Pagina 20 di 22
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Scene 9
[Twist kitchen downstairs. Very plain and poor country kitchen. Jack’s mother is fussing at the stove. The father sits at one end of the table, lord of all he commands. Ennis sits uneasily at the other end. A stairway leads to Jack’s old bedroom up above.]
JACK’S MOTHER
Want some coffee, don’t you? Piece of cherry cake?
ENNIS
Thank you, ma’am, I’ll take a cup of coffee but I can’t eat no cake just now.
[Jack’s mother pours a cup of coffee for him. She gestures with the coffee pot toward her husband but he ignores her. The old man glares at Ennis, sits silently with his hands folded in front of him waiting for Ennis to speak.]
ENNIS
[taking a deep breath.]
I feel awful bad about Jack. Can’t begin to say how bad I feel. I known him a long time. [pause]
We was good friends. I come by to tell you that if you want me to carry his ashes up [pause] up to Brokeback Mountain like his wife says he wanted [pause] I’d be proud to do it.
[Long tense silence. Ennis clears his throat but says nothing more. He waits and we wait.]
JACK’S FATHER
[with venom. He’s got Ennis’s number.]
Tell you what.
I know where Brokeback Mountain is.
He thought he was too goddamn special to be buried in the family plot.
JACK’S MOTHER
[ignoring her husband]
He used to come home every year.
He helped his daddy fix the fence and mow and all.
[Pause. She stares intently at Ennis. Gets the picture. Speaks gently to him and he understands she knows.]
I kept his room like it was when he was a boy. He slept there when he visited. You are welcome to go up in his room—if you want.
JACK’S FATHER
[angrily]
I can’t get no help out here.
Jack used to say [a cruel parody of Jack’s voice, whiny and babyish] ‘I’m goin to bring Ennis Del Mar up here and we will lick this ranch into shape.’
Half-baked idea the two of you was goin to help me run this place.
Like most a Jack’s ideas it never come to pass.
Next thing we know—
ENNIS
[stands, speaks to Jack’s mother]
Ma’am, I would like to see his room.