Title: THE DAYS BEFORE
Author: Brokeback Mountain
Pairing: Jack and Ennis
Rating: R
Warning: None
Disclaimer: These characters belong to Annie Proulx. I'm just borrowing them.
Summary: Two 19 year olds get acquainted.
THE DAYS BEFORE
Ennis Del Mar stomped the dust off his boots and walked into the
quiet little church. It was Saturday afternoon and the place was
deserted, so there was no one around to question him. He sat in the
last pew and thought about his parents, gone five years now. His
momma never missed a Sunday meeting and dragged his Pa and the kids
along whenever she could and they couldn't think of an excuse to get
out of it. She believed in all this fire and brimstone business. He
wasn't sure if he did or not. It was all a mystery to him but being
here, brought her memory back to him. She was a sweet and good
person; would give you the shirt off her back. Always there to help
out a friend or feed a stranger. Pa was OK too. Strict as hell, but
a fair and respected man.
The loss of them had turned his world upside down. Not only were
his parents gone, but within months their ranch was gone too and the
three of them were on their own. Sister found work in downtown Sage
and roomed in with a school mate of hers. His brother K.E. and he,
bummed around from job to job, ranching mostly; then K.E. got married
and moved to Signal and he was on his own. He had heard they were
hiring for ranch work near Riverton but when he got here, the job was
filled. He sat there trying to decide where to go next, when a sweet
little voice behind him spoke, "Excuse me. Are you here for choir
practice? Pastor Miller said it's been called off for today."
He stood up and turned to face her. She was the prettiest little
thing he had ever seen. Shoulder length brown hair and the biggest
brown eyes he had ever seen and the face of an angel. And there she
was standing there smiling at him.
"aahh. No. I just came in here to sit a minute," he said, holding
his hat in hands.
"Oh. OK. You're new around here, aren't you." She smiled at him.
"Yeah. Lookin for work. Heard they were hirin out at the Williams
place but got here too late, I guess. They got all the help they
need." He looked down at his boots to keep from staring at her.
"Ranchin all you know?" she asked. He looked up at her. "Cause if
it's just work you're lookin for, my daddy runs the Western Auto
store down the street and Manny our stock boy got throwed last week
rodeoin and won't be able to work for a while. He would welcome
someone to help out."
"That's mighty nice of you, Ma'am. I sure do need the work."
"Jackie, honey, he didn't mean it." Mrs. Twist took her son in her
arms and held him close; wiped his tears with her apron.
"Yes he did! He hates me! He's always hated me." He cried, leaning
into his mother's embrace.
"Honey, that's just the way he talks; now he doesn't hate you. I
promise you."
"You can't promise me that, Momma. I can tell by the way he looks at
me that he hates me; just like I can tell when you look at me that
you love me. I can tell!"
She held her son close to her and rocked him back and forth. Her son
was a sensitive soul, he always had been, but now at 14 it seemed he
was even more sensitive than ever. A fact her husband hated.
Couldn't stand that his son could stop in the middle of a work day
and pick a small wildflower and admire its beauty. Couldn't stand
that his son wanted to sing in the church choir.
"He's the meanest man I ever knew!" he exclaimed and rubbed the tears
from his eyes.
"C'mon now. Let's have no more talk about such things. Wash up now,
it's almost time for dinner." She kissed her son's forehead and left
his small room.
Jack managed to scrape up enough money, with his momma's help, to
enter the local rodeo and he found something there he had never found
before; acceptance. Rodeoers were good people. They liked having
the smiley faced boy around. And before long he was doing odd jobs
for them and when the rodeo left town, six weeks later, Jack went with
them. By the time he turned 18 he had finally gotten enough meat on his
skinny frame to try some bull riding. First ride was a piece of cake and he
took the prize money. It would be six months before he won another
dime and he ate a lot of dirt and took a lot of bruising and knocking
around in the mean time but at least there wasn't the old man around
telling him how worthless and good-for-nothing he was.
Ennis worked hard at the Western Auto store and roomed in the tiny
store room in the back. The work was hard and the hours were long but
Mr. Beers was a good man to work for an his daughter Alma ran the
cash register and spent a lot of time smiling at him so for the time
being, life was good. Mr. Beers took him home more times than not for
a proper meal with the family and he began to fill out a little. He
spent more and more time with Alma and when things started getting
serious between them, they decided to get married. The Beers were
good people, Riverton was a nice town, he felt like it would be a
good place to settle down. He was nineteen years old.
Manny came back to work and Ennis needed to find another job. He
heard about a job sheep-herding out of Signal. It was a just-for-
the-summer thing and would give them a nice little nest egg to get
started out with until he could find permanent work. The perfect
solution. He put in a call to his brother K.E. in Signal but found
they had moved off somewhere. He decided to go on anyway and threw a
shirt, some socks and underwear and his razor and toothbrush in a
paper sack and started hitching his way west.
Jack got up off the bed and pulled his jeans up. He went into the
bathroom and washed himself as best he could and stared at himself in
the mirror.
"That ole boy wasn't half bad for an old man." He thought. Had to be
at least 40! What did he care? He'd bought him a nice dinner at a
steak house, a couple of drinks and an hour or so in a motel room.
Hell, most of the guys he'd been with, they'd done it in the truck,
or in a gas station bathroom. Didn't much matter to him, but tonight
he would have a nice comfortable bed to sleep in. Sleeping in the
truck was getting old fast and he was barely making enough to eat and
buy gas for the truck.
He'd heard about a job herding sheep up in the mountains for the
summer and decided he'd give that a try. He'd worked some with sheep
before and they weren't all that bad. It had worked out pretty good.
There was just him and one other guy up there, an old man, about 50 or
so he'd guess. He was nice enough, did his fair share of the work
and liked being in the tent with him at night. He wasn't overly
eager about it though and only did him every two or three nights or
so.
Thought maybe he'd try that again this summer. It was pretty good
pay and he needed the money to get some work done on his truck.
Ennis stood leaning against the trailer waiting for this Mr. Joe
Aguirre to show up. He lit a cigarette and smoked a bit then put it
out and saved it for later. Smokes were expensive and he didn't want
to waste it.
Jack pulled into the drive way in front of Aguirre's trailer and got
out. He kicked the side of the truck and cursed it silently under
his breath. He looked over and saw one other fella standing there;
it wasn't the guy from last year. He was a little disappointed.
Took a second look and saw the guy wasn't much older than he was.
Started to go over but the guy looked down quick, like he wasn't too
eager to get friendly. OK. He could understand that. He went back
to his truck, got out his razor and started a quick shave using his
rear-view mirror. If he turned it just so, he could watch the
stranger. Hmmmmm He caught him looking over at him a few times.
Before he could think much more about it, Aguirre showed up.
Ten minutes later they were both employed and standing out front.
Jack introduced himself and held out his hand.
"Jack Twist." he said. "Ennis," he took Jack's hand and shook it.
"Your folks just stop at Ennis?" he asked smiling.
"Ennis Del Mar." he said shyly.
"Well c'mon Ennis Del Mar. Let me buy you a drink." He led the way
along the dusty street to the nearest bar.
They talked a bit about how they come to be there. Found out they
was both from ranch people, both done some rodeoing, both alone in
the world.
"You got a place to stay tonight?" Jack asked as they left the bar.
"Nah. Was gonna stay with my brother but found out he moved on.
Don't live here no more."
"You wanna go in on a room with me?" He lit a cigarette and offered
one to Ennis. He took it and let Jack light it for him.
"We can get a room for the night down the street. One with two beds,
I mean. Costs 'bout the same. Two of us goin in on it would half
the price."
"I ain't got much." Ennis said.
"Room's $12. Cost us each $6. It'd give us a warm bed for the night
and a place to shower with warm water. Won't be any of either of
that up on the mountain."
"OK. Sounds good."
The room was small but it had two full sized beds and a tiny
bathroom. They took turns showering and climbed each into their
beds. Jack had to have one last cigarette. "You don't snore, do
you?"
"No. Don't think so. Can't say for sure. Apologize in the morning
if I do." and he was off to sleep.
Jack laid there, left arm up and behind his head, right hand holding
his smoke. He glanced over at the sleeping form in the bed next to
his. "Seems awful young for 19. Can't hardly put two sentences
together. Bet he'd be good though; if a body could ever get him
turned on. I wonder..."
The End
