That was who Paul was introduced to as the newest prisoner walked into his cell. As big as he was, John Coffey didn't look like he could hurt a fly. He just had that innocence about him. .
Like most of the men on The Green Mile, you had to have done something pretty bad to end up there. John fell into that category in spades. Imagine waking up one morning and finding that your children are gone. Somebody has came in to your yard, snapped your dog into two, ripped the screen door from the house, and run off with your nine year old twin daughters. Then after hours of searching, you come into a clearing and find the BIGGEST person you have seen in your life, holding the naked lifeless bodies of these girls in his arms. Well that's exactly what landed John on the Mile. .
Brutal, Pauls right hand man, told Paul to get out of the cell. You see Brutal didn't scare easily, but when Coffey came into the Mile and was about to be released from his chains, he was terrified. Paul however was strangely attracted to John, there was a certain aura about him. Paul did something he had never done before and never did again. He touched the prisoner. He shook his hand. The only question John Coffey had about his new home was whether or not they left the lights on at night because he was scared of the dark when he was in unfamiliar territory.
Back in the 1930s, they didn't have all of the drugs we have now a days, so when you got an urinary infection, you just had to wait it out. Paul's infection was as bad as they came. It felt like he was peeing razors. When he had to go, he just went. Trying to force it out at times was so hard, he felt like he was going to die just from peeing. At other times it just came gushing out like a broken fire hydrant. There was always that pain, the worst pain imaginable. It made Paul feel like he couldn't work. Just when he thought it was getting better it got worse. .
It was this pain that put John Coffey ahead in Paul's mind.