ENNIS
By Tom Forster

Chapter 1


After Jack was gone, Ennis continued to work at odd jobs, scraping along making a living.  In his free time he would go to see his daughter, Alma Jr, and his grandkids.  Alma Jr. looked after Ennis as best she could, but her life was hard, too.  Sometimes she would bring him meals to his trailer, and always tried to include him in things.

Ennis would, also, go into town on occasion to have a meal at the cafe or get a beer at the bar.  He'd talk with some of the other guys in town, just shooting the breeze, never really getting too friendly with anyone.  He would even flirt a little with some of the waitresses, but it never went any further than that.  Ennis still took a week off a couple of times a year to go up into the mountains by himself to camp and ride his horse,— though he never went back to Brokeback.  It went along like this for a number of years after Jack's death, until one early Spring evening in 1995.

Ennis was in his early fifties, he stopped by the Riverton Cafe for supper after a long day working at the ranch.  As he was eating his dessert, a piece of apple pie, a man whom Ennis had never seen before walked into the empty cafe and caught Ennis's eye.  The man was about fifteen years younger than Ennis, red headed, tall, lanky and a little bow-legged. (very different from Jack)   Ennis could see the man was no stranger to hard work.  The guy had a quick, friendly smile. The young man waited at the entrance for a few minutes with his hat in his hands, but the waitress was busy in the kitchen, so the man walked straight over to Ennis.

"Hey friend, my name's Billy Wayne.  I'm lookin’ for the Barker Ranch."

Ennis averted his eyes down to his apple pie.

"Head north on Main bout ten miles and you'll see the turn off.  The house is another ten miles after that.  Watch out for them dogs when you get to the house, they'll eat you alive."

Billy Wayne thanked Ennis and headed back towards the door.  Ennis was sneaking a look at him as he was walking away, only to be surprised when Billy Wayne swivelled around and looked straight at Ennis as if he was going to ask something else, but he paused and put on his hat and said,

"Thanks again, friend."  and was out the door.  Ennis felt a faint stir in the pit of his stomach.  He finished off his pie and headed home.

The next morning Ennis was at the ranch around five A.M. to start work.  Mr. Barker saw him heading towards the barn and called him over to the house,

"Come on in here Ennis."

Ennis took off his hat and walked into the kitchen.  The young man he saw at the cafe the previous night was leaning up against the counter drinking some coffee.  "Ennis, this is Billy Wayne,— my sister's son from Texas,— he's come up here to learn the ranch, you know I ain't gettin’ any younger and Billy's ‘bout the only one who ain't tied down and willing to give it a try.  I want you to show him the ropes.”  Mr. Barker put his hand on Ennis’s shoulder, “Billy, Ennis here is my right hand man, he'll show you everything you need to know."  Billy walked over to Ennis with a big smile on his face and extended his hand,

"Hey friend, I sure do wanna thank you for warnin’ me bout them dogs, they damn near took a piece of my hide!"

Ennis shook Billy's hand and for a moment looked straight at him, he could see something familiar in the young man's eyes.  Despite the boyish grin there was a sadness there.

Ennis knew Mr. Barker was getting old and not in good health.  He  spoke with Ennis many times about what he should do, but Ennis just listened and really didn't have any answers for him.  Mrs. Barker died several years earlier and their only kid, Vernon Jr., was no count.  They hadn’t heard from him in years.  Barker looked on Ennis as a surrogate son, but blood runs thicker than water, and Ennis knew old man Barker would some day have to decide who to pass the ranch on to.  Ennis felt it was only right it should stay in the family.

The Barker Ranch was not real big by Wyoming standards, but it was a nice spread: eight thousand acres extending up into foothills with a couple thousand head of cattle, a nice farmhouse, barn, stables with a dozen horses, and several other out buildings spread around the ranch. Barker had even bought some new equipment in recent years.  Ennis worked for Mr. Barker off and on over the years, but had been his steady ranch hand for almost eight years now.

There were seasonal employees each summer, but Ennis and Chet, Barker's overseer, were the only year round employees.  Ennis didn't like Chet, but thankfully didn't have much dealings with him.  Chet took care of the financial end of things and did the hiring, but he left it to Ennis to make sure the ranch hands did what they were supposed to.  Ennis always felt like Chet knew about him, he just had this way of looking right through you,— though there was really no way he could know anything.  Ennis hadn't been with any man since Jack, and very few women. It came as no surprise when Billy showed up.

"Mr. Del Mar, how long you been ranchin'?"

Ennis was saddling his horse, his back turned to Billy.  He cracked a smile at the "Mr."

"It’s just Ennis,— ‘bout thirty years now, I guess, off and on."

Billy was already on his horse and looking eager to get a look at the spread.  Ennis mounted and they headed out.  They rode in silence for an hour or so.  It was a chilly day but the sun was shining brightly. Ennis decided to head up into the foothills so Billy could get a good look at what he was up against.  There was a nice view above the river where Ennis often paused whenever he was on this part of the ranch.  What were Billy’s intentions?  Ennis didn't know.  He seemed like a good kid.  Even though Billy was a thirty-five year old man, he seemed like a big kid to Ennis, but when it came to money and land, Ennis knew you couldn't trust anybody.

Ennis heard old man Barker talk about Billy over the years.  Barker made annual trips down to Fort Worth with his cattle dealings and would stay at his sister's place.  Ennis recalled that Barker mentioned a few years back that Billy had been in some kind of trouble but he did not elaborate, and Ennis was never one to ask questions.  This alone was enough to make Ennis suspicious of Billy, but the kid seemed nice enough,— time would tell.  They came into a clearing and Billy pulled ahead of Ennis excitedly.

"Damn, this place is beee-u-tee-ful!  We sure don't have any views like this in Texas!"  Billy got off his horse, threw off his hat and spread his arms wide,  "Yeee-haw!"

Ennis chuckled but didn't say anything.  He watched Billy taking in the view and couldn't help but remember the day he and Jack finally got up on Brokeback Mountain.  It took a week to get all those sheep to the summer pasture and it was the first time they had a moment to take in the beauty around them.  Jack jumped off his horse, threw his hat up in the air and turned to look back at Ennis with that big smile on his face with his eyes lit up.  That was the first time Ennis felt it.

"Mr... I mean Ennis,.... you know how lucky you are to live up here?"

Billy was standing next to Ennis, who was still on his horse.  Billy's dark red hair was shining in the sun, his blue eyes shining, and he was grinning ear to ear.  Ennis liked Billy.  He was like nobody he'd met in a long, long time.

"Yep, I'm a lucky man."  Replied Ennis.

* * * * * * *

Ennis awoke to the sound of the cold wind blowing under his trailer.  It was still dark out.  Jack was calling to him from just beyond the woods, he tried to make out which direction, but couldn't figure it out, so he mounted his horse and rode into the trees.  Eventually he could see Jack's horse a good piece ahead of him so he picked up the pace to try to catch up.  Finally he was at a full gallop, with pine branches slapping him in the face and a panicky feeling in his stomach.  He had to get to Jack.

Ennis lay there, sweat soaked, for a few minutes.  He rolled out of his twin bed, and his feet hit the cold trailer floor.  Old man Barker tried a couple of times to get him to move up on the ranch.  There was a small apartment connected to the bunk house where the seasonal workers stayed.  It was a hell of a lot nicer than this old tin can, but Ennis couldn’t bring himself to make the move.  He didn’t feel it was right for him to live on the ranch.  Ennis turned on the gas stove and heated up some leftover coffee.  He sat for a while drinking the coffee and eating a biscuit.

Ennis was impressed at how quickly Billy was learning the ropes at the ranch over the past few weeks, but he was still unsure of the young man's motives.  Billy was a hard worker and Ennis enjoyed the company even if Billy was the one doing all the talking.  On the day  Ennis showed Billy how to castrate the yearlings, Billy was right on top of it.

"Ennis,— this is where I cut 'em so's it won't hurt 'em as bad, ain't that right?"
Billy was a natural with the horses.  Ennis could see the strong muscles in his thighs you only get from years of riding.  Ennis watched Billy when he wasn't looking.  He was a beautiful young man, not quite as tall as Ennis, but lanky, with lean muscle, a full head of dark red hair, fair skin, bright blue eyes and a boyish face with freckles, and a familiar smile.  He  walked in on him early one morning at the bunkhouse as Billy was getting out of the shower, water dripping all over the wood floor.  Billy was talking a mile a minute as he dried off, pulling on his jeans and boots, excited about the day.  Ennis pretended to fiddle with the wood stove as he watched the young man,— he felt guilty for it.


Copyright 2006 Tom Forster