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Father was expecting the two new workers yesterday but it was no surprise they didn't turn up. You can't trust no God damn son-of-a-bitch these days! I'm sure-as-hell that I would have them sleeping out in the fields when the finally arrived; show the bastards who's boss!
Once again, I had no idea where my wife had gone so I decided that I should go and ask Candy. He seems to know everything, except today of course; he had no idea where she was.
I took a short walk around the ranch but I still hadn't found her. It was turning out to be another typical morning on the ranch; looking for my wife. Is this what married life was going to be like? Anyway, I decided that I should return to Candy's bunk house and ask where my old man had gotten to; I wanted to find out if those new workers had arrived. But my question was answered when I saw the two new guys in the bunk house. One was a short, tough little guy and the other a big lump. I asked them who they were and a few questions like that but not once did the big guy open his mouth. God, I hate big guys like him. Think they're better than me just because they're so big? He's a dumb bastard, he didn't want to talk one bit! Besides, at least they've arrived now.
Later that day I was watching Lennie, the big guy. God, he can buck barley well. Like a bull! I'm not so sure I could sock him one if he started something! So dumb he probably wouldn't start anything! That George, the one that's travelling with him must be trying to put something over. I swear he's telling him not to talk! I'd laugh so much if I was right.
It all started one night when I was asking Slim if he'd seen my wife; he suggested I was trying to say something. He thought I was suggesting that he'd been with my wife. If I'm honest, I was. She's never around and I don't know why but I needed someone to blame for it. And then Carlson had a go; he said that if I leave her hanging around bunk houses then she's going to end up doing something with one of those guys! What a son-of-a-bitch! He's trying to say that she's a tart! I suppose, if I'm truthful she is a tart, I hardly see her around the ranch. But what happened next I was even more outraged by; that God damn Lennie grinning like a fool! 'What's so God damn funny?' I thought. Without thinking I swung at him. I wanted to give that big bastard a piece of me! But he grabbed my next punch and squeezed it hard. The pain was immense. It was like a ton bearing down on my whole body as the pain moved from my hand to cover the whole of my lifeless arm and then the rest of my body and limbs. I lay there; almost dead.
The next I remembered being taken to the doctor. I wasn't dead at all, but the pain felt like it! Those guys at the ranch made me promise that I said that I caught my hand in a machine and then they wouldn't go telling people that I was starting a fight with that dumb bastard. Maybe I should try and lie low now, take it easy for a while, maybe even sit and talk with my wife. This is what I planned to do someday until one day when I heard shouting coming from the barn. Candy was shouting, something about my wife.
That Lennie guy, he did it! Everyone else was playing horseshoes. It had to be Lennie! I wanted to murder him! Lynch him, for everyone to see what he did! He killed my wife! But he'd gone. I ran... We ran. We were going to kill him. I had my gun. But he'd gone.
Later we found him already dead by the river, George had killed him. I should have seen it coming. Could have stopped it. No one had to die. No one, but I was ready for a fight. I wanted this, didn't I?