"But here was this old shabby-looking guy…. watching the guys playing pool. He had a raw hunger in his eyes that made me wonder if he were country gay. I wondered, 'What would've he been like when he was younger?' Then he disappeared, and in his place appeared Ennis. And then Jack. You can't have Ennis without Jack."
I know we shouldn't necessarily see the old gentleman in that Wyoming bar as a stand-in for Ennis, but he certainly inspired Ennis for Annie, and indirectly even inspired Jack ("You can't have Ennis without Jack.") The old man eyeing the young men from across the room might suggest that Ennis, in his older years, bereft of Jack, might have hungered for male intimacy from someone other than Jack...not necessarily for who they were in themselves, but perhaps because he sought some glimmer of Jack's memory in their features. It's a melancholy thought, but a profoundly and recognizably human one, and endows our perception of Ennis with added compassion.