Leslie, That little drabble is great. The repartee shows two people who are comfortable with each other, and sure of each other. I remember that first week they were together, and Jack was always seeking reassurance from Ennis that he would not up and leave. I guess after 30 years he has got over that! No Ennis can't keep Jack out of that shower with Ennis.
I think he had gotten over it by the end of the first summer...or maybe even the middle of the summer.
A few people have criticized me, saying that Jack using a suicide threat as a way of "catching" or forcing the issue is emotionally manipulative--and that Ennis will forever have the threat of that hanging over his head, so he could never leave. To those comments, I take the view that someone who is truly suicidal (and Jack was: he had a plan, had verbalized his intent, and had the means, ie, a gun) does not have the emotional resources to be manipulative. A suicide threat is a cry for help and Ennis correctly recognized it as such.
I did try to revist the theme of depression throughout the story, each time showing that Jack was getting better and becoming more self-aware of what he had gone through. But yes, in those first few weeks, Jack needed lots of reassurance: one, because he truly couldn't believe that Ennis was really there and wouldn't bolt and two, because he was still not fully mentally healthy...but he was by the end.
L
