Chapter 34
Source: Fanfiction based on Brokeback Mountain, slightly more influenced by the film than the short story.
Summary: Faced with several unattractive choices, Ennis chooses self-imposed exile and discovers that exile can sometimes lead you to the people you belong to.
Disclaimer: Ennis, Jack, all the other characters appearing in Brokeback Mountain and its storyline are the creations and property of Annie Proulx, and of Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana who authored the screenplay. I am deriving no income from this work.
Author’s Notes: I've made no effort to imitate Annie Proulx's style; her style is her own. "Dialect" passages are not intended to be dialect as such, but standard American colloquial pronunciation. Some Southern idioms are also used. This is a very first fiction attempt and as such is more than a little autobiographical.
Synopsis: This is a transitional chapter, leading up to the Independence Day party.
Jack’s world
Jack stood at the edge of a low bluff, looking down at the river and the log bridge. He was smoking and his face was troubled and serious. It was high summer, the grass on the slopes growing a little darker and the constant wind a little warmer. The smoke from Jack’s cigarette swirled over his head idly, unaffected by the ceaseless Wyoming wind, which didn’t lift the brim of his hat even slightly The surroundings on Brokeback were real enough but a hiker, camper or sheep herder would not have been able to see him.
“You’ve certainly made the most of being here, if you knew how to find me.”
It was the same mentor who had joined Jack on his visit to the Lake Superior beach, one that Jack had never met during his time in Wyoming and Texas but whom he remembered from other times. Jack’s friend looked somewhat younger than when Jack had first talked to him, and sounded amused. “Back in the dimensions, I left here awhile ago.”
Jack knew what he meant. He was still aware of time passing for Ennis and the others from his previous life; but in this border country, the world its inhabitants had lived in and would live in again was the “dimensions” with its allotment of three.
“Yeah, I’ve gotten around all right. Not that it’s doin’ me much good with this.”
His friend sat down on a boulder nearby, stretching out his legs. “This place is special for you, I know. You keep coming back to look at it.”
“Yeah. I told him at the end it was all we had. But he’s got a lot more now. . . “ Jack glanced over at his friend quickly, as if expecting a correction. “I know - there’s no ‘now’ here.”
“But your two friends aren’t here and time’s real enough where they are. Without it, you couldn’t tell the difference between yourself and everything around you. So, where they are - where time does go one step in front of the other - I’m guessing you’ve tried to warn him about what’s coming.”
“Yeah, tried. And gettin’ nowhere.”
“And you won’t. All of us find that out here, you’re not here to some kinda guide just telling somebody what to do or not do. People build whole religions around that sort of thing but it’s just not how things work.” He rose and stood beside Jack. “Why not just let it play out like you saw it?”
Jack glared at him. “The hell you say.”
“No, really. Think about it from where you are here, not back in the dimensions. He’s learned a lot -- both of them have, so you won’t have to do everything over.”
“But most of it. Right?” He looked down at the old campsite for a long moment. “Different time, different place, most of the same old shit. And after things were gettin’ back on track at that.”
“It happens.” The older man shook his head. “Not like I didn’t warn you.”
“No need ta tell me that, we shouldn’t a split up. None of us thought it was gonna be that hard. I know, you’ve never liked us much but you were sure right about that.”
“Where’d you get that idea? I just hadn’t figured out you explorer types, the way you jump into things with both feet -“
“Yeah. An’ then kick like mad tryin’ ta get out half the time.”
“-but now I got my fill of it, and then some, and I understand better. First the war that came after the war to end all wars and then the war after that, and that something I don’t intend to do over. But I did what I could to help, one of you anyway.”
The river, the bridge, the clearing and the slopes of the mountain around them began to fade as Jack turned to face his friend directly. “So now I’m askin you ta do just that. If what I saw can be changed -“
“Sure it can. Only a few things are set to happen, and those are mostly things we decide on.”
“Like me an’ Ennis signin’ up for that herdin’ job.”
“Right. This here that you’re so worried about, that’s just a handful of different things being together in a certain place and a certain time. That’s how a lot of things happen back in the dimensions.”
“Whatever it is, it’s gotta be both of ‘em that get through it, or neither. If just one is saved, that one’ll be worse off.” Jack nodded slightly as he talked. “I saw that too. If I can’t just warn Ennis, what can I do? I thought a tryin’ to reach that woman, she’s the only other one can see me but that didn’t work either.”
The older man thought that over. “You said he spends a lot of time by the Lake, swims a lot,” he said finally. Why don’t you just look again for a start, see if there’s anything you can use.”
“There's a guy I saw him talkin' to one morning.”
“That one's not in the dimensions any longer, and not here either. Didn't need to be. But revisit that, you might learn something."
Jack wasn't satisfied. “I said both of ‘em. What about David?”
The outlines of fir trees and a far-off high meadow began forming around them as his friend thought, his face more serious than before. “A couple of times you’ve managed to bridge it, I know. Up here on the mountain, that was a couple of days. Take just one more step - and you can create a distraction.”
“Distraction? What kinda distraction?”
“I got no way of knowing that, and neither have you. You’ll have to watch for it, and I’ll have to teach you that next step.”
“Okay. What’re we waitin’ for?”
The outlines of the mountain faded into the background of Jack’s thoughts again, for awhile.
For those who don't recall Jack's first conversation with his older friend, it's in Chapter 16 at http://talkstocoyotes.livejournal.com/4685.html