After Aguirre Came Up the First Time
An excerpt from "My Life" by Ennis Del Mar as told to Soulan and annotated by Jack Twist
When I came down for supper that evening, Jack was quiet.1 I was almost disappointed not to hear him bitching about something,2 hadn't realized how used to his ways I'd become.3 Finally, while we were polishing off the last of the soup, I asked what was eating him. He laughed then, thinking I'd made a joke.4 He told me Aguirre had come up to tell him his uncle was dying of pneumonia. I knew Jack was fond of this uncle, who was kind to him, but I didn't know what to say. "Shit. That's hard" came to mind but I was afraid he would take that as a joke, too.5 So I leaned forward and stirred the fire, then sat back down real close to him and asked him to tell me another story about Uncle Harold.6 We spent the next two hours side by side, pressed close together, leaning back against the log while Jack talked, and shared the Old Rose. We both held onto the bottle, two fingers touching. It would take more than twenty years and a broken heart for me to be able to take his hand and hold it without whiskey between us.7
_______
1 It was cause seeing Aguirre up there reminded me a what was waiting for us down below.
2 ??
3 !
4 Yep it tickled my funny bone(!)
5 Well yeah specially coming after the other. (ha ha another joke)
6 I made up half a them just to keep Ennis laughing.
7 We hold hands in bed now and stead a whiskey there's a book that I read to him, even though he got glasses years ago.