But it wasn’t all, you know? Not by a long shot. I’d’ve sworn that I never held no malice toward no one, never a speck of hatred. Or if lever had felt sort of a teensy twinge of dislike, it hadn’t been the motivatin’ factor in whatever I’d done.

That’s the way I felt about myself, anyways, until Amy’d said what she’d said. And now I was kind of worried. I could put Ken Lacey out of my mind, since I wasn’t going to take any action against him. But the others, well, they were all part of the same pattern, weren’t they? And if I’d been showing spite toward Ken, then maybe I’d been doing the same thing with them.

And maybe, in the case of what I was about to do, the people I was about to take care of

But it had to be done, I reckoned. It had to be, and I didn’t have no choice in the matter.

I was willing to let things ride; I’m long sufferin’, you might say. But they wouldn’t have it that way.

Rose was callin’ Myra every day, hinting that she needed me to do this or that for her. And Myra kept naggin’ at me to go out and do what Rose wanted done (which wasn’t what Myra thought it was). And Amy was insistin’ that I couldn’t see Rose but one more time—no more, or else. And Lennie had taken one of his spells of tagging after me, and spying on me. And—

And finally it was Saturday night, last night, and I couldn’t hold out no longer. They were all asking for it! And like the Good Book says, Ask and ye shall receive.

It was about eight in the evening, about an hour after sunset.

I came running down the cotton rows, half-stooped, which didn’t conceal me much because it was a low stand of cotton. In the dusk, just about anyone nearby could see me, and they didn’t even have to be too nearby. And that was the way I wanted it.

Lennie didn’t like to walk. Ordinarily, he’d never go outside the town limits. It had really been a job to act sneaky and creepy enough to tote him way out here to Rose’s place.

I came out of the cotton, and made a dash toward the house. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Lennie rising up in the field. Gawking openly, as I reached the house and pounded on the door. He really thought he had me now, Lennie did; he had me and Rose. He’d caught me sneaking into her house at night, so pretty soon now he was going to do some peeking. And then he’d go back to town with a fine story to tell Myra. A real juicy story about her own husband and her best friend.

That was just the way I wanted it.

That was the way I’d planned it.

Lennie was going to get a story for Myra, all right, but it would be a lot nastier than he figured on.