Brokeback Mountain: Life Gone Awful Wrong (The Murphy’s Law Remix)
[ Ensemble, Ennis/Jack | PG-13 | 951 words ]
Fifty individual sentences. Their lives were Murphy’s Law writ large.
Original story: Life Gone Awful Wrong by planetgal471, 1234 words.
Remix author: theswearingkind
Life Gone Awful Wrong (The Murphy’s Law Remix)
Num.
Prompt
Sentence
01
Heavy
The weight of everything he wants from you is a mighty heavy burden to bear.
02
Slip
They’d slipped into a pattern without quite knowing it, her back to his while they slept.
03
Uphold
He’d upheld his end of the bargain, never promising more than he could give, but Jack pushed and pushed and somehow it still felt like Ennis was the one at fault.
04
Magic
Like magic, how everything fell into place and felt as new as it ever had.
05
Hurry
No reason for his hurry, not when they’ve got all week; still, he knocks over the packs in his haste.
06
Hole
It’s not that there’s a hole in his life where Jack used to be; it’s that Jack was the life, and took it with him when he went.
07
Music
They sang, loud and brash and hardly music, and what it was was friendship, something he’d never had.
08
Inside
That other man inside him-it wasn’t nothin’ like Ennis, and didn’t have to be.
09
Later
Tomorrow, or the next day, or the one after that-didn’t matter none. Later was later was too fuckin’ long.
10
One
Jack reckoned he’d had enough life in him for one man, but two did him in.
11
World
All the days in the world couldn’t be as long as that minute he stood outside the post office.
12
Cheat
It never did feel like cheating, though of course that’s what it was.
13
Pink
Ennis’d wanted a boy, but when the nurse handed him that little pink bundle, he’d felt his body get bigger in a way he’d never known.
14
Love
You don’t tell a body you love ‘em, his mama’d said, you show ‘em.
15
Eat
Next to the quiet after the sex, what Jack liked best was sittin’ around the fire after they’d eaten, legs splayed and bellies full.
16
Stone
Things set in stone, things he’d known, things he’d thought he knew-all gone.
17
Boss
You ain’t the boss a me, Jack sassed him, and then let himself get tackled to the ground.
18
Feather
Ants were swarming over the blackbird’s downed body, its feathers caked with dirt and blood, and Ennis couldn’t watch.
19
Here
Sometimes when he sat staring out of that upstairs window, he thought he never would make it out of here.
20
Now
Tried hard not to think on that long stretch of days between trips up the mountain, not when there were bills and babies and now to consider.
21
Parent
This thing took everything he had, his marriage and his money, but damned if it would get his kids, too-he’d be a parent if it killed him.
22
Free
See you in hell, friend-leastways there a man can be free.
23
Whimsy
Jack as a boy had been full of ideas, of piss and vinegar and whimsy, and Jack as a man only had two of those left.
24
Worry
It was a hard ball of worry, fierce an’ painful, lodged always in his gut.
25
Star
Same stars in Wyoming as shone over Texas, but they seemed closer, somehow.
26
Way
Seemed like his life had only ever given him one way to go: straight down to the dirt.
27
Dish
Junior left a dish of wedding food on his table, with a note attached: Daddy, I was real glad you were there today.
28
Pride
Years later, he turns on the television and sees the parades, the color and dancing and pride, and he doesn’t understand.
29
Build
Jack had ranches and herds built out of dreams, and Ennis had the cold hard reality of waking up with nothing but November to live for.
30
Expelled
Francine took to fightin’ and almost got herself expelled, but one look from her daddy told her those days was done for good.
31
Perfect
Jack wasn’t a perfect man, but he tried.
32
Night
He wasn’t made for night-time, for shadows and Mexican moons, but things happen and Jack learned to live where he could.
33
Lost
Afterwards, Ennis got lost and stayed there.
34
Time
There was time with, and time without, and neither one enough.
35
Evil
And the evil man shall go to the lake of fire, and he shall burn-yea, he shall burn, and the sinners, the liars and the fornicators-
36
Today
Yesterday was nothing, and tomorrow’s impossible; today’s just what it is.
37
Crack
Jack Twist split him open, made things crack and break, and Ennis never would let him try and patch things back up again.
38
Quit
The truth is, quittin’ was never an option.
39
Play
Jack’s sky-wide grin made him think of playing cowboys and Indians when he was little, using his mama’s old tablecloth as a teepee.
40
Nut
The good days was the ones when he saw Jack in his dreams-the bad ones was when Ennis saw him everywhere, and thought maybe he was goin’ nuts.
41
Down
Wasn’t the first time Jack’d been like this, down on his knees, but it was the first time he’d ever felt like going back.
42
Ready
She was antsy but she hid it well, ready to have this, him, over and done with.
43
Slow
They never do start takin’ things slow, just push until there’s nothin’ left to shove.
44
Animal
They tore at each other, bruised and punched and rutted, impersonal and territorial, possessive as animals.
45
Teen
His boy’s life wasn’t never going to be nothing like his-he’d never know the good nor the bad of that kind of nineteen.
46
Burn
She watched, dry-eyed, as they funneled his body into the chamber and let the flames lick his corpse, burn it ‘til it was ash.
47
Tie
It wasn’t for lack of wanting-Ennis felt the pull all the time, but his hands were tied.
48
Blast
After he goes, then her, they blast the place, and the smoky air smells like relief.
49
They
Ennis couldn’t fault them, whoever they were-he would’ve done the same himself, if he’d been any kind of man.
50
Rot
Funny-Jack was the one dead in the ground, but it was Ennis left to rot.
Fifty individual sentences. Their lives were Murphy’s Law writ large.
Original story: Life Gone Awful Wrong by planetgal471, 1234 words.
Remix author: theswearingkind
Life Gone Awful Wrong (The Murphy’s Law Remix)
Num.
Prompt
Sentence
01
Heavy
The weight of everything he wants from you is a mighty heavy burden to bear.
02
Slip
They’d slipped into a pattern without quite knowing it, her back to his while they slept.
03
Uphold
He’d upheld his end of the bargain, never promising more than he could give, but Jack pushed and pushed and somehow it still felt like Ennis was the one at fault.
04
Magic
Like magic, how everything fell into place and felt as new as it ever had.
05
Hurry
No reason for his hurry, not when they’ve got all week; still, he knocks over the packs in his haste.
06
Hole
It’s not that there’s a hole in his life where Jack used to be; it’s that Jack was the life, and took it with him when he went.
07
Music
They sang, loud and brash and hardly music, and what it was was friendship, something he’d never had.
08
Inside
That other man inside him-it wasn’t nothin’ like Ennis, and didn’t have to be.
09
Later
Tomorrow, or the next day, or the one after that-didn’t matter none. Later was later was too fuckin’ long.
10
One
Jack reckoned he’d had enough life in him for one man, but two did him in.
11
World
All the days in the world couldn’t be as long as that minute he stood outside the post office.
12
Cheat
It never did feel like cheating, though of course that’s what it was.
13
Pink
Ennis’d wanted a boy, but when the nurse handed him that little pink bundle, he’d felt his body get bigger in a way he’d never known.
14
Love
You don’t tell a body you love ‘em, his mama’d said, you show ‘em.
15
Eat
Next to the quiet after the sex, what Jack liked best was sittin’ around the fire after they’d eaten, legs splayed and bellies full.
16
Stone
Things set in stone, things he’d known, things he’d thought he knew-all gone.
17
Boss
You ain’t the boss a me, Jack sassed him, and then let himself get tackled to the ground.
18
Feather
Ants were swarming over the blackbird’s downed body, its feathers caked with dirt and blood, and Ennis couldn’t watch.
19
Here
Sometimes when he sat staring out of that upstairs window, he thought he never would make it out of here.
20
Now
Tried hard not to think on that long stretch of days between trips up the mountain, not when there were bills and babies and now to consider.
21
Parent
This thing took everything he had, his marriage and his money, but damned if it would get his kids, too-he’d be a parent if it killed him.
22
Free
See you in hell, friend-leastways there a man can be free.
23
Whimsy
Jack as a boy had been full of ideas, of piss and vinegar and whimsy, and Jack as a man only had two of those left.
24
Worry
It was a hard ball of worry, fierce an’ painful, lodged always in his gut.
25
Star
Same stars in Wyoming as shone over Texas, but they seemed closer, somehow.
26
Way
Seemed like his life had only ever given him one way to go: straight down to the dirt.
27
Dish
Junior left a dish of wedding food on his table, with a note attached: Daddy, I was real glad you were there today.
28
Pride
Years later, he turns on the television and sees the parades, the color and dancing and pride, and he doesn’t understand.
29
Build
Jack had ranches and herds built out of dreams, and Ennis had the cold hard reality of waking up with nothing but November to live for.
30
Expelled
Francine took to fightin’ and almost got herself expelled, but one look from her daddy told her those days was done for good.
31
Perfect
Jack wasn’t a perfect man, but he tried.
32
Night
He wasn’t made for night-time, for shadows and Mexican moons, but things happen and Jack learned to live where he could.
33
Lost
Afterwards, Ennis got lost and stayed there.
34
Time
There was time with, and time without, and neither one enough.
35
Evil
And the evil man shall go to the lake of fire, and he shall burn-yea, he shall burn, and the sinners, the liars and the fornicators-
36
Today
Yesterday was nothing, and tomorrow’s impossible; today’s just what it is.
37
Crack
Jack Twist split him open, made things crack and break, and Ennis never would let him try and patch things back up again.
38
Quit
The truth is, quittin’ was never an option.
39
Play
Jack’s sky-wide grin made him think of playing cowboys and Indians when he was little, using his mama’s old tablecloth as a teepee.
40
Nut
The good days was the ones when he saw Jack in his dreams-the bad ones was when Ennis saw him everywhere, and thought maybe he was goin’ nuts.
41
Down
Wasn’t the first time Jack’d been like this, down on his knees, but it was the first time he’d ever felt like going back.
42
Ready
She was antsy but she hid it well, ready to have this, him, over and done with.
43
Slow
They never do start takin’ things slow, just push until there’s nothin’ left to shove.
44
Animal
They tore at each other, bruised and punched and rutted, impersonal and territorial, possessive as animals.
45
Teen
His boy’s life wasn’t never going to be nothing like his-he’d never know the good nor the bad of that kind of nineteen.
46
Burn
She watched, dry-eyed, as they funneled his body into the chamber and let the flames lick his corpse, burn it ‘til it was ash.
47
Tie
It wasn’t for lack of wanting-Ennis felt the pull all the time, but his hands were tied.
48
Blast
After he goes, then her, they blast the place, and the smoky air smells like relief.
49
They
Ennis couldn’t fault them, whoever they were-he would’ve done the same himself, if he’d been any kind of man.
50
Rot
Funny-Jack was the one dead in the ground, but it was Ennis left to rot.