He had come here to bid a fond farewell. He would place the bouquet of small ribbon flowers, each made of six inches of white silk ribbon, on the grave.
But still Jack's death spread out before him like a wide, wide river. No closure here. No closure.
"Shouldn't'a come, Jack. Sorry, Jack. Shouldn't'a come."
Feeling a hand on his shoulder, he turned to see only the rolling, welling plain.
"You did good, Ennis. You did good." A voice said from thin air.
It was a long time till he could see well enough through the tears to drive again.
"Maybe I should'a, then." he thought.
He decided there and then to get his horse and trailer and return to Brokeback.
Sitting on the log beside the fire, tent up and camp all arranged, he sensed Jack sit beside him. He didn't look, he knew he wouldn't see anything there.
"Thanks for coming back here Ennis."
"I miss you Jack. I miss you like hell."
"Don't be missin' me. I'm not gone."
"But I can't see you."
"Yes you can. Just not like before."
"Not the same, Jack, not the same."
"Nothin's the same, Cowboy. Nothing stays the same."
"Yeah, I s'pose. I want to hold you. I want you to hold me."
"I am holdin' you, Cowboy... all this time, I've been holdin'."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah... You shouldn't drink so much Ennis. That's takin' you away from your girls."
"Yeah, well, it just hurts so damn much."
"That's why I come. I'm here. I will be. Just call out to me... and talk to me."
"Not the same, Jack."
"We b'n through this, Cowboy, nothing stays the same."
"Yeah."
"Tell you what. Lets stay here for as long as you want and then we'll take this place with us."
"Whut?"
"When you want to go, we'll take what we have always had here with us. J'st you an' me. Deal?"
"Deal?"
"When we left before we left 'us' here... We tried to get 'us' and did from time to time. But now we can take 'us' with us, Cowboy. We are always together now."
"I wish... I could just hold ya."
"Yeah, but y'know? When you pass too, it'll be better than it ever was, Cowboy. Better than it ever was."
"Yeah?"
"Oh yeah."