Paul Edgecombe recalls his time working at Cold Mountain State Penitentiaryin 1932. He describes Old Sparky, the infamous electric chair situated in a part of the penitentiary called the E Block. The E Block corridor was called the Green Mile for its lime green floor (what other prisons called the Last Mile). Prisoners who made a left turn at the corridor were given a life sentence, whereas those who took a right turn were headed to Old Sparky.

The penitentiary is not segregated. Paul remembers a black woman named Beverly McCall who was imprisoned for killing her abusive and cheating husband. Two days before her death sentence, she gives her last request to Paul, which is to remove her slave-name from her death certificate and take on her free name, “Matuomi,” in order to honor her African roots. Paul is glad to see her sentence is commuted to life by the governor, and that she takes a left turn at the corridor, instead of a right. Years later, he discovers her obituary in the newspaper, revealing she lived a long life and was responsible for saving a small-town library, among other community contributions.