Hunh?!
I have (much) more to say about Ruthlessly's post and the entire concept, but I really should be concentrating on my so-called paid employment now, so I'll wait ... But Barb! You shocked me so much I have to abandon work for a moment. Are you saying Jack would just leave Ennis wondering what's going on until Ennis ran into Jack eating pie in a bus station?!
Sure, it would hurt to break up in person. But doesn't it always? Don't people just have to go through with anyway? Isn't breaking up hard to do?
That look in his eyes as he watches Ennis drive away tells me that he did break up with him in his own heart and mind. Whenever I've tried to imagine what their time in November would have been like had Jack not been killed, I've always come away feeling that Ennis wouldn't have come far enough to do it right, so to speak. No way would he have an open relationship with Jack like Jack wanted. The most he would have done would have been to agree to move a little closer and maybe to meet up more often and in places Jack suggested. I just can't see Ennis ever agreeing to live together. Which is not to say I don't want to see that - of course I do. But I just can't.
So, knowing this, and realizing he has to let Ennis go to free Ennis from his torment, how would Jack meet with him one last time to tell him all this? If he were going to do it face to face, I don't see him waiting until November, first of all. So maybe after getting that last post card from Ennis, he would call him (it's not like Alma's gonna answer after all) and tell him they have to meet somewhere - not at a campsite, not in the mountains - maybe at Ennis' house/trailer? I don't know. And they have to talk. Hell, I could even see Ennis' postcard saying it still looks like November is the soonest he can make it as being an answer to an interim one from Jack saying "We got to meet sooner - just for an hour or two - to talk. Can we do that sometime? I'll come to you."
Again, Jack's not wanting to have the usual kind of reunion with Ennis, in my mind, doesn't make Jack a coward. It makes him a hero. Because he knows that kind of get-together will only tear Ennis apart more. Ennis would have to drive God knows how far back to his lonely old house or trailer having just been told by Jack that they can never see each other again. If Jack did tell him face to face, I also think he would be cruel to be kind, again, and would tell Ennis he's met someone else and wants to live with him. Period. Clean break. It's the only way.
Am I truly the ruthless one? Nah. I've been there is all, to a much lesser extent. He still thinks I broke up with him, even though it was he who had been breaking up with me a little bit at a time from the moment we met. If that helps get him through, power to it, I guess. I can't make him face the truth - that's on him.
