TITLE: Summer Rain
AUTHOR: dmcintoshtx
RATING: R
PAIRING: Ennis & Jack
WARNING: None
Disclaimers: These characters belong to Annie Proulx, not me.
Summery: Jack and Ennis both love the rain. Maybe this is why.
SUMMER RAIN
July 1963—Brokeback Mountain
"Hey, get in here! You're gonna catch your death!" Ennis yelled
from the tent.
"I don't care. I love the rain!" Jack stood in the down-pour,
naked, arms outstretched, face up-turned, walking around their
campsite still grinning from afterglow.
"You're crazy, you know that?" Ennis chuckled and held the tent flap
open so he could watch. "What's that, some kinda rain dance?"
"Yeah, I'm crazy; crazy bout you. Why don't you shuck those jeans
and come on out? It feels great!" He whirled around as the rain
poured down over his bare body.
"You're gonna catch a cold!" Ennis warned, grinning ear to ear.
"You'd better come out here then and warm me up!" Jack reached both
arms out towards the tent and his grinning friend.
Good feelings got the better of good sense and in a minute, Ennis was
bare-naked and running out in the rain after Jack. He tackled him
and they both went down into the mud, each one laughing harder than
the other.
"I knew I could get you out here!" Jack laughed and smeared a
handful of mud down Ennis's chest. Ennis picked up a double handful
and took off after a running Jack. He caught him by the river's edge
and smeared the mud in Jack's hair.
Jack tackled him and they tumbled into the shallows, laughing and
splashing each other. Ennis grabbed Jack and drug him ashore;
rinsing the mud off both their bodies.
"OK. You got me out here. Can we go back inside now? I think we
both need a little warming up."
"I love it when you talk dirty." Jack said kissing him in the side
of his neck.
"That ain't dirty. I just need to get warm and dry." Ennis insisted
with a grin.
"Well c'mon then. I'll get you warmed up alright. Can't
promise bout the dry part." Jack grinned as they knelt down and
entered the small tent on their knees.
"Here, turn around. Let me get your back." Ennis grabbed his tee-
shirt and wiped Jack's back and shoulders. Jack took the tee-shirt
and did the same for Ennis. A little more wiping and kissing and
they were snuggling down into the bed roll.
"Jack?"
"Yeah"
"You're the best friend I ever had." Ennis said, pressing a kiss
into the damp head on his shoulder.
"You too, Ennis. I ain't never had a friend like you before. Wish we
can be best friends like this forever."
"Me too; why don't we?" Ennis asked innocently.
"People might not understand." Jack answered softly.
"Don't care bout people; just care bout you." Ennis's arms
tightened around Jack just a bit more. "Night Jack."
"Night Ennis."
"Wake me if you need anything." Ennis grinned in the dark.
"I will. You know that for a fact!"
"That I do, Jack. That I do."
Next morning there was still a sprinkle of rain left and when it was
over a beautiful rainbow blessed the sky. They stood, arms around
each other gazing at the sight.
"It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen." Ennis said in awe.
"Yes, it is. A true miracle of nature and it's our rainbow; yours
and mine. From now on, whenever you see a rainbow, it'll be me
smilin at you."
"You're crazy, Jack fuckin Twist!" Ennis laughed and held Jack
closer in his arms.
"I guess I am." Jack admitted a bit embarrassed by his sentiments.
July 1980--Childress, Texas
"Why do you keep starin out that window, Jack? You got somethin on
your mind?"
"Nah, Lureen. I was just watching the rain."
"What is it with your great infatuation with the rain? It's cold and
muddy and messes everything up!" Lureen joined him at the window.
"Just like it, is all; can't say why." Jack lowered his gaze and
came away from the window not wanting to share these special moments
with her.
"Well now, see? It's got you all blue again. Don't see what you see
in it. Just ruins any plans people try to make for outdoors." She
joined him on the couch.
"So did you have any plans for outdoors tonight?" Jack asked her,
absent-mindedly picking at some lint on the arm of the couch.
"No, but I'm sure some people did and now it's all ruined by the
rain!"
"Well, don't worry bout it then" he said wistfully glancing towards
the window and drumming his fingers on the arm rest.
"Oooohhh. I just hate this awful rain! I don't care what it does
for the Azaleas!" She left the room in a huff.
Jack returned to the window, staring out into the back yard, past the
patio and the pool but in his heart, seeing a campsite where he and
Ennis once frolicked in the mud. He grinned at the memory and made
a mental note to bring that up next month when he saw Ennis again.
July 1980—Riverton, Wyoming
"No, Ennis you cannot take the girls! I don't care if it is your
weekend. It's raining cats and dogs outside and they'd get soaked!
Come back tomorrow if it's not raining." Alma made to close the door
in his face but Junior stopped her.
"That's not fair, Momma. It's Friday night and it's our turn to see
Daddy!" Junior said, pushing the door open and going to her daddy's
side. Jenny hung back behind her momma.
"They'll be fine, Alma. A little rain won't hurt em." Ennis
assured her.
"I don't know what it is with you and rain, Ennis Del Mar, why it
makes you lose any good sense God gave you! Look at yourself. Looks
like you been out just standing in it, getting yourself soaked to the
bone!" Alma chastised him.
"Achoo, achoo!" Junior sneezed.
"Now see there; she's still not over her summer cold and you want to
take her out gallivanting in the rain?"
"Oh, Daddy. I'm sorry. I did so want to go with you tonight!"
Junior hugged him.
"It's OK, darlin. You're momma's right. I didn't know you was still
fightin that cold.
I'll just come back tomorrow and we can do something; maybe go see a
movie or take a ride in the country." He reluctantly let her go back
inside. "I'll pick you both up tomorrow, OK? That be alright?"
Jenny slipped out the door long enough to give her daddy a hug, "Oh
Daddy! You are soaked through!" She giggled and went back inside.
"See you tomorrow!" they both called to him as he walked down the
sidewalk to his truck.
"Tomorrow for sure!" he promised them.
He drove slowly back to his trailer. He took the long route, weaving
in and out all the side streets, crossing and criss-crrossing again;
making a 10 minute drive into a 45 minute one.
He loved the rain; loved the patter of it on the roof top, the splash
of it through the puddles and the smell of it. The sky really opened
up then with a deluge fit for an ark and he high-tailed it the rest
of the way home. He took his time getting out of the truck and
walking the short distance to his front door. The rain was pounding
down on him; thunder rolled, and lightening flashed. Ennis stood on
his steps and smiled up to the heavens. It was his rain; his and
Jacks and he enjoyed each and every drop of it.
He readied himself for bed and lay there listening to the rhythm of
it. It would come down hard enough to shake the trailer and then
taper off to just a patter; then a little while later it would pour
again. He lay listening to it for some time before he fell asleep
thinking about how much he loved the rain, and remembering another
July evening and rolling in the mud.
July 2003—Riverton, Wyoming
"Grandpa, wake up! It's raining! You said to wake you if it started
raining."
"So I did, young man; so I did. And I thank you for wakin me. Let's
take a look now and see." Ennis took his grandson's hand and they
walked out back on the patio of his daughter's house and sat down in
the porch swing.
"Why do you like the rain so much, Grandpa? Doesn't it scare you
sometimes? It does me." Kurt Jr. climbed up on his Grandpas lap.
"It's full of wonder, Lil One, full of hopes and dreams and
memories. It washes this old earth clean and makes everything
possible." He held his grandson close as a thunder clapped and the
boy clung to him.
"Wondrous things can happen in the rain." He smiled to himself
thinking back to a little white tent.
"Is that why God sends us a rainbow when it rains?" The small face
turned up to ask him.
"That's right, boy, that's God's way of telling us that everything is
all right with the world; and everyone in it is good and beautiful to
Him. The rainbow is God's way of smiling at us."
The boy lay his head against Ennis's chest and Ennis patted his hair;
smoothing it back.
It wasn't much of a rain really, and it stopped after a short time.
"There it is, Boy. See over there behind the garage?" He pointed to
the backside of the property where a beautiful rainbow had formed
shining its brilliant colors down on the July afternoon.
"I see it! It is beautiful, Grandpa. Is God smiling at us?"
"Yes, Boy, He is."
The boy stood up and went to the edge of the porch and stood, holding
on the railing and staring at the rainbow.
Ennis sat breathing in the rain fresh air and remembering a blue-eyed
smile that used to brighten his world so long ago. He brushed a tear
from his cheek with the back of his hand and whispered into the sweet
after-rain breeze, "Jack….I miss you. Thank you for my rainbow. I
wonder if you ever knew that you were my rainbow."
THE END