Hello all, this is my first time posting here (I only found out these forums existed a few weeks ago). Thank you for all you kind words and support.
I've had some real-life stuff going on (people moving out, moving in, redecorating, yadda yadda) and it's slowed me down some. But I plan to have chapter 12 of TCJ up in the next few days.
In the meantime, I propose some questions for discussion:
1. Why does Jack's father keep calling?
2. Should Peter ask Liz to marry him, and why or why not?
3. Is the hatchet really buried with Alma?
Propose your own, if you wish.
1. Why does Jack's father keep calling?
I think he is facing his own mortality and figuring out that any son is better than no son. His son is doing very well for himself, and I keep thinking that John would like to get closer if he knew how.
Emotions don't come easy for men like him, and I think he is finally grown up enough to try to make things better between them.
(yes there is always the possibility that he does need some help now, but he must know that after all that has gone before, Jack is not going to abandon the place he has built for himself to do much more than give moral support to the "homestead". that is also a reality he has/is probably facing, and wondering how to handle it too if that is indeed the case., I just choose to think not.)
there is one more thing I think about---quite possibly the ranch has been getting too much at his age, and maybe they are needing to start thinking of either moving off to somewhere else---and it scares him so much he is hoping that by trying to talk to the boys--Jack may actually ask him, and find out that they may need help making some VERY TOUGH decisions--like--where do we go from here when we can't do our life's work anymore on the place I have worked my whole life to keep??? Sometimes whether they want to face it or not--life makes one's children into the hard choices that once upon a time was a position for parents only. (having just moved my Mother in law into an assisted living facility, because the day to day got more than she could handle, and we couldn't really physically help enough---this possibility really stays on my mind!! John is just too distanced, and scared that Jack may not actually want to help him and his mother--and I imagine it scares him to death, and because Jack isn't there full time--he may not even realize that hard choices are maybe becoming necessary. Just a thought.
2. I think he could approach it by letting her know how seriously in love with her he is.
I don't think that an immediate proposal will get him what he wants--but if she knows she can have time with his love--I don't see anything wrong with it----basically she is still sort of on the rebound--so time doesn't hurt either of them. He has been alone alot longer than she has, and he has some happiness associated with marriage--she doesn't---I still like slow with them.
3. In my opinion, YES, will she forget the pain, no, but she has other important people to think about and she really isn't mooning over Ennis anymore anyway---bitterness may still come through from time to time, but she is communicating better with both of them than she ever has before, and communications always bring better understanding---not that she is going to invite them to come to WY and visit or anything, but she was more than civil, and that is certainly an excellent start to better relations with Ennis as well as grudgingly accepting Jack. She already knows she is not going to do herself any favors by hanging on to any leftover bitterness. Waste of her energy--she isn't dumb.
OH Lori, thanks so much for Chapt. 12---really a nice read, through the tears---notwithstanding!!
But really enjoyed the update. Thanks.
