SquidgeWorld Archive

July 1963â€"Brokeback Mountain

"Hey, get in here! You're gonna catch your death!" Ennis yelled from the tent.

"I don't care. I love the rain!" Jack stood in the down-pour, naked, arms outstretched, face up-turned, walking around their campsite still grinning from afterglow.

"You're crazy, you know that?" Ennis chuckled and held the tent flap open so he could watch. "What's that, some kinda rain dance?"

"Yeah, I'm crazy; crazy `bout you. Why don't you shuck those jeans and come on out? It feels great!" He whirled around as the rain poured down over his bare body.

"You're gonna catch a cold!" Ennis warned, grinning ear to ear.

"You'd better come out here then and warm me up!" Jack reached both arms out towards the tent and his grinning friend.

Good feelings got the better of good sense and in a minute, Ennis was bare-naked and running out in the rain after Jack. He
tackled him and they both went down into the mud, each one laughing harder than the other.

"I knew I could get you out here!" Jack laughed and smeared a handful of mud down Ennis's chest. Ennis picked up a double handful and took off after a running Jack. He caught him by the river's edge and smeared the mud in Jack's hair.

Jack tackled him and they tumbled into the shallows, laughing and splashing each other. Ennis grabbed Jack and drug him ashore; rinsing the mud off both their bodies.

"OK. You got me out here. Can we go back inside now? I think we both need a little warming up."

"I love it when you talk dirty." Jack said kissing him in the side of his neck.

"That ain't dirty. I just need to get warm and dry." Ennis insisted with a grin.

"Well c'mon then. I'll get you warmed up alright. Can't promise `bout the dry part." Jack grinned as they knelt down and entered the small tent on their knees.

"Here, turn around. Let me get your back." Ennis grabbed his tee-shirt and wiped Jack's back and shoulders. Jack took the tee-shirt and did the same for Ennis. A little more wiping and kissing and they were snuggling down into the bed roll.

"Jack?"

"Yeah"

"You're the best friend I ever had." Ennis said, pressing a kiss into the damp head on his shoulder.

"You too, Ennis. I ain't never had a friend like you before. Wish we can be best friends like this forever."

"Me too; why don't we?" Ennis asked innocently.

"People might not understand." Jack answered softly.

"Don't care `bout people; just care `bout you." Ennis's arms tightened around Jack just a bit more. "Night Jack."

"Night Ennis."

"Wake me if you need anything." Ennis grinned in the dark.

"I will. You know that for a fact!"

"That I do, Jack. That I do."

++++++

Next morning there was still a sprinkle of rain left and when it was over a beautiful rainbow blessed the sky. They stood, arms around each other gazing at the sight.

"It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen." Ennis said in awe.

"Yes, it is. A true miracle of nature and it's our rainbow; yours and mine. From now on, whenever you see a rainbow, it'll be me smilin at you."

"You're crazy, Jack fuckin Twist!" Ennis laughed and held Jack closer in his arms.

"I guess I am." Jack admitted a bit embarrassed by his sentiments.

July 1980--Childress, Texas

"Why do you keep starin out that window, Jack? You got somethin on your mind?"

"Nah, Lureen. I was just watching the rain."

"What is it with your great infatuation with the rain? It's cold and muddy and messes everything up!" Lureen joined him at the window.

"Just like it, is all; can't say why." Jack lowered his gaze and came away from the window not wanting to share these special moments with her.

"Well now, see? It's got you all blue again. Don't see what you see in it. Just ruins any plans people try to make for outdoors." She joined him on the couch.

"So did you have any plans for outdoors tonight?" Jack asked her, absent-mindedly picking at some lint on the arm of the couch.

"No, but I'm sure some people did and now it's all ruined by the rain!"

"Well, don't worry `bout it then" he said wistfully glancing towards the window and drumming his fingers on the arm rest.

"Oooohhh. I just hate this awful rain! I don't care what it does for the Azaleas!" She left the room in a huff.

Jack returned to the window, staring out into the back yard, past the patio and the pool but in his heart, seeing a campsite where he and Ennis once frolicked in the mud. He grinned at the memory and made a mental note to bring that up next month when he saw Ennis again.

July 1980â€"Riverton, Wyoming

"No, Ennis you cannot take the girls! I don't care if it is your weekend. It's raining cats and dogs outside and they'd get soaked! Come back tomorrow if it's not raining." Alma made to close the door in his face but Junior stopped her.

"That's not fair, Momma. It's Friday night and it's our turn to see Daddy!" Junior said, pushing the door open and going to her daddy's side. Jenny hung back behind her momma.

"They'll be fine, Alma. A little rain won't hurt `em." Ennis assured her.

"I don't know what it is with you and rain, Ennis Del Mar, why it makes you lose any good sense God gave you! Look at yourself. Looks like you been out just standing in it, getting yourself soaked to the bone!" Alma chastised him.

"Achoo, achoo!" Junior sneezed.

"Now see there; she's still not over her summer cold and you want to take her out gallivanting in the rain?"

"Oh, Daddy. I'm sorry. I did so want to go with you tonight!" Junior hugged him.

"It's OK, darlin. You're momma's right. I didn't know you was still fightin that cold. I'll just come back tomorrow and we can do something; maybe go see a movie or take a ride in the country." He reluctantly let her go back inside. "I'll pick you both up tomorrow, OK? That be alright?"

Jenny slipped out the door long enough to give her daddy a hug, "Oh Daddy! You are soaked through!" She giggled and went back inside.

"See you tomorrow!" they both called to him as he walked down the sidewalk to his truck.

"Tomorrow for sure!" he promised them.

He drove slowly back to his trailer. He took the long route, weaving in and out all the side streets, crossing and criss-crrossing again; making a 10 minute drive into a 45 minute one.

He loved the rain; loved the patter of it on the roof top, the splash of it through the puddles and the smell of it. The sky really opened up then with a deluge fit for an ark and he high-tailed it the rest of the way home. He took his time getting out of the truck and walking the short distance to his front door. The rain was pounding down on him; thunder rolled, and lightening flashed. Ennis stood on his steps and smiled up to the heavens. It was his rain; his and Jacks and he enjoyed each and every drop of it.

He readied himself for bed and lay there listening to the rhythm of it. It would come down hard enough to shake the trailer and then taper off to just a patter; then a little while later it would pour again. He lay listening to it for some time before he fell asleep thinking about how much he loved the rain, and remembering another July evening and rolling in the mud.

July 2003â€"Riverton, Wyoming

"Grandpa, wake up! It's raining! You said to wake you if it started raining."

"So I did, young man; so I did. And I thank you for wakin me. Let's take a look now and see." Ennis took his grandson's hand and they walked out back on the patio of his daughter's house and sat down in the porch swing.

"Why do you like the rain so much, Grandpa? Doesn't it scare you sometimes? It does me." Kurt Jr. climbed up on his
Grandpas lap.

"It's full of wonder, Lil One, full of hopes and dreams and memories. It washes this old earth clean and makes everything possible." He held his grandson close as a thunder clapped and the boy clung to him.

"Wondrous things can happen in the rain." He smiled to himself thinking back to a little white tent.

"Is that why God sends us a rainbow when it rains?" The small face turned up to ask him.

"That's right, boy, that's God's way of telling us that everything is all right with the world; and everyone in it is good and beautiful to Him. The rainbow is God's way of smiling at us."

The boy lay his head against Ennis's chest and Ennis patted his hair; smoothing it back.

It wasn't much of a rain really, and it stopped after a short time.

"There it is, Boy. See over there behind the garage?" He pointed to the backside of the property where a beautiful rainbow had formed shining its brilliant colors down on the July afternoon.

"I see it! It is beautiful, Grandpa. Is God smiling at us?"

"Yes, Boy, He is."

The boy stood up and went to the edge of the porch and stood, holding on the railing and staring at the rainbow.

Ennis sat breathing in the rain fresh air and remembering a blue-eyed smile that used to brighten his world so long ago. He brushed a tear from his cheek with the back of his hand and whispered into the sweet after-rain breeze, "Jack....I miss you. Thank you for my rainbow. I wonder if you ever knew that you were my rainbow."