This topic was just a passing comment, mentioned only in a side-sentence of a post which then moved on to another subject matter.
At first, I was like hunh?
But the question stuck with me. I took my copy of the STS book and read the prologue again with this question in mind.
The prologue begins and ends with the wind rocking Ennis's trailer. And in between the wind is mentioned a third time. We associate the wind with Jack, so we can interpret the wind accompanying Ennis as Jack's spirit. The wind is a powerful presence in this short part of the story, and it is depicted as very strong, as rocking the trailer, hissing, booming, roaring. In short, it makes a lot of noise, almost like it would call out to Ennis. Is the wind (=Jack) calling Ennis on this day? Many people believe/are waiting for that departed loved ones are calling them "into the other world", when their time has come.
Another point is Ennis dwelling on his dream of Jack: "
...lets a panel of the dream slide forward. If he does not force his attention on it, it might stoke the day, ..." Ennis sitting alone in his trailer, slipping deep into the world of his dreams and Jack calling him.
A third point is Annie's sentence "
It could be bad on the highway with the horse trailer." Having read Annie's other short stories in Close Range, I fully believe she often intersperses hints of coming events into her stories and especially foreshadows coming doom. So this could be a hint.
One last aspect (for now) is Ennis's age. We don't know how much time has passed since the end of the story, but Ennis's belly and pubic hair is grey. I don't believe Ennis will live to be a very old man. We've discussed this long time ago (hey Jeff, it was you who was very close to my own feelings reagrding this
); I think due to poor health care, too much alcohol and cigarettes, poor diet, physically hard work and simply not caring about himself after Jack's death, Ennis will not live very long.