The End is Here

                                                                                           By Fly

It's been three years since Lennie's death. By now, George and Candy have their dream ranch. They have pigs, bunnies, cows and horses. George had achieved his dream. It didn't feel like it to him. There was something missing. Lennie was missing. It wasn't the same as it was before.

It was a nice, warm morning. The sun was shining onto the crops, into the windows and warming the animals' backs. George uncovers himself from the sheets in his room and steps where the sunlight shines through the window and onto his floor. It gives him a little bit of motivation to go help Candy out of bed and start the day's work.

"Good morning, Ol' Candy," George said.

Candy didn't wake up. It usually takes him a couple of minutes to get out of bed, so George tried again. "We ought to start the day's work, Candy."

Still, Candy wasn't moving. George started to worry. He put his ear to Candy's chest, trying to find a heartbeat. The heartbeat that led George to follow through in his dream was gone. George collapsed to the floor. "Why did you have to go off and die today? You was all I had. Nothin' aint the same no more,"

George was desperate to have some miracle happen so Candy would wake up. He knew it wouldn't come. He knew Candy wouldn't wake up. He knew that life wasn't going to be the same.

As he picked up Candy from his bed, he thought about all of the good times they had. They've had so many good memories together. They went to a baseball game. A couple actually, and they got to name the rabbits together. The brown and white one was Lennie, the black one was Slim, and the hazel one was Peanut.

George slid his boots onto his feet, put on gardening gloves, and grabbed a shovel. He went out to his truck, and drove to the ranch where he once worked. Candy was wrapped in a tarp in the back of the truck.

When George arrived at the ranch, no one was there. It was abandoned. The bunkhouse had windows that were shattered. It had smashed walls where the sun used to shine through. George walked slowly to the back of the bunkhouse where Curley had shot Candy's dog. There was a lump where the dog had been buried. Right next to that George started to dig a hole. It was large enough to fit a man.

When George was done digging, he had unwrapped Candy from the tarp and lightly set him into the grave. He stood next to the grave and paid his respects to Candy. A tear fell from George's face and onto Candy's. George started to fill the grave with the dirt he dug out.

When he was done, George remembered he had something in his right pocket. It was a gun.

George got back in his truck and thought about everything that was good in his life. "Nothin'. There ain't nothin' good for me in this world."

He got out of his truck and walked to the place where he shot Lennie. There was a deep, green pool. There were bunnies, and recumbent limbs of trees laying on the ground. There they were, the bones and pieces of skin of his friend whom he shot in the back of the head.

George pulled the gun out of his right pocket and put it to his temple.

"I have to do this. There ain't no point in livin' anymore. I was supposed to have that ranch with you, Lennie," George said, his voice filled with pain. Bang!