OF MICE AND MEN by John Steinbeck (read online)

FIVE

One end of the great barn was piled high with new hay and over the
pile hung the four-taloned Jackson fork suspended from its pulley. The
hay came down like a mountain slope to the other end of the barn,
and there was a level place as yet unfilled with the new crop. At
the sides the feeding racks were visible, and between the slats the
heads of horses could be seen.
It was Sunday afternoon. The resting horses nibbled the remaining
wisps of hay, and they stamped their feet and they bit the wood of the
mangers and rattled the halter chains. The afternoon sun sliced in
through the cracks of the barn walls and lay in bright lines on the
hay. There was the buzz of flies in the air, the lazy afternoon
humming.
From outside came the clang of horseshoes on the playing peg and the
shouts of men, playing, encouraging, jeering. But in the barn it was
quiet and humming and lazy and warm.
Only Lennie was in the barn, and Lennie sat in the hay beside a
packing case under a manger in the end of the barn that had not been
filled with hay. Lennie sat in the hay and looked at a little dead
puppy that lay in front of him. Lennie looked at it for a long time,
and then he put out his huge hand and stroked it, stroked it clear
from one end to the other.
And Lennie said softly to the puppy, “Why do you got to get
killed? You ain’t so little as mice. I didn’t bounce you hard.” He
bent the pup’s head up and looked in its face, and he said to it, “Now
maybe George ain’t gonna let me tend no rabbits, if he fin’s out you
got killed.”
He scooped a little hollow and laid the puppy in it and covered it
over with hay, out of sight; but he continued to stare at the mound he
had made. He said, “This ain’t no bad thing like I got to go hide in
the brush. Oh! no. This ain’t. I’ll tell George I foun’ it dead.”
He unburied the puppy and inspected it, and he stroked it from
ears to tail. He went on sorrowfully, “But he’ll know. George always
knows. He’ll say, ‘You done it. Don’t try to put nothing over on
me.’ An’ he’ll say, ‘Now jus’ for that you don’t get to tend no
rabbits!'”
Suddenly his anger arose. “God damn you,” he cried. “Why do you
got to get killed? You ain’t so little as mice.” He picked up the
pup and hurled it from him. He turned his back on it. He sat bent over
his knees and he whispered, “Now I won’t get to tend the rabbits.
Now he won’t let me.” He rocked himself back and forth in his sorrow.
From outside came the clang of horseshoes on the iron stake, and
then a little chorus of cries. Lennie got up and brought the puppy
back and laid it on the hay and sat down. He stroked the pup again.
“You wasn’t big enough,” he said. “They tol’ me and tol’ me you
wasn’t. I di’n’t know you’d get killed so easy.” He worked his fingers
on the pup’s limp ear. “Maybe George won’t care,” he said. “This
here God damn little son-of-a-bitch wasn’t nothing to George.”
Curley’s wife came around the end of the last stall. She came very
quietly, so that Lennie didn’t see her. She wore her bright cotton
dress and the mules with the red ostrich feathers. Her face was made
up and the little sausage curls were all in place. She was quite
near to him before Lennie looked up and saw her.
In a panic he shoveled hay over the puppy with his fingers. He
looked sullenly up at her.
She said, “What you got there, sonny boy?”
Lennie glared at her. “George says I ain’t to have nothing to do
with you- talk to you or nothing.”
She laughed. “George giving you orders about everything?”
Lennie looked down at the hay. “Says I can’t tend no rabbits if I
talk to you or anything.”
She said quietly, “He’s scared Curley’ll get mad. Well, Curley got
his arm in a sling- an’ if Curley gets tough, you can break his
other han’. You didn’t put nothing over on me about gettin’ it
caught in no machine.”
But Lennie was not to be drawn. “No, sir. I ain’t gonna talk to
you or nothing.”
She knelt in the hay beside him. “Listen,” she said. “All the guys
got a horseshoe tenement goin’ on. It’s on’y about four o’clock.
None of them guys is goin’ to leave that tenement. Why can’t I talk to
you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely.”
Lennie said, “Well, I ain’t supposed to talk to you or nothing.”
“I get lonely,” she said. “You can talk to people, but I can’t
talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad. How’d you like not to
talk to anybody?”
Lennie said, “Well, I ain’t supposed to. George’s scared I’ll get in
trouble.”
She changed the subject. “What you got covered up there?”
Then all of Lennie’s woe came back on him. “Jus’ my pup,” he said
sadly. “Jus’ my little pup.” And he swept the hay from on top of it.
“Why, he’s dead,” she cried.
“He was so little,” said Lennie. “I was jus’ playin’ with him… an’
he made like he’s gonna bite me… an’ I made like I was gonna smack
him… an’… an’ I done it. An’ then he was dead.”
She consoled him. “Don’t you worry none. He was jus’ a mutt. You can
get another one easy. The whole country is fulla mutts.”
“It ain’t that so much,” Lennie explained miserably. “George ain’t
gonna let me tend no rabbits now.”
“Why don’t he?”
“Well, he said if I done any more bad things he ain’t gonna let me
tend the rabbits.”
She moved closer to him and she spoke soothingly. “Don’t you worry
about talkin’ to me. Listen to the guys yell out there. They got
four dollars bet in that tenement. None of them ain’t gonna leave till
it’s over.”
“If George sees me talkin’ to you he’ll give me hell,” Lennie said
cautiously. “He tol’ me so.”
Her face grew angry. “Wha’s the matter with me?” she cried. “Ain’t I
got a right to talk to nobody? Whatta they think I am, anyways? You’re
a nice guy. I don’t know why I can’t talk to you. I ain’t doin’ no
harm to you.”
“Well, George says you’ll get us in a mess.”
“Aw, nuts!” she said. “What kinda harm am I doin’ to you? Seems like
they ain’t none of them cares how I gotta live. I tell you I ain’t
used to livin’ like this. I coulda made somethin’ of myself.” She said
darkly, “Maybe I will yet.” And then her words tumbled out in a
passion of communication, as though she hurried before her listener
could be taken away. “I lived right in Salinas,” she said. “Come there
when I was a kid. Well, a show come through, an’ I met one of the
actors. He says I could go with that show. But my ol’ lady wouldn’t
let me. She says because I was on’y fifteen. But the guy says I
coulda. If I’d went, I wouldn’t be livin’ like this, you bet.”
Lennie stroked the pup back and forth. “We gonna have a little
place- an’ rabbits,” he explained.
She went on with her story quickly, before she should be
interrupted. “‘Nother time I met a guy, an’ he was in pitchers. Went
out to the Riverside Dance Palace with him. He says he was gonna put
me in the movies. Says I was a natural. Soon’s he got back to
Hollywood he was gonna write to me about it.” She looked closely at
Lennie to see whether she was impressing him. “I never got that
letter,” she said. “I always thought my ol’ lady stole it. Well, I
wasn’t gonna stay no place where I couldn’t get nowhere or make
something of myself, an’ where they stole your letters, I ast her if
she stole it, too, an’ she says no. So I married Curley. Met him out
to the Riverside Dance Palace that same night.” She demanded, “You
listenin’?”
“Me? Sure.”
“Well, I ain’t told this to nobody before. Maybe I oughten to. I
don’ like Curley. He ain’t a nice fella.” And because she had
confided in him, she moved closer to Lennie and sat beside him.
“Coulda been in the movies, an’ had nice clothes- all them nice
clothes like they wear. An’ I coulda sat in them big hotels, an’ had
pitchers took of me. When they had them previews I coulda went to
them, an’ spoke in the radio, an’ it wouldn’ta cost me a cent
because I was in the pitcher. An’ all them nice clothes like they
wear. Because this guy says I was a natural.” She looked up at Lennie,
and she made a small grand gesture with her arm and hand to show
that she could act. The fingers trailed after her leading wrist, and
her little finger stuck out grandly from the rest.
Lennie sighed deeply. From outside came the clang of a horseshoe
on metal, and then a chorus of cheers. “Somebody made a ringer,”
said Curley’s wife.
Now the light was lifting as the sun went down, and the sun
streaks climbed up the wall and fell over the feeding racks and over
the heads of the horses.
Lennie said, “Maybe if I took this pup out and throwed him away
George wouldn’t never know. An’ then I could tend the rabbits
without no trouble.”
Curley’s wife said angrily, “Don’t you think of nothing but
rabbits?”
“We gonna have a little place,” Lennie explained patiently. “We
gonna have a house an’ a garden and a place for alfalfa, an’ that
alfalfa is for the rabbits, an’ I take a sack and get it all fulla
alfalfa and then I take it to the rabbits.”
She asked, “What makes you so nuts about rabbits?”
Lennie had to think carefully before he could come to a
conclusion. He moved cautiously close to her, until he was right
against her. “I like to pet nice things. Once at a fair I seen some of
them long-hair rabbits. An’ they was nice, you bet. Sometimes I’ve
even pet mice, but not when I couldn’t get nothing better.”
Curley’s wife moved away from him a little. “I think you’re nuts,”
she said.
“No I ain’t,” Lennie explained earnestly. “George says I ain’t. I
like to pet nice things with my fingers, sof’ things.”
She was a little bit reassured. “Well, who don’t?” she said.
“Ever’body likes that. I like to feel silk an’ velvet. Do you like
to feel velvet?”
Lennie chuckled with pleasure. “You bet, by God,” he cried
happily. “An’ I had some, too. A lady give me some, an’ that lady was-
my own Aunt Clara. She give it right to me- ’bout this big a piece.
I wisht I had that velvet right now.” A frown came over his face. “I
lost it,” he said. “I ain’t seen it for a long time.”
Curley’s wife laughed at him. “You’re nuts,” she said. “But you’re a
kinda nice fella. Jus’ like a big baby. But a person can see kinda
what you mean. When I’m doin’ my hair sometimes I jus’ set an’
stroke it ’cause it’s so soft.” To show how she did it, she ran her
fingers over the top of her head. “Some people got kinda coarse hair,”
she said complacently. “Take Curley. His hair is jus’ like wire. But
mine is soft and fine. ‘Course I brush it a lot. That makes it fine.
Here- feel right here.” She took Lennie’s hand and put it on her head.
“Feel right aroun’ there an’ see how soft it is.”
Lennie’s big fingers fell to stroking her hair.
“Don’t you muss it up,” she said.
Lennie said, “Oh! That’s nice,” and he stroked harder. “Oh, that’s
nice.”
“Look out, now, you’ll muss it.” And then she cried angrily, “You
stop it now, you’ll mess it all up.” She jerked her head sideways, and
Lennie’s fingers closed on her hair and hung on. “Let go,” she
cried. “You let go!”
Lennie was in a panic. His face was contorted. She screamed then,
and Lennie’s other hand closed over her mouth and nose. “Please
don’t,” he begged. “Oh! Please don’t do that. George’ll be mad.”
She struggled violently under his hands. Her feet battered on the
hay and she writhed to be free; and from under Lennie’s hand came a
muffled screaming. Lennie began to cry with fright. “Oh! Please
don’t do none of that,” he begged. “George gonna say I done a bad
thing. He ain’t gonna let me tend no rabbits.” He moved his hand a
little and her hoarse cry came out. Then Lennie grew angry. “Now
don’t,” he said. “I don’t want you to yell. You gonna get me in
trouble jus’ like George says you will. Now don’t you do that.” And
she continued to struggle, and her eyes were wild with terror. He
shook her then, and he was angry with her. “Don’t you go yellin’,”
he said, and he shook her; and her body flopped like a fish. And
then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck.
He looked down at her, and carefully he removed his hand from over
her mouth, and she lay still. “I don’t want to hurt you,” he said,
“but George’ll be mad if you yell.” When she didn’t answer nor move he
bent closely over her. He lifted her arm and let it drop. For a moment
he 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.
From outside the barn came a cry of men and the double clang of
shoes on metal. For the first time Lennie became conscious of the
outside. He crouched down in the hay and listened. “I done a real
bad thing,” he said. “I shouldn’t of did that. George’ll be mad.
An’… he said… an’ hide in the brush till he come. He’s gonna be
mad. In the brush till he come. Tha’s what he said.” Lennie went
back and looked at the dead girl. The puppy lay close to her. Lennie
picked it up. “I’ll throw him away,” he said. “It’s bad enough like it
is.” He put the pup under his coat, and he crept to the barn wall
and peered out between the cracks, toward the horseshoe game. And then
he crept around the end of the last manger and disappeared.
The sun streaks were high on the wall by now, and the light was
growing soft in the barn. Curley’s wife lay on her back, and she was
half covered with hay.
It was very quiet in the barn, and the quiet of the afternoon was on
the ranch. Even the clang of the pitched shoes, even the voices of the
men in the game, seemed to grow more quiet. The air in the barn was
dusky in advance of the outside day. A pigeon flew in through the open
hay door and circled and flew out again. Around the last stall came
a shepherd bitch, lean and long, with heavy, hanging dugs. Halfway
to the packing box where the puppies were she caught the dead scent of
Curley’s wife, and the hair arose along her spine. She whimpered and
cringed to the packing box, and jumped in among the puppies.
Curley’s wife lay with a half-covering of yellow hay. And the
meanness and the plannings and the discontent and the ache for
attention were all gone from her face. She was very pretty and simple,
and her face was sweet and young. Now her rouged cheeks and her
reddened lips made her seem alive and sleeping very lightly. The
curls, tiny little sausages, were spread on the hay behind her head,
and her lips were parted.
As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and remained
for much more than a moment. And sound stopped and movement stopped
for much, much more than a moment.
Then gradually time awakened again and moved sluggishly on. The
horses stamped on the other side of the feeding racks and the halter
chains clinked. Outside, the men’s voices became louder and clearer.
From around the end of the last stall old Candy’s voice came.
“Lennie,” he called. “Oh, Lennie! You in here? I been figuring some
more. Tell you what we can do, Lennie.” Old Candy appeared around
the end of the last stall. “Oh, Lennie!” he called again; and then
he stopped, and his body stiffened. He rubbed his smooth wrist on
his white stubble whiskers. “I di’n’t know you was here,” he said to
Curley’s wife.
When she didn’t answer, he stepped nearer. “You oughten to sleep out
here,” he said disapprovingly; and then he was beside her and- “Oh,
Jesus Christ!” He looked about helplessly, and he rubbed his beard.
And then he jumped up and went quickly out of the barn.
But the barn was alive now. The horses stamped and snorted, and they
chewed the straw of their bedding and they clashed the chains of their
halters. In a moment Candy came back, and George was with him.
George said, “What was it you wanted to see me about?”
Candy pointed at Curley’s wife. George stared. “What’s the matter
with her?” he asked. He stepped closer, and then he echoed Candy’s
words. “Oh, Jesus Christ!” He was down on his knees beside her. He put
his hand over her heart. And finally, when he stood up, slowly and
stiffly, his face was as hard and tight as wood, and his eyes were
hard.
Candy said, “What done it?”
George looked coldly at him. “Ain’t you got any idear?” he asked.
And Candy was silent. “I should of knew,” George said hopelessly. “I
guess maybe way back in my head I did.”
Candy asked, “What we gonna do now, George? What we gonna do now?”
George was a long time in answering. “Guess… we gotta tell
the… guys. I guess we gotta get ‘im an’ lock ‘im up. We can’t let
‘im get away. Why, the poor bastard’d starve.” And he tried to
reassure himself. “Maybe they’ll lock ‘im up an’ be nice to ‘im.”
But Candy said excitedly, “We oughta let ‘im get away. You don’t
know that Curley. Curley gon’ta wanta get ‘im lynched. Curley’ll get
‘im killed.”
George watched Candy’s lips. “Yeah,” he said at last, “that’s right,
Curley will. An’ the other guys will.” And he looked back at
Curley’s wife.
Now Candy spoke his greatest fear. “You an’ me can get that little
place, can’t we, George? You an’ me can go there an’ live nice,
can’t we, George? Can’t we?”
Before George answered, Candy dropped his head and looked down at
the hay. He knew.
George said softly, “-I think I knowed from the very first. I
think I know’d we’d never do her. He usta like to hear about it so
much I got to thinking maybe we would.”
“Then- it’s all off?” Candy asked sulkily.
George didn’t answer his question. George said, “I’ll work my
month an’ I’ll take my fifty bucks an’ I’ll stay all night in some
lousy cat house. Or I’ll set in some poolroom till ever’body goes
home. An’ then I’ll come back an’ work another month an’ I’ll have
fifty bucks more.”
Candy said, “He’s such a nice fella. I didn’ think he’d do nothing
like this.”
George still stared at Curley’s wife. “Lennie never done it in
meanness,” he said. “All the time he done bad things, but he never
done one of ’em mean.” He straightened up and looked back at Candy.
“Now listen. We gotta tell the guys. They got to bring him in, I
guess. They ain’t no way out. Maybe they won’t hurt ‘im.” He said
sharply, “I ain’t gonna let ’em hurt Lennie. Now you listen. The
guys might think I was in on it. I’m gonna go in the bunkhouse. Then
in a minute you come out and tell the guys about her, and I’ll come
along and make like I never seen her. Will you do that? So the guys
won’t think I was in on it?”
Candy said, “Sure, George. Sure I’ll do that.”
“O.K. Give me a couple minutes then, and you come runnin’ out an’
tell like you jus’ found her. I’m going now.” George turned and went
quickly out of the barn.
Old Candy watched him go. He looked helplessly back at Curley’s
wife, and gradually his sorrow and his anger grew into words. “You God
damn tramp”, he said viciously. “You done it, di’n’t you? I s’pose
you’re glad. Ever’body knowed you’d mess things up. You wasn’t no
good. You ain’t no good now, you lousy tart.” He sniveled, and his
voice shook. “I could of hoed in the garden and washed dishes for them
guys.” He paused, and then went on in a singsong. And he repeated
the old words: “If they was a circus or a baseball game… we would of
went to her… jus’ said ‘ta hell with work,’ an’ went to her. Never
ast nobody’s say so. An’ they’d of been a pig and chickens… an’ in
the winter… the little fat stove… an’ the rain comin’… an’ us
jes’ settin’ there.” His eyes blinded with tears and he turned and
went weakly out of the barn, and he rubbed his bristly whiskers with
his wrist stump.
Outside the noise of the game stopped. There was a rise of voices in
question, a drum of running feet and the men burst into the barn. Slim
and Carlson and young Whit and Curley, and Crooks keeping back out
of attention range. Candy came after them, and last of all came
George. George had put on his blue denim coat and buttoned it, and his
black hat was pulled down low over his eyes. The men raced around
the last stall. Their eyes found Curley’s wife in the gloom, they
stopped and stood still and looked.
Then Slim went quietly over to her, and he felt her wrist. One
lean finger touched her cheek, and then his hand went under her
slightly twisted neck and his fingers explored her neck. When he stood
up the men crowded near and the spell was broken.
Curley came suddenly to life. “I know who done it,” he cried.
“That big son-of-a-bitch done it. I know he done it. Why- ever’body
else was out there playin’ horseshoes.” He worked himself into a fury.
“I’m gonna get him. I’m going for my shotgun. I’ll kill the big
son-of-a-bitch myself. I’ll shoot ‘im in the guts. Come on, you guys.”
He ran furiously out of the barn. Carlson said, “I’ll get my Luger,”
and he ran out too.
Slim turned quietly to George. “I guess Lennie done it, all
right,” he said. “Her neck’s bust. Lennie coulda did that.”
George didn’t answer, but he nodded slowly. His hat was so far
down on his forehead that his eyes were covered.
Slim went on, “Maybe like that time in Weed you was tellin’ about.”
Again George nodded.
Slim sighed. “Well, I guess we got to get him. Where you think he
might of went?”
It seemed to take George some time to free his words. “He- would
of went south,” he said. “We come from north so he would of went
south.”
“I guess we gotta get ‘im,” Slim repeated.
George stepped close. “Couldn’ we maybe bring him in an’ they’ll
lock him up? He’s nuts, Slim. He never done this to be mean.”
Slim nodded. “We might,” he said. “If we could keep Curley in, we
might. But Curley’s gonna want to shoot ‘im. Curley’s still mad
about his hand. An’ s’pose they lock him up an’ strap him down and put
him in a cage. That ain’t no good, George.”
“I know,” said George, “I know.”
Carlson came running in. “The bastard’s stole my Luger,” he shouted.
“It ain’t in my bag.” Curley followed him, and Curley carried a
shotgun in his good hand. Curley was cold now.
“All right, you guys,” he said. “The nigger’s got a shotgun. You
take it, Carlson. When you see ‘um, don’t give ‘im no chance. Shoot
for his guts. That’ll double ‘im over.”
Whit said excitedly, “I ain’t got a gun.”
Curley said, “You go in Soledad an’ get a cop. Get Al Wilts, he’s
deputy sheriff. Le’s go now.” He turned suspiciously on George.
“You’re comin’ with us, fella.”
“Yeah,” said George. “I’ll come. But listen, Curley. The poor
bastard’s nuts. Don’t shoot ‘im. He di’n’t know what he was doin’.”
“Don’t shoot ‘im?” Curley cried. “He got Carlson’s Luger. ‘Course
we’ll shoot ‘im.”
George said weakly, “Maybe Carlson lost his gun.”
“I seen it this morning,” said Carlson. “No, it’s been took.”
Slim stood looking down at Curley’s wife. He said, “Curley- maybe
you better stay here with your wife.”
Curley’s face reddened. “I’m goin’,” he said. “I’m gonna shoot the
guts outa that big bastard myself, even if I only got one hand. I’m
gonna get ‘im.”
Slim turned to Candy. “You stay here with her then, Candy. The
rest of us better get goin’.”
They moved away. George stopped a moment beside Candy and they
both looked down at the dead girl until Curley called, “You George!
You stick with us so we don’t think you had nothin’ to do with this.”
George moved slowly after them, and his feet dragged heavily.
And when they were gone, Candy squatted down in the hay and
watched the face of Curley’s wife. “Poor bastard,” he said softly.
The sound of the men grew fainter. The barn was darkening
gradually and, in their stalls, the horses shifted their feet and
rattled the halter chains. Old Candy lay down in the hay and covered
his eyes with his arm.

SIX

The deep green pool of the Salinas River was still in the late
afternoon. Already the sun had left the valley to go climbing up the
slopes of the Gabilan Mountains, and the hilltops were rosy in the
sun. But by the pool among the mottled sycamores, a pleasant shade had
fallen.
A water snake glided smoothly up the pool, twisting its periscope
head from side to side; and it swam the length of the pool and came to
the legs of a motionless heron that stood in the shallows. A silent
head and beak lanced down and plucked it out by the head, and the beak
swallowed the little snake while its tail waved frantically.
A far rush of wind sounded and a gust drove through the tops of
the trees like a wave. The sycamore leaves turned up their silver
sides, the brown, dry leaves on the ground scudded a few feet. And row
on row of tiny wind waves flowed up the pool’s green surface.
As quickly as it had come, the wind died, and the clearing was quiet
again. The heron stood in the shallows, motionless and waiting.
Another little water snake swam up the pool, turning its periscope
head from side to side.
Suddenly Lennie appeared out of the brush, and he came as silently
as a creeping bear moves. The heron pounded the air with its wings,
jacked itself clear of the water and flew off down river. The little
snake slid in among the reeds at the pool’s side.
Lennie came quietly to the pool’s edge. He knelt down and drank,
barely touching his lips to the water. When a little bird skittered
over the dry leaves behind him, his head jerked up and he strained
toward the sound with eyes and ears until he saw the bird, and then he
dropped his head and drank again.
When he was finished, he sat down on the bank, with his side to
the pool, so that he could watch the trail’s entrance. He embraced his
knees and laid his chin down on his knees.
The light climbed on out of the valley, and as it went, the tops
of the mountains seemed to blaze with increasing brightness.
Lennie said softly, “I di’n’t forget, you bet, God damn. Hide in the
brush an’ wait for George.” He pulled his hat down low over his
eyes. “George gonna give me hell,” he said. “George gonna wish he
was alone an’ not have me botherin’ him.” He turned his head and
looked at the bright mountain tops. “I can go right off there an’ find
a cave,” he said. And he continued sadly, “-an’ never have no ketchup-
but I won’t care. If George don’t want me… I’ll go away. I’ll go
away.”
And then from out of Lennie’s head there came a little fat old
woman. She wore thick bull’s-eye glasses and she wore a huge gingham
apron with pockets, and she was starched and clean. She stood in front
of Lennie and put her hands on her hips, and she frowned
disapprovingly at him.
And when she spoke, it was in Lennie’s voice. “I tol’ you an’ tol’
you,” she said. “I tol’ you, ‘Min’ George because he’s such a nice
fella an’ good to you.’ But you don’t never take no care. You do bad
things.”
And Lennie answered her, “I tried, Aunt Clara, ma’am. I tried and
tried. I couldn’t help it.”
“You never give a thought to George,” she went on in Lennie’s voice.
“He been doin’ nice things for you alla time. When he got a piece of
pie you always got half or more’n half. An’ if they was any ketchup,
why he’d give it all to you.”
“I know,” said Lennie miserably. “I tried, Aunt Clara, ma’am. I
tried and tried.”
She interrupted him. “All the time he coulda had such a good time if
it wasn’t for you. He woulda took his pay an’ raised hell in a whore
house, and he coulda set in a pool room an’ played snooker. But he got
to take care of you.”
Lennie moaned with grief. “I know, Aunt Clara, ma’am. I’ll go
right off in the hills an’ I’ll fin’ a cave an’ I’ll live there so I
won’t be no more trouble to George.”
“You jus’ say that,” she said sharply. “You’re always sayin’ that,
an’ you know sonofabitching well you ain’t never gonna do it. You’ll
jus’ stick around an’ stew the b’Jesus outa George all the time.”
Lennie said, “I might jus’ as well go away. George ain’t gonna let
me tend no rabbits now.”
Aunt Clara was gone, and from out of Lennie’s head there came a
gigantic rabbit. It sat on its haunches in front of him, and it
waggled its ears and crinkled its nose at him. And it spoke in
Lennie’s voice too.
“Tend rabbits,” it said scornfully. “You crazy bastard. You ain’t
fit to lick the boots of no rabbit. You’d forget ’em and let ’em go
hungry. That’s what you’d do. An’ then what would George think?”
“I would not forget,” Lennie said loudly.
“The hell you wouldn’,” said the rabbit. “You ain’t worth a
greased jack-pin to ram you into hell. Christ knows George done
ever’thing he could to jack you outa the sewer, but it don’t do no
good. If you think George gonna let you tend rabbits, you’re even
crazier’n usual. He ain’t. He’s gonna beat hell outa you with a stick,
that’s what he’s gonna do.”
Now Lennie retorted belligerently, “He ain’t neither. George won’t
do nothing like that. I’ve knew George since- I forget when- and he
ain’t never raised his han’ to me with a stick. He’s nice to me. He
ain’t gonna be mean.”
“Well, he’s sick of you,” said the rabbit. “He’s gonna beat hell
outa you an’ then go away an’ leave you.”
“He won’t,” Lennie cried frantically. “He won’t do nothing like
that. I know George. Me an’ him travels together.”
But the rabbit repeated softly over and over, “He gonna leave you,
ya crazy bastard. He gonna leave ya all alone. He gonna leave ya,
crazy bastard.”
Lennie put his hands over his ears. “He ain’t, I tell ya he
ain’t.” And he cried, “Oh! George- George- George!”
George came quietly out of the brush and the rabbit scuttled back
into Lennie’s brain.
George said quietly, “What the hell you yellin’ about?”
Lennie got up on his knees. “You ain’t gonna leave me, are ya,
George? I know you ain’t.”
George came stiffly near and sat down beside him. “No.”
“I knowed it,” Lennie cried. “You ain’t that kind.”
George was silent.
Lennie said, “George.”
“Yeah?”
“I done another bad thing.”
“It don’t make no difference,” George said, and he fell silent
again.
Only the topmost ridges were in the sun now. The shadow in the
valley was blue and soft. From the distance came the sound of men
shouting to one another. George turned his head and listened to the
shouts.
Lennie said, “George.”
“Yeah?”
“Ain’t you gonna give me hell?”
“Give ya hell?”
“Sure, like you always done before. Like, ‘If I di’n’t have you
I’d take my fifty bucks-‘”
“Jesus Christ, Lennie! You can’t remember nothing that happens,
but you remember ever’ word I say.”
“Well, ain’t you gonna say it?”
George shook himself. He said woodenly, “If I was alone I could live
so easy.” His voice was monotonous, had no emphasis. “I could get a
job an’ not have no mess.” He stopped.
“Go on,” said Lennie. “An’ when the enda the month come-”
“An’ when the end of the month came I could take my fifty bucks
an’ go to a… cat house…” He stopped again.
Lennie looked eagerly at him. “Go on, George. Ain’t you gonna give
me no more hell?”
“No,” said George.
“Well, I can go away,” said Lennie. “I’ll go right off in the
hills an’ find a cave if you don’ want me.”
George shook himself again. “No,” he said. “I want you to stay
with me here.”
Lennie said craftily- “Tell me like you done before.”
“Tell you what?”
“‘Bout the other guys an’ about us.”
George said, “Guys like us got no fambly. They make a little stake
an’ then they blow it in. They ain’t got nobody in the worl’ that
gives a hoot in hell about ’em-”
“But not us,” Lennie cried happily. “Tell about us now.”
George was quiet for a moment. “But not us,” he said.
“Because–”
“Because I got you an’-”
“An’ I got you. We got each other, that’s what, that gives a hoot in
hell about us,” Lennie cried in triumph.
The little evening breeze blew over the clearing and the leaves
rustled and the wind waves flowed up the green pool. And the shouts of
men sounded again, this time much closer than before.
George took off his hat. He said shakily, “Take off your hat,
Lennie. The air feels fine.”
Lennie removed his hat dutifully and laid it on the ground in
front of him. The shadow in the valley was bluer, and the evening came
fast. On the wind the sound of crashing in the brush came to them.
Lennie said, “Tell how it’s gonna be.”
George had been listening to the distant sounds. For a moment he was
businesslike. “Look acrost the river, Lennie, an’ I’ll tell you so you
can almost see it.”
Lennie turned his head and looked off across the pool and up the
darkening slopes of the Gabilans. “We gonna get a little place,”
George began. He reached in his side pocket and brought out
Carlson’s Luger; he snapped off the safety, and the hand and gun lay
on the ground behind Lennie’s back. He looked at the back of
Lennie’s head, at the place where the spine and skull were joined.
A man’s voice called from up the river, and another man answered.
“Go on,” said Lennie.
George raised the gun and his hand shook, and he dropped his hand to
the ground again.
“Go on,” said Lennie. “How’s it gonna be. We gonna get a little
place.”
“We’ll have a cow,” said George. “An’ we’ll have maybe a pig an’
chickens… an’ down the flat we’ll have a… little piece alfalfa-”
“For the rabbits,” Lennie shouted.
“For the rabbits,” George repeated.
“And I get to tend the rabbits.”
“An’ you get to tend the rabbits.”
Lennie giggled with happiness. “An’ live on the fatta the lan’.”
“Yes.”
Lennie turned his head.
“No, Lennie. Look down there acrost the river, like you can almost
see the place.”
Lennie obeyed him. George looked down at the gun.
There were crashing footsteps in the brush now. George turned and
looked toward them.
“Go on, George. When we gonna do it?”
“Gonna do it soon.”
“Me an’ you.”
“You… an’ me. Ever’body gonna be nice to you. Ain’t gonna be no
more trouble. Nobody gonna hurt nobody nor steal from ’em.”
Lennie said, “I thought you was mad at me, George.”
“No,” said George. “No, Lennie. I ain’t mad. I never been mad, an’ I
ain’t now. That’s a thing I want ya to know.”
The voices came close now. George raised the gun and listened to the
voices.
Lennie begged, “Le’s do it now. Le’s get that place now.”
“Sure, right now. I gotta. We gotta.”
And George raised the gun and steadied it, and he brought the muzzle
of it close to the back of Lennie’s head. The hand shook violently,
but his face set and his hand steadied. He pulled the trigger. The
crash of the shot rolled up the hills and rolled down again. Lennie
jarred, and then settled slowly forward to the sand, and he lay
without quivering.
George shivered and looked at the gun, and then he threw it from
him, back up on the bank, near the pile of old ashes.
The brush seemed filled with cries and with the sound of running
feet. Slim’s voice shouted. “George. Where you at, George?”
But George sat stiffly on the bank and looked at his right hand that
had thrown the gun away. The group burst into the clearing, and Curley
was ahead. He saw Lennie lying on the sand. “Got him, by God.” He went
over and looked down at Lennie, and then he looked back at George.
“Right in the back of the head,” he said softly.
Slim came directly to George and sat down beside him, sat very close
to him. “Never you mind,” said Slim. “A guy got to sometimes.”
But Carlson was standing over George. “How’d you do it?” he asked.
“I just done it,” George said tiredly.
“Did he have my gun?”
“Yeah. He had your gun.”
“An’ you got it away from him and you took it an’ you killed him?”
“Yeah. Tha’s how.” George’s voice was almost a whisper. He looked
steadily at his right hand that had held the gun.
Slim twitched George’s elbow. “Come on, George. Me an’ you’ll go
in an’ get a drink.”
George let himself be helped to his feet. “Yeah, a drink.”
Slim said, “You hadda, George. I swear you hadda. Come on with
me.” He led George into the entrance of the trail and up toward the
highway.
Curley and Carlson looked after them. And Carlson said, “Now what
the hell ya suppose is eatin’ them two guys?”

THE END