was nine and Francine seven she said, what am I doin hangin around with him, divorced Ennis and married the Riverton grocer. Ennis went back to ranch1 work, hired on here and there, not getting much ahead but glad enough to be around stock again, free to drop things, quit if he had to, and go into the mountains at short notice. He had no serious hard feelings, just a vague sense of getting shortchanged, and showed it was all right by taking Thanksgiving dinner with Alma and her grocer and the kids, sitting between his girls and talking horses to them, telling jokes, trying not to be a sad daddy. After the pie Alma got him off in the kitchen, scraped the plates and said she worried about him and he ought to get married again. He saw she was pregnant, about four, five months, he guessed.
“Once burned,” he said, leaning against the counter, feeling too big for the room.
“You still go fishin with that Jack2 Twist?”
“Some.” He thought she’d take the pattern off the plate with the scraping.
“You know,” she said, and from her tone he knew something was coming, “I used to wonder how come you never brought any trouts home. Always said you caught plenty. So one time I got your creel case open the night before you went on one a your little trips—price tag still on it after five years—and I tied a note on the end of the line. It said, hello Ennis, bring some fish home, love, Alma. And then you come back and said you’d caught a bunch a browns and ate them up. Remember? I looked in the case when I got a chance and there was my note still tied there and that line hadn’t touched water in its life.” As though the word “water” had called out its domestic cousin she twisted the faucet3, sluiced4 the plates. “That don’t mean nothin.”
“Don’t lie, don’t try to fool me, Ennis. I know what it means. Jack Twist? Jack Nasty. You and him—“ She’d overstepped his line. He seized her wrist; tears sprang and rolled, a dish clattered5.
“Shut up,” he said. “Mind your own business. You don’t know nothin about it.”
“I’m goin a yell for Bill.”
“You f*ckin go right ahead. Go on and f*ckin yell. I’ll make him eat the f*ckin floor and you too.” He gave another wrench6 that left her with a burning bracelet7, shoved his hat on backwards8 and slammed out. He went to the Black and Blue Eagle bar that night, got drunk, had a short dirty fight and left. He didn’t try to see his girls for a long time, figuring they would look him up when they got the sense and years to move out from Alma.
They were no longer young men with all of it before them. Jack had filled out through the shoulders and hams, Ennis stayed as lean as a clothes-pole, stepped around in worn boots, jeans and shirts summer and winter, added a canvas coat in cold weather. A benign9 growth appeared on his eyelid10 and gave it a drooping11 appearance, a broken nose healed crooked12.
Years on years they worked their way through the high meadows and mountain drainages, horse-packing into the Big Horns, Medicine Bows, south end of the Gallatins, Absarokas, Granites13, Owl14 Creeks15, the Bridger-Teton Range, the Freezeouts and the Shirleys, Ferrises and the Rattlesnakes, Salt River Range, into the Wind Rivers over and again, the Sierra Madres, Gros Ventres, the Washakies, Laramies, but never returning to Brokeback. Down in Texas Jack’s father-in-law died and Lureen, who inherited the farm equipment business, showed a skill for management and hard deals. Jack found himself with a vague managerial title, traveling to stock and agricultural machinery16 shows. He had some money now and found ways to spend it on his buying trips. A little Texas accent flavored his sentences, “cow” twisted into “kyow” and “wife” coming out as “waf.” He’d had his front teeth filed down and capped, said he’d felt no pain, and to finish the job grew a heavy mustache.
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1
ranch
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| n.大牧场，大农场 | |
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jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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3
faucet
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| n.水龙头 | |
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sluiced
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| v.冲洗( sluice的过去式和过去分词 )；（指水）喷涌而出；漂净；给…安装水闸 | |
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clattered
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| 发出咔哒声（clatter的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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wrench
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| v.猛拧；挣脱；使扭伤；n.扳手；痛苦，难受 | |
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7
bracelet
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| n.手镯，臂镯 | |
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8
backwards
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| adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地 | |
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benign
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| adj.善良的，慈祥的；良性的，无危险的 | |
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eyelid
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| n.眼睑，眼皮 | |
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drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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granites
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| 花岗岩，花岗石( granite的名词复数 ) | |
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owl
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| n.猫头鹰，枭 | |
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creeks
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| n.小湾( creek的名词复数 )；小港；小河；小溪 | |
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machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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