Dear Emmaline - Chapter 2
Title: Dear Emmaline
Author: Bud [cwby30]
Genre: au
Disclaimer: Brokeback Mountain and these characters (except the OCs) belong to Annie Proulx, Jake Gyllenhall, Heath Ledger and others. I'm just borrowing them for a short time. No disrespect intended. I do this for me for fun, and make no money off any of it.
Summary: A letter forces Ennis to rethink his relationship with Jack, and sends him on a trip to Lightning Flat, where he meets more than Jack's parents.
Author’s Note and/or Warnings: PG13 [M/M situation suggested]. Follow the links!! I appreciate all the comments on Chapter 1, and apologize for not responding to them. Will do so later tonight. Let me know about this one, too.
Thanks again.
Bud
Chapter Two
Next morning found him hundreds of miles from home.
He was prepared for a small poor ranch like the one he started growing up on. He was not prepared for the desolation and isolation, the miles upon miles of abandoned houses and abandoned fields, and the abandoned hopes and lives they represented. Now they only served to drive home what he already knew, that Jack had come from here, still came back here, had once held hope to live better than here, and that he, Ennis Del Mar, had contributed to the desolation now in Jack’s eyes and to his abandoned hopes.
He promised himself that he would replace the desolation with happiness and revived hope.
He read the name on the leaning mailbox, “John C. Twist,” and turned in. The dust streaming from behind his truck heralded his approach. He recognized Jack’s truck parked near the barn, camping equipment still secured in the back, glad to see Jack had not left. Parking next to Jack’s truck, some of the dust caught up with him, settling on and around both trucks. He remained in his own for a few minutes, pondering his next move, afraid to get out, afraid not to get out, scared of the price he would pay either way. Finally, he opened the door and moved towards the house.
A stout woman, careful in her movements, answered his knock on the screened door at the front of the house. He doffed his hat, out of reflex upon meeting a woman and out of respect for the woman who must be Jack’s mother.
“May I help you, young man? Are you lost?”
“Hope so, ma’am. Not lost, though. Is Jack here? Can I talk with him?”
“Who’s calling?”
“Ennis, ma’am, Ennis Del Mar.”
“Oh, I thought you were someone else. Nice to meet you finally. Jack’s told us all about you. I’m his mother, Emma. Won’t you come in?” She backed away, and allowed Ennis to enter. The screened door banged shut hard behind him.
All about me?!
“Nice to meet you, too, ma’am, and thank you.”
“They’re out checking the herd and fencing, should be back in a little bit. Lunch is at noon, and Jack’s father is always prompt for meals.”
Guess Jack comes by it naturally, needin food all the time.
She led the way to the back of the house, where they entered a small white-washed kitchen. Ennis looked around. Everything was white, except a lively border of yellow flowers on the tablecloth, echoed in the trim on the white curtains and on the towel protecting the clean dishes in the dishdrain.
“Please, sit down. Can I offer you a cup of coffee or a glass of water, maybe something to eat?”
“Um, a cup of coffee would be nice, if you don’t mind. Black is fine. Nothin to eat, though.”
“Don’t mind at all.” The silence surrounded them as Emma carefully walked over to the dishdrain, picked out a cup, and walked over to the stove, and poured a cup of hot coffee from the glass percolator warming on the white enamel and nickel-plated stove. She placed the cup in front of Ennis, and then got one for herself, before sitting down across from him.
“What brings you all the way up here today? Jack’s been saying for years that one of these days the two of you will come up here to live and lick this place into shape.” She sighed quietly, before continuing. “Then Monday night he said he was gonna divorce Lureen and bring up somebody different, somebody new.” She looked absently out the window, touching a heart-shaped silver locket worn on a silver chain around her neck. “Sure would be nice, having this place running good again, like it was when…” She turned back and smiled wanly at him. “Shouldn’t be bothering you with them old things that can’t be changed.”
Ennis had frozen for a split second when Emma told him what Jack had said. They know? He told them about us livin here? Damn fool! But, she didn’t say nothin bad. And she’s still sittin here, offering me food and coffee, just about askin me to stay on. Was Jack right after all, that his Daddy’s a mean sonofabitch but wouldn’t tell a soul? That his Momma’s a good woman, accepts him as he is, despite her religion? That maybe it really isn’t nobody’s business but ours? Wait! Somebody different? Somebody new? What the hell? His head pounded, but he recovered enough to sip his coffee without trembling as Emma turned back from looking out the window, before responding.
“Old things can’t be changed, but doesn’t mean we have to keep on doin them, does it?” he replied.
“Sure enough, Ennis, sure enough. Still, things can’t change unless you want to change them, and wanting and doing are two different things.” She smiled. “My Gramma used to tell me, ‘Now, Emma, honey, if wishes were horses, even beggars would ride. If you really want something, you gotta do something about it.’ And my momma would nod her head and say ‘That’s a fact, Emmy dear.’ Sure do miss my Gramma sometimes. Miss my momma even more.”
“Miss mine too.”
“Oh, dear, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize…”
“It’s okay, she died when I was fourteen.”
“And you still miss her.” A statement.
“Yes, I do.”
“Good.”
Ennis looked up, startled.
“If you miss someone when they’re gone, it means either you loved them so much or hated them so much that you can’t let go. Your way of talking tells me you loved your momma, so it’s good that you miss her and keep her memory alive.”
Don’t ask about my daddy! Please don’t ask.
“But here I go on and on, just like an old woman, which I definitely am not. You must be tired after that long drive, and lunch is coming up soon. You will stay for lunch, won’t you?”
“Um, yes, thank you, ma’am.”
“Bathroom’s upstairs on the left, go ahead and wash up before lunch. While you’re up there, you can take a look at Jack’s room, right across from the bathroom. It’s just about the same as it was when he left to go rodeoing back in ’64, didn’t want me to change a thing. He did give in a bit about five years ago and bought a new bed, bigger too. Said the old one was too hard, like sleeping on the ground, and this one’s a lot more comfortable. His arthritis, you know, from the crushed vertebrae and all those broken bones getting thrown over the years.”
No, I didn’t know. He hardly ever complained about sleepin on the ground, said the aches came from all our ridin inside and outside of the tent, just started bringin a air mattress. Oh, Jack!
Once again, he blamed himself for not reading the signs. He could follow a lost calf for miles over solid rock in a rainstorm in the dark, but he had missed so many signs, ignored so many others, that he had lost the trail to the real Jack.
tbc
Chapter 3: http://cwby30.livejournal.com/32989.html
Author: Bud [cwby30]
Genre: au
Disclaimer: Brokeback Mountain and these characters (except the OCs) belong to Annie Proulx, Jake Gyllenhall, Heath Ledger and others. I'm just borrowing them for a short time. No disrespect intended. I do this for me for fun, and make no money off any of it.
Summary: A letter forces Ennis to rethink his relationship with Jack, and sends him on a trip to Lightning Flat, where he meets more than Jack's parents.
Author’s Note and/or Warnings: PG13 [M/M situation suggested]. Follow the links!! I appreciate all the comments on Chapter 1, and apologize for not responding to them. Will do so later tonight. Let me know about this one, too.
Thanks again.
Bud
Chapter Two
Next morning found him hundreds of miles from home.
He was prepared for a small poor ranch like the one he started growing up on. He was not prepared for the desolation and isolation, the miles upon miles of abandoned houses and abandoned fields, and the abandoned hopes and lives they represented. Now they only served to drive home what he already knew, that Jack had come from here, still came back here, had once held hope to live better than here, and that he, Ennis Del Mar, had contributed to the desolation now in Jack’s eyes and to his abandoned hopes.
He promised himself that he would replace the desolation with happiness and revived hope.
He read the name on the leaning mailbox, “John C. Twist,” and turned in. The dust streaming from behind his truck heralded his approach. He recognized Jack’s truck parked near the barn, camping equipment still secured in the back, glad to see Jack had not left. Parking next to Jack’s truck, some of the dust caught up with him, settling on and around both trucks. He remained in his own for a few minutes, pondering his next move, afraid to get out, afraid not to get out, scared of the price he would pay either way. Finally, he opened the door and moved towards the house.
A stout woman, careful in her movements, answered his knock on the screened door at the front of the house. He doffed his hat, out of reflex upon meeting a woman and out of respect for the woman who must be Jack’s mother.
“May I help you, young man? Are you lost?”
“Hope so, ma’am. Not lost, though. Is Jack here? Can I talk with him?”
“Who’s calling?”
“Ennis, ma’am, Ennis Del Mar.”
“Oh, I thought you were someone else. Nice to meet you finally. Jack’s told us all about you. I’m his mother, Emma. Won’t you come in?” She backed away, and allowed Ennis to enter. The screened door banged shut hard behind him.
All about me?!
“Nice to meet you, too, ma’am, and thank you.”
“They’re out checking the herd and fencing, should be back in a little bit. Lunch is at noon, and Jack’s father is always prompt for meals.”
Guess Jack comes by it naturally, needin food all the time.
She led the way to the back of the house, where they entered a small white-washed kitchen. Ennis looked around. Everything was white, except a lively border of yellow flowers on the tablecloth, echoed in the trim on the white curtains and on the towel protecting the clean dishes in the dishdrain.
“Please, sit down. Can I offer you a cup of coffee or a glass of water, maybe something to eat?”
“Um, a cup of coffee would be nice, if you don’t mind. Black is fine. Nothin to eat, though.”
“Don’t mind at all.” The silence surrounded them as Emma carefully walked over to the dishdrain, picked out a cup, and walked over to the stove, and poured a cup of hot coffee from the glass percolator warming on the white enamel and nickel-plated stove. She placed the cup in front of Ennis, and then got one for herself, before sitting down across from him.
“What brings you all the way up here today? Jack’s been saying for years that one of these days the two of you will come up here to live and lick this place into shape.” She sighed quietly, before continuing. “Then Monday night he said he was gonna divorce Lureen and bring up somebody different, somebody new.” She looked absently out the window, touching a heart-shaped silver locket worn on a silver chain around her neck. “Sure would be nice, having this place running good again, like it was when…” She turned back and smiled wanly at him. “Shouldn’t be bothering you with them old things that can’t be changed.”
Ennis had frozen for a split second when Emma told him what Jack had said. They know? He told them about us livin here? Damn fool! But, she didn’t say nothin bad. And she’s still sittin here, offering me food and coffee, just about askin me to stay on. Was Jack right after all, that his Daddy’s a mean sonofabitch but wouldn’t tell a soul? That his Momma’s a good woman, accepts him as he is, despite her religion? That maybe it really isn’t nobody’s business but ours? Wait! Somebody different? Somebody new? What the hell? His head pounded, but he recovered enough to sip his coffee without trembling as Emma turned back from looking out the window, before responding.
“Old things can’t be changed, but doesn’t mean we have to keep on doin them, does it?” he replied.
“Sure enough, Ennis, sure enough. Still, things can’t change unless you want to change them, and wanting and doing are two different things.” She smiled. “My Gramma used to tell me, ‘Now, Emma, honey, if wishes were horses, even beggars would ride. If you really want something, you gotta do something about it.’ And my momma would nod her head and say ‘That’s a fact, Emmy dear.’ Sure do miss my Gramma sometimes. Miss my momma even more.”
“Miss mine too.”
“Oh, dear, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize…”
“It’s okay, she died when I was fourteen.”
“And you still miss her.” A statement.
“Yes, I do.”
“Good.”
Ennis looked up, startled.
“If you miss someone when they’re gone, it means either you loved them so much or hated them so much that you can’t let go. Your way of talking tells me you loved your momma, so it’s good that you miss her and keep her memory alive.”
Don’t ask about my daddy! Please don’t ask.
“But here I go on and on, just like an old woman, which I definitely am not. You must be tired after that long drive, and lunch is coming up soon. You will stay for lunch, won’t you?”
“Um, yes, thank you, ma’am.”
“Bathroom’s upstairs on the left, go ahead and wash up before lunch. While you’re up there, you can take a look at Jack’s room, right across from the bathroom. It’s just about the same as it was when he left to go rodeoing back in ’64, didn’t want me to change a thing. He did give in a bit about five years ago and bought a new bed, bigger too. Said the old one was too hard, like sleeping on the ground, and this one’s a lot more comfortable. His arthritis, you know, from the crushed vertebrae and all those broken bones getting thrown over the years.”
No, I didn’t know. He hardly ever complained about sleepin on the ground, said the aches came from all our ridin inside and outside of the tent, just started bringin a air mattress. Oh, Jack!
Once again, he blamed himself for not reading the signs. He could follow a lost calf for miles over solid rock in a rainstorm in the dark, but he had missed so many signs, ignored so many others, that he had lost the trail to the real Jack.
tbc
Chapter 3: http://cwby30.livejournal.com/32989.html