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. “Hide in the brush. George told me to hide in the brush.” Lennie suddenly realized all the noise that was coming from outside the barn. The men were playing horseshoe, jeering and yelling. They’d soon find out about Curley’s wife. “Maybe they’d think it was an accident? Or maybe she just died in her sleep? That could happen.”

Then as if someone had whispered in his ears, he let everything go, and ran out of the dusty barn. For a moment he stopped and looked at the others, playing that silly game. He looked for George, but couldn’t see him. Maybe he had already gone to their hiding place before him.  He already knew, Lennie thought. Then he went into the brush, heading for that secret place only he and George knew about. He felt better now. The running made him warm and secure. It wouldn’t be long now, until he met George. He wondered if he should be hard on him.

Curley wandered around the barn, looking for his wife. He was very saddened by the fact that he couldn’t play horseshoe with the other fellows. His hand hurt constantly; maybe it would never be all right. His wife seemed to know what had happened, though no one had ever told her. She seemed to know a lot of things that she shouldn’t know. Curley couldn’t figure out how she found out. He knew for a fact that nobody had told her.

He opened the door to the barn. If the men’s voices weren’t disturbing the silence in the barn, you would have heard a creak.
“Haven’t I told you not to be in here?” There she was, lying down in the hay, and she seemed to be sleeping. “Wake up.”  He started moving towards her, to wake her up.
“Come on, wake up,” he said. A moment later he registered that something was wrong, that she wasn’t sleeping. First he thought she had passed out, maybe due to the heat. He had seen girls before who had passed out in the heat of the sun. He remembered someone had once told him that women couldn’t stand too much sun.

Curley went down on to his knees and turned her over, so that he was facing her wide-open eyes. He shook her once, and again – this time more forcefully. Then he stood up.
“Lennie! Lennie!” It was Candy who was looking for Lennie. Candy gazed at Curley for a moment and then continued his search for Lennie.
“Lennie! Are you in here?” He strolled around in there, and when he came near enough to Curley and his wife, he stopped.
“Jesus Christ…”.
Curley seemed to have lost control of himself. He ran out while he yelled, “That big guy, that’s who done it, that stupid big guy! I’m gonna kill him!”
Candy was still in there, when George suddenly emerged.
“What happen’? Curley’s going mad out there an’…”, George said, but stopped and looked down at Curley’s wife. “Oh no…”.  He bent over and looked at her more closely until he saw her neck.
“Broken neck”, he said.
“You think that Lennie did it?” Candy asked fearfully.
George stood up and nodded. George had already gone towards the door and opened it when Candy said,
“Where you goin’?”
George answered back in a tone with a slight fear and panic. “I’ve gotta find him, before Curley does.”

George ran. Curley had already taken the horse, and he had a great lead, but he didn’t know exactly where to go. George knew exactly where to go and he turned downhill on a small path that led to a beautiful lake.
“Lennie!” he yelled. “Lennie, it’s me, George!”
The brush in front of George vibrated when Lennie came out of it. Lennie was shivering. He looked around and saw George, and jogged over to him. He was covered with leaves and bits of vegetation.
“I didn’t mean no harm George, an’ she started to scream…”, Lennie leaned over and cried, “I didn’t…”.
George silenced him. They heard a horse galloping, not far away, and it was coming closer. Then George suddenly became very stern.
“Lennie, listen! Curley is coming, and he’s not happy. He’s gonna  hurt you. Hurt you bad. You’ve gotta hide, come on. I’ll come back later, I need to get our stuff”.
“O-ok, George”,  Lennie sounded very scared, and he was still crying a bit. “George? Are we still gonna get that little place?”
George looked at him but did not answer as they kept going, looking for a place to hide.
“Wait, Lennie. The horse has stopped. He’s close enough to walk.” And George was right, it was quiet. George and Lennie looked back. On the other side of the lake was Curley, holding a gun in his hand.
“Run Lennie!” George pushed him so that he could run away from Curley.
A shot was fired.  Lennie stopped and looked back, and saw George lying on the ground. George was silent. And he didn’t move. He just lay there in the drizzle, with his hat thrown away.
It was not long before he realised what had happened.
“No!” He shouted out to Curley. “You shot George!”

Lennie started to run through the shallow lake. Curley got scared and ran back to his horse, to go back to the ranch. And Lennie turned back, all wet, to where George was lying, motionless.

Slowly he got closer to George, with a strange  and awfully familiar feeling in his body. He lent over the body of George. He was crouching when he said, “I’ll never get into trouble again, if you just wake up, George. We have to move on . . .  please”.

Lennie could hear horses coming closer. He carefully put his left arm around George’s back and the other arm in the hollow of his knees and slowly lifted him. He looked at his face and thought he saw a small smile on his lips. He felt joyful, and began to lumber in to the forest. For a moment he wandered around, before he finally disappeared in the long dark shadows of the sycamores.

In the daybreak, when the early morning sun hit the hills, and the clouds were swept away from the sky, the furry rabbits looked out from their cover. Suspiciously they took one step before the other, as if the earth wasn’t safe.


Vera 8T


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