Freedom, Part II

It has been six months or so since Ennis had opened up and talked to Alma, Jr. and Kurt about Jack. Six months for him to get used to this newfound freedom he had discovered. He felt like he was able to breathe again after a long period of suffocation. He smiled more often and laughed more readily.

He was now able to think about Jack in happier terms. He found himself talking to him a lot in his head and had often found himself speaking out loud as if Jack stood right next to him. All better for letting go of his fear.

He had cleaned his trailer up, built a little deck near the steps to the door, and was wearing with pride his new, expensive leather jacket that Alma, Jr. and Kurt had got him. Not to work, of course. But occasionally when he went in to town. All in all, things were looking up for Ennis.

He had not heard from the kids in some time now and had started to become concerned. He didn't have a phone so depended on them coming to his trailer. He could go to their house, but he usually felt like it was an imposition…despite the many times that Alma and Kurt had said it wasn't.

It was the next day when Kurt came by the house. By himself. Ennis happened to be outside when he drove up.

"Kurt!" Ennis shouted as he drove up in his truck.

"Ennis!"

Ever since the night that Ennis had sat down with the kids and, from deep inside himself, told the story of Jack Twist…who he was, what he had meant to Ennis, what he still meant…Kurt had never called Ennis "Mr. del Mar" again. Ennis had said to Kurt before they left that he felt now that Kurt was closer to him than anyone except his daughter and that the "Mr. del Mar thing" had to go. He had thanked Kurt for his part that night in helping him to get past his fears. Kurt had put his head down, tears nearly falling, and was unable to speak. Ennis grabbed Kurt by the back of the neck, hard to do since he was so tall, and said that he would never forget what he had done. Kurt had always respected Ennis but now he felt a tangible bond had formed that would last the rest of their two lives. He loved Ennis as much as he was capable of loving another man and that never changed even once Ennis was gone.

Kurt bounded out of the truck and walked eagerly to greet Ennis. Ennis had some time back given up on a handshake from Kurt and now endured the big bear hugs Kurt was famous for. He never complained because he liked the guy so much and had come to like the contact with other people…so little he had allowed himself in the past.

"Ennis, you and me, we're goin' for a ride." Kurt said before Ennis could get a word in.

Ennis naturally asked "Where to, bud?"

But all Kurt had to say was "Can't tell ya. It's a surprise."

Ennis looked at Kurt kinda under his hat and was wondering what this big galloot had in mind. This was not Kurt's normal way of handling things so Ennis was immediately suspicious.

"Well, Kurt, ya know, I got some things goin' on around here right now I gotta take care of…." Ennis started to say.

"Nope, you're coming with me….won't take no for an answer. Pack your scrawny ass in the truck. We're headin' out."

Ennis just looked at him now kinda sideways and under his hat. This was certainly not the normal Kurt!. His suspicions deepened.

"Okay, Kurt, I'll go just don't you throw me over your shoulder and carry me to the truck. Let me get my smokes and I'll be right there." Ennis went inside the trailer, got his cigarettes, changed his leather jacket for a heavier, used jacket and strolled on over to Kurt's truck.

They had been driving for awhile when Ennis asked Kurt where they were going. Kurt just mumbled something about "it's not too far away" and "just relax". Having no control over the situation, Ennis just smoked his cigarettes and looked out the window.

They soon came to…a car dealership. Ennis looked puzzled and started to launch into Kurt when he jumped out of the truck waving for Ennis to follow. When Ennis caught up with him, Kurt started in about how he had been wanting to get Alma a new car, one all her own, and would Ennis help him pick one out since he knew his daughter pretty good…and on and on.

Ennis by this point was completely confused. He would no more know what kind of car his daughter wanted or which kind she should have than one of the cows on the farm would know how to drive a tractor. Kurt was by now moving from car to car with a salesman in tow asking this question and that, calling Ennis over to ask him questions about horsepower and suspensions and electric windows or standard versus automatic. Ennis couldn't answer so just kept nodding his head.

This went on for about three hours…Ennis was ready to throttle Kurt. He didn't like being this far from home and the people here made him nervous. Right about the time that Ennis was going to take his hat and start beating Kurt about his head and shoulders, Kurt suddenly stopped and looked at watch.

"Whoah, time to go," he said. The salesman stood stunned having worked with him now for so long with the prospect of a commission hanging in front of him (Kurt had been looking at some high-end cars) and Ennis…well, he thought that Kurt had simply lost it…completely.

He started towards the truck when he noticed that Ennis hadn't moved and was simply staring at Kurt, mouth open, hands turned forward with this "what the hell!" expression on his face..

"Hey old man, you better get on over here 'fore I leave you where you stand."

Ennis had no choice, again, but to get in the truck.

When they were on their way, Ennis just turned and looked at Kurt, who wouldn't look at Ennis…though Ennis caught him trying to steal a glance out the corner of his eye. Ennis also noted a stupid grin that Kurt had acquired.

They rode in silence back toward Riverton but when the turnoff to the trailer came, Kurt didn't take it.

"Uh, Kurt, the trailer's that way," Ennis pointed.

"Uh huh," was all Kurt managed to say.

"Kurt. Where are we goin'?" Ennis said.

"Can't say," was Kurt's final answer.

The radio played country music.

They road for another forty-five minutes before Kurt pulled down a dirt side road. Ennis, by now, had completely given up trying to figure out Kurt and what was going on. He had been kidnapped, now he saw, but had no clue why.

At the end of the dirt road was a ranch house…a very nice ranch house. It had been painted recently and appeared solid and sturdy. All around the house, as far as Ennis could see, was land…ranch land his trained eye showed him. He noticed far in the distance some specks that he knew were cattle.

He could not have been more confused.

By now, Ennis could see, Kurt was fit to be tied. Ennis expected that his head would blow up at any minute. The image made Ennis laugh.

As they pulled up in front of the house, Ennis saw that Alma, Jr. was standing there shining like a beacon…a smile to rival Kurt's on her face. Ennis felt his head might explode.

Kurt stopped the truck and, without hesitation, ran over to Alma to stand next to her on the porch with his hand on her shoulder. Ennis sat in the truck for a minute, not understanding any of this, but finally got out when he saw Alma hopping from foot to foot with excitement.

"Daddy!" Alma called to him as he got out of the truck. He was watching the two of them like they were rattlesnakes dressed in human skin.

She ran off the porch to meet him and give him a big hug. He squinted his eyes at Kurt over Alma's head hoping to put the fear of God in him, but to no avail. Kurt never budged and never stopped smiling.

Alma had dragged him over to the porch and when they were all standing together she turned to her father.

"Daddy, Kurt and I have something real important to tell you." Ennis was listening but chose to look around as if he wasn't very interested.

"Daddy!" Alma slapped him on the arm. Ennis looked at her now and realized that he couldn't play the game anymore and had to listen to her. He gave her his whole attention and looked right at her.

"Daddy, Kurt and me, well, ya know that we been doing good what with Kurt bringing in the money he does and me working…we been able to live pretty good." She was beside herself and was in near tears with the excitement of whatever she was trying to say.

Kurt jumped in to say "Ennis, there's something you don't knows been happening here. Alma's right. I been doin' better at the job and bringing in more money. We've been able to put a lot aside. Well, this man I know…he's an older guy…he's been looking to get out of the ranching business and, to cut this short, we worked out a deal to take over his ranch….this ranch, Ennis. It's a sweet deal. We would have never gotten a chance like this ever again so we jumped when it came our way. So here we sit, Ennis. We got ourselves a ranch."

You could have shot Ennis in the heart and he would not have noticed.

Kurt continued, "We've been out here every chance we could get to fix up things around here. It's been a lot of work but we got it done and so here we are."

Now Ennis understood why he hadn't seen them so much lately.

Ennis could only look at them with a really stupid look on his face. He had heard Kurt say the words but they weren't making any sense in his brain.

"Ennis, we got ourselve a ranch!" Kurt was near to dancing on the porch.

Ennis stepped back a couple of steps, turned and walked off the porch, walked out past the driveway for a bit and just stood there looking around.

A few minutes later he walked back up on the porch and stated the obvious, "This is yours." All Kurt could do was nod and grin. Alma too.

"You don't know nothin' about ranches, Kurt." Ennis was not particularly subtle.

"You're right, Ennis, and that's the surprise!" Ennis was certain Kurt's head would now explode.

"Alma and me, we want you to come out here and run this ranch for us. Teach us what we need to know. Show us how make this into a real, working ranch. Ennis, you know I'm a hard-working man (Ennis did know this) and Alma here, well, she can outwork any two women I know. And you, well you know all there is about ranching and cows and all that." And suddenly Kurt straightened up and got dead serious. He looked Ennis straight in the face and said to him, "Ennis….Mr. del Mar….we'd be right honored if you would come take charge and make this into a place we can all be proud of. A place where people will come and say 'This is how a ranch oughta be run.'"

As before, all Ennis could do was stare at them both. All this had come too fast for Ennis. Typically, his brain didn't work at these speeds.

He was silent for a few minutes as he thought about all the things that Kurt and Alma had said. He now was able to accept that they owned a ranch. A working ranch. And they had asked him to come out and run it for them…to run a ranch for the two living people who meant the most to him.

As the importance of what he had been offered finally began to settle in his brain, his eyes began to mist over and he put his head down so his hat would cover his face, as he used to do when he was younge, scuffing at the dirt with the toe of his boot. He brought his finger up to wipe at his nose and help in keeping control.

He cleared his throat and then looked at them both.

Alma knew her father and that he wasn't able to say anything right now so she walked to him, hugged him and held him tightly. Kurt wasn't far behind and caught them both in his big arms. They stayed that way for a moment then Kurt walked a few steps away…his eyes misty also…and told Ennis that he wanted to show him the house.

It was a nice place. Comfortable, open, all the room that the two of them, and any more they might bring into the world, would need. They walked around the house for awhile. Ennis was suitably impressed.

Alma came up to him and said, "Daddy,we got something else to show you."

Kurt and Alma took him out the back door and in the distance among a small stand of trees was a smaller, white cabin. A walkway went from the main house to the cabin and along the way patches of wild flowers bloomed adding some color and life to the surroundings.

They got to the door and Alma stopped and stood in front of the door facing her father. She got very serious and looked him straight in the eye.

"Daddy, this house is for you. We want you to come stay here with us. Kurt and I have talked long about this and we don't want you staying in that trailer no more. We want you here, where you have family, where your grandkids can see you, where we can see you. Will you that for me, Daddy, for us?"

Ennis didn't know what to say. In a short span of time, he had been given a gift beyond any expectation he had ever had. He would be able to run a ranch rather than simply work on one. He would have family to be with. A place to call his own.

Alma saw all these things running through her father's mind and understood the enormity of what she had thrown at him. But there was one more thing.

"Daddy, will you come inside and look at it? It's a real nice place." She was begging her father to take one more step. Just come inside.

Ennis was finding it hard to see, what with whatever happened to be in his eye that was causing it to tear up. But he nodded to her and Kurt that he would.

Ennis didn't see that now there was some concern on her face…a little bit of hesitation. She turned to open the door and Ennis and Kurt followed her in.

It was not a large house but it was certainly larger than anything Ennis had lived in for a long time. There was a living room, kitchen, appliances. All the things one would expect to see. But in the midst of all this, he couldn't help but notice a couple of objects that rightly should not have been here but in his trailer.

Alma was standing near the door of what only could have been the bedroom. She was biting her lip and Kurt had this weird look on his face. Ennis was not sure if he wanted to see what these two had in store for him.

"Daddy, Kurt and I did a lot of talking about this. We didn't do this lightly. But we hoped we were doing the right thing for you. Daddy, while Kurt had you up to the car dealership," a jolt hit Ennis, "I went over to the trailer and moved all your stuff here," all his stuff "Daddy, please just don't say anything until you have a look," his heart slammed in his chest "We were real careful not to disturb anything…"

Alma had opened the door. Ennis started walking into the room. Kurt and Alma made way for him. The first thing he saw on his right was a brand new bed, end tables, a picture on the wall.

It was when he turned to his left that what they had done for him struck home. His knees didn't feel particularly strong enough to suppport him now. All he was able to do was stand with his hands by his side, clenched, not from anger but in order to maintain some kind of focus

On the wall next to the closet door…in the open…in a small alcove made especially for this, were his and Jack's shirts…hanging just as they had been. Over their right shoulder was the postcard tacked to the wall the same way it was in the trailer. But over the left shoulder was something new. One single tear rolled down Ennis' face.

It took Ennis a moment to focus, he'd had to wipe his eyes in order to see anything, but then, with a shock, he realized that it was a large picture of Jack…Jack Twist as he remembered him from so long ago…HIS Jack. This was a newspaper photo that had been cropped and blown up…a picture of Jack after he had married Lureen, before his mustache, selling farm equipment for her father-in-law…a tractor visible in the background. He was dressed up in his salesman clothes and was shaking someone's hand off camera. He was looking straight into the camera and his face was clearly seen. He had the broadest of grins on his face.

"Jack…" came from him very softly.

He managed to step forward to put his hand on the picture of the only person he had ever truly loved. The breath caught in Ennis' throat and his eyes began to water. He could clearly see Jack's eyes, his smile, the line of his neck…the things that he had admired and desired most in Jack. It was as if Jack was smiling at Ennis, as if he stood right in front of him ready to speak. Ennis wanted to reach out and grab him, to hold him one more time and he caught himself before he stepped forward.

"Daddy," Alma said very softly. She had stepped up and very lightly put her hand on her father's arm. "Daddy, once when momma was talking about you and Mr. Twist, she did that sometime after you were gone, she mentioned that he was from Childress, Texas. She had got it off a postcard he had sent. That vacation I told you I was taking a few months back…I went down to Childress to the library there. I asked them how could I look up to see if there was a picture of someone there. They said that maybe there might be something in the newspapers and I'd be free to look. I knew that you and Mr. Twist had been going on your fishing trips since I was little, so I went back a long way and started forward. It took me awhile but, with their help at the library, I managed to find a picture of him for you, Daddy."

"He was a very handsome man, Daddy. You oughta be proud."

This was too much for Ennis to take in all at once. Here these two had just offered him everything that he could possibly have wanted…a ranch to run, his daughter and son-in-law to be near, maybe grandkids. They had been there for him since the two had married. They had been there to help him when he had fought against his fear of the world and had come to accept his love for Jack.

And now they had brought Jack back to him. A picture of the man he had loved…a picture! He had never even considered that one existed. How many times had he wanted to be able to see Jack again, one more time. How many times had he needed something to help keep the memory of Jack alive. His greated fear had been that as time went on, he would forget what Jack looked like, forget Jack. Now, here he was standing in front of him. Ennis wasn't particularly a religious man but today he closed his eyes for a moment and gave heartfelt thanks for this miracle that had been presented to him.

Kurt and Alma were patiently, and with no small amount of dread, standing behind him, hand in hand. Kurt, not accustomed to crying, had tears rolling slowly down his face. They were unsure how Ennis would take what they had done. Ennis was a very private man and this had been an invasion of that privacy. Even if it was Kurt and Alma who did this it might not go well. But they felt, and hoped, that he would see the spirit in which they had been moved to provide him a place of comfort and safety for him….and Jack.

Ennis looked up once more at the picture, his sould ablaze with his love for Jack, then dropped his hand from the picture. He put his head down for a moment to gather his thoughts. He cleared his throat.

He turned and took his hat off. A show of respect for these two wonderful and loving human beings and said to them only,

"Let's go look at your ranch."