Sometimes he gets thinkin’, an’ he got nothing to tell him what’s so an’ what ain’t so.
Maybe if he sees somethin’, he don’t know whether it’s right or not.
He can’t turn to some other guy and ast him if he sees it too.
He can’t tell.
He got nothing to measure by.
I seen things out here.
I wasn’t drunk.
I don’t know if I was asleep.
If some guy was with me, he could tell me I was asleep, an’ then it would be all right.
But I jus’ don’t know.”
Crooks was looking across the room now, looking toward the window.
Lennie said miserably,
“George wun’t go away and leave me.
I know George wun’t do that.”
The stable buck went on dreamily,
“I remember when I was a little kid on my old man’s chicken ranch.
Had two brothers.
They was always near me, always there.
Used to sleep right in the same room, right in the same bed — all three.
Had a strawberry patch. Had an alfalfa patch.
Used to turn the chickens out in the alfalfa on a sunny morning.
My brothers’d set on a fence rail an’ watch ‘em — white chickens they was.”
Gradually Lennie’s interest came around to what was being said.
“George says we’re gonna have alfalfa for the rabbits.”
“What rabbits?”
“We’re gonna have rabbits an’ a berry patch.”
“You’re nuts.”
“We are too.
You ast George.”
“You’re nuts.” Crooks was scornful. “I seen hunderds of men come by on the road an’ on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an’ that same damn thing in their heads.
Hunderds of them. They come, an’ they quit an’ go on; an’ every damn one of ‘em’s got a little piece of land in his head. An’ never a God damn one of ‘em ever gets it. Just like heaven.
Ever’body wants a little piece of lan’.
I read plenty of books out here.
Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land.
It’s just in their head.
They’re all the time talkin’ about it, but it’s jus’ in their head.”
He paused and looked toward the open door, for the horses were moving restlessly and the halter chains clinked.
A horse whinnied.
“I guess somebody’s out there,” Crooks said. “Maybe Slim.
Slim comes in sometimes two, three times a night.
Slim’s a real skinner.
He looks out for his team.”
He pulled himself painfully upright and moved toward the door.
“That you, Slim?” he called.
Candy’s voice answered.
“Slim went in town.
Say, you seen Lennie?”
“Ya mean the big guy?”
“Yeah.
Seen him around any place?”