“You.... 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 said,
“I thought you was mad at me, George.”
“No,” said George.
“No, Lennie.
I ain’t mad.
I never been mad, an’ I ain’t now.
That’s a thing I want ya to know.”
The voices came close now.
George raised the gun and listened to the voices.
Lennie begged,
“Le’s do it now.
Le’s get that place now.”
“Sure, right now. I gotta. We gotta.”
And George raised the gun and steadied it, and he brought the muzzle of it close to the back of Lennie’s head.
The hand shook violently, but his face set and his hand steadied. He pulled the trigger.
The crash of the shot rolled up the hills and rolled down again.
Lennie jarred, and then settled slowly forward to the sand, and he lay without quivering.
George shivered and looked at the gun, and then he threw it from him, back up on the bank, near the pile of old ashes.
The brush seemed filled with cries and with the sound of running feet.
Slim’s voice shouted.
“George.
Where you at, George?”
But George sat stiffly on the bank and looked at his right hand that had thrown the gun away.
The group burst into the clearing, and Curley was ahead.
He saw Lennie lying on the sand.
“Got him, by God.”
He went over and looked down at Lennie, and then he looked back at George. “Right in the back of the head,” he said softly.
Slim came directly to George and sat down beside him, sat very close to him.
“Never you mind,” said Slim. “A guy got to sometimes.”
But Carlson was standing over George.
“How’d you do it?” he asked.
“I just done it,” George said tiredly.
“Did he have my gun?”
“Yeah. He had your gun.”
“An’ you got it away from him and you took it an’ you killed him?”
“Yeah. Tha’s how.” George’s voice was almost a whisper.
He looked steadily at his right hand that had held the gun.
Slim twitched George’s elbow.
“Come on, George.
Me an’ you’ll go in an’ get a drink.”
George let himself be helped to his feet.
“Yeah, a drink.”
Slim said,
“You hadda, George.
I swear you hadda.
Come on with me.”
He led George into the entrance of the trail and up toward the highway.