Cooking For One
Apr. 30th, 2012 05:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
morrobay1990Title: Cooking For One - April 2012 "In the Kitchen" Challenge
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
morrobay1990
Genre: post canon
Warning: none, not sad
Word count: 1200
Disclaimer: They're AP's
♥ Jack
April 2012 "In the Kitchen" Challenge
Mashup/repost
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.”
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 paid and left, drove the two blocks to the post office, strode in, unlocked his post box.
Electric bill.
Gas bill.
Junk mail.
Post card.
Salvation.
Ennis quickly read the postcard - Big Horns next month. Last trout of the season - should be big. Jack. - then went back to his truck and put it on the front seat along with the rest of his mail...looked down at it occasionally while he was driving. State of Texas, with some pictures and writing around it...well, he'd look at it later.
He drove pretty fast to get the groceries home and put up before the frozen stuff melted and the milk got warm...doesn't take long when it's 104...so he hauled it all into the kitchen, looked at the mail real quick, post card on top...big church and a post office...huh.
He turned on the TV for noise as he put the stuff away, went to his bedroom and put the mail next to the ashtray on the little table by his bed, for later...happened to notice that Childress was marked with a star, near the top of the state.
In the kitchen he turned on the fan, removed the cellophane from a package of chops, turned the oven on to broil and got the pan ready. It was really too hot to cook all this food for one, he should have just made a sandwich, left cooking for another day…but cooking was a habit he’d had ever since Brokeback.
And on good days like today, with the postcard received, date and place set in stone (as far as he was concerned), fantasies of Jack spinning a mile a minute in his brain, cooking was no problem, hot or cold.
He walked quickly back to the bedroom, glanced at the card again, turned it over... Big Horns...then he washed his hands, went back to the kitchen and layered the chops in the pan, and started a big pot of water to boil for corn, opened a beer and went outside, sat back in an old lawn chair. There was a breeze...a hot breeze, but better than nothing, he guessed.
Not as good as the Big Horns.
Through the open window he heard the sports guy talking about college football – that time of year again - but then the weather guy took over and said that a storm was pushing down out of Canada and should cool things off, while bringing much-needed rain to the area.
Rain and cool air and the Big Horns. And Jack. It was shaping up to be a pretty good night.
He whistled a little, and went back in to turn the chops…got him thinking: maybe he should bring some on the trip this time. Jack usually brought the food, steaks mostly…might be a good idea to bring something, some good thick chops, instead of always letting Jack do it…and Ennis could cook on a campfire as well as he could in an oven….better.
He walked to the bedroom, opened the closet and, from the top shelf, took out the small stack of four blank postcards he kept there...two had pictures and two were plain white. The picture ones had Wyoming in big letters, with the various cowboy-type attractions meant for tourists.
He took one of the plain ones and went back to the kitchen, dug around in the junk drawer for a pen and sat at the table to write his answer.
He thought, thank Christ...he wrote, just as he had all those years ago...
You bet.
Author:
morrobay1990Genre: post canon
Warning: none, not sad
Word count: 1200
Disclaimer: They're AP's
♥ Jack
April 2012 "In the Kitchen" Challenge
Mashup/repost
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.”
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 paid and left, drove the two blocks to the post office, strode in, unlocked his post box.
Electric bill.
Gas bill.
Junk mail.
Post card.
Salvation.
Ennis quickly read the postcard - Big Horns next month. Last trout of the season - should be big. Jack. - then went back to his truck and put it on the front seat along with the rest of his mail...looked down at it occasionally while he was driving. State of Texas, with some pictures and writing around it...well, he'd look at it later.
He drove pretty fast to get the groceries home and put up before the frozen stuff melted and the milk got warm...doesn't take long when it's 104...so he hauled it all into the kitchen, looked at the mail real quick, post card on top...big church and a post office...huh.
He turned on the TV for noise as he put the stuff away, went to his bedroom and put the mail next to the ashtray on the little table by his bed, for later...happened to notice that Childress was marked with a star, near the top of the state.
In the kitchen he turned on the fan, removed the cellophane from a package of chops, turned the oven on to broil and got the pan ready. It was really too hot to cook all this food for one, he should have just made a sandwich, left cooking for another day…but cooking was a habit he’d had ever since Brokeback.
And on good days like today, with the postcard received, date and place set in stone (as far as he was concerned), fantasies of Jack spinning a mile a minute in his brain, cooking was no problem, hot or cold.
He walked quickly back to the bedroom, glanced at the card again, turned it over... Big Horns...then he washed his hands, went back to the kitchen and layered the chops in the pan, and started a big pot of water to boil for corn, opened a beer and went outside, sat back in an old lawn chair. There was a breeze...a hot breeze, but better than nothing, he guessed.
Not as good as the Big Horns.
Through the open window he heard the sports guy talking about college football – that time of year again - but then the weather guy took over and said that a storm was pushing down out of Canada and should cool things off, while bringing much-needed rain to the area.
Rain and cool air and the Big Horns. And Jack. It was shaping up to be a pretty good night.
He whistled a little, and went back in to turn the chops…got him thinking: maybe he should bring some on the trip this time. Jack usually brought the food, steaks mostly…might be a good idea to bring something, some good thick chops, instead of always letting Jack do it…and Ennis could cook on a campfire as well as he could in an oven….better.
He walked to the bedroom, opened the closet and, from the top shelf, took out the small stack of four blank postcards he kept there...two had pictures and two were plain white. The picture ones had Wyoming in big letters, with the various cowboy-type attractions meant for tourists.
He took one of the plain ones and went back to the kitchen, dug around in the junk drawer for a pen and sat at the table to write his answer.
He thought, thank Christ...he wrote, just as he had all those years ago...
You bet.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Good thoughts
Date: 2012-04-30 08:59 pm (UTC)