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Alma and Jack: one question

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shortfiction:
I'm sure this has been covered, but I couldn't find it with a search.

Alma sees Jack standing by his truck and tells Ennis that his friend could come up and have a cup of coffee.
Ennis, of course, takes off with Jack, and the coffee issue is rendered moot.

Why did she suggest this, I wonder?    Did Alma just think Jack was being rude by not coming up, or was there more to it?  It's hard to believe she would really confront them about what she had seen the day before when they were kissing.   But what else might she have said?   Did she just want to get to know who this fellow was?

What do you think?

Lynne:

--- Quote from: shortfiction on October 29, 2008, 10:41:08 pm ---I'm sure this has been covered, but I couldn't find it with a search.

Alma sees Jack standing by his truck and tells Ennis that his friend could come up and have a cup of coffee.
Ennis, of course, takes off with Jack, and the coffee issue is rendered moot.

Why did she suggest this, I wonder?    Did Alma just think Jack was being rude by not coming up, or was there more to it?  It's hard to believe she would really confront them about what she had seen the day before when they were kissing.   But what else might she have said?   Did she just want to get to know who this fellow was?

What do you think?
--- End quote ---

Hi shortfiction!

This is a really good question.  I tend to think that Alma, realizing Ennis is going off with Jack, is making a desperate plea for more attention from Ennis, and maybe subconsciously some alternate explanation for the sense of abandonment she must be feeling.  It looks like she's been up all night considering the reunion she witnessed the day before, and she is likely still in shock, not fully comprehending what it means about their marriage and family yet.  So...trying to buy time?  I can't see her being in an emotional place where she would have the courage to confront them.  It took quite a few years, after their divorce and her marriage to Monroe, for her to really confront Ennis during the Jack Nasty scene.

Katie77:
I dont think she would have confronted them either.

But there must have been a lot of questions going thru her mind......even that she might have misunderstood what she saw. And then there is also the question she would have, about how come Ennis was so close the this bloke who he had never ever discussed with her. I think she was beginning to see, that she did not know as much about Ennise as she may have thought.

Asking him up for a coffee, was one way she would maybe be able to chat to Jack and find out a bit more about him, also she would know by what Ennis said to him, where they had met maybe. And also to see if there was any interaction between them that might suggest to her the meaning of what she saw from the door.

This was all happening without any forewarning to her. She didn't know Ennis was gonna go off "fishing" with Jack, until he bounced in and told her.

Of course she had to be curious about this Jack "nasty" fella.

I think when Ennis rushed off with him that following day, was the time when Alma knew that this was something she was not going to know about, and she was not gonna like it.

LauraGigs:
At first glance, Alma's request does seem strange.  I agree with what's been said here — that she's in shock and general mystification over all she's seen, and is basically trying to 'get some bearings' as to the whole Jack situation.  As Ennis's spouse, she had expected to be part of every facet of his life, including his friends (as in the previous day when she assumed the 3 of them would eat together. Even after seeing the kiss, she gets her purse, almost robotically maintaining the facade even after the shock of what she's seen.)

That was probably the first night Ennis had spent apart from her since before they married.  Then, he breezes in and tells her he'll gone for an even longer, indefinite period.  I think "you know your friend could come up for a cup of coffee" is Alma's exasperated, confused way of handling the abandonment — another way of saying, "I expected to be involved in your emotional life".
 ???   :'(

Katie77:
Yes you are so right there Laura....Alma had expected to be included in the get together with Jack, when she mentioned aobut going to the knife and fork for dinner......and had all ready been told by Ennis that it was just gonna be him and Jack heading out to get drunk.

She must have been so disappointed, not to be included, and then to see the two of them together, well, that just added to the confusion and feelings she was all ready going thru.

No matter how much we love Jack and Ennis, what happened there, was pretty selfish. Ennis seemed to be in a world of his own, really just caught up in the whole thing of him and Jack, like he was in a bit of a trance. Everything from the way he grabbed Jack in the beginning to just heading off for a few days to go fishing, was completely out of character for him. It was probably the only time he let his guard down with that "couldn't care less what anyone thought" kind of attitude. Alma was certainly seeing a side of Ennis that she would never have expected in a million years.

And no wonder Jack, thought all his Christmases had come at once. The way Ennis behaved, would have made Jack think, that Ennis had lost his paranoia and was ready to let the world know what was going on.

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