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Taking Chances, by E. L. Van Hine and L.H. Nicoll
magicmountain:
--- Quote from: MaineWriter on December 10, 2006, 04:33:48 pm ---Re-readers...
I leave this evening for a quick trip to Washington, DC, and tomorrow promises to be an 18 hour day from hell. I won't be online most of the day, if at all. I am posting the link to chapter 36 here (tomorrow's reading is 36-40) and I am going to count on you good people to come up with some great quotes...okay?
http://louisev.livejournal.com/11538.html
I should be back to normal (albeit exhausted) on Tuesday.
L
Have a good trip Leslie. You are doing a sterling job!
--- End quote ---
louisev:
From chapter 36, Ellery explains what attracted him to Ennis . with the patented "You think I'm checkin yer spellin here, boy?"
“True, I ain’t got no back problem, and I ain’t got no Bill. But I haven’t got much else, Ellery. I ... I didn’t go ta no college.”
“Didn’t think you had, Ennis.”
“Didn’t even get to tenth grade..”
“I never thought about it.”
“Yer a college educated fancy intelligent man, Ellery.”
Ellery closed his hand over Ennis’s. “And I like you just fine just like you are. If college boys turned me on... you already heard this speech I think in one a my tirades ta Bill. Maybe its time ta pull you over the side a the road Ennis, an give you a talkin to. I am a loud, mouthy, opinionated bastard who drives like a demon and spends way too much time at work thinkin way too much about other people’s troubles. I got a bad back, a bad temper, and I can’t cook for shit, which is why my kitchen is so nice an clean. An for lo these many years – you talk about not gettin it fer two years – I haven’t had a good workout in the sack for four years Ennis, you know what that’s like?”
“Yeah. Yeah I do.”
“Well then imagine how I am feelin right now. You think I’m checkin yer spellin here boy? I don’t drop no twelve dollar t-bone steak in front a every guy who drives in from Sage on a weekend and ends up sittin in the bar at the Red Stallion, Ennis. I did it fer you. Only – fer you.”
Ennis gave him a frustrated, puzzled look. “Yeah. But – why?”
Ellery leaned over and dug his fingers into Ennis’s collar, pulling his face close. “Because I wanted you. And now that I had ya I want ya even more.”
Ennis blushed hotly, trying to look away.
“Don’t be pullin away here Ennis – look at me. You are some kinda special man. You had yourself somethin special you held onto for twenty fuckin years, even without two pairs a pants, an you really loved somebody. And what I been looking for all this time, while my temper got worse an worse an I got more and more lonesome sittin here in my nice little house with my nice little thousands a books an movies, is a man who knows what lovin is. You’ve done it. I been to college an I been a police detective for fifteen years but there is one clue I never uncovered, and that is how you love a man an keep lovin him. You have done it. Now I wanna know how.”
opinionista:
Well, this is from chapter 30. I know is a few chapters back, but I just love this comment from Ellery
“Speaking of which,” Ellery ignored him, “How is ol’ Pete, and who is watchin him now?”
“Gene is supposed ta be.”
“Gene is standing in the door posing for Playgirl. So who is really watchin Pete?” Ellery looked at Ennis. “Do you mind goin up to see everything is all right with Pete for me please?”
LOL
MaineWriter:
From Chapter 37:
Ennis stirred. “Ellery… I forgot about something. I got ta go get my truck, can’t leave it sit up by the bar like that.”
Ellery pulled back and sat up, eyes half mast with that stupefied, sex-drunk gaze. “Yeah, forgot that too. Anything that’s less than a mile from the Red Stallion I sorta put outta sight, outta mind. But I sorta wonder why Bill hasn’t called ta nag me again.”
“Don’t wish it on us, we can just go get the truck if you think ya can drive, then come back an I can make us some food.”
“I didn’t scare ya off with the boyfriend speech?”
Ennis looked at his soberly. “You didn’t mention no boyfriend, Ellery.”
“No its true but … you ain’t drivin off inta the sunset just yet?”
“No,” Ennis shook his head, a crease distorting the smooth brow. “I got ta think but I don’t got ta go just now.”
“I’m glad. There ain’t no pressure, Ennis, but I sure as hell liked doin that, an I want ta do a whole lot more of it if yer willin.”
“Just no whisperin in public diners. An… I wouldn’t suggest doin this other thing ta me where people are tryin ta be decent,” he laughed softly.
“You are changing Ennis Del Mar,” Ellery said, sitting up and looking at him.
“Yeah. Scarin me a bit. But maybe not so much. Scared me a whole lot ta think a sittin in my daughter’s den in an ol rockin chair an think I might never feel like this anymore, Ellery. Scared I’d die an never know if I would be happy for five minutes at one time ever again. An unemployment ain’t somethin’ I can endure before something has got ta give, an maybe all my holdin back an holdin back finally broke the camel’s back.”
“It ain’t so bad is it?” came Ellery’s soft voiced question.
“Dunno. Haven’t thought about it long enough.”
“Sure enough.” Ellery buttoned his shirt, wiped a hand across his mouth. “Let’s go get the truck then.”
L
opinionista:
From chapter 38. This is beautiful
Ennis put the knife down, carefully, and sank into the kitchen chair, hands over his face, suddenly trembling as though with some long-delayed shock. “Jack – Jesus Jack.... “ He felt in his shirt pocket for his talisman, the journal, and wiping his hands carefully on his denims he flipped through the pages, past the entry he had read, so long ago, in Ellery’s bed.
“July 22: Ennis stayed up on the allotmint through breakfast an I about died without him. Went into the tent and just laid there smellin the blankets. This boy is not sane if he can’t be without it every six seven hours, and summer is wearing on too fast. Crazy about that boy. Wonder if he’s crazy about me.
Ennis put his head down in his hands, tears leaking through them, dry sobs making his shoulders heave, but only small sounds emerged. He was crazy about Jack... mad crazy, and didn’t know it, didn’t know it...he had stayed up on the mountain one morning, just so that he could think without Jack there, because whenever he was in camp, his eyes would follow that restless step, watching his body move, wanting him to come over and say something, to get within grabbing distance so he could knock off his hat, rile him, pull him down and over and get him under him... his breath came hard, like fire in his chest, a wave of grief fully as powerful as the wave of pleasure that had washed over him on the sofa, like the other shoe dropping from a world of shadowy pain.
“Jack... jes let me live,” he said softly. “Let me live, let me have this, don’t make me grieve you forever an ever...”
He heard a sound in the doorway. “Ennis?”
He looked up. He didn’t have his hat to conceal the coursing tears that were staining his cheeks, and he choked down the heavy lump that blocked his throat, a powerful cry of frustration and despair wanted to well up – to tighten itself into an angry shout, but he forced it back down.
“Nothin... nothin... jes... shit Ellery.” Ellery came across the room, arm raised to stroke his head, to offer some condolence, and Ennis held the journal out. “Read that, read that. Who am I ta make that boy want me so bad? What is it about me that he wanted me like that?”
Ellery looked at the scribbled pencilled passage. “You’re the one who loved em, Ennis,” Ellery said, his voice soft, pitched like the voice Ennis used to settle Gene down that morning. “Love is a powerful thing.” He stroked the short hairs over Ennis’s temple, smoothing them back.
“Well it fuckin scares the piss outta me, now ya know.” Ennis said, wiping his eyes and rising abruptly, stuffing the journal, now tightly clenched in his hand, back into his pocket. Somehow, he had to get through this. And somehow, Ellery’s simple reply had seemed to be the right answer to his question.
Ellery sat down at the table, looking at his hands for a while, silent. “I don’t spect you to stop grievin for yer man, Ennis. You might need ta take things a whole lot more slow...”
“No. I like this. I like bein with you. I like – fuckin you, makin dinner, watchin movies.” He bunched up his fists as if to strike out at whatever it was that was causing the pain in his guts. “I want this. I don’t want to take no slow nothin. I sat in a chair in Junior’s spare room for two years askin myself why I was such a fuckin goddamn cripple that I couldn’t jes do what I wanted and be with em like he wanted. Have a sweet life somewheres. Be queer. Well why couldn’t I? I don’t even know anymore, but I lost. I lost somethin I thought I was never gonna lose... and it pisses me off ta think about all this an how bad it all went and now I got somethin I like an I’m thinkin maybe I can’t have it, neither. Does that make any sense to you at all?”
He nodded. “Yeah it does. Ya might want ta turn down that water before it boils over.”
Ennis blinked then adjusted the fire on the range. “I don’ wanna go, but I think... I gotta think, and I can’t think around you. Don’ wanna go just yet but I just need ta ... go an sit under a tree an think about it. Do you understand Ellery?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“All I want ta do when you’re here is ta be with you, talk to you... all of it... but I got ta think. Will ya still be here if I do that?”
“Yeah, as long as ya need.”
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