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The quiet of the valley after what had happened said it all.
And now the sorrow started to sink in, for George who had traveled all over with Lennie through the good and bad. And for Lenny, his loyal partner who had made sure Lennie actually lived his life. Enjoying soft dates by the creek or talking about their favorite animals.
When Curley arrived and saw that Lennie was already dead a scowl crawled over his face and his horse trotted away, leaving George with the scene of his despair. He sunk to his knees as a harsh guilt ran through him. What had he done? While it was for the good of Lennie to be put out of his misery, being unaware and in the presence of someone he knew. There's still that dirty disgusting guilt, like maybe if he tried hard enough he could of stopped it, maybe if he was more aware he could've kept a better eye on the whole situation. But no, Lennie is dead and now is body will start to rot out here probably not even getting a proper funeral, just a sad mention when back at the ranch before everyone moves on.
When Curley rode back into Tyler ranch and proudly announced that Lennie was dead, smirking and acting like he was the one who actually killed him. A cocky smirk slipping onto his face no care in the world for his passed wife, he only saw the whole situation as a threat to his authority.
When Lenny heard of this news, the first thing that hit him was shock and almost disbelief, "they didn't actually kill him" Lenny thought but when George returned without Lennie, that's when it really sunk in for him. Lenny started to hysterically cry. All the emotions flooding through him as he tried to process his grief. Tears flooded down his face making the stressful situation more overwhelming as he felt like he was unable to control his breathing, a sickening sense of panic ran through him. This nauseous nervousness hit Lenny like a truck, he felt like his whole world was collapsing because at the end of the day, Lennie was the only one who really understood him.
As the days passed, Lenny noticed that the goats at the ranch started to act different, they started to bleat more and act extremely restless as well as losing their appetite, all like they themselves were mourning a loss. But no goats at the ranch had died, that was the first odd occurrence. Lenny took that as the goats had noticed his more withdrawn personality, and just assumed the goats were mirroring his actions.
Little did he know that was not the case, as the goats continued to do their seemingly odd mourning routine something else appeared that didn't make sense. One day while Lenny was out in the main yard sweeping he saw a rabbit, maybe he hadn't been paying too much attention before but he'd never seen a rabbit in these parts before. So out of curiosity he went to ask Slim if that was normal.
"Slim, are there usually rabbits out here? I jus' seen one hoppin' by and it's got me confused because I ain't seen one before" Lenny asked. "Well yea there are a few different breeds of rabbit out here but they usually live out ina' brush, don't know what they would be doin' here." Slim said, a confused look on this face before continuing. "That sure is weird" Lenny nodded thinking about why the rabbits were only doing that now.
Later that day while Lenny was walking over to Crook's shed he saw more of those rabbits, they were the same ones as before they had this brownish grey fur and little cottentails, they weren't large like other rabbits Lenny had seen they had a more petite form. Why were these rabbits here? Slim said they lived in the brush why were they out in the hot oppressive sun of the ranch instead of the cooler temperatures of the brush, it was definitely an odd behavior. Curiosity got the better of Lenny as he moved closer to these rabbits, they acted completely different to the usual untamed rabbit. They nuzzled up to Lenny they nudged him they purred at him the were happily hopping around and adoring him. Within the span of a few minutes Lenny was surrounded by a colony of brush rabbits (around 15 of them) were crowding around him.
After a a few minutes of playing with these rabbits petting them and cuddling them Curley came by and scolded Lenny. "Oi! Lenny! Get your ass back to workin' we ain't paying you to stand around lookin' stupid. Get movin'!" Lenny nodded and reluctantly left the rabbits walking over to where Crooks was in his room/shed.
"Crooks, you notice that the goats been acting weird, they ain't eating recently, they gonna get sick if they don't keep eating, what do we do?" Lenny asked, worried about his goats. "I don't know Lenny," Crooks sighed heavily before continuing "Just give some more food and monitor over them, maybe they've noticed how stressed you are, you should probably work on that" Crooks commented. Lenny took the advice, "Ok, give them more food and not show them I'm upset? I can do that!" Lenny said confidently.
So the next day Lenny went out with an extra large portion of goat food and went over to their pen, he noticed how the goats were just laying down, Lenny went into the pen set the food on the trough before going to pet the goats. Ruffling the fur on their head as they slowly stood up to inspect the food. Though none of them ate, Lenny watched that confused, he left the pen and went to the brush to find some sort of new greens for the goats to try, maybe that would help them eat.
While Lenny was out there looking at the different leaves and greens for the goats he heard a voice behind him, originally he ignored it, Lenny had visual and auditory hallucinations all the time and they had gotten worse especially after Lennie's passing. But something was different about this 'hallucination', it sounded exactly like him, like Lennie. Lenny turned around to see what or who it was.
When he turned he saw this ghostly aura floating by a tree, it's outline faintly like a tall man. "Lenny! Lenny! Did you see the rabbits, they were just the perfect ones, they had the big ears and the cute mouths and the little fluffy tails" The aura started to ramble in an excited tone. "Lennie, puppy is that you?" Lenny asked, not fully believing the situation because of his history with hallucinations. "Yes! Oh yes bunny it's me, Lennie, I sent you the bunnies to let you know that I was okay, but then stupid Curley sent you away." Lennie said, you could almost hear the pout in his voice. "That was you? That was really really you?" Lenny said amazed, his eyes widening slightly. "I've missed you baby, it's been so different and difficult without you." Lenny continued, his eyes tearing up. "You're never without me Lenny! I'll- I'll always be there with you, I was the rabbits and I was looking over the goats too so I was! I ain't leaving you alone bunny I promise I'll be with you" Lennie reassured.
Lenny nodded, taking every word that Lennie said as some divine prayer, "Lennie, darlin', I love you so much and I'll always love you, even if you are a ghost now, I'll always listen you, can you tell me about your favourite rabbits one more time, I just want to hear you".
"Ok! My favourite rabbits are the really big ones, you know, the giant bunnies, like them ones because their bigger and harder to break, I won't be hurting those ones, and they are real soft too, got that nice fur on them so they do Lenny." Ghost Lennie rambles causing Lenny to start to cry of relief, he was so happy that Lennie had never really left him, he would always be there for him, maybe just not physically. "Bunny, if I ever did get one of those rabbits, could I get one with the real big dewlaps, I like how they look" Ghost Lennie giggles to himself as he thinks about it. "Do you not already have one of those rabbits? Being in an afterlife and all?" Lenny playfully questioned while sniffling, "Mm! I do, it's the softest rabbit ever Lennie!! And it likes to sit and let me let it all day and I don't even hurt it!! We's just like two peas in a pod so we are Bunny!" Ghost Lennie happily cheered. Before Lennie could continue, Lenny heard Curley's shouting trying to find where Lenny was, Ghost Lennie spoke again. "You better get back to the ranch though, I promise I'll talk to you when you get there!" Lenny nodded and followed Lennie's word as if it was law, picking some interesting greens for the goats and heading back.
As Lenny returned to the ranch, he entered the goats pen and set down the new greens, the goats moved over and sniffed the new food and actually eating it! Lenny now was overjoyed, he knew that his husband was safe and that his goats were going to be ok!! As Lenny went to leave the pen he saw those rabbits that were meant to live in the brush again. But instead of being confused, Lenny smiled comforted by the fact that they would always be together.