Lennie coughed and then stuttered out “he, hello.”
“What d’ya want Lennie? I thought I told you to stay with the horses,” said George frustratingly.
“I know George, I got bored all alone and the horses were sleepy,” there was an awkward silence from the disappointment the Lennie was back. “Oooo! Two tens George that makes twenty!” Lennie blurted out as he got up close and look intently at George’s cards.
“Ahh man, Lennie, ya can’t jus shout out my hand like that! Go on get outta’ ere, go back to yar dumb horses!” barked George in anger.
“I can’t George, the horses are sleepy.”
“I don’t care if there dead! Jus get outta’ ere!”
“Sorry George,” whimpered Lennie as he closed the creaking door and walked back to the field where the horses were.
George sighed. “Unbelievable eh? I was gonna’ win that hand ‘swell.”
“Naaa ya weren’t, I haddit’ in the bag,” replied John.
“Y’ar kidding? You were trembling like its winter out.”
“What?! No I wasn’t!” John said with his eyes wide open in disbelief.
“Ahhh whatever, I’ll jus win the next one.” George said sighing yet again. The six men continued to argue about the hand Lennie had come in and ruined throughout the rest of the game, especially George who persistently shook his head as he remembered what Lennie had done.
Back by the horses, was Lennie, leaning on a fence as he stroked the mane of a beige coloured stallion with his bear like paws; the horse was still and didn’t minding the constant patting and stroking of Lennie’s fingers. Beside Lennie a great oak tree stood tall, each leaf it held was a different colour, brown, bronze, yellow, gold, altogether creating a perfect example of Gods creation. Beneath the tree lay even more leaves, all crinkled up yet still showing their unique colours. In the tree was a small bird’s nest with three chirping blackbirds inside being brightly shown in front of a faultless sunset. “I dint’ mean to upset George, I dint mean to, I swear. You believe me don’t’cha Sandy?” Whispered Lennie to the horse. “Y’ar very soft and cuddly Sandy, why I could stand here all day jus pattin’ ya.” Lennie explained, hoping that the horse would somehow reply to him. There was a small crackle as a slender woman with black hair stepped on some of the leaves, her lips were sparkling red and she was wearing a red silk dress, all matching her high heeled shoes which were also red. The woman had obviously made an effort to look nice and be noticed, she walked slowly towards Lennie making a crackle again, Lennie look back away from the horse, gazing at her red dress. The woman stopped and looked intimately at Lennie as if waiting for him to speak to her. After a longed wait the woman finally spoke “Well… Are ya not gonna’ say nothin’ or what?” There was no reply. “Huh? Well… typical, y’ar jus like the rest of em’.” She turned around and started walking away to find someone else to talk to. Lennie’s eyes followed the woman’s dress and then asked, “d’ya like horses?” The woman turned her head again and smiled at Lennie, he smiled back in excitement.
“Yuh huh, everybody likes horses,” she replied as she walked towards the fence beside Lennie.
“What’s her name?”
“I called her Sandy, cos, cos she’s a sandy colour,” the woman’s hand reached out and stroked the horse’s mane. Lennie’s head turned being distracted by the bright red dress.
“She’s soft,” said the woman but Lennie’s eyes were fixed on the red dress. Lennie reached out and touched the dress where it was covering the woman’s waist, the woman stepped back in shock. “What d’ya fink ya doin?!” The dress was smooth and Lennie wanted to touch it again, he stared at the dress and nothing more.
“I jus wanta stroke the dress,” the woman was confused wondering why someone would want to stroke her dress. Lennie stepped towards the woman looking at nothing other than the dress and then started stroking it again.
“Get off’a me!” the woman shouted, slapping Lennie’s hand away. Lennie was bemused, and grabbed hold of the dress her shouting only made him hold on tighter. “I said stop! Get off!” The woman yelled and then started to scream, but it was no use Lennie was too confused and held on tightly. Like the woman the horse got scared as well and reared up on to two legs neighing in fear.
George had finished his game of poker, going all in and losing a couple of hands after Lennie had interrupted, walking back to the bunkhouse he heard the screams and ran round to where he had told Lennie to wait. Before even getting there George knew it had something to do with Lennie. He ran at Lennie and tried to prise his hands off the woman, “Lennie let go. I said let go God damn it!” Lennie was overpoweringly strong and held on firmly, the woman was still screaming in fear. George backed away and looked around for something to use to get Lennie off; he picked up a small rock and smacked Lennie on his back with it. Lennie let go of the dress immediately and fell to the floor holding his back, with his mouth wide open yelling, the woman ran away crying over the incident.
“Lennie ya gotta’ let go when I tell ya to okay?!”
“Argh, owie!” Lennie still yelled out in agony.
“C’mon now, t’wasnt that bad. Get up, we gotta’ get going!”
“It hurts George!” Lennie said as he got up off the ground. “Is there any blood George?” Lennie asked turning his head round and lifting his shirt up to try and see his back. George looked at his back; there was no blood but a dark bruised mark. “Naaa there’s no blood, jus a little scratch that’s all, now lets go,”
The two men ran away from the area which was now covered in darkness as the sun disappeared, they burst open the door to the bunkhouse where all their belongings were; nobody was in there as they were all still playing poker. George grabbed his possessions and threw them onto a bed sheet which Lennie quickly mimicked and before anyone noticed the two men were out the bunkhouse and running south towards the forest.
After about a quarter of a mile George looked back at the ranch to see the woman had got the rest of the workers involved. “Ya idiot Lennie! She’s only gone and told the whole God damn ranch on ya, probably thought ya were trying to rape her or summin’!” George said in annoyance.
“What?! I wasn’t trying to rape her George! I jus wanted to stroke her dress,”
“I know ya dint’ try ‘n rape her ya wouldn’t even know how! Anyway, we can’t keep this up, I’m knackered and they’ll soon be on our tail, we’ll have to hide.” George explained looking around for some place out of sight. “It’s too far to get to the forest so we’ll have to lie down in one of these irrigation ditches,”
“But it’s all dirty George…”
“Well d’ya see anywhere else to hide Lennie! Besides t’was your fault we’re in this mess anyways! Now get in that ditch.”
“O, o okay George, sorry George,” Lennie replied, face down as he walked past George and jumped into the ditch. George followed and they hid themselves under a bit of shrubbery.
“It’s late nows anyways, betta gets some sleep and we’ll head down south tomorra’,” whispered George.
“Goodnight George,” Lennie said hoping for George to say the same back, but George was too annoyed at Lennie to reply. There was silence throughout the night apart from the whistling of the wind and the odd shout coming from the ranch. The moonlight was soon covered by dark clouds forming a layer of black darkness over Weed, not even the icy white tops of Mount Shasta were visible.