The Good Wife:
Rated T
Annie Proulx's characters and inspired by the film of BBM.
The first time Lureen saw Jack she knew he was the one for her, and she usually got what she wanted. He was the most handsome boy she had ever seen.
She was the spoilt and spirited only child of a rich man in the farm machinery business She was tall and rangy, with a pure milky complexion despite the Texan sun, long dark hair and soft doe eyes, always perfectly groomed. Under the classy exterior there was a girl with an intelligent no nonsense brain and a good heart. She was, however, wilful and straining at the paternal leash, sick of all the rich, boring boys her father tried to pair her with, mostly sons of his buddies. Jack Twist was as different from these boys as day is from night – she wanted him.
Lureen had ridden horses since childhood and was a superb horsewoman: a champion barrel racer who attended many rodeo events in Texas. The first time she saw Jack was when she'd finished her ride in a good time and was exiting the arena at her usual break-neck speed. She lost her hat and returning to find it saw it in the hands of a handsome dark-haired boy, who returned the hat to her gazing into her eyes. Lureen thanked him, winked, then clicked the horse away, turning her head to have another look at him. The phrase 'tall, dark and handsome' popped into her mind.
Even better it seemed he was a champion bull-rider, as she witnessed later watching from the side of the arena. Lureen was blissfully unaware that such wins were often few and far between for Jack.
Later in the bar she spied him again and, being forceful and used to getting what she wanted, she made the first approach. After this events went fast – she found he was a good dancer (his momma had taught him), he listened to her and replied with his soft out of state voice – he was even better at close hand. She found out he wasn't rich but, as she and her family were, what did that matter. Besides, she was looking forward to seeing her daddy's face when he realised Jack was the one for her – so different to what he had in mind – she would get her way!
She got her way and her wedding – because after all her daddy loved her and wanted her to be happy – it didn't mean he was happy with Jack, but he consoled himself with thoughts of grandchildren.
For a while Lureen thought she and Jack were happy. This all seemed to change, Jack changed, after little Bobby was born. Although she intervened sometimes, her dad seemed to think Jack had fulfilled his mission siring his grandson, and was rude and off hand with him, treating him almost like a servant at times, scornfully calling him the 'rodeo'.
As the years went by it seemed to Lureen that they drifted apart but really in her heart of hearts she realised, at last, they'd never truly been together.
Her daddy died and Lureen took over the business, made it even more of a success than it had been. She had Jack as part of the management now taking over sales. Once whilst she was at her desk two of her clients catching sight of Jack and just thinking he was an employee, not her husband, talked together about him in a scornful way, full of innuendo. Lureen barely looked up, for you see, she wasn't learning anything new – she'd heard the rumours and in any case had worked out by then just what Jack was.
She noticed how he preferred to be with his male friends more than her – people she didn't particularly like – always took their views against hers, taking their part. He had one particular fishing and hunting buddy in Wyoming with whom he spent at least a couple of weeks, sometimes more, each year – Jack always had to drive up, the friend never came down. As the years past Jack's health wasn't so good, his bull riding days had damaged him and he also liked whiskey too much – Texas to Wyoming was a long drive, and they camped out in often bitter weather up there - Lureen worried for Jack, soft hearted still.
Lureen was quite a woman of the world and had worked out that Jack was what she called in her own sense of the phrase 'a man's man'. The point was she loved him still, turned a blind eye, fed him, clothed him, employed him, gave him everything, but never allowed him too much money, even sometimes when he asked for his parents – she was scared he'd take off. Yes, she turned a blind eye, and a deaf ear in the end to the gossip, let it wash over her. She would make do with what she had of him, which was better than nothing. She didn't know it but she was like Jack's lover Ennis in this, as he had said 'if you can't fix it you've gotta stand it.'
So Lureen put up with things, even Jack's heavy drinking. But it took its toll on her – the carefree, lively girl she'd been had gone – she channelled everything into the business: threw herself into it. She had her son but not her man – sometimes, because she had nannies for him, she would simply forget she had a son for hours on end. Jack, who was a good father, when he had time, realised there was something wrong with Bobby, he had trouble with reading – Lureen didn't want to admit there was a problem and although she said she'd sort it out nothing was done – she preferred to bury her head in her work.
The day that Lureen heard of her husband's death put her in shock – for days she couldn't talk – when she did talk she remembered the story the sheriff told her about what they thought had happened to Jack, and related it verbatim over and over to family and friends – tried to make sense of it all.
She got a phone call from the fishing buddy from Wyoming – realised with a sob that the Brokeback Mountain that Jack had rambled on about when drunk was a real place – she couldn't stop the tears then.
She asked the man to collect half Jack's ashes from his folks in Lightning Flat and to please take them to be scattered on Brokeback as he wished. Lureen remained true to the love she still had for her husband – wanted what he had wanted: for him to return at last to his mountain.
She had been a true wife to him, a good wife, she supplied everything he needed – in his own way he had loved her, but…….she was not Ennis.