S’pose he gets killed or hurt so he can’t come back.”
Lennie struggled to understand.
“George won’t do nothing like that,” he repeated. “George is careful.
He won’t get hurt.
He ain’t never been hurt, ‘cause he’s careful.”
“Well, s’pose, jus’ s’pose he don’t come back.
What’ll you do then?”
Lennie’s face wrinkled with apprehension.
“I don’ know.
Say, what you doin’ anyways?” he cried. “This ain’t true.
George ain’t got hurt.”
Crooks bored in on him.
“Want me ta tell ya what’ll happen?
They’ll take ya to the booby hatch.
They’ll tie ya up with a collar, like a dog.”
Suddenly Lennie’s eyes centered and grew quiet, and mad.
He stood up and walked dangerously toward Crooks.
“Who hurt George?” he demanded.
Crooks saw the danger as it approached him.
He edged back on his bunk to get out of the way.
“I was just supposin’,” he said. “George ain’t hurt.
He’s all right.
He’ll be back all right.”
Lennie stood over him.
“What you supposin’ for?
Ain’t nobody goin’ to suppose no hurt to George.”
Crooks removed his glasses and wiped his eyes with his fingers.
“Jus’ set down,” he said. “George ain’t hurt.”
Lennie growled back to his seat on the nail keg.
“Ain’t nobody goin’ to talk no hurt to George,” he grumbled.
Crooks said gently,
“Maybe you can see now.
You got George.
You know he’s goin’ to come back.
S’pose you didn’t have nobody.
S’pose you couldn’t go into the bunk house and play rummy ‘cause you was black.
How’d you like that?
S’pose you had to sit out here an’ read books.
Sure you could play horseshoes till it got dark, but then you got to read books.
Books ain’t no good.
A guy needs somebody — to be near him.” He whined, “A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody.
Don’t make no difference who the guy is, long’s he’s with you.
I tell ya,” he cried, “I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an’ he gets sick.”
“George gonna come back,” Lennie reassured himself in a frightened voice. “Maybe George come back already.
Maybe I better go see.”
Crooks said,
“I didn’t mean to scare you.
He’ll come back.
I was talkin’ about myself.
A guy sets alone out here at night, maybe readin’ books or thinkin’ or stuff like that.