Ennis awoke to the first rays of light trickling in through frayed net curtains. He could hear the dog who slept in the corner of the room, rise from its blanket, stretch and sniff at the door, whimpering to get out. He got up, pulled opened the door and said, "Go on, get," and looked back at the bed where Jack was still sprawled out still asleep.
He sat down on the bed, pulled off the covers, and gently tugged at the line of hair running from Jack's belly button down to his shorts and said, "Jack, wake up" Jack's eyelids flickered. Ennis gave his thigh a more forceful slap and added, "Time to get up. Its branding day."
Jack stretched, opened his eyes and said, "Shit. They're all goin to be arriving here soon."
Ennis pulled on his shirt and jeans, then threw the covers over the bed. In the bathroom, he could hear Jack humming softly to himself a song that he thought he might have heard playing on some jukebox when they had been down in Texas.
From downstairs, Ennis could hear Bobby and Jack's mom, laughing and talking in the kitchen.
Jack came back in the room and said , "Can't believe Bobby will only be here for one more week. It'll be sad to see him go, but he fallen so far behind with his schoolin. He's got more opportunities in Texas."
Ennis said, "Maybe this time I'll go back down to Texas with you. Your old man can make do for a couple of days. We can take it in turns with driving."
"I ain't driving back there this time. Lureen's flying up and taking him back – she wants to see the place for herself. Wants to look right through the bank statements, figure out ways to pay less tax - up the earnings "
"Well, I thought you was catching up with the payments."
"Since her money's still in the place, she can't help stickin her nose in. Always lookin at ways to save money."
"You told your old man about that?"
"No. I been waiting for the right moment, I ain't found one yet."
In the kitchen, Jack's mom wearing a pair of checkered oven mitts, was taking a large of tray out of the oven. Bobby was sitting at the table peeling apples. Jack's mom set the tray on the bench and began unfolding a huge starched, white table-cloth.
"We got all the folks from nearby ranches coming over. I hope I made a enough food to feed them all."
Ennis poured himself a cup of coffee and looked out the window. In the yard the old man had lit up the branding fire and the smoke wafted through the window. The acrid smell of smoke blended in with the smell of baking, and the heady mixture of odors carried Ennis back to when he was a small boy sitting at the kitchen table back at his folks ranch in Sage before they died.
As Ennis walked past the old man to barn, the old man poured more gasoline on the branding fire and it blazed up into the red haze of flame and dust.
Trucks began pulling up in the yard. As Ennis watched from the barn, he recognized Mitch as he stepped out of his truck along with his wife and two children; a girl who looked round Bobby's age; the boy a little older. Jack and Mitch slapped each other on the shoulder, and Jack tipped his hat to Mitch's wife. Bobby, hung back standing on the porch, staring somberly at them, looking like he first did when Jack had first introduced him to Ennis outside his High School, down in Childress.
Jack called him over, "Come on over here Bobby, this is Sam and Angie."
Bobby nodded and said politely, "Pleased to meet you." Angie gave him a cautious smile. Sam had turned away to watch at the horses being taken off the carriers. The yard began to fill with people, trucks and horses. All of them knew one another; neighbor's greeting neighbors. Ennis stood back and watched from the barn, not used being round so many people at once. He saw Angie and Sam walked across the yard with Bobby trailing after them. He heard the old man, say to another a old cowboy, "That's Ennis, over there. Worked on ranches in Fremount County. Now he's working for us."
The old cowboy rubbed his thumb over his grizzled cheek, and looked at Ennis as if tying to get the measure of him.
"What sort of outfits you worked for?"
"Bigger places . Mostly use a chute and table. Two men can work the stock through in a day. I mean ropin and draggin them is fine, but you got to know what your doin. A lot of hands don't these days."
"We know what we're doin, and we like it done the old-fashioned way," the old cowboy said.
A group of them rode the horses out to the fields to drive the cattle in to the corrals. The old man took the lead, riding with his head held high. Angie sat straight-backed in the saddle, and haughtily rode towards calf, and threw the rope out, it spun and caught the calf by the back legs and dragged it squalling. Bobby's eyes followed her. Jack and Bobby held the calf down. Bobby stealing a look at Angie as she rode away.
Jack knelt on the calf's back and said, "Bobby, you watch what your doin. You let that calf go, it ain't goin to let itself be caught so easy next time."
One of the other neighbors held the brand as it seared through the calf's hair. The calf bucked up, and lurched back to corral searching for its mother in the sea of bellowing cattle
By mid-morning all the calves had been branded. People were standing together in groups talking. Ennis washed his hands and face, went into the kitchen and poured himself a glass of lemon drink from the fridge. As Ennis passed by the living room, a middle aged woman talking to Jack's mamma, called out to him, gesturing to the portrait of Jenny and Junior on the china cabinet, "These are your two girls?"
Ennis stood awkwardly against the door frame, then sat down and said, "Yes ma'am, those are my daughter's; Jenny and Alma."
"They're so pretty. Anne was saying you and your wife a divorced and you are on your own. My niece has just separated from her husband. And Anne tells me that poor Jack has just separated from his wife too. You must come over for dinner some time, meet my niece Kerry-Ann."
Ennis opened his mouth, but could not think of what to say. He felt Jack's mom's hand on his shoulder and she said, "His fiancé might not understand him going out dining with strange women. They're the jealous type – you know."
"Oh, I didn't realize you taken," the woman said apologetically.
He got up and said, "Best be gettin back - start cleaning up the yard."
Ennis passed by a group of men and heard one of them say, "Jack must a done well for himself in Texas, first time I've known John to have hired help."
The neighbors were standing round a makeshift table on the porch where the food that Jack's mom had prepared earlier now sat. Suddenly feeling hungry, Ennis piled a paper plate high, then sat on the step and ate it.
Behind him, he could hear Jack talking with some men, laughing an easy laugh.
"Wyoming's always been home - I guess. I'll be stayin up here for a while."
"We'll be seeing you next Saturday for our branding. We ain't seen you round much."
"I've had Bobby stayin with me, but it's high time I started catchin up with my old buddies."
"You never guess who else come back."
"Whose that?"
"Frank's brother. Wouldn't have thought he would have showed his face round here."
"Is that so? Never thought that he'd a come back neither." Ennis noticed a slight hesitation in Jack's voice, as if he suddenly found himself standing on shaky ground.
"Bought the old Guildford place."
"That place has been empty for a while."
"Not anymore."
Ennis looked over his shoulder to see Jack looking thoughtfully into the distance. Jack noticed Ennis looking up at him, and glancing down gave him a small, wry smile. It was the first time since early that morning they had acknowledged one another's presence.
Mitch called out,"Jack, Is it alright if we have your boy stay over?" Everyone was packing up, saying good bye. Bobby sat in the truck beside Angie. Mitch, leaning against the truck said to Bobby, "I can tell you some tales about your old man."
. Jack snorted and went over to say goodbye.
Ennis stood in the small bedroom upstairs watched as the last of the truck's drove down the driveway.
He ran himself a bath and sunk into the hot, steamy water. Appreciating the stillness and quietness, he lent back against the hard enamel surface, and closed his eyes,.
There was a knock on the door, and Jack called through "It's me, open the door." When Ennis opened the bathroom door, Jack put his arms around him and rested his head on his shoulder and said, "I never thought they'd fuckin leave." he quickly stripped his clothes off and got in the bath with Ennis. Jack leaned against Ennis while he washed his hair, pouring water over his head from a tin cup, and then sponged his back. Jack turned round, so he was facing Ennis and grinned contentedly .
"You look happy," Ennis said.
Jack caught hold of Ennis's foot, which was resting on his chest round the ankle, he stroked the bridge of his foot, turned it, kissed the sole, and said, "First time I got a payment through to Lureen in on time, and I got you in the bath. Right now, things couldn't be better. How about you?"
"Yeah, I heard your dad tellin people I'm working here. You think they believed him?"
"I keep tellin you, you got a stop worryin bout all that. Apart from branding, folks round here stick to themselves, and no one gives a damn – too worried about getting by themselves."
The old man and Jack's mom were talking on the landing. The old man was saying, "Showed them fella's a thing or two about how a ranch should be run."
"Sounds like your dad had a good day," Ennis said smiling.
"Maybe now is as good a time as any to tell him about Lureen wanting to look through them statements."
As Jack dressed, Ennis asked, "Whose that guy that's just come back here to live?"
Jack said, "Oh, that's Mike. I'll tell you all about him later."
Ennis dressed and gathered up his and Jack's worn clothes from the bathroom floor. In their bedroom, he gathered more washing from closet to take downstairs to the laundry. Since he had moved up to Lightning Flat he had not paid any attention to their shirts from Brokeback. He now pulled them out and touched the sleeves of Jack's shirt, feeling reassured that they were still safely tucked away, nestled together in the dark recess of Jack's closet.
As he walked downstairs towards the kitchen he could hear a woman's voice sounding shrill and angry, and realized it was Jack's mom. It was the first time he had ever heard her raise her voice. She said, "I've listened to this for years, and I'm not standing for it no more."