Curley's Wife

"... I coulda made somethin' of myself." She said darkly, "Maybe I will yet."

"... Here—feel right here." She took Lennie's hand and put it on her head. "Feel right aroun' there an' see how soft it is."

Coulda been in the movies, an’ had nice clothes—all them nice clothes like they wear. An’ I coulda sat in them big hotels, an’ had pitchers took of me.

"Look out, now, you’ll muss it." And then she cried angrily, "You stop it now, you’ll mess it all up." She jerked her head sideways, and Lennie’s fingers closed on her hair and hung on.

She had full, rouged lips and wide–spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails were red. Her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages.

"Listen, Nigger," she said. "You know what I can do to you if you open your trap?"

"They left all the weak ones here," she said finally.

"You God damn tramp," he said viciously. "You done it, di’n’t you? I s’pose you’re glad. Ever’body knowed you’d mess things up. ..."

"I lived right in Salinas," she said. "Come there when I was a kid. Well, a show come through, an’ I met one of the actors. He says I could go with that show. But my ol’ lady wouldn’ let me. ..."