Death of Mr. Jingles in the Present

The death of Mr. Jingles, the mouse who survived Percy Wetmore's crushing stomp in 1932 only to be healed by John Coffey's miraculous power, comes not in the electric chair or at the hands of a tormentor, but in a dusty shed on the grounds of Georgia Pines, sixty-four years later, when the orderly Brad Dolan bursts in on Paul Edgecombe and Elaine Connelly. The mouse, already ancient and gray-furred, his hind legs too weak to support him, dies of shock or heart failure during the confrontation, and Paul buries him with Elaine's help, closing the last living connection to the Green Mile.

The Confrontation in the Shed

Brad Dolan, the Percy-like orderly who has been suspicious of Paul's morning walks, follows Paul and Elaine to the second shed by the wall and discovers them with Mr. Jingles. Dolan's voice is "loaded with a kind of satiric horror" as he cries out, "Why, Paulie! And Elaine Connelly, too!" He grins with the satisfaction of a man who believes he has caught them at something shameful. Elaine orders him to leave, but Dolan refuses, calling her a "wrinkledy old bitch" and asserting that the shed is off-limits. When his eyes fall on Mr. Jingles, he exclaims, "What the fuck?" Paul, momentarily lost in a flashback that conflates Dolan with Percy Wetmore, rushes at him shouting, "Leave him alone! You leave him alone, Percy, or by God I'll—" Dolan pushes him back hard, saying, "Who you callin Percy?" and adds, "Ain't the first time you done it, either. And stop peein in your pants. I ain't gonna touch im. Don't need to. That's one dead rodent."

The Death of Mr. Jingles

Paul turns and sees Mr. Jingles lying on his side, the rippling motion through his fur stopped. Elaine bursts into loud sobs, bends painfully, and picks up the mouse. He lies limp on her hand, his eyes dull and still. Dolan grins unpleasantly and says, "Aw, sakes, now! Did we just lose the family pet? Should we have a little funeral, with paper flowers and—" Elaine screams at him with such force that he backs away, the smile slipping off his face. She threatens to have him fired, and Dolan, a coward at heart, retreats, saying the shed will be locked and that Paul should "just take that dead mouse, if you want it, and get gone." Paul gently takes Mr. Jingles from Elaine, and the sight of the bag of peppermint candies brings tears. He asks Elaine to help him bury an old friend.

Burial and Aftermath

Paul and Elaine borrow a trowel from the gardening shed and bury Mr. Jingles as the afternoon shadows draw long through the trees. Paul finds himself thinking of Delacroix, who had asked them to take care of Mr. Jingles, to make sure "the bad 'un" would not hurt him anymore. Elaine asks if Paul is all right, and he says he is fine. She points out that it is going to be a beautiful sunset, and they stay on the lawn, arms around each other's waists, watching the bright colors come up in the sky and then fade to ashes of gray. Paul reflects that the bad 'un hurts everyone in the end, and that he has at least one old man's ill: insomnia. He lies in his bed at night, listening to the sounds of the infirm, and thinks about John Coffey, about Janice, about how he lost her, and about how the Green Mile is so long.