‘Go get ready Lennie’ asked George. Lennie started changing with no words except a big smile on his face, like a child with new shoes. Later that night when they we’re walking through town to ‘ol’joes’’.
Lennie mumbled ‘I-I’m hungry’ ‘WILL YOU SHUT UP!!, We’ve only been walking for five minutes’ replied George. They carried on walking when Lennie spied a woman that looked quiet like Curley’s wife on a street corner. ‘That woman is real purty George. Real purty!’ said Lennie gawking at the woman.
‘Now listen here, Lennie. You hang around people like them and you’ll catch a disease or worse something ‘will fall off’ explained George. ‘But she ain’t ugly G-George’ answered Lennie. ‘You don’t understand where I’m coming from, do you?’ said George. ‘Err…Yeah’ thought Lennie. George answered swiftly ‘well she charges for a ding-dong’ ‘Huh?’ replied Lennie deeply confused. ‘SHE…IS…A WHORE’, ‘oh…but she looks like a girl’ replied Lennie confidently’.
‘argh…lets just go!’ screamed George. ‘sure George’ answered Lennie saddened.
Later that evening outside ‘ol’joes’. George asked, “ when we go in you don’t open your mouth! You understand Lennie!” ‘but why?’ replied Lennie, “just shut up and eat, ok?” yelled George. ‘ok…’ frowned Lennie, ‘OK?’ repeated George. ‘ok!’ answered Lennie.
They went in, Lennie following George…
“Table for two, please” said George, Lennie stood nervously, still thinking about what George said before hand. “yeah right this way” said the waiter and took them to a table in a corner.
There was a window next to the table. Through it you could see the lights of the town. They both sat, Lennie taking his time to sit down so he didn’t damage anything with his big bulky body. When they sat Lennie started fiddling with the napkins, while George was looking through the menu.
Then there was a clinking noise. George looked up, Lennie was playing with the cutlery, George just shrugged with a sharp smile on his face and went back to looking at the menu. Then Lennie noticed the view outside of the window. “ George, George!” cried Lennie excitedly. “What?” replied George anxiously. “Look outside George!Quick!”
George looked outside the window. There were building’s with bright lights and behind all the buildings, way into the distance, the ranch could be seen but Lennie hadn’t noticed the ranch yet. Lennie was looking at the lights real fascinated.
“Hey Lennie there’s the ranch,” said George. “W-Where?” asked Lennie, George replied “look south and you’ll see it near the road”. Lennie looked through the window baffled and kept scanning the landscape, until he found it. “There it is, there it is…but it’s so small what happened to it” Lennie told George, “Its just real far away that’s all” “b-but George” “Here is your meal gentlemen” said the waiter cutting Lennie off. “Eat up, Lennie” said George. Lennie didn’t pay attention to what George said. He just started eating without hesitation. George just laughed at Lennie.
Lennie finished his first, George had three white potatoes left and started eating the third. Lennie just looked at the two potatoes left on George’s plate. He stared at them with the hunger of a lion, his mouth wide with saliva.
George was feeling guilty, but he thought, “If I give in and let him take one, he’ll want the other”. Lennie’s look was starting to irritate George. Then he saw it, a small drop of saliva had dripped from Lennie’s mouth and on to his plate.
George snapped at Lennie after seeing this “Here! Take the damn potatoes if you must!” “Thanks, George.” Lennie shuffled both potatoes in his mouth one after the other and chewed them simultaneously.
George grew angry because he gave his potatoes to Lennie. After Lennie finished he thanked George one last time for the spuds. George didn’t answer; instead he was just quiet. Lennie could see that George was angry. He wanted to ask why but knew it might make things worse.
They sat waiting for the waiter to come with the bill, Lennie started playing with his knife and folk again and started tapping on his plate, George was growing impatient with every single tap but decided not to snap at Lennie because it would upset him and spoil lennie’s day. After all, this was to make up for missing Lennie’s birthday.
A couple of minutes passed and George was growing more impatient when the waiter came. “Is that all gentlemen or would you like the dessert special?” “W-What is it?” Lennie asked, “Apple pie and custard!” “Um…..” Lennie thought and started dribbling at the thought of eating this dessert.
George saw this and decided that he might as well get it for Lennie, “Two dessert’s then, please, and Lennie wipe your mouth” “Ok, two desserts coming up it will be around 10 minutes”
Lennie started speaking as the waiter left “Oh thanks George, you’re my bestest, bestest, bestest friend.” George just laughed happily. “Well that’s nice to hear.” George sat happily waiting while Lennie started fiddling once more but this time kicking his feet in anticipation of the dessert that was awaiting him.
George started to grow impatient again and decided to start a conversation with Lennie to stop him fidgeting. “So, Lennie what sort of rabbits are you wanting to tend?” “any kind G-George as long as their r-really fluffy and cuddly” “what colours do you want, then?” “er…m-maybe white, Yeah! White George.” “So you like white rabbits huh?” “Ah sure do, George.”
As Lennie agreed, George noticed a rabbit outside of the window. George stared at the rabbit; it reminded him of Lennie. Then with a blink of an eye the rabbit was gone. George saw Lennie in front of him as happy as a child and started to wonder how long Lennie would be this happy. Then he thought about the way he acted towards Lennie and couldn’t believe Lennie still wanted to hang with him. He decided he was going to change the way he acted around Lennie.
Lennie finished his dessert and sat smiling. He had a little dab of custard on his left cheek but Lennie never noticed, he was to busy dreaming.
George stood up after leaving the money on the table for the bill. “Lennie, let’s go home. You must be tired,” said George. “I’m sleepy, George …but I’m still hungry.” George chuckled in disbelief, “come on, Lennie” “ok, George”.
As they got outside and started walking back to the ranch, George said “Lennie, you’re my best bud” “I know” “But Lennie, this is the first time I told ya. How ya know?” “well, only…a, a true friend would let their bud tend rabbits.”
George just chuckled with great happiness and as Lennie started to talk about the wonderful different rabbits, George thought to himself “I’ll never ever, let no harm come to Lennie ever!!”
Jimal Sagaiar 11GZ
