The deep green pool of the Salinas River was still in the late afternoon. Already the sun had left the valley to go climbing up the slopes of the Gabilan Mountains, and the hilltops were rosy in the sun. But by the pool among the mottled sycamores, a pleasant shade had fallen. A water snake glided smoothly up the pool, twisting its periscope head from side to side; and it swam the length of the pool and came to the legs of a motionless heron that stood in the shallows. A silent head and beak lanced down and plucked it out by the head, and the beak swallowed the little snake while its tail waved frantically. A far rush of wind sounded and a gust drove through the tops of the trees like a wave. The sycamore leaves turned up their silver sides, the brown, dry leaves on the ground scudded a few feet. And row on row of tiny wind waves flowed up the pool’s green surface.
As quickly as it had come, the wind died, and the clearing was quiet again. The heron stood in the
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He could see the little water snakes head peeking out from the reeds, curious as to what the overly large man was doing. Lennie sat on the banks edge, cross-legged and still watching the snake. They both looked at each other, the beady eyes of the snake reflecting in Lennie’s bigger ones. They stayed like that for a while, just staring at each other.
“You’re just a little thing, ain’t you?” Lennie whispered, “just like Curley’s wife, well hell, I didn’t even know her name.” Lennie made this realization while speaking. The snake had slithered out of the reeds, growing more curious and realizing he was not a threat.
“She was red like you are a little snake, red cheeks, red mules, red fingernails.” The snake wore the same dazed look Lennie had worn so many times before. Lennie saw himself in the snake, feared by almost everyone, but not bad entirely, just misunderstood. “Of course, she was a lot prettier than you are,” he said to the