The Bettermost Drabblefest: Please Join In!

[mariez]

Look at all the great drabbles 

.....
He had never said it out loud, but he knew that’s what he did.  Hid almost every bit of himself.  Scared people knowing one part might end up knowing all parts.  He had been doing it for so long, he didn’t know how to stop.  He had tried to tell Jack about it, but Jack never understood the fear.  “Why don’t you just leave?” Jack had said. 
.....

Excellent insight, Kelly.  So very true. 

     Ennis and Jack had just had another fight about their relationship.  Jack wanted Ennis to be more open, but Ennis still didn't feel comfortable about it.  Sometimes Ennis didn't think Jack completely understood his inner struggle,it was a day to day thing, but it was staring to affect his character. Ennis really wanted everything between him and Jack to work out, but he was sure Jack had to have noticed the change in him, maybe thats why they were fighting more these days. 
     Ennis was starting to hate his father fo ever taking him to see Earl's dead body. That had become the biggest road block in his realtionship with Jack and he didn't know how to make it go away.  The strain it was putting on them, Ennis felt was becoming too much.  Sure they were living that sweet life Jack had always talked about, but Ennis was afraid it wouldn't last.  He had to figure something out quick before it was too late.

Welcome, Rogue - it is always so great to see new faces.  More wonderful Ennis insight - can we hope for a continuation? 

Fair  Enough  - a drabble in four voices
......
the moon changing, eaten up by the shadows, don't need a watch
to count how little is left

nothing ever fairer
never enough

Oh, Fern.  I really like the poetic structure - and your words are, as always, exquisite. 

      Mrs. P. and Wylie retired for the night leaving Ennis alone by the fire.  He found himself haunted by the uncertainties of his life, whispering to him like ghostly characters.  Would Jack still be alive if he’d been with him that last day?  Could they have navigated the road blocks to a sweet life? 
      Struggling to free his thoughts he stared at the moon floating full in its sea of stars.  The wind played with his hair, bringing with it the scent of pine resin, mountain sage and fading embers.
     I got paradise alright, but nobody to share it with.

That damn "if" word again - the toughest one to live with.  Beautiful, Clyde.

Thanks, all!
Marie

[cwby30]

 
     I got paradise alright, but nobody to share it with.


Afternoon.

He would, if he could let his soul reach out, maybe to that pesky 9-year old that grew up hearing about him.

Thanks again.

[mariez]

Legally Speaking

I have signed this Consent in good faith, and of my own free will, and have not colluded with anyone in relation to it.

Ennis kept reading it over and over, and every time he did he felt more irate, more confused, more ashamed. He wasn't even sure what "colluded" meant – it sounded vaguely dirty somehow  - and he'd been too embarrassed to ask.  The lawyer had told him that signing the paper was the best thing; the divorce would be final, he could get on with his life.

His life.  Without his girls, without a home – nothing and nowhere. 

~~~~~~~
100 Words

[notBastet]

Look at all the great drabbles 

I agree Marie!

[MaineWriter]

Hello everyone,

• engagement
• wacky socks
• falling water

L

[Clyde-B]

      “Come back with my pants, Jack Twist!”
      Ennis, in only a towel chased a shirtless Jack who waved Ennis’s jeans overhead like a denim lasso.   Jack had snatched them while Ennis scrubbed himself and sang a raucous rendition of Penultimate Moon’s “The Shingles Fell From My Eyes.”
      Ennis yanked off his towel and snapped it at Jack’s butt like a whip.  Jack looked back, tripped, they both fell laughing, sprawling into the tent.
      Jack giggled.  “Home free.”
     “Home free, your ass, I’m gone a free willy.”

     Wylie awoke with a start.  Ennis’s arm hooked around his waist... and Ennis’s hand...

 
     100 words

[mariez]

      “Come back with my pants, Jack Twist!”
      Ennis, in only a towel chased a shirtless Jack who waved Ennis’s jeans overhead like a denim lasso.   Jack had snatched them while Ennis scrubbed himself and sang a raucous rendition of Penultimate Moon’s “The Shingles Fell From My Eyes.”
      Ennis yanked off his towel and snapped it at Jack’s butt like a whip.  Jack looked back, tripped, they both fell laughing, sprawling into the tent.
      Jack giggled.  “Home free.”
     “Home free, your ass, I’m gone a free willy.”

     Wylie awoke with a start.  Ennis’s arm hooked around his waist... and Ennis’s hand...

Kind of a reverse deja vu!  How will this one play out?  ("free willy"  -    You funny, funny man!) 

Marie

[mariez]

Dress Codes

Silence fell over the small classroom as the new boy entered, and Jack stared openly as he watched him take his seat.  He knew he shouldn't be staring, but …… red and white striped socks?!?!........short pants?!?! Holy Cow.  Where in the world did this guy come from? 

The boy met the teacher's disapproving look evenly with a pair of intelligent brown eyes that told her he was unfazed by the stares and whispers, as comfortable in his skin as he was in his odd clothing. 

So it was with some disappointment that Jack watched the boy enter the room the next morning, this time in dungarees and a plaid shirt, the implied uniform for boys.  Those wacky socks had made Jack smile, and as his mama was fond of saying, the world always looked brighter from behind one of those.

~~~~~~~
140 Words

[ifyoucantfixit]

         Ennis was used to the falling water, from the river up on Brokeback.. It created a pool
where they could relax and cool off.  During the heat of the summer afternoons.  Jack liked to skinny dip.  Ennis liked to watch him skinny dip.  They had a secret time for such engagements for the last month.  About three hours after lunch, they came from opposite ends of the mountain, down to the idyllic cove created by the waterfall.  The grass was luxurient, and the rocks were smooth, and unless you walked right up to the space you would hardly know it was there.  Except for the great roar of the water as it reached the edge and cascaded down to the giant pool. 
           Jack was already in the water when he looked up and smiled his radiant best..Ennis was removing his boots, and jeans.  Having already removed his shirt and hat, and laid them in the long grass.  Jack said "you're late cowboy, I almost started without ya."   Ennis just chuckled
"Anything you can start, I can always finish boy."  "Thats what I was hoping to hear, git on over here and show me."

201

[fernly]

another 'delayed' drabble...this one's from Sunday's prompt...




“That's some character you got there for a father-in-law, Twist.”

“Guess that's so,” and Jack brushed off some ash that had fallen onto the sleeve of his new shirt.

The John Deere rep tipped back the longneck and finished the last of the beer.

“Well, there's one down. Don't have to be on the road until 7am so I reckon I can work my way through a few more of these.” He signaled to the bartender. With his hand still raised he turned to Jack, said, “You ready for another?”

Jack shook his head, “Nope, doin' fine with what I got,” kept staring straight into the rows of bottles doubled by the cracking mirror behind them. He'd thought for a while that a bottle might hold the oblivion he wanted, had worked his way through too many and found no rest, only a sorrow that cut even deeper, more jagged-edged, when his mind was too fogged to hold the pain at bay.

“Well, it looks like you got yourself a sweet deal, pretty wife, nice kid, job with a future.” The rep scrabbled around in his pockets, came up with a lighter. “Lucky.”

“Looks that way, don't it.”

“Sure enough,” and the salesman got his cigarette lit, blew a smoke ring, looked real pleased with himself, caught Jack looking and laughed.

And Jack laughed, too.

What else was he gonna do.

Sit there and listen to the howling inside that hardly never stopped?