw me a mouse go by.

PAUL

It was a dream. Go back to sleep.

COFFEY

Weren't no dream. It was a mouse

all right.

PAUL

Can't put anything over on you.

Paul unlocks the door, revealing a padded room filled with

storage: cleaning supplies, buckets of paint, mops and

ladders, you name it. Brutal shrugs off his jacket. Paul

grabs a mop from a steel bucket, hands it to Dean.

PAUL

Dean, watch the door. He tries to

get past you, whack him.

DEAN

Brutal or the mouse?

BRUTAL

Har har, Mouse Man.

Brutal and Paul start doing the heavy lifting, muscling an

unused filing cabinet out the door...

DISSOLVE:

...and they finally relay the last few heavy buckets of paint

onto the Mile. Paul and Brutal catch their breath, scanning

the empty restraint room. Their eyes go glaringly to Dean.

PAUL

You let him get past you.

DEAN

No I didn't, I was here all the

time!

BRUTAL

Then where the hell is he?

They move slowly into the room, peering into every nook and

cranny, utterly mystified. Brutal shakes his head.

BRUTAL

Three grown men. Outsmarted by a

mouse.

DEAN

Well, bright side is, all this

commotion probably scared him off

for good.

PAUL

Yeah, that's right. That's the

last we'll see of him...