Looking Back
Jul. 24th, 2011 04:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
morrobay1990Title: Looking Back
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
morrobay1990
Genre: post canon
Word count: 800...for best results, read all of them.
Disclaimer: Jack & Ennis are AP's
♥ Jack
Looking Back
7/24/75
There was a heat wave in Riverton.
Old temperature records were falling daily...one hundred three, one hundred four...the sun a constant, nagging reminder that there'd been no rain in weeks...the solitary sight in white, cloudless skies, as people were out early to do their errands, then back home to take refuge in the relative cool of their homes during the blisterous high heat of the day.
Ennis didn't have the luxury of staying inside, but then, he never considered staying inside a luxury, no matter the weather. Animals had to fed and watered and rounded up when they wandered too far from the herd, and his job was to be out doing what had to be done, not inside drinking iced tea with the old ladies.
He took his hat off and wiped his forehead on the sleeve of his shirt, then replaced his hat, and moved his horse off toward a water trough under a tree, one of the dozen scattered about the ranch for the herds, loosened the reins as Sierra stretched his neck and lowered his head to drink deep.
“Wish we could just stay up here.”
His own voice echoed down the lonely months.
He remembered after he'd said that, Jack had raised up and they had kissed...he remembered the feel of it, soft, deep, intense with feeling, but without the raw hunger of a fewer hours earlier.
Sierra had drunk his fill and raised his head, ready to move on at Ennis's command, but content to rest in the shade. The horse snorted, stamped his right hind leg, shaking the flies off, tail in constant motion, the skin on his neck and flanks shivering to move the pests away.
Ennis closed his eyes and tried to picture the moment exactly as it had happened...they had kissed...then what?
What had happened after that?
Yeah. Jack had moved around, turned so they were close.
“I want to give you something to remember.”
Then he was up against him, their faces close so he could see Jack's eyes...he couldn't read them, he wasn't good at that, but he knew enough.
The night had been cool...even that made him melancholy today, in this still, hot, humid, suffocating, baking, heat...everything about being with Jack seemed so much better than his everyday life...like a fantasy.
He missed him.
“Remember this.”
There was a heat wave in Childress.
As if the normal Texas summers weren't hot enough, they were predicting record-setting highs and warning that the very young and the very old stay indoors if possible.
Jack sat at his desk in his air conditioned office, watching the weather guy on the little TV in the corner point to a map of Texas that had a picture of flames superimposed over it.
Well, he wasn't watching it...he faced the TV...his mind was far from here.
“Wish we could just stay up here.”
Remember it...what his hand feels like on my skin...
He remembered, and missed it all so much the pain was palpable.
It was all he ever thought about...he had chiseled the memories into his mind to make sure he'd never forget.
He got up and picked up his keys, went out into the parking lot, the sun bouncing off the asphalt and stabbing his eyes so that he had to squint to see...the oppressive blanket of moist heat descended on him and almost took his breath away. I'll never get used to Texas, never.
The door handle of his truck was so hot it made him flinch, the steering wheel couldn't be touched for minutes, not until the air conditioning had been running and cooled it down. He drove to the drugstore, grabbed a dozen postcards, paid up, and went to the post office.
He sat in the truck in front of the mailbox, engine running, air conditioning blasting, scribbling date and place, pushing his feelings out of the way to make it sound normal...
Big Horns next month. Last trout of the season-should be big. Jack.
The automatic doors slid open unleashing a bank of cold air.
The difference in his body temperature and the freezing air inside the store made him shiver, but it felt so good he almost slowed down so he could remain in the cool for a while longer. But Ennis wasn't one to make grocery shopping into an expedition...he quickly hit the aisles that had what he needed and headed for the cashier.
One more stop, the post office, then he could go home and get out of the damp, sticky clothes and stand under a cool shower, have some dinner, a beer, then bed.
Some life.
He unlocked his post box.
Electric bill.
Gas bill.
Junk mail.
Post card.
Salvation.
Author:
morrobay1990Genre: post canon
Word count: 800...for best results, read all of them.
Disclaimer: Jack & Ennis are AP's
♥ Jack
Looking Back
7/24/75
There was a heat wave in Riverton.
Old temperature records were falling daily...one hundred three, one hundred four...the sun a constant, nagging reminder that there'd been no rain in weeks...the solitary sight in white, cloudless skies, as people were out early to do their errands, then back home to take refuge in the relative cool of their homes during the blisterous high heat of the day.
Ennis didn't have the luxury of staying inside, but then, he never considered staying inside a luxury, no matter the weather. Animals had to fed and watered and rounded up when they wandered too far from the herd, and his job was to be out doing what had to be done, not inside drinking iced tea with the old ladies.
He took his hat off and wiped his forehead on the sleeve of his shirt, then replaced his hat, and moved his horse off toward a water trough under a tree, one of the dozen scattered about the ranch for the herds, loosened the reins as Sierra stretched his neck and lowered his head to drink deep.
“Wish we could just stay up here.”
His own voice echoed down the lonely months.
He remembered after he'd said that, Jack had raised up and they had kissed...he remembered the feel of it, soft, deep, intense with feeling, but without the raw hunger of a fewer hours earlier.
Sierra had drunk his fill and raised his head, ready to move on at Ennis's command, but content to rest in the shade. The horse snorted, stamped his right hind leg, shaking the flies off, tail in constant motion, the skin on his neck and flanks shivering to move the pests away.
Ennis closed his eyes and tried to picture the moment exactly as it had happened...they had kissed...then what?
What had happened after that?
Yeah. Jack had moved around, turned so they were close.
“I want to give you something to remember.”
Then he was up against him, their faces close so he could see Jack's eyes...he couldn't read them, he wasn't good at that, but he knew enough.
The night had been cool...even that made him melancholy today, in this still, hot, humid, suffocating, baking, heat...everything about being with Jack seemed so much better than his everyday life...like a fantasy.
He missed him.
“Remember this.”
There was a heat wave in Childress.
As if the normal Texas summers weren't hot enough, they were predicting record-setting highs and warning that the very young and the very old stay indoors if possible.
Jack sat at his desk in his air conditioned office, watching the weather guy on the little TV in the corner point to a map of Texas that had a picture of flames superimposed over it.
Well, he wasn't watching it...he faced the TV...his mind was far from here.
“Wish we could just stay up here.”
Remember it...what his hand feels like on my skin...
He remembered, and missed it all so much the pain was palpable.
It was all he ever thought about...he had chiseled the memories into his mind to make sure he'd never forget.
He got up and picked up his keys, went out into the parking lot, the sun bouncing off the asphalt and stabbing his eyes so that he had to squint to see...the oppressive blanket of moist heat descended on him and almost took his breath away. I'll never get used to Texas, never.
The door handle of his truck was so hot it made him flinch, the steering wheel couldn't be touched for minutes, not until the air conditioning had been running and cooled it down. He drove to the drugstore, grabbed a dozen postcards, paid up, and went to the post office.
He sat in the truck in front of the mailbox, engine running, air conditioning blasting, scribbling date and place, pushing his feelings out of the way to make it sound normal...
Big Horns next month. Last trout of the season-should be big. Jack.
The automatic doors slid open unleashing a bank of cold air.
The difference in his body temperature and the freezing air inside the store made him shiver, but it felt so good he almost slowed down so he could remain in the cool for a while longer. But Ennis wasn't one to make grocery shopping into an expedition...he quickly hit the aisles that had what he needed and headed for the cashier.
One more stop, the post office, then he could go home and get out of the damp, sticky clothes and stand under a cool shower, have some dinner, a beer, then bed.
Some life.
He unlocked his post box.
Electric bill.
Gas bill.
Junk mail.
Post card.
Salvation.
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no subject
Date: 2011-07-25 06:41 am (UTC)Yeah, I bet those postcards were just that...to both of them.
Superb job - thanks for sharing.