rivers_bend

Title: Into the Stars
Fandom: Brokeback Mountain
Characters: Jack, Lureen, JD Newsome,
Rating: Teen
Words: 1,231
For 2006's yuletide challenge. A 'stocking stuffer' story. There are spoilers for the story/film here.




Lureen had put up with the postcards, and the trips, and the whiskey, but this was too damn much. Jack dancing with that fancy-pants sorority girl wife of the new foreman over at Taylor’s was one thing, but he was not stepping out with the foreman himself. He just was not going to do that. What Jack got up to in Wyoming, that far off state, where she had never been and had no plans to visit, could be ignored. But this latest bout of stepping out was on her turf and she wouldn’t tolerate that. Not here in Texas, in Childress itself, not where she had to show her face to all and sundry at the dealership. Jack had always had a misunderstanding where he and his ability to be subtle were concerned, but did he honestly think that it was normal to spend the weekend in a one room cabin with another man like that? She was fed up with these ‘fishing trips’ that resulted in no fish. But she and Jack had given up on talking years ago, and the thing was, she didn’t know what she was going to do to stop him. The man had selective hearing like you wouldn’t believe.

Lureen had also run out of things to say to her daddy over the years, but had no excuse ready when he wanted to take her out for drinks to celebrate the $130,000 tractor contract she had signed that day. Jack had lit out as soon as they closed, off to see his foreman no doubt, and Bobby was off on a school trip. She was mad enough to spit nails and the drinks went down easier than maybe they should. It was the only reason she could think of later for having answered so honestly when her daddy asked where Jack had gone so quick after work.

All the frustrations of her years with Jack spilled out and even her daddy’s I told you so looks didn’t put her off. Even when her blow-hard daddy tried to interrupt her with his own opinions of Jack, she catalogued the bottles of whiskey, the fishing trips, the picking about Bobby, the long cold nights. The details of Jack’s latest exploits came out last, late in the evening after the hard brittle shell she’d built up over the years cracked under the influence of the relentless flow of alcohol, and her father drank in her words.
**
L.D. was having trouble taking retirement seriously. He knew his little girl was good with the figures, but that good for nothing rodeo fool she’d gone and married, L.D. was sure he wasn’t to be trusted. Today was a fine example. He’d take a man out, sure, and show him the machines, but there was nothing extra in his patter. The boy was a dandy, and light on his feet, but there was no charm to the man. It was luck pure and simple, and Lureen clicking out on those high heels of hers to smile and make nice. The guy still wasn’t sure however, not until L.D. went out and explained some of the finer points. That little rodeo shit was going to run this dealership into the ground.

L. D. Newsome was well respected in the community but his contacts were not limited to the pillars and community leaders, and he knew who to call when he saw what had to be done to make his little girl happy again. It had been too long since he’d seen a smile on her face, and that worthless pup of a son-in-law wasn’t going to hurt her like this. Not like this.
**
Jack was sick and tired of the seemingly pointless errands his father-in-law always had for him, but he had long ago learned that it was easiest to go along to get along, at least at work. Since that Thanksgiving day where he’d finally snapped, Lureen’s parents had kept their distance, but that didn’t stop Mr. Newsome from sticking the knife in whenever he could at the dealership. Even his ‘retirement’ had made little or no difference there.

This trip to Northfield didn’t seem to be anything that couldn’t have been dealt with over the phone, and in a fraction of the time, but Jack used the drive to think of Ennis and didn’t mind the chance to get away from Lureen’s hard stare. He was feeling slightly guilty in view of this thing he had going on with Randall, but returning to the memories of the mountains of Wyoming came far more naturally than the more recent thoughts of the cabin by the pond. He’d promised himself time and time again that he would stop dwelling on the man, but Ennis had a grip on his heart so tight it seemed he’d never let go, and even though these days the agony of thinking of him was stronger than the pleasure, the thoughts wouldn’t leave him alone.

Jack was young again, and slim, cradled in Ennis’ arms, in a time before they had hurt each other so much with words - mostly words left unsaid. His heart beat faster and his jeans fit a little tighter as the memories came flooding back unbidden; the heat between them as they kissed, the feel of Ennis’ muscled thighs under his hands, pressed against him, the stubble on Ennis’ face, the feel of Ennis’ hands on his own, his chest, his body. And Jack knew with a familiar certainty that Ennis was the one he loved, and no weekends in a cabin with a ranch foreman were going to change that. Try as he might, he could not quit Ennis Del Mar.

They hadn’t spoken on the phone since Ennis had called to tell Jack about his divorce, and that hadn’t worked out how Jack had planned, but Jack couldn’t wait the time it would take to exchange post cards. He needed Ennis to know that he hadn’t given up. That he would wait until November, that he’d take what he could get. As soon as Jack got home he would pick up the phone.

Jack was most of the way to Northfield on his errand when the tire blew on his truck with an impressive explosion that sent him skidding into a ditch. He climbed gingerly from the cab to inspect the damage. The men appeared as if from nowhere, tire irons and crowbars in their hands. They circled Jack silently and raised their tools without a word. Jack knew then that Ennis was right. This was the ending he had been heading for his whole life, at the least since that summer on Brokeback so long ago, but he was certain also that if Ennis had given in to his pleas that they make their life together that this end would have been worth it. The blows came in slow motion and Jack could see Ennis’ face as though through the red of the campfires that had been such a constant in their time together. As he spun downward into the fire, Ennis came closer and closer, and then Jack was rushing upwards, past the clouds and out into the stars, where he scattered and became part of everything. The Texas sun, the mountain streams, the thunder of a horse’s hooves, and the very air that Ennis breathed.