Snapshots:
Rated T
Inspired by Annie Proulx's characters and by the film of BBM.
Wyoming sometime at the end of the 20th century.
'What do you make of this?'
Her sister looked down to where Helen tapped. Helen was a good amateur photographer and having been here a few weeks the first photos were developed.
There was Brokeback Mountain in all its glory – at a dizzying height there seemed to be what looked like a cowboy on horseback.
'Well it looks like a cowboy but…..at such a height it would be dangerous, if not impossible to ride up there you'd think. I haven't seen anyone around lately.'
'Mmm, my first thought was there was something wrong with the film but I think you're right. Oh well, we don't own the mountain but it's odd, we've only seen a few people all the while we've been here,' said Helen.
They were English, both anthropologists ready to do post graduate research on the Hohokam culture in states much further south. This was a rest period and as they had relatives in the area had stayed in Wyoming for a while before staying here at the cabin, up on Brokeback. They both enjoyed riding so that's what they did, and Helen had her photography.
There was something eerie about the whole area Jo had noticed it straightaway – she felt watched. One night, unable to sleep, she could hear the horses moving restlessly and thought she heard what sounded like a harmonica playing close by – but it didn't seem normal, the sound fading in and out as though the it was coming from a radio station not tuned in properly.
On one of their rides they'd come across the initials Jand E carved on a tree,
When they finally left for the south Jo turned back to say farewell to the cabin and it came to her then, one second only, like a snapshot but clearer than the day. Two figures stood on the deck of the cabin near the door, both young men, one tall, slender and dark haired, the blue of his shirt and jeans vivid – he had a beautiful face – he was leaning against a taller, handsome boy with blond hair, they looked at her, then each other and…smiled. The next second the vision was gone, but she remembered the joy of it for the rest of her life and, as it turned out, as one moment of charmed happiness in what was to become a difficult life.