Ennis drove along an icy, winter highway towards Denver. Jack had hurt his arm. From what his mom had said it didn't sound that serious. He would be out of hospital tomorrow. And after all this time, he had had split up with his wife but that was no surprise. Lureen's family owned the business and Jack worked for her. Ennis had enough money for food and motel room before driving back to Lightning Flat. The nearer he got to Denver the more he longed to be close to Jack. It would be the first time they had laid together in a bed instead of a bedroll in a tent for years. As his truck he crawled along Ennis drummed his fingers on the steering wheel impatient to close the distance between them. Fifty miles out of Denver the engine of his truck cut out, stalled and lost power. He slammed his hands on the steering wheel calling his truck a goddamn bitch for breaking down on him now. The truck heaved on for several miles until Ennis saw a sign for a town up ahead of him.

As he turned in the main street he saw a two pump gas station. Tacked on the back was a garage with a sign that said, 'Roy's Auto Repair'. The shutter door was closed. Ennis asked the boy pumping gas where Roy was and the boy told him Roy might be in the bar down the road. The streets were empty but the bar was full. There was a jukebox blaring and a few men were shooting pool. Ennis bought a beer and asked the bartender if Roy was in. The bartender told him that Roy wasn't, but John, his brother was over there at the pool table.

A man in his mid-thirties hunched over his pool cue about to take a shot glanced up momentarily and said, "My brothers out of town - won't be back till next week."

He took a shot and pocketed the ball.

"I need the garage. My trucks broken down. I got to get to Denver tonight."

"Garage is closed. Somebody should be driving through to Denver in morning. You could leave truck here and Roy will fix it when he gets back," John said as he circled the table considering his next shot.

"I have to be back Wyoming before then. Anyway I could get in there to fix my truck."

"I've got the keys but I'm no mechanic I don't know nothing about trucks." The ball whirled across the table stopping just short of the pocket.

"I can fix it myself all I need is the tools and a couple parts your brother must have. I think I know what's wrong with the damn thing."

John stared at Ennis long and hard and said, "Well alright. If you think you can do the job yourself."

They returned to the garage. John opened a pad lock and unwound a thick metal chain off the door. He turned the light on and pulled a switch. The heavy, roller door in front cranked up.

Ennis jumpstarted the truck drove in the garage and looked under the hood. John leant against a workbench watching. As he checked the engine and Ennis peered at John sideways. Something about him reminded him of Jack. They were about the same age and build but there was something else and Ennis couldn't think what. Ennis said, "It's the alternator I need some brushes."

"Roy keeps his parts here."

John started opening up cupboards and pulling out boxes. With his back turned to him, Ennis noticed the way his shirt stretched tight across his shoulders. He wore black jeans tucked into worn boots. When he turned round Ennis saw a rodeo buckle glinting on his belt. He wanted to see Jack so much he felt like maybe he was going a little crazy.

John said, "You recognize the buckle. Steer wrestling. I won this for a steer I threw in a little over four seconds - you rodeo yourself?"

"Now and again, when I was younger," Ennis said. I gotta friend who rodeo'd in Texas- used to ride bulls. You mind if I look." He shuffled through the boxes and holds one up, "This is what I need."

John said, "If you're alright I'll leave you to it."

"Sure," said Ennis.

When John returns he brings Ennis coffee in a cardboard cup and two cheese and tomato sandwiches in a brown paper bag.

"Just about done. No way was that truck going to make Denver," Ennis said. He pulled down the hood. "Thank you," he said taking one of the sandwiches and after taking a bite realized that he was hungry and hadn't eaten all day. "I sure appreciate it."

"I know what you ranch folk are like - always in hurry. You do ranch work - right?"

"I bet you could tell that by the truck I'm driving."

"I could tell by putting two and two together," John said. "I can tell by the way you walk you spend a lot of time on a horse and your hands sure don't look like you do indoor work. You got that look about you like you're used to working out on your own." He was standing so close to him and Ennis could inhale the scent of the bar; smoke and warm beer, and some type of soap or cologne. "I bet you spend a lot of time on your own. You prefer to keep yourself to yourself don't you?" John's voice was warm and easy but his eyes held an intensity that captured Ennis in an almost intractable hold. He put his hand on Ennis's arm and said, "But right now maybe you could do with some company."

"It's been a long time, "Ennis said.

"I guessed that too."

"Look I'm grateful for your help but I gotta get to my friend. He's in hospital." Ennis was about to turn away when he heard tires screeching and sirens in the distance. He was wrenched back to awareness of the world outside the garage.

"Get your fucking hand off me," Ennis said. He took a couple of strides back.

"What the fucks the matter with you?" John said searching his face. "What's wrong? You look like you seen a ghost. It's just the local boys racing one another out on the back roads and the cop on duty giving them hell for it. It's nothing, best entertainment they got here on a Saturday. Gives them both something to do."

"I don't know what the fuck you think you're doing, "Ennis said

John pulled the door switch looking at Ennis as if he was releasing a trapped animal back to wild. The heavy metal door of the garage creaked up and fragile early evening light flooded in.

As Ennis got into his truck he heard John say, "Take it easy Cowboy."

As he drove out of town, Ennis asked himself what the hell got into him back there? Once he caught up with Jack he weren't never going to let him get away again.

Ennis made Denver at night time. Above was a full moon shining with a soft ethereal glow and before him the garish red and yellow lights of the Denver skyline bled into night, He found Jack lying at the end of a ward full of old men pared down to skin and bone who were stuck in a no man's land between life and death. Their wizened bodies hooked up to drips and masks and machines; the only glue holding them on this world and preventing them from entering the next. Jack lay in a bed at the end of the ward by a window, still and pale beneath pale blue and white hospital blankets. One of his arms was bandaged and bound up in a sling. The oversized mustache that Ennis had never really liked had disappeared sometime over the last seven months since he had seen him. His eyes were slightly open but unfocused.

"Jack, I'm here" Ennis said, brushed his fingers over Jack's forehead, smoothed back his hair and stooped down and lightly kissed his mouth. Jack's lips were dry with an acrid taste of something vaguely medicinal. He became aware of nurse peering at him behind a curtain, standing beside one of the old timers doing something with a tube.

She looked flustered. Her eyes darting away, cheeks flushed and words fluttered out of her small shiny mouth a little breathless, "Why I'm sorry. He just got back from theatre a couple of hours ago. He woke up earlier on but he's still recovering from the anesthetic."

"I thought he was getting out tomorrow," Ennis said.

"That was the plan but the doctor said he needed an operation on his shoulder so it will heal properly. He's staying here an extra couple of days and then home. You got any idea where his home is? Lucky to still be here, he said his truck got written off. Lucky he got friends."She looked over to a man with a beard; rangy under the heavy padding of his sheepskin jacket that had just walked into the ward. He reminded Ennis of somebody who he might have worked with in the past. Through deep set, dark eyes he eyed Ennis curiously.