Jack sat with his mother, coffee in hand. They had a lot to catch up on and it took a little while to get the feel of each other again and start conversation.

"How ya been, ma? I know pa's been gone a long time now. You got anyone to help you around here?"

"I get along, son. I can't work the farm, of course, but I make due. Your father left a little money and I get along with that." Jack saw the state of the house and of his mother and knew just how much money his father had left her.

"Ma, I'm so sorry…"

"Now, son, it's not your fault and I'm doing fine." Jack knew that wasn't true.

The conversation went on for some time. Mrs. Twist trying to say everything was alright and Jack knowing better. Jack's guilt at not being there for his mother kept growing the more she talked. He made up his mind to do whatever he could to help her.

Maybe it would be best if I stayed out here with Ma. I could bring Ennis…a thought that came automatically before he could edit it. Maybe he wouldn't wanna come now.

They spoke of Jack's life since he had last been to Lightning Flat, just after Brokeback. Jack omitted large chunks…so had little to talk about. His mother knew there was a lot that Jack wasn't telling her. She was patient, though, and felt that in time he'd open up to what had happened.

As the evening wore on and twilight descended, Jack and his mother sat, coffee cold now, the quiet surrounding them. Mrs. Twist thought it safe to broach what she had seen earlier.

"Jack, who's your friend?"

Jack was a little startled by this question having forgotten for a moment about Ennis. He blushed immediately. But his mother looked at him like there was no option to answer or not.

"Well…uh…he's…uh…his name is Ennis, Ennis Del Mar. Just a friend, ya know. We…he…uh…lives in Riverton."

"Jack…," Mrs. Twist said in a tone that Jack knew meant to stop stalling. Jack was looking at anything and everything but his mother.

"We met up on Brokeback that summer I was herding sheep, couple a years back. We got to be real good friends." Jack hung his head feeling greater and greater difficulty talking about him. "He's a good man and…we're real close."

"Jackie, looked to me like the two of you are closer than just close." Jack's head snapped up his embarrassment now plain…his expectation of judgment from his religious-minded mom surging inside. "It's okay, Jack," she said patting his hand, "you was never much for the girls, I know that. Lord knows your father pushed you hard in that direction, but I always had a feeling about ya." She saw Jack relax just a bit, "Seems to me it was hard for you to see him drive off."

Jack started crying quietly. "Ma…" Mrs. Twist put her coffee cup and Jack's aside and took both of his hands in hers.

"It's plain, Jackie, how you feel 'bout him," she said patting him on the arm. It was hard for Jack to talk so he was silent for a moment. "Yet you're here and he's gone." Jack's mind leapt to the day before.

"He accused me of…," here Jack just shrugged his shoulders not willing to get into that with his mother, "he was gonna hit me." Jack rushed on to try to explain to his mother before she thought the worst. "He's sorry, ya know, he thought that I was…well, he kinda got ahead of himself and said some things…" Jack got up and walked around the kitchen too agitated to stay sitting…Buck lying by the door following Jack's every movement with his eyes.

"I told you lot of things done happened to me, ma, since I saw you last…I can't really talk about all that. What Ennis did was too much like some of those things. I needed to get away for a bit. I didn't know where else to go, ma, I'm sorry."

"I am happy to see ya, Jack. It's been too long. And I hope you can stay for a little while to keep your mother company…but you can't run away from this. Love don't survive at a distance." Jack's head snapped up at her use of the word "love". "If I had run every time your father hurt me, you'd of never been born." Jack knew how true this was because his father had been meaner than Ennis could ever in his life think about being.

"Ma, how did you do it? How did you stay with him all those years?"

"It wasn't easy, Jack, but if you love someone, you work through the hard times. You don't run and hide at the first sign of trouble." There was silence for a moment.

"Do the two of you argue a lot?"

"Hardly at all. We get along real good."

"So this is the first time he's ever gotten this angry?"

"Well…yeah." Jack saw where this was going.

"Then, Jack, I think maybe it's those other things that bring you here. Are you upset with him or what happened to you back then?"

Jack felt like he had been hit in the head with a 2x4. This wasn't really about Ennis. He could have stayed and talked to him, explained to him, asked Ennis why he would make such accusations. But instead he had run...run away from Wade…run away from his past…all the memories of those times brought out in a flash by what Ennis had done.

Yep, he was a certifiable fool now. He wanted to take one of his mother's iron pots and bash himself in the head with it.

He had run from Ennis when he should have stayed. Ennis was hurting thinking he was interested in all those other men and all he did was compound that by leaving.

He put his head in his hands and cried for real now. His mother sitting next to him, her hand on his shoulder.