Lightnin’ in a Bottle

[glaenconer]

For Milo

Ennis’s friendship with Jack Twist was a thing apart, something he kept hidden on a high shelf out of the reach of others, like a mason jar of moonshine in the dark cave of the root cellar.  Something he slipped off to sip from on the sly.  He never took it out and looked at it directly, only sidled up to it, stealing sidelong glances

Comments

[jacks_key]

Very well written!

"it was just a way of marking time, scratches on the wall, until his real life started again." - Wow.

[sienata]

Wow! That was beautiful! So much said in so few words.... Ennis's need, his confusion, his denial. He totally got it wrong about Jack, assuming the time passed quickly for him because of the other things in his life. The last line was beauiful, and so sad, because even though Jack as a bright light in Ennis's dark world, I think Ennis was wrong - I don't think that it had to spell the end of Jack if he took hold of what Jack was offering.

Thanks for writing. I love your work. Hugs. S!

his terrible hunger

[ellenlj]

all that self-denial, with Jack craving the same

heartbreaking and beautiful

thanks

Ellen

Lightnin' In A Bottle

[bmshirts]

Oh my! So sad. Ennis is wasting the best thing life has to offer him. He keeps his feelings for Jack bottled up and only lets them out a couple of times a year.
He thinks Jack has a happy life without him, down in Texas, with family, friends, women on the side! If he'd get his head out of the sand, he'd realize Jack is just as miserable as he. Otherwise, he wouldn't be driving 14 hundred miles each way just to be with Ennis.
The tragedy here is Ennis trying to let Jack be free, when Jack wants to be with him. This is a direct cause of Jack getting careless and getting killed because of it. (Maybe, Jack did it on purpose, knowing the consequences?)
Thanks for writing this. It starts one thinking. Happy New Year. Carole

[bbm_citygirl]

Great use of metaphor. I love metaphors. The “guilt” for needing the moonshine/Jack and how in retrospect he knew he shouldn’t have started with it, and then the fireflies. Great gem here.