Of Mice and Men
The sun was shining high up in the sky, near by, scattered, lay small feather like wispy clouds. The wind was gently blowing a cool late spring’s breeze-everything was pleasant. About a quarter of a mile away there was a small wooden house, small but pretty; surrounding it there was a couple of acres of land. An elderly man who appeared to have one hand was busily working near the small wooden house. There were a few cows in one area, pigs, a chicken coop in another, vegetables too, and a large rabbit hutch, with small, coloured rabbits. A black bird flew down and pecked at the ground, discovering a pink wriggling worm, and rushed back towards the faint sound of the bird’s song. George slowly took the scene in, he felt numb-he must have been a sleep for quite a long time. The tree that he had been resting against started to shake gently. ‘George get up, George, are you still asleep George?’ cheered a deep but child like voice. ‘Lennie?’ George asked stunned and still half asleep. ‘Yeah George, it’s me Lennie, get up George, how long you been asleep for?’ Lennie asked curiously. ‘Lennie you’re alright’ George replied impatiently, whilst trying to stand up. ‘George… hey George do you want some ketchup on your beans, George? I’ll save you some if you don’t want some right now. George ketchup, we’ve got lots of ketchup George, and beans, George, beans!’ Lennie squealed excitedly, waving a can of beans covered in ketchup in George’s face. ‘Come on lets go inside, it’s getting cold, we don’t have to work, we’re living off the fatta the lan, remember George! Go to sleep inside. Lennie smiled. ‘No, Lennie listen...’ George said agitated. Before George could continue a fat old woman appeared. She wore thick bull’s eye glasses and she wore a huge gingham apron with pockets, and she was starched and clean. She stood on the left side of Lennie and she put her hands on her hips and smiled approvingly at George. ‘You always did look after Lennie didn’t you George? You’re such a nice fella an’ good to Lennie. ‘Aunt Clara’, the words slipped out of George’s mouth, he was shocked. ‘Ma’am’… he replied. ‘But you don’t never take no care. You do bad things’, she replied angrily at Lennie. ‘I tried, Aunt Clara, ma’am. I tried, and tried. Lennie replied. ‘How do you put up with him?’ Aunt Clara said to George, pitifully. ‘Lennie’s not that bad...’ George started. ‘No wonder you did what you did, George, finally got bored of him, but did he really deserve what you did to him George?’ George was speechless. Aunt Clara was gone, and from out of Lennie’s head there came a gigantic rabbit. It sat on its haunches in between Lennie and George, and waggled its ears and crinkled its nose at him. It spoke in Lennie’s voice. ‘You ain’t worth a greased jack-pin to ram you into hell. Christ knows George done evr’thing he could to jack you outta the sewer, but it don’t do no good.If you think George is gonna let you tend rabbits the rest of your life, you’re even crazier’ n usual. Lennie retorted belligerently, ‘He ain’t. George won’t do nothing like that. I’ve knew George for ages-and he ain’t never raised his han’ to me with a stick. He ain’t gonna be mean.’ ‘’Well he’s sick of you, he’s gonna hurt you real bad, an’ the go away an’ leave you’. Said the rabbit. ‘He won’t,’ Lennie cried frantically, looking at George for reassurance.’ He won’t do nothing like that. I know George.’ The rabbit disappeared but the breeze still brought his voice. The rabbit repeated softly over and over, ‘He gonna leave ya, ya crazy bastard. He gonna leave ya all alone.’ ‘He ain’t, I tell ya he ain’t. Oh George! Tell ‘em that ya ain’t gonna leave me! Tell ‘em George!’ Lennie cried desperately. The breeze grew stronger and Aunt Clara’s voice could be heard too. ‘You were such a nice fella George, you took care of Lennie…’ Suddenly a dark storm cloud cowered over both of them, with a loud crack of thunder, and a flash of lightening, rain started poring down heavily, beating the ground. ‘Lennie…’ George finally whispered, sadly. A great gust of wind hit them. Lennie started coughing violently, blood started to trickle out of Lennie’s nose, and blood gushed out of his mouth. ‘George…’ Lennie cried sadly, eyes brimmed with tears. The small wooden house, the rabbit hutches, the vegetable patch, the man with one hand, everything seemed to zoom out rapidly, in to the far distance. ‘No!’ George screamed, his mouth was hoarse and dry. He threw his right hand towards Lennie, desperately trying to reach out to him. A loud bang splintered the warm air, a gun shot. Like the little wooden house, and the rest of the land surrounding it, Lennie was dragged back into the distance, twice as fiercely. George looked on utterly helplessly. He looked down at his steady right hand, it was starting to burn. He looked focused on it closely, but tearfully. The imprint of a luger covered in warm sticky blood was etched into his hand. He was soaked in rain, but the stinging and the pain in his chest wouldn’t go away.
