Thanks to: onefreetoroam, Valandil Eluch, dreamcatcher33, joetheone, dov, Lynn, w84u, YouthAwareness, Gemz for all the fabulous reviews.
Alright you guys, this is the final addition to the story. It was great fun writing it, I hoped you enjoyed the ride just as much as I did. I know this is an abrupt end, but it's really just an epilogue, the last chapter was the final chapter of the set. I hope to get reviews from you, which I promise to personally reply to. Thanks for being such faithful readers, and enjoy.
Title: Epilogue
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Any recognizable characters and or places belong to Annie Proulx. No profit is being made.
When Junior and Francine stumbled into the car, they smelled of vodka and smoke. The leaned on each other in the back seat, blue bags under their eyes, trying to ignore Jack's constant conversation with them. They rubbed their temples and stared out the window until Junior put her hands on the back of Jack's seat, leaned over and threw up. Francine looked at her sister, and vomited at the sight of the sick.
Jack sighed and stopped talking to them, instead contenting himself with instead stroking Ennis outstretched arm. When they finally drove up the grey, gravel road, Jack and Ennis opened their daughters' doors and grabbed the girls as they toppled out. They carried them inside and left them on the only bed in the house – still unmade from last night's erotic encounters.
The girls stripped off their own clothes through the day, trying to ward off the heat and rolled over in the sheets, only leaving each other to throw up in the toilet. Ennis went in later that evening to talk to them, to tell them that was what they got for drinking themselves silly. They asked for Jack.
He came in and sat on the other side of the bed, the girls between both men, Junior holding Ennis' hand, Francine, Jack's. Jack told Francine to roll over and her rubbed her back while he murmured in her ear about drinking habits that he had once had, that had torn him to pieces. Ennis did the same, minus the back rubbing.
The next morning, the girls were good as new, as long as you ignored the bags under their eyes. They offered to clean the men's sheets, most likely hoping that would get them out of any possible punishment, but Jack insisted they didn't, because he was sure they might, in their sobriety, find something they didn't like.
Ennis agreed, and said they'd leave them for the next trip into town, instead told the girls that yesterday was punishment enough, but if they felt like doing housework, the garden needed tending to. They smiled sarcastically at him, but pushed their chairs back and went to work.
Jack took his man's hand and pet it softly. "We're finally becoming a family, cowboy."
Alma was locked away in a metal basement. She banged on the walls, wailing pleas for her freedom. It never came. They brought her 2 meals a day, slipped through a slot in a door bolted to the wall. They didn't have guests over anymore and sent the boys over to their aunt Rose's house. Mr. and Mrs. Monroe lived a lonely life because of Alma, but they were happy to have their revenge. Just like their son, she would never see the light of day again.
Jack and Ennis eventually moved the girls out to a farm in Marietta, Georgia. Four horses came with them, a bay, a roan, a palomino, and a paint: all five years old. The barn they built together was sturdy; they painted it blue to be a little different. The family lived in a three room ranch house, decorated with just what they needed. When both the girls finished school, they stayed with their dads, just…because they could. Jack finally got what he had asked for, and he never had to say goodbye.