Of Mice and Men and The Moon Is Down (Penguin Classics) by John Steinbeck

Author:John Steinbeck [Steinbeck, John]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2010-04-27T00:00:00+00:00

GEORGE [in a hoarse whisper]: Get in the tules—quick. LENNIE: I ain’t done nothing, George. [The voices are very close.]

GEORGE [frantically]: Get in the tules—damn you. [Voices are nearly there. GEORGE half pushes LENNIE down among the tules. The tops rustle showing his crawling progress.]

WHIT [offstage]: There’s George. [Enters.] Better not get so far ahead. You ain’t got a gun. [Enter SLIM, CARLSON , BOSS, CURLEY,and three other ranch hands. They are armed with shotguns and rifles.]

CARLSON: He musta come this way. Them prints in the sand was aimed this way.

SLIM [has been regarding GEORGE]: Now look. We ain’t gonna find him stickin’ in a bunch this way. We got to spread out.

CURLEY: Brush is pretty thick here. He might be lying in the brush. [Steps toward the tules. GEORGE moves quickly after him.]

SLIM [Seeing the move speaks quickly]: Look—[pointing]— up there’s the county road an’ open fields an’ over there’s the highway. Le’s spread out an’ cover the brush.

BOSS: Slim’s right. We got to spread.

SLIM:We better drag up to the roads an’ then drag back.

CURLEY: ’Member what I said—shoot for his guts.

SLIM: Okay, move out. Me an’ George’ll go up to the county road. You guys gets the highway an’ drag back.

BOSS: If we get separated, we’ll meet here. Remember this place.

CURLEY: All I care is getting the bastard. [The men move offstage right, talking. SLIM and GEORGE move slowly upstage listening to the voices that grow fainter and fainter.]

SLIM [softly to GEORGE]: Where is he? [GEORGE looks at him in the eyes for a long moment. Finally trusts him and points with his thumb toward the tules.]

SLIM: You want—I should—go away? [GEORGE nods slowly, looking at the ground. SLIM starts away, comes back, tries to say something, instead puts his hand on GEORGE’S shoulder for a second, and then hurries off upstage.]

GEORGE [moves woodenly toward the bank and the tule clump and sits down]: Lennie! [The tules shiver again and LENNIE emerges dripping.]

LENNIE: Where’s them guys goin’? [Long pause.]

GEORGE: Huntin’.

LENNIE: Whyn’t we go with ’em? I like huntin’. [Waits for an answer. GEORGE stares across the river.] Is it ’cause I done a bad thing?

GEORGE: It don’t make no difference.

LENNIE: Is that why we can’t go huntin’ with them guys?

GEORGE [woodenly]: It don’t make no difference. . . . Sit down, Lennie. Right there. [The light is going now. In the distance there are shouts of men. GEORGE turns his head and listens to the shouts.]

LENNIE: George!

GEORGE: Yeah?

LENNIE: Ain’t you gonna give me hell?

GEORGE: Give ya hell?

LENNIE: Sure. . . . Like you always done before. Like—“If I didn’ have you I’d take my fifty bucks . . .”

GEORGE [softly as if in wonder]: Jesus Christ, Lennie, you can’t remember nothing that happens. But you remember every word I say!

LENNIE: Well, ain’t you gonna say it?

GEORGE [reciting]: “If I was alone I—could live—so easy. [His voice is monotonous.] I could get a job and not have no mess. . . .”

LENNIE: Go on, go on! “And when the end of the month come .

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