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Lennie sat on the cool shaded ground, he looked across the small trickling stream as Geroge's words filled the space around them. With his fingers dug into the damp earth, dirt getting under his nails, he didn't think of Curley's dead wife or how he had killed her. Lennie only thought about their place, their dream, the place Geroge had always told them that would be theirs only if they worked hard enough and Lennie acted as good as he could be.
Across the stream Lennie looked, and just like George had told him, he was starting to see their special place. He saw it in the odd shapes of the leaves, he saw it in how the sun shone through the canopy and made the water sparkle, he saw it in the smooth creek bed stones.
"Go on, Geroge! When we gonna do it?" Lennie asked.
"Gonna do it real soon."
"Me an' you," And Lennie smiled. He wondered if George could see their place too. He almost turned around but he remembered that George wanted him to see their place as he told the story.
"You…" Geroge breathed heavily behind Lennie, and when he spoke again he sounded almost like he was in pain. "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 licked his lips and they tasted like sweat. His smile fell, "I thought you was mad at me, Geroge."
"No," Said Geroge. "No, Lennie. I ain't mad. I never been mad, an' I ain't now. That's.. that's a thing I want ya to know."
Somewhere around them Lennie heard voices, men's voices. He didn't think about them very much. "Le's do it now, George." His smile was back, he closed his eyes and took in a big breath. The air was hot and smelled like the stream. "Le's get that place now."
"Sure, right now. I gotta. We gotta."
***
And when Lennie opened his eyes, he wasn't in the brush by the steam anymore, no he was in a bright green field of grass and clover. He turned around and was scared to see that George wasn't with him.
Lennie stood up, he had never been in such a big green place. Or at least he couldn't remember it. "George!" He walked in a slow circle. "George, where are you?" He looked around and saw a house a ways away. He looked behind him and saw that George still wasn't there.
"I'll go to the house," Lennie said to himself as he took the first step forward towards the house. "An' George'll be there I bet." He smiled hopefully and continued to walk.
But as Lennie walked, he got distracted. His eyes frequently traveled away from the house and to the ground. The ground had plenty dandelions with yellow heads as big as silver dollars, Lennie bent down and picked one from the bottom of its stem. He brought it up to his nose and nearly inhaled the whole thing as he smelled it. The ranch hardly had any flowers, and when Lennie was there George never let him pick any. Lennie looked at the flower and suddenly sneezed loudly. Then he looked up at the house, as he did so he carefully put the dandelion in his pocket for later.
As Lennie got closer to the house, he started to notice more things about it. Like how it had a scarecrow in the garden wearing a patched hat, or how big fat brown chickens pecked around the yard. But it was only when Lennie saw big blue painted rabbit hutches did he really get an interest. He picked up his speed and ran to the hutches.
His breath was heavy and hot by the time Lennie got to the rabbits on the side of the house. He peeked inside their cages and saw so many rabbits! Brown ones, floppy eared ones, white ones with bright red eyes, black ones, even ones so fluffy and hairy that he couldn't see their eyes. He was just reaching out to slide the latch open when he heard a screen door slam.
Lennie jumped away from the rabbits at the sudden noise and looked over to see no one but his Aunt Clara. She was just how he had seen her in his vision too, except now she was frowning sadly. "What are you doin' here Lenny?"
"Lookin' for George, Aunt Clara.." Lennie said distractedly, his eyes traveling to the rabbits.
With a sigh Aunt Clara walked over to Lennie and wrapped an arm around him, since she was so short and he was so tall it only went around his waist. "Well, he ain't here." And she lead Lennie over to the front steps. "Son, get your eye off those rabbits and listen to me!" She snapped at him seeing that Lennie had twisted his neck at a sharp angle to look at the rabbits for as long as he could.
Lennie instantly looked down at his aunt. "Where is he 'un?" He asked. "George don't go without telling me where."
With a sigh Aunt Clara's arm moved to take ahold of Lennie's giant hand. "He just ain't here, can't say when he will." She shook her head and opened the screen door. As soon as she did a brown and white puppy bolted from the inside of the house and ran around Lennie's legs, barking.
Lennie's eyes widened and he quickly bent down to scoop up the jabbering puppy. "A pup!" He said wildly. It looked just like his did, except it was bigger than before and his neck wasn't broken. "I thought you was dead, Dog!"
"Dog?" Aunt Clara asked as she walked into the house. "What kind of a name for a dog is that?"
Lennie didn't hear her however, he was too immersed in his puppy to notice anything. The puppy licked his hand wet and no matter how much Lennie petted it the puppy didn't get hurt. He looked up with a large grin on his face to see that they were in a kitchen.
His Aunt Clara and Curley's wife were talking. Curley's wife was sitting at the kitchen table and she looked more beautiful than ever, even though Lennie noticed she didn't have her face painted. He was surprised, first his puppy and now her. He couldn't think of how they all got here.
When Aunt Clara and Curley's wife noticed that Lennie was now back in the moment, they stopped talking. "I suppose you two know each other?" Aunt Clara asked as Curley's wife stood up, she had on a clean white dress with small red hearts all over. Her feathery fancy shoes were gone instead for dark red, flat ones.
"Yes'sum." Lennie nodded, the puppy scrambled out of his arms and ran to Curley's wife. She gave it a quick pat on the head but stayed where she was at. "I know I wasn't 'possed to talk to you none.. But," Lennie eyed the puppy for a moment but looked back up at Curley's wife. Her hair had no hay in it now, it was dark and clean and curled softly around her face. "But I wanted to 'pologize for hurtin' you some. I thought I killed ya dead!" Lennie smiled and looked back at his puppy. "Dog too."
Curley's wife and Aunt Clara shared a sad look that Lennie didn't notice. With steps nearly as quiet as a mouse's, Curley's wife stepped across the room to Lennie, Dog following behind her nipping at her ankles. She put a hand on his shoulder. "It's fine now.." She smiled sadly and looked down at the floor. "I'm right happy here, happier than I was with that stinkin' Curley." Anger crossed her face for a moment but she took a breath and shook her head. "Never had nobody to talk to at the ranch, let alone any ladies to talk to. But your Aunt Clara is a right nice lady you know." She smiled and looked over at her.
Lennie hardly heard a word of what Curley's wife had said, he had trouble focusing on her words when he was more focused on how pretty she looked. "When's George comin'?" He asked.
Curley's wife took her hand off of Lennie's shoulder and looked to Aunt Clara. "He.. He shouldn't be long, but ever'body gets here at different time y'know." Aunt Clara gave her a small nod at this.
"But.." Lennie's face screwed up in confusion. "Don't he know where I am? George said we'd be comin' here…"
"He did?" Aunt Clara asked quietly.
"Yes, ma'am." Lennie nodded, a troubled expression came over his face. "This 'un, this is the right place. Our placed.. George said we was coming."
"And what type of place was this to you two?" Curley's wife asked.
"Our place!" Lennie threw down his arm, getting worked up. "He said I gotta tend the rabbits if I was good, an' 'un we'd have a garden and some berries, 'n chickens!" He said his voice getting louder and then he stopped, and breathed heavily. "We was gonna live offa the fatta the land." And slowly Lennie walked passed his stunned Aunt Clara and Curley's wife and sat down at the kitchen table. He didn't feel much excited about his puppy anymore, or even the rabbits.. He missed George. "Maybe it was like Crooks said.. May'b George left me." He spoke quietly, tears welling in his eyes.
"Oh leave it to that mean old Crooks to put a sense of scarin' into people," Curley's wife huffed. "He's just mean, as mean as a striped snake!" She stomped her foot. "'N he don't have haftta' right tellin' you 'un this nonsense."
Aunt Clara put her hand on Curley's wife's shoulder and patted it. "Now's not the time, why don' you get the pie from the window, Virginia? Food helps all matters."
Even though she looked like she could keep sputtering on about the old stable buck like some broken water pump, Virginia nodded and left the room.
Aunt Clara sighed under her breath and turned back around to Lennie. With the end of her apron she dried his eyes. "Don't you worry none, George hasn't left you. He's just makin' things right."
Lennie sniffled at his aunt's touch and closed his eyes for her to easier clean him up. Then he quickly opened them again. "Aunt Clara, who's Virginia?"
Aunt Clara looked at him confusedly and pointed behind her to where Curley's wife had left the room. "Why that fine young lady who's with us, don't you know her name?" When Lennie only shook his head Aunt Clara sighed heavily. "Then whatchu been callin' her, son?"
"Nothin', ma'am.. I don't call her nothin'."
"Well you can call her by her name, Virginia. An' I won't tolerate you forgettin' it."
Lennie nodded and just then Virginia walked back in with a pie pan in her hands. They all sat down at the table and cut into it. And while they ate, Virginia offered to help Lennie feed the rabbits.
***
The bunkhouse was empty except for two tired souls. Everyone but Slim and George left to take the body of Curley's wife into town to the funeral parlor. Lennie had no funeral, George just buried him right there were he died, thinking about things that made him the most goddamn happy bastard in the world.
The sun's evening orange rays shone through the bunkhouse windows, illuminating the bodies of Slim and George. They were together on George's bunk. George's face was buried in to Slim's chest, he was sobbing and barely breathing while Slim just held him.
"I damn well killed 'm," George hiccuped. "An' the sonofabitches thank me for it." George wasn't a man to cry. He couldn't remember the last time he let himself cry, let alone in front of another man, but Slim was different, he didn't care. And at that moment, George didn't either. "You know what really happened? Don' you?" He finally asked after he mustered the breaths to do it. He didn't look Slim in the eye, instead he just stared at his worn, tear stained shirt.
Slim nodded slowly, his hand rubbed soothing circles into George's back. George wrapped his arms around Slim tighter and willed himself not to cry again. "You done what you had to.." Slim said. "He can't hurt nobody or himself anymore now."
"I coulda.. I coulda taken 'm and run for it. Go on the road again." George said slowly. "Like we did in Weed."
"Then you both would've been killed."
"May'b that's better." George sighed and wiped his nose on his wrist. "Woulda been better than this, livin' with this forever until I'm six feet down."
Slim stayed silent for a long moment, he slowly moved George's face away from his chest. Their eyes met in the gleam of the sunlight, "It might be easier for you, he don't have to suffer anymore now. Why should you? You saved 'm, George, you did."
George stared at Slim and blinked slowly. He opened his mouth to say something, anything, but no words came out. Instead he pulled Slim closer to him and held him like he too was going to leave him. He wanted say that he didn't save Lennie, that he'd never save anybody, but all he managed to say was, "Thank you… We uh, might wanna split up this pow-wow 'fore the others get back." He said embarrassedly.
"We'll be able to hear 'em when they're comin'." Slim muttered, resting his chin on the top of George's head. "Let's stay like this jus' a while longer."
And then they did.