“We herded1 sheep on Brokeback one summer,” said Ennis. He could hardly speak.
“Well, he said it was his place. I thought he meant to get drunk.
Drink whiskey up there. He drank a lot.”
“His folks still up in Lightnin Flat?”
“Oh yeah. They’ll be there until they die. I never met them. They didn’t come down for the funeral. You get in touch with them. I suppose they’d appreciate it if his wishes was carried out.” No doubt about it, she was polite but the little voice was cold as snow.
The road to Lightning Flat went through desolate2 country past a dozen abandoned ranches3 distributed over the plain at eight- and tenmile intervals5, houses sitting blank-eyed in the weeds, corral fences down. The mailbox read John C. Twist. The ranch4 was a meagre little place, leafy spurge taking over. The stock was too far distant for him to see their condition, only that they were black baldies. A porch stretched across the front of the tiny brown stucco house, four rooms, two down, two up.
Ennis sat at the kitchen table with Jack6’s father. Jack’s mother, stout7 and careful in her movements as though recovering from an operation, said, “Want some coffee, don’t you? Piece a cherry cake?” “Thank you, ma’am, I’ll take a cup a coffee but I can’t eat no cake just now.”
The old man sat silent, his hands folded on the plastic tablecloth8, staring at Ennis with an angry, knowing expression. Ennis recognized in him a not uncommon9 type with the hard need to be the stud duck in the pond. He couldn’t see much of Jack in either one of them, took a breath.
“I feel awful bad about Jack. Can’t begin to say how bad I feel. I knew him a long time. I come by to tell you that if you want me to take his ashes up there on Brokeback like his wife says he wanted I’d be proud to.”
There was a silence. Ennis cleared his throat but said nothing more. The old man said, “Tell you what, I know where Brokeback Mountain is. He thought he was too goddamn special to be buried in the family plot.”
Jack’s mother ignored this, said, “He used a come home every year, even after he was married and down in Texas, and help his daddy on the ranch for a week fix the gates and mow10 and all. I kept his room like it was when he was a boy and I think he appreciated that. You are welcome to go up in his room if you want.” The old man spoke11 angrily. “I can’t get no help out here. Jack used a say, ‘Ennis del Mar,’ he used a say, ‘I’m goin a bring him up here one a these days and we’ll lick this damn ranch into shape.’ He had some half-baked idea the two a you was goin a move up here, build a log cabin and help me run this ranch and bring it up. Then, this spring he’s got another one’s goin a come up here with him and build a place and help run the ranch, some ranch neighbor a his from down in Texas. He’s goin a split up with his wife and come back here. So he says. But like most a Jack’s ideas it never come to pass.” So now he knew it had been the tire iron. He stood up, said, you bet he’d like to see Jack’s room, recalled one of Jack’s stories about this old man. Jack was dick-clipped and the old man was not; it bothered the son who had discovered the anatomical disconformity during a hard scene. He had been about three or four, he said, always late getting to the toilet, struggling with buttons, the seat, the height of the thing and often as not left the surroundings sprinkled down. The old man blew up about it and this one time worked into a crazy rage.
1 herded | |
群集,纠结( herd的过去式和过去分词 ); 放牧; (使)向…移动 | |
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2 desolate | |
adj.荒凉的,荒芜的;孤独的,凄凉的;v.使荒芜,使孤寂 | |
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3 ranches | |
大农场, (兼种果树,养鸡等的)大牧场( ranch的名词复数 ) | |
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4 ranch | |
n.大牧场,大农场 | |
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5 intervals | |
n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 );间隔时间;[数学]区间;(戏剧、电影或音乐会的)幕间休息 | |
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6 jack | |
n.插座,千斤顶,男人;v.抬起,提醒,扛举;n.(Jake)杰克 | |
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8 tablecloth | |
n.桌布,台布 | |
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9 uncommon | |
adj.罕见的,非凡的,不平常的 | |
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10 mow | |
v.割(草、麦等),扫射,皱眉;n.草堆,谷物堆 | |
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11 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
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