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. After Lennie had
covered Curley’s wife in a way that she could not be seen, he ran
away with out even thinking. Not even making sure to get his hat, he
just ran away with all his might. He didn’t think about what he
had done but just thought about running away with George. When Lennie
went outside, the stable buck yelled,
“George, George com’ here, hurry up!”
George was surprised because he thought that Lennie was playing with
his puppy and that no one would have disturbed him, so George said to
himself,
“I think I know what happened. Lennie killed his puppy. I
told him that he was going to make me get into trouble!”
As soon as Lennie reached George, George made sure
that no one was listening to him and that no one was watching. After he
made sure that no one was spying on them he said to Lennie, “Tell
me what happened?”
Lennie paused for a second. He wasn’t sure if telling
George was the right thing to do but at the end he said, “Well
George, I was playing with my puppy and I ain’t bad, why he just
died, I am very sorry I didn’t done it on purpose!” said
Lennie.
George said to him, “Don’t worry Lennie, it don’t
matter, the important thing is that nothing else happened!”
“Well” said Lennie, “I did another thing when I was in the stable. There was Curley’s wife.”
George interrupted Lennie immediately and said,
“Lennie I told you millions of times to stay away from
Curley’s wife. Now tell me what happened. I hope it
ain’t gonna be a bad thing”.
“Well George when we were talking, she told me to touch her hair
and I didn' do it at first but then I did and after I ain’t sure
why she started screamin’ and I stopped her from doing it and I .
. I . . .I . .”, Lennie could not finish his phrase at
first but then he blurted out,“I think I killed her”.
These words were terrible for George to
hear. He had just left Lennie alone for not less than one hour
and he had killed Curley’s wife. Now things were really going to
become tough for both of them. There were three alternatives that
he faced. The first one was to just go tell Curley and wait to
see what happened. The second one was to just fake that it
wasn’t Lennie and if it were ever discovered they could
deny that it was them and the third one which George also thought
would be the best for him was to just run away and go to another state
and hope that no one would catch up with them. George thought about it
a lot. It was really hard to make the right choice but at the end he
told Lennie,
“Lennie listen to me, go to the bunk house and make sure that no
one sees you. Get our things packed and meet me at the place where I
told you to go . . . you ain’t forgot it have ya?”
Lennie answered, “No, no I ain’t forgot it!”
Lennie went really fast and disappeared from
George’s view. George went into Carlson’s room and as he
removed Carlson’s gun, said to himself,
“This might be useful, let’s not forget it.”
As he walked away he thought, “I’m sure this will be the last time I’ll ever see this ranch again!”
George hurried because
he really wanted to see Lennie as soon as possible. He was afraid that
maybe Lennie could do something wrong in the time that it took him to
pack all his stuff. George had nearly arrived at the place where they
were to meet when he saw the Boss approaching. George started to wonder
whether the Boss had already discovered what had happened. He
couldn’t take the risk. There was just one thing to do, kill
him. George threw that thought from his mind, but as he got
closer to the Boss he saw that the boss was carrying a dead body in his
arms. It was Curley’s wife. He was also carrying
Lennie’s hat. Now George knew that the boss had discovered
the truth so he took the gun out of his jacket and before the boss
could say a word George fired a shot. The sound could be heard
for miles so George knew he had to run and run fast.
George got to the brush where he was to meet
Lennie but wasn’t sure that Lennie would have remembered where to
go and what to do. When he went to the lake he saw very strong
and very frightened person, Lennie. George was really happy to see him
and so was Lennie. Lennie threw his arms about George and said,
“Hey George I told ya, I told ya I ain’t forgot about this place, see I ain’t forgot it!”
“Good job Lennie, good job!” said George.
“Now we ain’t gonna stay here, we have to get our stuff and
leave. Come on I ain’t gonna tell you why now, you’ll
find out later!”
Lennie did exactly what George asked him to do. He got his stuff
and without saying a word he followed George even though there were a
lot of questions in his mind.
George and Lennie did not talk to each other for a very long time. They
just walked and Lennie just followed. The silence was broken by a very
loud and continuous sound. It was a screaming sound. George knew what
it was. It was a Curley screaming when he discovered his father’s
death and his wife’s death. George continued to walk as if
nothing had happened but after a while the silence was broken again,
“George!” said Lennie, “Where are we actually
going?”
For a moment George did not answer but at the end he said in a very soft voice,
“We are going to the top of that little cliff. There is a
cave there, and we’re gonna stay for a while, until I can find
out what we have to do.”
“Ok”, said Lennie, “But how will we get food . . . there ain’t none way up there?”
“Don’t worry I brought some with me!” said George.
George looked around a bit and he saw a
variety of trees, some very tall and some big and he saw a lot of
plants and a lot of animals that were creeping inside their homes has
soon as they passed. Here was a thing that you could not see
every day. Here was pure nature, the nature that no human can fix or
destroy. Here was perfect and beautiful nature and no one could
touch it even if they wanted to. At that time of day, it was just
past lunch time and there were still birds singing and dancing and
there was even the smell of the plants and the air was really sweet
because of the beautiful fragrance.
After a really long walk finally George and
Lennie found the cave that they were looking for. As soon as they
arrived they lighted up a fire and they ate some bread with some peas
and beans. They really enjoyed their meal and they talked a lot.
Finally George could be alone with Lennie without any distractions. So
after their meal slowly, slowly they fell into a deep but relaxing
sleep that seemed to be endless.
George woke up first
and he saw that someone was coming towards them. He
wasn’t sure about who it was but he could not take any risks, so
he quickly got up, packed his bag, woke Lennie and told him to not say
a word. So Lennie did what he was asked to do. George hid
on top of a tree where it was really hard to be seen. Now it was
clear who had come up here to look for them. George saw it really well,
it was impossible to confuse. George had in front of him;
Carlson. Carlson did not notice them luckily but George knew that
it was time to act and that they could not continue to hide, so George
quietly, when Lennie was looking away, hit Carlson on his head using
the metal part of the gun. Carlson did not even have time to
blink when George fired the gun. Carlson was on the ground dead
without even a sign of life. Unfortunately the gun had made quite a lot
of noise so George and Lennie had a very short time to get away from
that place. George made sure to hide the dead body so that Lennie
could not see it and he put Carlson’s gun in his back pack.
“George what happened? I was watching someone that was coming towards us but then I dunno what hap-?” said Lennie
Lennie did not have time to finish his phrase because a shot rang
out. George and Lennie looked at each other for what seemed a
long time and then Lennie fell down. He had been shot from behind.
Before Lennie died George told him,
“Lennie, oh Lennie, don’t you worry, we will buy that farm
and we will tend the rabbits and all the animals you want, ok?”
“O ya ya”, said Lennie, “George, and I get to ten’ . . . ten’ the rabbits ain’t I?”
George responded, “O ya ya, you will but now just cl . . cl . .cl
. .”, George could not finish the words because he was really
crying hard but at the end he said to Lennie, “Yes Lennie, you
are going to te . . te . . ten’ the rabbits!”
These were the last words that George said to
Lennie and before Lennie closed his eyes forever, he smiled at
George as his head gradually turned and became still. George was angry
but he wasn’t just angry. He wanted justice. He got
his gun and looked ahead. He saw the only face that he wanted to see.
In front of him was Curley with a gun in his hand and with a smile on
his face. Curley said,
“Good job George. You made me kill him, that stupid big guy
killed my wife, my father and Carlson. He had it comin’ to
him. Good job again George.”
George aimed the gun and while
Curley was looking away he fired a single shot. He wasn’t afraid
this time to shoot Curley but he was very sad because Curley had killed
his only friend. George knew that there was one bullet left in
the barrel of the gun and he saw that Slim, and all the other guys were
approaching. When the ranch hands had come nearer, George
said, “Guys, I really had fun with you, but I killed Curley and
Carlson and there ain’t no more Lennie now, so goodbye!”
George fired the last shot and it was the end. The guys stood in
amazement and wondered if they would ever know the complete story.
Fabrizio
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