Falconer+-+John+Cheever

Falconer 128
given the news that this was Saturday. He could worry later about
the key.
Tiny announced that all inmates who wanted to be photographed
should shave, dress and be ready when their turn came. Everybody
on the block had signed up, even the Stone. Farragut observed the
success of this maneuver. It did diffuse their explosive unrest. He
guessed that a man walking to the electric chair would be happy to
pick his nose. Calmly and even happily they shaved, washed their
armpits, dressed and waited.
“I want to play cards with the Stone,” said Ransome. “I want to
play cards with the Stone.”
“He don’t know how to play cards,” said Tiny.
“He wants to play cards,” said Ransome. “Look at him.” The Stone
was smiling and nodding, as he would for anything. Tiny sprang
Ransome, who carried his chair into the corridor and sat down
opposite the Stone with a deck of cards. “One for you and one for
me,” he said.
Then Chicken began to strike his guitar and sing:
There is twenty-eight bottles
Hanging on the wall,
And if one of them bottles
Started to fall,
They’d be twenty-seven bottles
Hanging on the wall,
And if one of them bottles
Started to fall—
Tiny blew. “You want Chisholm in here with that bone-breaking
hose crew?”