Of Mice and Men
For a moment, Lennie seemed bewildered. And then he whispered in fright,
‘I done a bad thing. I done another bad thing.’
He pawed up the hay until it partly covered her. Lennie became
aware that he had done something terrible. ‘George’ll
be mad’ he whispered.
All of a sudden, he came to think about what George had said he should do if he had done something bad.
‘...hide in the brush until I come for you.’ Lennie got up and ran towards their hiding place.
Curley’s wife lay half covered with yellow hay in the middle of the barn.
‘Lennie, Lennie! Where the hell are you?’ Yelled
George as he opened the door to the barn. He saw the body of
Curley’s wife lying peacefully among all the newborn puppies.
Seeing the bruises on her neck, he understood immediately what had
happened.
While George dragged the corpse to the corner of the barn and covered
her with lots of hay, Candy entered. He gasped with his chin hanging
loosely down. He walked slowly toward them. George looked up at
Candy and their eyes met.
‘It was Lennie, Lennie did it’, he whispered slowly. Their
eyes slid back down to the girl who had been alive just a few minutes
ago.
‘But, but…but what we gonna do now George?’ Candy asked, confused.
‘I dunno yet, but let’s keep it from them other guys until
we figure out what to do. In the meantime why don’t you
make sure nobody finds her here, while I go search for Lennie’.
George ran off to their agreed hiding place. As he was running, he
tried to come up with an idea which would get them out of this mess. A
plan took form in his head as he saw Lennie sitting on a big stone
beside the brush. Lennie looked worried and confused.
‘Lennie! Why are you hiding?’
‘Oh, George! Where have you been? What’s taken you so long?
I waited here all the time George, just like you telled me to.’
‘Only if you done something bad,’ George replied
‘Well, I done a bad thing George, and now you ain’t gonna let me tend the rabbits’.
‘What you done now Lennie?’ asked George.
‘She telled me to pet her hair, George, and so I did, and she
started screaming and…and all of a sudden, she didn’t
moved anymore. I think I killed her George!’
Lennie looked up at George waiting for his wrath.
George waited with a wrinkle on his forehead, then said,
‘You didn’t kill nobody Lennie, I seen Curley’s wife
just now she said she’s running away from that drunk and jealous
husband of hers’.
‘So you ain’t gonna give me hell George, like you done before?’
‘No Lennie, there ain’t no need’.
Back in the barn while Lennie was busy playing with
the pups, George told Candy his plan. Just then, Curley walked
in.
‘Has any of you guys seen my wife?’
Lennie looked nervously up at George.
‘I seen her ‘bout half ‘an hour ago’, George responded quickly.
‘Well, if you see her again, tell her I’m going into town
with the other fellas’. And, he left without waiting for a
response. George whispered to Candy,
‘We’ll move the body when it’s dark’.
Later that evening, when Lennie was asleep and the other
men had gone to town to get drunk, as they always did on Saturdays,
George and Candy went back to the barn. Candy led the way checking if
the coast was clear, with George following behind, dragging the
body. He placed her beside the bed in Curley’s house.
‘Now, let’s just hope that he does what we want him to
do,’ George said worriedly looking down at the dead body.
‘Yes, but first we gotta get out’a here’.
Candy found a hiding place right outside Curley’s house
while George ran down to the river. An hour later Curley and the other
guys came back totally drunk and out of their minds. Candy saw Curley
stumbling into his house yelling to his wife.
‘Where have you been you lousy tart?’
After that, it was quiet for at least three hours untill Candy heard a
toilet flush. Shortly after, he heard Curley moaning. An hour or
so later Curley came out with a heavy looking carpet. He looked
very nervous and scared as he walked in the direction of the river.
George was half-asleep by the river when he suddenly heard heavy
footsteps coming closer. He got up and saw Curley carrying his wife
bundled in a carpet in the far distance. Just as Curley threw the body
into the water, George called out,
‘Hey, Curley! What you doin’?’ Curley was startled,
and seemed extremely nervous. ‘Was that your wife you just
throwed in the water?’ Curley got even more scared and burst out,
‘I dunno what happened. When I woke up to take a leak, I
found my wife dead in the bedroom. I was so drunk, I can’t even
what happened but everyone would think I kiled her if I hadn’t
thrown her in the water. You gotta help me!’
Just then, Candy also showed up.
‘We know just the right thing for you to do’.
Early the next morning Lennie woke up to see George and Candy smiling and ready packed.
‘What you waiting for Lennie?’ George asked, ‘We got a farm to buy!’
‘And I gotta’ tend the rabbits!’
Andrea V. 8T
Back to Grade 8 Of Mice and Men