"You know this is the song that I was listening to when I drove into your driveway after I got your postcard." Ennis glanced at him again and smiled warmly. "This is what I was thinking about the entire way. Now it's like I'm getting to touch a dream."
Ennis who was previously thinking about who he was going to assign the unpleasant task of castrating the calves the next week, was caught of guard by Jacks sudden sentimentality. The unexpected expression of tenderness started the familiar ache in his chest that only holding Jack tightly against him relieved. "If you keeping looking at me like that, were never gonna make it to Holden and Rebecca's." Ennis released Jacks hand and placed his arm around his shoulders and pulled him closer. For several miles they rode silently, listening to the radio and the wind.
Rebecca answered the door looking surprisingly perky. "You broke your fast didn't you." Jack said as he kissed her.
"By noon with coffee and a cigarette. Don't tell Joel"
"Happy Yom Kippur." Ennis said also kissing Rebecca on the cheek. "Where you want the cherry cake?"
"Oh that's so sweet! But I told Holden to tell everyone that I was having Adam cater this! You didn't have to bring anything!"
Ennis looked at Jack. "You know I thought he always seemed more excited about the cake then Bekah here."
"He's a scammer." She said and lead them into the house.
Holden came up and gave both men a bear hug. Ennis extended his hand with the cherry cake. Holden's eye's lit up. He looked with little guilt at the three people that stared back at him. "Yeah, yeah you caught me. Let's slice it up!"
Rebecca who was the self proclaimed "worst Jew in the world" decided to host a dinner at sundown to break the fast for Yom Kippur (though of the 30 + people there she and Joel were the only two Jews.). As a girl this was the tradition that her parents held every year. Although she didn't remember a single prayer, she remembered the dinners. Everyone was ravenous, or pretended to be ravenous… The whole extended family gathered and laughed and fought and laughed again. It was loud and lively and people drank too much and ate even more. It was a celebration of a shared way of life, belief and identity. In her mind it solidified the idea of tribe. It's why she still held dear her heritage even if she herself was horribly profane.
She and Holden were instantly welcome into the fold of the small tight knit community of Cicely and it's peculiar collections of wonderful and eccentric citizens. This was a family as well. As the evening meandered on she watched over her family with thankfulness. Holden, Chris and Ed having a lively debate on the Nietzschean influence on Star Wars, Ennis and Holling swapping bear encounter horror stories, Jack and Joel talking about the decaying economy and world politics, her aunt Anne talking with Ron and Eric about their travels into Japan. Like a scintillating painting made of vibrant oils they flowed in and about one another, new groups formed and topics evolved into entirely unexpected discussions.
Rebecca sat next to her Aunt Annie, who wasn't actually related but had known her parents since college and had been close friend of the family since. A writer by profession she always loved talking to people about their lives and experiences. She was talking with Ennis and Jack about their summer on Brokeback mountain, their lives apart and their coming to Cicely. At some point Ron and Eric joined the conversation, and added their own tales of trying to hold onto one another while Eric was in the Marines and Ron was parading his wife at business dinners. Ennis even told her all he could remember about Earl and Rich. Each story held the same string of fear, love, longing, and doubt and guilt, all purchased with their very lives and without any guarantees.
"We are lucky in a way that too few people are. We had a community that not just welcomed us, but embraced us like family.." Ennis looked about the room. "From setting up the books to fixing the barn there isn't a person here who I ain't grateful for. I don't know if we could have gotten the ranch up an running without 'em. Even if we did it wouldn't be running as smooth as it is. We got a good life, but we didn't get here alone."
Rebecca thought about Ron setting up the incorporation paper's for the Twist-Del Mar Ranch, Jack and Ennis painting Ruth Ann's house, Ruth Ann teaching Shelly how to prepare Elk, Shelly helping Ed edit his movie, Ed helping Chris rebuild his engine, Chris helping and consoling Maggie when her cabin burned down, and Maggie flying her plane in a blizzard to get insulin for Ron from the hospital in Gainesville… My tribe she thought with satisfaction.
A package arrived many years later from Annie. It was multiple copies of the New Yorker, where her story, conceived on that night at Holden and Rebecca's was published. Although neither was much of a reader, both read the story multiple times. Jack asked each time, "Why she have to end it so depressing?"
Though she changed the names of the protagonists, and seemed to combine elements from Jack and Ennis's life, Ron and Eric's and the tragic lives of Earl and Rich, into the story, both men saw themselves portrayed in those pages.
In Ennis it struck cords much deeper, reawakened old fears almost forgotten. It could have been that way, on some level he knew it almost was that way. It was as if Anne read his heart and expressed his fears in a way he could not. "Thank you, Jack."
"For what?" Jack said sleepily as they lay in bed.
"For coming for me."
Jack stared blankly at him for a moment. "What?"
"After the divorce. And.. for loving me." They had lived together for more than twenty years, and still that damn smile of Jack's made Ennis feel like his heart would burst.
"Thanks for loving me too." They kissed one another lightly.
The men lay intertwined in the silent night sharing the warmth and comfort of a love that would never grow old. Now as they crept beyond middle age Ennis found himself pondering the same thing that he did on that first day Jack came to 'collect' him. Days, years or decades… Sometimes he felt that if he tried he could recall every moment of their life together. It was the one treasure that he knew he would take into heaven with him, in many way's it was how he defined heaven.
As Jack was slipping into dream he said, "Swear you won't ever stop loving me Ennis, cus' you know I could never stop loving you…"
"Jack, I swear." Ennis said with tears forming in his eyes. And both men fell asleep and dreamed of a summer of big skies, campfires and freshly awakened love.