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.’
Lennie continued staring at the dead body that lay at his feet as he slowly retreated towards the barn door. He slowly reached for the doorknob and suddenly jumped back in fear as George broke into the dark room. Lennie jumped in front of the dead body, but George had already seen what had happened.
‘My God Lennie,’ George said, ‘Ya killed her!’
‘I didn’t mean no harm George. I liked her hair and touched it, but then she started screamin’ and….’
‘Damn it Lennie. Can’t I leave ya’ half an hour alone without ya’ doin’ trouble? Now Curley’s gonna lynch ya’ if we don’t get outta this place!’
George slipped calmly out of the barn, and behind him came Lennie.
‘What are we gonna do now George?’ Lennie asked fearfully.
‘I’m gonna get outta here!’
‘But how ‘bout me George?’
George stopped, and turned around.
‘Why tha hell should I be bringin’ you with me? Every time I accomplish somethin’ you come and screw it up!’
‘I never mean harm George I… I jus’ dunno what I’m doin.’
 Suddenly George jerked and started walking toward the stable. Lennie followed him like a dog.
‘Please George take me with ya, I… I don’t wanna stay with them guys. They … they gonna kill me if they find me!’
 
      George kept quiet as they both entered the stable. He threw himself down on the hay, and then came total silence. Lennie was just standing there at first and then he also sat down.  George giggled as he said,
‘You crazy guy. You’re damn right you’re comin’ with me. If I didn’t let ya come with me, your Aunt Clara would kill me’.
‘So, can I come with you?’
‘Sure.’
‘Thank you George,’ Lennie said sobbingly, ‘Thank you.’
‘Sure. No problem, but I’m giving you a last chance.’
‘Ok George, I promise I ain’t gonna screw up.’
Lennie hugged George. Then George sat down again closing his eyes while chewing a piece of hay.
‘As soon as we get outta here we gonna… we gonna go and get the..’
‘Shhhhh….,’ George whispered to Lennie.
George moved quietly toward the door. He leaned his head slightly outside the door. Then he jumped back inside, grabbed Lennie, pulled him to the darkest part of the stable and covered both of them with as much hay as possible. From outside the stable, people were shouting and shooting randomly in mid air.
Curley shouted, ‘I’m gonna hang that lousy madman if it’s the last thing I’ll do!’
At that moment someone broke into the stable.  It was Carlson.
‘Come on out ya killer, I know you’re in here!’ he said.
Then Crooks came out of his house and into the stable. He had a rifle.
‘Who we lookin’ for?’ Crooks asked.
‘The big man. Apparently he left with George. But we don’t want him, oh no, no we want the big guy!’
Crooks threw his rifle down in the corner of the room where George and Lennie were hiding. Very slowly George stretched his hand toward the rifle. He grabbed it and suddenly stood up and shot twice, aiming at Carlson. Carlson collapsed on the floor, dead.
‘I’m sorry but you can’t hurt Lennie’, George said. Then he looked up at the negro. ‘You didn’t see anythin’, ok?’
Crooks nodded in fear.
‘Where they all goin’?’ George asked Crooks.
‘They.. all .. goin’ west.’
‘Thanks an’ farewell.’
 
     George grabbed a black horse that was in the other corner of the stable and climbed on it. Lennie excitedly followed George and jumped on the horse. George slapped the horse’s back with his hand and it dashed out of the barn running toward the fence.
‘Where we goin’ George?’ Lennie asked.
‘We’re goin’ south.’
‘How’s the south George?’
‘It’s pretty nice.’
Lennie smiled happily. With the wind blowing on his face he turned around to see if the ranch hands had noticed their escape. To his dismay he saw a mob of ranch hands who had either rifles or guns chasing them on horseback.
‘They’re catchin’ up George!’ Lennie yelled.
‘Come on boy you gotta go as fast as you can now’, George said while slapping the horse’s back harder than before.
 
      The horse threw his head back, reared up and bolted like a wild animal toward the fence. Lennie turned back again and recognized that Curley was leading the mob and had a rifle in his hands. Curley started shooting while swearing and shouting, just like the rest of the mob. With only two bullets he hit the horse’s left front leg and George’s back. The black beauty crashed to the ground causing George and Lennie to fall forward. Lennie fainted, but George was dead. His blood flowed all over the ground touching Lennie and barely reaching the iron fence. The violent mob crawled around the two fallen men and stared. But their attention was quickly drawn to a night-sky black coloured car speeding toward them. All of them looked with awkward faces as the car broke through the fence. A face peered out from the back seat. It was a fifty year old short man with grey hair and he wore glasses.
‘Any of you folks seen a guy called Lennie Small ‘round here?’ the man asked.
‘Why sure we have, he’s right here lying on the floor mister,’ Curley answered.
‘Is he dead?’
‘No, just fainted.’
‘Well as soon as he wakes up I’m gonna lynch him!’ the man said.
‘’Bout that you shouldn’t worry sir, we gonna lynch him at dusk,’ Slim replied.
‘Wait! Why would you wanna get him lynched sir?’ Curley answered.
‘You really wanna know why?’ the man asked.
Curley nodded.  ‘Because this man raped my daughter!’
All the men looked terrified and Curley smiled.
‘Well, I guess you’re invited to the execution of this criminal who killed my wife!’ Curley said.
 
      The mob cheered with vengeance, grabbed Lennie and dragged him back to the barn, where they were going to kill him.  Some men went into the storage shed, got a rope so they could simply hang Lennie from a tree. They dragged him toward the tallest tree on the ranch and tied the rope to a branch and pulled a horse under the noose. They placed Lennie on the horse with the noose around his neck.  He woke up and felt a bit dizzy. It was hot.  In the distance he could see a figure that seemed to him like George.
‘We’re gonna get the ranch as soon as ya’ come with me Lennie,’ George said.
‘We… gonna… get…the… rabbits George?’ Lennie pleaded.
‘Sure we are. . . . sure we are,’ George answered reassuringly.
Lennie smiled as a ranch hand slapped the horse, and it dashed forward.  And Lennie was left alone dangling from the tree with his usual childish smile on his face.
 
Edwin  8F
 

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