Written by: Bipana Shrestha - 24002, Grade X
Posted on: 08 July, 2021
The moonlight set a silver sheen across every surface of the valley and homestead which spread out between the low hills. Under that benevolent moon, one could mistake it for Eden on a silent night. Peaceful, calm and still. The sound of cattle lowing from the valley floor announced their presence. From a low hillside beside the creek, George surveyed this scene. He was far enough away now that he could not hear Lennie’s gentle snoring, announcing that he, too, was present in this valley.
It was the absence of this bear-like man, which now allowed George to weigh up his choices. He had to decide: stay, or go? A heavy sigh escaped him. A mournful cow called in the valley below.
He had travelled many miles with Lennie. But here, frozen in the clean, white, innocent moonlight, George was torn. Sure, he had promised Lennie’s Aunt Clara that he would look after Lennie. But a promise and a kiss didn’t mean he was bound to Lennie, did it? He had gone on the lonely and tiring road to follow a dream: to find work, then find land, then set up a little place to farm. Yet it felt like sharing that dream with Lennie had made it thinner, harder to grasp, more transparent to the eye. Under the moon’s blind stare, George thought long and hard. If he left now – shoot! – Clara would never know otherwise.
But now, so far away from Clara, his heart had come to long for the company. He sought the
company and camaraderie of men and someone who he thought of as an equal. Lennie was not George’s equal. Not with a mind like his! Matter a’ fact’, George felt the emptiness in repeating the conversations about chasing the dream of the farm, over and over like a scratch in a gramophone recording. It wasn’t even Lennie’s dream. He just wanted them dang rabbits! How could George flourish in the hollow shade of Lennie’s oversized body, with that tiny mind? George felt as if he were drowning, with Lennie pulling him down, like a fishing line when it snagged real hard on a submerged log.
A cloud passed over the moon. George turned on his heel to look back to the homestead. Would his life be any different there tomorrow? Or on the next day? Or the day after that?
“Gosh Darn it!” he grizzled through gritted teeth. He kicked a sod of soil. Why shouldn’t he chase His dream? He knew that if he left now, Lennie would continue up the road tomorrow in search of him. The folk at the homestead would take pity on him. He could do the job of three men. Sure enough they’d take him in. And then what? George would be alone. More alone than when he was with Lennie. No responsibility, sure, but ain’t that freedom? he thought.
Suddenly, from the dark, “George. Whacha doing, George?” Lennie’s call, a few feet away. Geore caught like a coyote in headlights. “Whaddaya doing up here, ya big bear?! Why ain’t ya sleeping where' I left’ ya?” George was upset. Lennie knew it. He’d heard it often enough, lately. “I've seen you get up real quiet an’ all. An’ I followed you here. You ain’t aiming’ to lee’me, is ya George? George ……. Don’ le’ me live in no cave up here!” Desperation in his voice.
A pause. The moon looked on, waiting.
“No, I ain’t gonna leave you in no big ol’ cave. I was….. I was ….. Well, shoot! I was just coming upn’ here to see where we are going tomorrow’. Seeing’ the land, ‘n’ all, aforen’ we walk all that way for nothing.”
“Oh… Ok…” Lennie took a single step forward like a timid deer. “Cuz I fort’ you were a’ leavin’ me, George. An’ …… I didn't’ want’ you to leave’ me. Cuz you’s my friend', George”
“Your friend?” A longer pause. Then, resigned to his fate, “ Yep …. I guess I am your friend.”
That was it. The decision was made like a door being nailed closed. Friends.
George felt his dream quietly sneak away in the moonlight to sleep with the cows. He took a deep breath. “Nah, ya big old Coon dog! I ain’t leaving ya! Who’s gonna git ya them rabbits you wanna pet so bad?”
The big man smiled under the glowing moon.
They both ambled back to the campsite. To the depths of the valley.
Towards tomorrow’s dawn.
