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.
“Have you seen my wife anywhere?” Curly asked Slim.
“Yeah, I think I saw her in the barn a few minutes ago,” said Slim.
Curly walked toward the barn with an annoyed expression on his face. He
opened the barn door, and as it creaked open, he looked around. He
walked around suspiciously and saw something hidden under a small stack
of hay. He moved closer and saw it was a person lying face down. It was
his wife.
Curly soon realized he was looking at his wife, dead. Next to her lay Lennie’s cap.
“That crazy guy! I’m gonna get him… I knew he was trouble from the very start,” screamed Curly.
Carlson, Slim, George
and Candy came running in. For a moment, they were silent.
“Oh dear,” said Candy.
“I’m gonna kill him,” said Curly coldly.
“Jesus, Lennie really is strong. He completely busted her neck,” said Slim.
“Where is he?” Curly screamed at George.
George didn’t answer. He looked down at his feet, with a sad expression on his face.
“Where the hell is he?” screamed Curly.
“I don’t know…he can’t have gone too far,” answered George.
“Ok everyone, grab a gun or some kind of weapon, jump on a horse
and follow me,” ordered Curly, “we’re gonna find that
crazy guy, and I know what we’re gonna do.”
Everyone ran towards the stable, jumped on a
horse and started galloping out, through the ranch gates. They were
surrounded by a cloud of dust. George watched them in despair for a
moment and started to run toward the gates. He realized that now,
things had gotten really bad and he had to do something.
Lennie ran, panting, trying to remember what George had told him. Where
was he supposed to go if something bad happened? Then, George’s
voice echoed in Lennie head, and Lennie started to run even faster. He
was going towards the brush where he and George had camped that first
night.
When Lennie arrived, he threw himself on the ground to catch his breath.
“I done a really bad thing. George is really gonna give me hell
now,” Lennie whimpered. A few feet from him was the lake
they had stayed at the night before they went to work at the ranch. It
seemed like such a long time ago now. A light breeze passed by and
Lennie hid his body behind a large tree. He waited and waited,
and finally he heard footsteps approaching him.
“Lennie? Is that you?”
“George?”
George appeared from behind the tree.
“George!” yelled Lennie.
“Shh, Lennie don’t speak so loud… We’re in big trouble,” said George.
“I know George, I know. I’m sorry,” said Lennie desperately.
“We don’t have time for that. Get up, we have to run,” said George.
Lennie got up, and they started walking out towards the road. Suddenly
George heard footsteps behind him. Curly and the other ranch
members were right behind him and Lennie. Curly reached in his pocket
to pull out his gun.
“I ain’t gonna let you hurt him Curly. He didn’t know
any better. It isn’t his fault,” said George.
Lennie stood behind George trembling.
“George, you better move out of the way or I’ll shoot you
too… don’t think I won’t do it,” said Curly
fiercely.
“I ain’t moving,” responded George firmly.
“I knew that friend of yours was stupid, but to be honest, I
never thought you were,” said Curly. Before George could respond,
Curly shot him. George fell to the ground, blood soaking his shirt.
“George!” sobbed Lennie.
Lennie ran towards Curly, furious. Curly pulled out his gun and shot
Lennie. Lennie fell to the ground next to George. They were both dead.
“Those two had it coming,” said Carlson.
“They sure did,” responded Curly.
The men steered their horses back towards the ranch, not saying a word.
The sun was setting, and everything was calm, as if nothing had ever
happened.
Emma 8F
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