Short Story: Mental Illness

On the day of an important meeting Mary decided to entertain the client with stories of her weekend while Jennings was running late. When Jennings arrived in his office he found a less than impressed client and his assistant chatting him up. After Jennings had told her to leave the office so they could commence their meeting, which was

But when she asks if it means anything to him, he immediately responds, "Of course it does. But I don?t want anybody but you. I don?t want anyone else. And I know it?s perfectly simple" (277).

On this date worker visited the residence of Ms. Barbara Washburn, for the purpose of monitoring her placement. The housemother greeted worker at the door. She lead worker to Ms. Washburn whom was talking with another resident. Worker introduced herself and explained the reason for the visit. Ms. Washburn directed worker into her room. The room was had a bed, computer, tv, and was well decorated with Ms. Washburn's favorite super hero Caption America. Ms. Washburn was dressed appropriately with good personal hygiene she stated living at the home was "OK I guess." She stated she doesn't always get alone with the other women who live in the home. When questioned about her leaving the home during the day to attend dayhab. Ms. Washburn stated she

‘How’d you do it?’ he asked. ‘I just done it,’ George said tiredly. ‘Did he have my gun?’ ‘Yeah.

George sees possible complications in the future and gives Lennie advice about what he must do in order to help their future. While George can be rational, he also gets frustrated and angry with Lennie because he can’t control his strength. An example being when Lennie killed the mouse and kept it in his pocket and lied to him about having it there "What'd you take outa that pocket?", "Ain't a thing in my pocket”. George's anger quickly goes away when he remembers Lennie's innocence and that he can’t remember things clearly.

“I will not be forced to perform such demeaning tasks. Not when I have two lovely women who should be more than capable of knowing their

George does feel at times he is better and can accomplish more. While thinking about his job interview and the fact that it is only a "junior position," he feels "his necessity would make him bitter, but thankful." When he decides he needs to lie about his education at the interview he "laughs at own cleverness of nuance and logic," and thinks that "no one is Toronto would know the difference." George used big words like decrepitude and often corrected his actress roommate on

Michael fussed around Jake. Michael was keen for his turn (the need for the implementation of rules) and used limited language to give instructions to Jake, telling Jake how to do his job. Jake appeared annoyed at Michael but was ignoring his verbal demands and also ignored Michael’s attempts to take the squeegee from him. Jake was deeply absorbed in his ‘work.’ After about 5 minutes, the

“I guess” I said. “I mean yeah you get to help Rockstars like Lenny Kravitz pick out clothes. But at the end of the day it's still a job. When I got hired here I never even heard of Fred Segal!” I tell her. We both laugh. “My friend Rhian got me this job. I had worked here during their yearly sale. I guess they liked me enough to hire me on.” I say putting out my cigarette.

"I do not mind that he has the money, but I do mind that he enjoys the honor of my labors,"

It's important to note that not much is known about the character of George or his friend prior to this one unlucky day where he is struggling to make the right decisions. Rather, the ambiguity allows George to seem as ordinary and random as any other person who is in a rush to get to somewhere. The reason for that would be to show how a situation like this one could happen to anyone. Everyone always thinks they know exactly what they'd do in tense situations. We imagine we'd do the right thing and act bravely. Yet, the reality is that people react off of impulse and panic more so in stressful situations than they do off of deep thought and analysis.

“No, no, no ,no I have to be there early today. You have to go to work, now! You’re going to be late.”

“No. It makes you a human, but you didn’t act on it, and therein lies the difference. The truth is, I’ve been struggling, too.”

“What do you mean? You don’t know that dude, you might! Don’t doubt yourself!” she declaimed. But at the time, I didn’t know how to take these words to heart.

“You did,” Madge says stonily. She wasn’t a loose woman he could use to sate his desires for another woman. She was a person with feelings, and she wouldn’t allow for herself to be used and tossed away like a doll. Not anymore than he had already done, that is.