【断背山】05

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 “Ennis, please, no more damn lonesome ranches¹ for us,”

    she said, sitting onhis lap, wrapping her thin, freckled² arms around him. 

    “Let’s get a place herein town?” 

   “I guess,” said Ennis, slipping his hand up her blouse sleeve and stirring thesilky armpit hair, then easing her down, fingers moving up her ribs³ to the jellybreast, over the round belly⁴ and knee and up into the wet gap all the way tothe north pole or the equator depending which way you thought you weresailing,（最后来到北极或是赤道——就看你选择哪条航道了。）working at it until she shuddered⁵ and bucked⁶ against his hand andhe rolled her over, did quickly what she hated. 

    They stayed in the littleapartment which he favored because it could be left at any time.The fourth summer since Brokeback Mountain came on and in June Ennishad a general delivery letter from Jack⁷ Twist, the first sign of life in all thattime.Friend this letter is a long time over due. Hope you get it. Heard you was inRiverton. Im coming thru on the 24th, thought Id stop and buy you a beerDrop me a line if you can, say if your there.The return address was Childress, Texas. Ennis wrote back, you bet, gave theRiverton address.The day was hot and clear in the morning, but by noon the clouds hadpushed up out of the west rolling a little sultry air before them. Ennis,wearing his best shirt, white with wide black stripes, didn’t know what timeJack would get there and so had taken the day off, paced back and forth,looking down into a street pale with dust. 

    Alma was saying something abouttaking his friend to the Knife & Fork for supper instead of cooking it was sohot, if they could get a baby-sitter, but Ennis said more likely he’d just go outwith Jack and get drunk. Jack was not a restaurant type, he said, thinking ofthe dirty spoons sticking out of the cans of cold beans balanced on the log.Late in the afternoon, thunder growling⁸, that same old green pickup⁹ rolled inand he saw Jack get out of the truck, beat-up Resistol tilted¹⁰ back. A hot joltscalded Ennis and he was out on the landing pulling the door closed behindhim. Jack took the stairs two and two. They seized each other by theshoulders, hugged mightily¹¹, squeezing the breath out of each other, saying,son of a bitch, son of a bitch, then, and easily as the right key turns the locktumblers, their mouths came together, and hard, Jack’s big teeth bringingblood, his hat falling to the floor, stubble rasping, wet saliva¹² welling, and thedoor opening and Alma looking out for a few seconds at Ennis’s strainingshoulders and shutting the door again and still they clinched¹³, pressing chestand groin and thigh¹⁴ and leg together, treading on each other’s toes until theypulled apart to breathe and Ennis, not big on endearments¹⁵, said what he saidto his horses and daughters, little darlin. 

    The door opened again a few inches and Alma stood in the narrow light.What could he say? 

    “Alma, this is Jack Twist, Jack, my wife Alma.” His chestwas heaving. He could smell Jack -- the intensely familiar odor of cigarettes,musky sweat and a faint sweetness like grass, and with it the rushing cold ofthe mountain. 

    “Alma,” he said, 

    “Jack and me ain’t seen each other in fouryears.” As if it were a reason. He was glad the light was dim on the landingbut did not turn away from her. 

    “Sure enough,” said Alma in a low voice. She had seen what she had seen.Behind her in the room lightning lit the window like a white sheet wavingand the baby cried.         “You got a kid?” said Jack. His shaking hand grazed Ennis’s hand, electricalcurrent snapped between them. 

    “Two little girls,” Ennis said. “Alma Jr. and Francine. Love them to pieces.”Alma’s mouth twitched¹⁶. 

    “I got a boy,” said Jack. 

    “Eight months old. Tell you what, I married a cutelittle old Texas girl down in Childress -- Lureen.” From the vibration¹⁷ of thefloorboard on which they both stood Ennis could feel how hard Jack wasshaking. 

    “Alma,” he said. 

    “Jack and me is goin out and get a drink. Might not get backtonight, we get drinkin and talkin.” 

    “Sure enough,” Alma said, taking a dollar bill from her pocket. Ennis guessedshe was going to ask him to get her a pack of cigarettes, bring him backsooner. 

    “Please to meet you,” said Jack, trembling like a run-out horse. 

    “Ennis -- “ said Alma in her misery¹⁸ voice, but that didn’t slow him down onthe stairs and he called back, 

    “Alma, you want smokes there’s some in thepocket a my blue shirt in the bedroom.”They went off in Jack’s truck, bought a bottle of whiskey and within twentyminutes were in the Motel Siesta¹⁹ jouncing a bed. 

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