When they get there, they run into this old man called Candy - but I'm not exactly sure of why he's important or the relevance of his character. All I know is that he cleans the sleeping quarters of the workers and has a really old, foul-smelling dog. The boss comes in and has a go at George and Lennie because he wanted them to work in the morning, but since they were on the run from their previous town; they didn't get there in time. So he starts to try and talk to Lennie - but George told him not to speak because he would risk them their job opportunity. the boss thinks George is hiding something from him and well...gets a bit suspicious.
So the boss leaves, but then his son Curley walks in. He's described as a short man, with a tanned face and wears leather high heeled boots with spurs. This apparently symbolises his wealth and position. Regardless, Curley is portrayed as - excuse my French - a bit of a twat, to be honest. According to Candy, Curley targets bigger men with violence and aggression because he may be jealous of their size. So Curley starts getting a bit rude towards Lennie, who's a total babe in the sense that he doesn't really know what's best, but at the same time wouldn't intentionally hurt a soul. When he leaves, we find out that Curley's just recently gotten married. And Candy explains that his new wife is a tart, and may have given Curley an STD.
Then we meet a few other characters, including Slim and Carlson - some other workers - but I can't be bothered to explain! Buy the book, so far it's pretty good. I know I've probably made it sound incredibly boring, but it's not. Give it a read, you might enjoy it...
So the other thing I was going to mention is what happened with my cat, Lily. If you're interested (which you probably aren't) she's a lilac colourpoint british shorthair. But, she's also a nightmare and very aggressive. Anyway, I live in the countryside, so she often brings in mice. However, she's so evil to them and doesn't kill them immediately but plays with them - scaring them silly - and then finally eats half of them. And before any of you start saying I should save the mice from their inevitable death - I'd just like to say that I do. But then she catches them again because they're so frightened! It's as though I'm adding to their turmoil by prolonging their torture, so I decided to just leave her to it, and hope they escape unharmed.
So, the other day, she brought in a little mouse. She had it cornered in the conservatory, and was watching it intently. Whenever it tried to make a dash for the door, she batted it with a swift paw - eliminating any chance it had. Then, I went into the conservatory after I had heard the poor mouse squealing. This distracted my cat for long enough for the mouse to run to the radiator, and began to scale the wall behind it! By this point, the mouse had managed to climb up to a safe spot behind the (cold) radiator; completely out of reach from my cat. This angered her immensely, and she eventually gave up and allowed me to save the little mouse and set it free outside, unharmed. See, I did!
And to prove I'm not just making this up for your amusement, here's a picture for you to enjoy.
I have proudly named this brave little creature 'Ninja Mouse'. (apologies for the dusty, cob-web filled radiator, I'll be sure to give it a clean...)
Harri.
