How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
You'll never disappear like Mom?
Never.
Promise?
God, how many times do I have to say it. I will never disappear like Mom. Now go to sleep. (24.15)
Not going to lie, flashback poems like these break our hearts a little. Because we already know the future—we know that Bailey will break that promise with her death. Tear.
Quote #5
I bet this is why she didn't tell me she was looking for Mom like this. She knew I'd try to stop her. I didn't want our mother to reveal to Bailey a way out of our lives. (26.4)
It's pretty drastic to think that your sister might disappear and never come back. But not for Lennie, because it's happened to her before. Even though she can't remember her mother, being abandoned seems to have lead to a fear of more abandonment.
Quote #6
"Whatever makes a woman leave two little kids, her brother, and her mother, and not come back for sixteen years. That's what! I mean, we call it wanderlust, other families might not be so kind." (26.42)
This is the closest anyone in Lennie's life has come to saying that her mom had a mental illness. Not that Big is making any definite judgments—he's just allowing that other people might see it that way.