The Bettermost Drabblefest: Please Join In!

[Clyde-B]

    She would ask him to make it stay like this, just like this, always. 
 

Marie,

Bet that's every romantic's dream.

“Ya know” Ennis said slowly.  “I don’t know, maybe,..... it’s time, but not so far, not New York.  But maybe....it’s time….”

Tom squeezed Ennis’s hand.  “I think it is …”

 

I love it!

A trademark Marl cliffhanger!   

[mariez]

.. . .    “New York?  There’s Broadway plays.  I’ll bet you’d be all agog just to see the lights.”
    “What’d I do there?  Stand on a corner, shake a cup?”

I can just hear Ennis saying this, Clyde.  Glad to see this continue...

Marie

[mariez]

Unprotected

"Whut?" 

It wasn't the word so much as the looks encircling it.  The one look in response to…. the other look.  Was that the moment?  That split second when those random thoughts and nameless feelings crystallized and pierced those hearts so cleanly and so deeply that they were forever changed.  No longer safe inside their own bodies, their hearts now lay open and bare …….all in the blink of an eye. 

~~~~~~
71 Words

[Cameron]

Hey Marie, I just noticed, one more and we can have a big party in here.

Awesome drabble too!!!!

[cwby30]

Afternoon, Cameron.

Well, it's been 10 months since Ennis got up and walked in the early morning watching the sunrise, feeling sure about his decision to return to Toms' trailer and not to his own.  Looks like they've spent this time getting to know more about each other, and settling in.  Now, as Ennis says, maybe it's time... to take a trip to the mountains, though maybe not Jack's and his, but still, to do what he always did with Jack, to lay to rest his regrets so he can remember with a smile what they had together those few times they had together. 

Great series of drabbles, turned into a great story. 

Thanks again. 

[Cameron]

Time to Go

(July 1986)
Ennis took one last look around the trailer.  Everything was in order and in place.  He looked at the closet door.  One last time, he took three steps, but then he turned back towards the door.  “Not now” he said to himself.  “Not now.”  He picked up his small duffel bag, and went towards the door.  But he took one more glance back.

“Hey, you all ready?”  Tom yelled, from just outside the door.

“Yeah.”

“I got the food ready, but we gotta stop for some bottled water.”

“Fine” Ennis said, looking back inside.

Ennis took a deep breath.  Junior promised to come by, to check everything, but still, two whole weeks…….anything could happen.

“Hey, we better go.” Tom exclaimed.

“One minute” Ennis called, and rushed to the closet.  He grabbed the shirts, rolled them into a tight neat ball, and put them in a grocery bag.  Then he stuffed the package way down in the bottom of the duffel bag.

“Come on, what’s keepin’ ya?”

“I’m ready” Ennis replied.  He stepped outside, locked the door of the trailer and went to the truck, holding the duffel bag tightly in this hands.  After all, in the blink of an eye, anything could happen.  Anything at all…...

[cwby30]

Evenin', Marl.

Well, anything can happen, and looks like a lot will in the next few days.  Hesitant!Ennis, still; with Tom for over a year, and still has the shirts, still has Jack in his heart, and can't let those shirts out of his sight for too long.  Hope Tom understands that Jack will always be there in spirit [!], but that this is part of what makes Ennis who he is, so he has to accept that.  Wonder if Tom ever explained about his former friend?

Thanks again. 

[MaineWriter]

Hi everyone,

For Friday how about...

• longing
• pillow talk
• robin's egg blue

L

[Clyde-B]

     “What’s your future, Ennis?”  She paid the check.
     “Better get started.  Want bottled water?”
     “Can’t we stop if we get thirsty?  That seems more apropos for getting a feel for this place.”
     “Got a canteen a home-growed if need be.”  He grinned, grabbed a toothpick, stuck it between his teeth.  “Don’t think ahead much any more.” 
     “Why not?”
     “One day, seemed no different than any other day, went to the post office a pick up the mail.  Got back a postcard, one word stamped on it in red, and my whole future was gone in the blink of an eye.”


     100 words

[MaineWriter]

July 27, 2007
Lazy L Farm, Quanah, TX

Jack smoothed the sheet as he tucked it around the edge of the mattress. It was pale blue—it reminded him of the color of a robin’s egg. He remembered the first sheets he and Ennis had ever bought together, way back when, when they bought this bed. “A man’s bed,” said the salesman, and they got men’s sheets—plaid—to christen it. Jack smiled, thinking of Ennis’s surprise. “I’m used ta white, Jack,” he said shyly. “I ain’t ever slept on colored sheets.”

He fluffed the pillow and propped it against the headboard. How many hours of conversation had they shared in this bed? Pillow talk, his mother used to call it, one of the few times she ever alluded to the intimate conversations that lovers share. He doubted she had many of those conversations with her husband—his father—but she knew he and Ennis shared countless private moments. “It makes me happy ta see you happy, Jack,” she had said on her first visit to the farm. “He’s a nice boy an loves ya very much.”

A soft noise startled Jack and he turned to see Ennis standing in the doorway. “Penny for yer thoughts, cowboy,” he said.

Jack shook his head. “Nothin special,” he said, “just thinking bout my mama.”

Ennis nodded. “Yeah, I’ve been havin a longing fer her too,” he said. “Guess when ya get older, people from the past are on yer mind.”

Jack smoothed the coverlet and stepped back. “One thing I’ve noticed bout memories—ya tend ta remember the good stuff and forget the bad.”

“Memory amnesia.”

“What?” asked Jack.

“Memory amnesia. That’s what it’s called. Memory amnesia.”

“Oh.” He paused. “Are ya kiddin?”

“Have I ever kidded you?” said Ennis, with a wink.

Jack looked at him, shaking his head and trying to hide a smile. “Let’s go eat,” he said, heading out the door.

(323 words)