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Disclaimer: Ms. Proulx gave birth to these guys, not me.
A MOTHERS LOVE
Linda Del Mar sits at her kitchen table drinking her coffee and staring out her window. She is alone now. Both of her sons and her daughter married to good people. They'd still lost the ranch after her husband had died in the accident. She was still amazed that she'd lived that night, but, someone had told her that her life wasn't over with yet. She still had one more task to complete a task that would be years in coming. She had watched her youngest boy grow into a man. Had known he was different, but, not sure how. She couldn't quite grasp what she was seeing in him. Like trying to grab a strand in a web blowing in the breeze.
Ennis had visited with her after coming back from that job over in Signal. He had told her of his time up on Brokeback Mountain and of his friend Jack Twist, but, she knew he hadn't told her everything and she didn't pry. Looking at him sitting there across from her, she realized that she was finally able to grasp what she'd been seeing. He'd always been closed up within himself growing up. Lord knew he'd had a rough time under his father. She knew what his father had done with him and his brother when Ennis was nine. She also knew what his father had done, but, kept it to herself, cussing the man in her mind for doing that to her boys, but, most especially to her Ennis.
The day he'd come to visit her that time and he'd told her about the job and his friend, she'd been watching his eyes. She'd watched his eyes glow at the very mention of Jack and he'd get that sort of smile on his face. It actually broke her heart the day he'd married his fiancée, Alma Beers, though, she still wasn't quite sure why. She loved Alma as much as a mother-in-law should and when the babies came she was as proud as she could be for her son.