"Brokeback Mountain" Opera Libretto

The libretto was written by Annie Proulx, author of the short story.
The score was written by Charles Wuorinen.
I found the score here and transcribed most of it.

ACT 1

SCENE 2

Bar.

J: Where you from?

E: Wyoming

J: Never heard of it. I’m from Lightnin Flats. Wyoming.

E: Never heard of it.

(They both laugh and shake hands.)

J: My folks got a ranch near the Montana line. I had to get out. Your folks ranch people?

E: They was. Died in a car wreck. Sister raised me. Quit school to work and workin ever since. Army didn’t get you?

J: They can’t get no use out of me. Bad knees, busted ribs. Left leg busted three times. They can’t get no use out of me. You got a girl?

E: Alma. You?

J: Not right now.  I hit a run of bad luck, lost my truck. I’m broke. This sheep job will let me save money.

E: I’m savin up too. Me and Alma’s gettin married. Start a horse ranch, maybe.

BT: You guys want to bring plenty a whiskey. It’s a bad mountain. I seen crazy men come down end of the summer. Isolation. Aguirre don’t let nobody take a day off. Stay up there with the sheep and the wind. You go crazy. Isolation.

J: He already told us his rules. No whiskey is one of them.

BT: What he don’t know won’t hurt him.

J: Make it two.

E (nods): Each.

SCENE 3

Main camp. Ennis cooking.

J: What’s for supper tonight, hamburgers and onions? Pork chops? Fried chicken? Sirloin steaks?

E: Canned spaghetti.

J: Not again. You burn it this time? Sure wish we could go to town, have a good dinner, get drunk at that bar, tie one on. Talk to people. You don’t talk much. (He pauses, tests the water.) Get laid.

E: Dream on. Anyways, I ain’t much of a talker.

J: Today I seen a wolf or the biggest coyote in the world. Big as a cow. I shot at him twice.

E: Get it?

J: Missed both times.

E: Coyote. Wolves is all wiped out.

J: I hate to go back to that damn little tent. See you tomorrow. (He reaches out, almost touches Ennis’s shoulder, thinks better of it and leaves.)

E: See you. (Ennis begins to hum and then sing scraps of an old lullaby from his early childhood.) Pretty lonesome down here. Dark. Dark. Moon ain’t up yet. (Looks up, Jack looks down at Ennis’s distant fire.)

J: I can see his fire. Wish I was down there. No fire up here, Aguirre says. No whiskey, Aguirre says. (takes a sip from flask). Here’s to you. Aguirre. Quiet. I don’t hear no wolves now. Might as well sleep as sit in the dark. I can see his fire. (Crawls into tent, lights out.)

SCENE 4

Main camp. Ennis cooking.

J: Wolves got two sheep last night. I can’t shoot ‘em if it’s dark and I can’t see ‘em.

E: Coyotes. Wolves is wiped out.

J: I am travelin four hours a day. Come in for breakfast. Go back to the sheep. Come in for supper. Go back to the sheep. All night lookin for wolves.

E: Coyotes.

J: I should be stayin here. All night. In the main camp. Aguirree got no right to make me do this.

E: You want to stay here? I wouldn’t mind sleepin up there.

J: That ain’t the point. Point is, we should both be in this camp.

E: We’ll switch. You cook breakfast. Can’t be no worse than me. See you tomorrow. (Ennis rides away.)

J (calling after him): I know it’s your favorite dish, but don’t expect no burned toast!

Next day, main camp.

E (comes with a coyote hide): Shot him this mornin at first light. Big son of a bitch. Big as a wolf. But he’s a coyote.

J: How about a drink to celebrate? (They drink whiskey.) I wanted to be a champion bull rider. That was my boyhood dream. But I always known I had to get away. I always known I was goin to leave. From my window I could see a blue mountain. Hundred miles away. It was Brokeback Mountain. I saw it shake with storm. I always known this mountain. And now I’m here. Your folks religious?

E: They was. Yours?

J: My mama’s Pentecostal. She walks with Jesus. My old man don’t walk with nothin. Your folks treat you OK when you was a kid?

E: Pretty much. Yours?

J: My old man beat me black and blue till I was big enough to fight back. He don’t mess with me now about nothin. Pass me that bottle. Ahh. You know, it’s pretty nice up here, ain’t it?

E: Like we’re on another world. The old world is way down there.

J (cry of a hawk): Starry nights.

E: We look down on them hawks. We look down on them pine trees. We’re like eagles, Jack.

J: This eagle could eat some of them potatoes.

E: They probably ain’t done.

J: Who the hell cares.

E: I do. Another few minutes, OK? (Hawk cries). Sounds like that hawk is sayin, “Free. You are free.”

J: We are free. (They continue to drink, fire burns low.) I ever tell you how I come to get into bull ridin?

E (yawning): Yeah.

J: My dad never showed me a thing. He never once come to see me ride.

E: Yeah. You told me. GOD DAMN! Them potatoes is burnt. Guess we drink whiskey for supper.

J: Fine with me. Moon’s comin up. (Jack gets up, staggers, trips and falls next to Ennis, making body contact.)

E (making no move to push him away.) You must be drunk. I know I am. Too drunk to go up there. I’ll sleep by the fire …

J: That ain’t smart. Come in the tent. Plenty of room.

E: I’ll ride out at first light.

J: have it your own way. Freeze. (Goes in. Coyote howls. Time passes.)

E (Sitting up, shivering): Freezin! Cold to the bone! Ice in my veins. Freezin cold. So cold, so cold.

(Tent flap flung aside, Jack comes out, yanks Ennis to his feet, pulls him into the tent.)

J: Git on in here!

SCENE 6

Main camp, next morning. Ennis has a hangover. Jack too has a hangover but elation shines through pain.

E: Who am I now? Who am I now? What happened seemed right.

J: He was drunk. And so was I.

E: Our bodies are not different (painfully) and yet they are. (Turns away from Jack, avoids looking at him.)

J: But it was more than quick sex. There was somethin more. Somethin wild and special.

E: But I know it’s wrong.

J: He’s got feelins for me.

E: He calms me, he touches me, he heals my loneliness.

J: A kind of tenderness for me.

E: But who am I now? It can’t happen again.

J: A kind of tenderness for me.

E: I’m going to marry Alma. Have children. Raise a family. What happened seemed right.

J: He could be The Someone for me.

E: But it won’t happen again. I’ll ride away to night, under the moon.

J: Tonight, under the moon.

E: He calms me, close to me, close, close. But it can’t happen again.

J (turning to Ennis): We got to talk about last night ---

E (in turmoil, not wanting to look at Jack. Harshly): You better know somethin. I ain’t no queer.

J: Me neither. But I’m not sorry we done it. Are you?

E: I CAN’T TALK ABOUT THIS! Damn you! I’m goin to marry Alma!

SCENE 7

Dress shop.

SCENE 8

Main camp, twilight.

E (half-humming his old song, half-singing, low and loving): Time to hit the hay cowboy. And I can’t stay down here tonight. I need to go back up to the sheep. Ain’t you sleepy? Hmm, hmm. You know I got to go.

J: I hear his heart beating.

E: I don’t want to go. I feel his warmth.

J: Why can’t we be face to face?

E: We can’t be face to face.

J: Why can’t it be like this for us?

E: That would mean something bad. This is wrong.

J: I hear his heart beat for me. For me.

E: This is wrong. What is happening to me? To me? (To Jack): You calm me, you calm me. You heal the ache of loneliness. Close to me, close, close. You calm me. You. You.

J: I think you love me, Ennis.

E (blustering, denying): NO! NO! Those soft words are not mine. You do not calm me. Your closeness scares me.

(Jack is confident, laughs.)

E: You disturb me.

(Jack extends his arms to Ennis, who cannot resist.)

E: I can’t let you close to me (and begins to move toward Jack, drawn by the irresistible.) You scare me.

(Galloping hoofs, sound of someone dismounting. Jack and Ennis guiltily move apart and fuss with meaningless chores. Aguirre strides into the firelight.)

Aguirre: Whitlaw calls me up and says you got my sheep mixed up with his. I go up to the high camp. Nobody there. I look down. I see something I should not see.

J: Then don’t spy. You won’t see the things you should not see.

Aguirre: One a you get up to them sheep. RIGHT NOW. Supposed to be one a you up there every night. Not down here. All right. Tomorrow. All right. I got to get my sheep down the mountain. Weather comin. Storm movin in. First snow on the way. Tomorrow we get the sheep down. Six A.M. And that’ll be in for you two [unspoken epithet]. Pick up your checks at the trailer. And get the hell away from here. Away from me. This goddamn mountain. (He spits.)

(Ennis and Jack stand there.)

E (reluctantly): I better get up there, I guess.

J: Goddamn, Ennis. Think about it. This is our last night. Stay here.

E (hesitates): Jack, I better go.

J (intense emotion): Ennis. Don’t you go up to them damn sheep.

(Ennis moves reluctantly toward horse, suddenly wheels and goes to Jack.)

E: You’re right. I’m stayin. Come on. (Puts his arm over Jack’s shoulders. They go into the tent.)

SCENE 9

Main camp, next morning.

J: it’s over, aint it. It’s over. (Pours coffee for Ennis). It can’t be over.

E: Seems like it is, Jack.

J: Can’t we work somethin out? You and me work somethin out? My folks’ place, get it into shape? Build a little cabin?

E: Jack, I got to live a regular life. Alma’s waitin for me. Find a job. Like you just said Jack, this is over. It’s got to be over.

J: I hear you talkin. But real life ain’t talk. You and me been together all summer. And I know that whatever you talk, you loved what we done. Together.

E: Son of a bitch! I told you, I AIN’T THAT WAY!

J (flat and hard): I was there, Ennis.

(Ennis swings at Jack, coffee cups go flying, they fight. Ennis connects, and Jack goes down. Jack puts his hand up to his bloody nose.)

E (alarmed and contrite): Jack! Jesus, I’m sorry, Jack.

(Ennis to staunch the blood with his shirt sleeve. For a moment they hold each other, then pull apart.)

J: I guess that makes your point. It’s over.

E: (seems dazed, perhaps from the fight, perhaps because the summer and its dark private nights are over): Blood on my shirt. Where’s my other shirt? Jack, I’m sorry. I feel like hell.

(Jack stands stiffly still. Ennis bends over as if in pain for a few seconds, then grits his teeth and cowboys up. Rummages through his feed-sack and pulls out a wrinkled work shirt, puts it on, dropping the bloodied shirt to the ground. Ennis picks up his saddle and hurries offstage to put it on his horse, to get away from saying goodbye. Jack picks up the bloodied shirt and stuffs it into his rodeo war-bag.)

E (calls from off stage, still trying to express regret): Aguirre and his guys is comin up the trail. Jack, can you get that tent down by yourself?

J (still mopping at his bloody nose): Yeah.

E: I’m sorry, Jack.

J: Yeah.

E: Well. See you around.

J: Yeah. (Aside): What do I do now? Back to Texas and the rodeo, I guess.

SCENE 10

Texas.

SCENE 11

1967. Riverton apartment.

A (irritably): Where is he? I’m going to be late for work. (Calls Bill.) Bill? It’s Alma. I’m waitin for Ennis to get back and take care of the girls. As soon as he gets here. Uh-hun. Yes. Well, that’s how he is.

(Ennis comes slouching in.)

A: He’s comin in now. See you in 10 minutes. What kept you so long? I’m late for work.

E: Ah, hell. I got in a fight with the new guy. I think I sprained my wrist.

A (coldly): Always fightin. You need a diff’rent job. A real job, not a ranch job. Baby needs changin and there’s hot dogs in the ice box fo supper. There’s mail for you. On the bed.

E: Dammit!

(Babies crying. Ennis sings his old song with words for the babies.)

E: Daddy’s girls, pigtails and curls. Daddy’s girls, rubies and pearls. (Babies stop crying. Ennis looks at mail): Big sale at the feed store. Ain’t that great. Telephone bill. I don’t know why in hell I need a telephone. Water bill. On a ranch you got your own water. A letter from … Christ, it’s from JACK TWIST! Friend, this letter is a long time overdue.

E/J: Hope you get it. I’m comin thru …

J: On the 24^th on my way to Cody rodeo, will visity you and buy a shot of whiskey. Drop me a line, give me your address. Your old pal Jack.

E: Twenty-fourth! That’s next week.

(He is happy and grinning. Whirls in a tizzy, bumps into ironing board, seizes the iron, pulls his best shirt out of the basket and beings to iron it. He puts the iron aside, looks for paper and pencil, finds them and begins to write a reply.)

E (aloud, as he writes): Jack, I will sure be glad to see you again. Hurry up! Hurry up! Hurry up!

ACT 2

SCENE 1:

1967. Riverton apartment. Ennis extremely antsy.

A: It’s so hot, let’s take your friend to dinner. They got that big ceiling fan.

E (pacing): Me and Jack will probably just go out and talk and get drunk. Four years is a long time since we was up on Brokeback chasin sheep. That’s a animal I never want to see or smell again.

A: And I’m supposed to sit here alone?

E (meanly): Catch up on the ironin. Anyway,  Jack ain’t the restaurant type.

(Truck door slams, Ennis goes onto the landing. Jack takes stairs two at a time.)

E: That’s him! Jack! Jack! It’s you!

J: Son of a bitch!

(On the landing they take each other by the shoulders, then hug mightily. Their mouths come together for the first time in an end-of-the-world kiss. As they sway and press against each other hotly the door opens a crack and Alma looks, shrinks back but does not close the door. Ennis sees her looking. He pulls away from Jack.)

E (chest heaving, trying to put a good face on the scene): Alma, this is Jack Twist. Jack, this is Alma. Me and Jack ain’t seen each other for four years.

A: Sure enough.

(Baby cries. Jack’s hand touches that of Ennis. Audience can see this but Alma cannot.)

J (voice shaking): You got a kid?

E: Two little girls. Alma Junior and Francine. Love them to pieces.

(Alma looks away.)

J (voice trembling): I got a boy. Eight months old. Tell you what, I married a cute little old Texas girl, Lureen.

E: Alma, me and Jck is goin out. Get a drink. Might not get back tonight, we get drinkin and talkin.

J: Please to meet you.

A (ignores Jack whom she instinctively hates, pleadingly): Ennis, Ennis.

(They run down the stairs and drive away.)

A: Stuck again. I never get loose. No fun, no breaks, just work and wait. He gets to go out with his friend Jack. I thought this Jack would be a friend to both of us. But he hardly said a word. Didn’t look at me. Didn’t smile. No. No friend to me.

SCENE 2

Motel Siesta. Jack and Ennis are in bed, gleaming with sweat, exhausted and spent, breating deeply.

J:  I didn’t know. Swear to God I didn’t know that we was goin to get into this again.

E: Oh yeah? The hell you didn’t.

J: Yeah, I knew. Why I’m here. Redlined it all the way, couldn’t drive fast enough. We got to talk. About everything.

E: Four years! I didn’t know where you was. Four years! I thought about you every day. Figured I’d never hear your voice again after four years. I figured you was sore about that time I punched you.

J: I was. For about two days. I got back to rodeo. How I met Lureen. She went to college. Her old man’s got money. I’m workin for him. And he’s sick. Anyways, after Cody, I’m getting out of bull ridin while I can still walk.

E (punching him lightly on the shoulder): You seem in pretty good shape to me. Rough and tough.

J (touches Ennis’s chest appraisingly): Not bad yourself. Those four years I dreamed about you. I thought about you. Damn near went nuts thinkin about you. (Turns Ennis’s face toward him, speaks gently.) Listen, we both got wives and kids. We got to work out what happens next. It’s a problem. Old Brokeback got us good and it sure ain’t over.

E: I never should have let you out of my sights. Too late by the time I knew it. And now you’re in Texas. Makes it worse. I’m nothin much, Jack. I’m not very smart. I’m in somethin way over my head. I don’t know who the hell I am anymore. Since the mountain.

J: Friend, we got us a fuckin situation here. I don’t  know what we’re goin to to.

E (sits on the edge of the bed and pulls on his jeans. While he speaks he is putting on his shirt): Nothin we can do. Not now, Jack. I built up a life in them four years.

J: Every time I heard a hawk cry, I thought about us up on the mountain. They say Brokeback is a bad place. But for us it was good.

E (sitting down on the bed again, touching Jack):  Wish we never left there. What happened on the stairs. If that grabs on us in the wrong place, we’ll be dead.

J (upbeat, tender and eager all at once): We can make something work Ennis, I know we can.

E: You got some kind of power over me. You and that damn Brokeback. It done somethin to me. It scares me, how I feel. Jack, why do I have these feelins, not for Alma but for you? Why do my hands shake, my breath come short? Why can’t I say what I want?

J (alternating between dreaminess and enthusiasm): If we had us a little ranch somewhere, your horses, it could be a sweet life. I got some money saved. We can do it.

E: Whoa, Jack, it ain’t goin a be that way. It can’t. I am caught in my own loop. I goddamn hate it that you are goin to drive away in the mornin and I am goin back to work. But if you can’t fix it, you got to stand it. (Gently pulls Jack closer). Jack, I wish we was up on the mountain. Bad or good. I hate this motel room. I wish we was in the high country. Pure cold water. Wind blowin. The campfire and the hawk below callin “free, we are free.” Close to you. Remember how them cloud shadows slide over us?

J: I miss the smell of pine trees.

Unison: Owls hootin.

E (laughing a little): It wasn’t all good, Jack. Mosquitoes. And remember that lightning storm?

J: Hell yes! I thought we was done for.

E: I thought God was after us. Never forget it. Smoke in your eyes. Burnt toast. Aguirre.

J: Let’s do it, Ennis. Get up in the mountains. Right now! Tonight. I’ll throw off the rodeo. You call Alma. You owe me that much. Give me somethin to go on.

E (picks up the phone): Alma. It’s me. Listen, I’m goin to take off with jack for a couple days. Go up and fish in the high lakes.

A: What? Just like that? What about me and the girls?

E (patiently): Alma, since we got married, I done everything you wanted … except take a town job. We live in town and I hate that closed-in feelin. You got your fancy telephone which I don’t never use. I give you every dollar I make. Right now I got to get outdoors away from this place and all.

A: Your paycheck don’t cover much. And you are usin that telephone you got no use for right this minute. I never should of married you. (Hangs up.)

E (spoken to dead phone): I wish to God you never did. (Turns to Jack): Now what?

J: Get your boots on and let’s go. We can get there by first light. It’s gonna be great. Alone in the mountains, just me and you way the hell out in the back of nowhere.

(A great light slowly dawns for Ennis, seeing a resolution to their problems.)

E: Jack, this ain’t no little thing that’s happenin here. We can do this a couple times a year, be alone.

J: Out in the mountains.

E/J: Me and you. Me and you. This ain’t no little thing that’s happenin here. Me and you. This ain’t no little thing that’s happenin here.

SCENE 3

1973/4. Riverton apartment. Alma paying bills. Truck pulls up. Ennis hums on his way in. As he climbs the stairs, his good mood evaporates.

E: Hey Alma. Where are the girls?

A: At Nana’s. I asked her to take them tonight so I can talk to you.

E (stiffens up): What about?

A: About you getting a decent job. What I make at Bill’s store don’t hardly keep us. What you make don’t hardly pay for the clothes you ruin. I want you to get out from ranch work. Bill’s brother is high up at the pow’r company and there is an opening for a line man. The pay is good, good benefits, they provide a uniform.

E: Lineman! Uniform! Tell Jones to mind his own business. Why can’t anyone leave me be? I like ranch work, I like livestock, I like horses. I told you that before we got married. You ever hear that money ain’t everything?

A: With you it ain’t ANYthing. The girls want the things their friends have. They’re smart, and pretty soon they’ll be in high school. Maybe go to college. Where’s the money goin to come from?

E: I just walk in and you dump all this on me.

A: Well, sure, you’re all rested up from your nice fishin trip with your buddy, ain’t you? Catch any fish? Must be nice, take a little weekend vacation. Seems like you go fishin pretty often. It don’t seem fair, you go off with your friend and I sit here. Do you think that’s fair?

E: That’s what we lived on. Fish for breakfast, dinner and supper.

A: Do you think that’s fair, you goin off on these little trips?

E: No, no I don’t. But you don’t like fishin or campin.

A: I sure do not. I would like to go to Casper or Cheyenne or Billings, go to the movies, eat out, see diff’rent people and diff’rent houses and sidewalks. Do somethin diff’rent. This is a terrible life.

E: I’m sorry, Alma. I wish I liked goin to town and the movies. I wish I made more money. I wish I was diff’rent. You don’t’ know how bad I wish I was diff’rent.

A: I been standin it, but I can’t stand it forever. Won’t you try for that job?

E: No. We got fence work next week. Then drive the cows up to the high pastures. And then …

A: You are backing me into a corner, Ennis. I mean it.

SCENE 4

Texas.

SCENE 5

Riverton. Del Mar apartment.

E: I heard about a place I can run a few horses. Mr. Howard’s got …

A: Live on that run-down old ranch? Never. Forget it, Ennis. Never. I can’t stand how we live. I just can’t do it anymore. There’s just not enough money, there’s not enough …

E: What do you want me to do? Rob a bank?

A: Don’t interrupt. I been tryin to say this for years. I need a diff’rent life. There’s no fun, there’s no love, there’s no money. Bill Jones and me want to be together. I want a divorce.

E: I’m surprised we got this far. I won’t stand in your way. I’ll pay you as much as I can for the girls. Do what you want and I’ll sign the papers.

A: I’m glad you see it that way. I’m leavin right now and I’m takin the girls. We can fix up days for you to see them later. You been a good father.

E: I love them little girls.

A: I know you do. We’ll all have Thanksgiving together. We’ll still be friends, Ennis.

(Alma leaves. Ennis pulls a piece of paper out of his wallet, dials the phone.)

E: Jack, it’s me.

J: Ennis! What’s wrong? First time you ever called me.

E (uneasy, wishing he hadn’t called): Called ot let you know that me and Alma is getting divorced. I thought you’d want to know. She left, took my girls.

J: Oh my God. That’s terrific! Oh my God.

E: She plans to marry that groc’ry store guy. I guess I’ll be an ornery old bachelor now.

J: I’m on my way! Jesus, this is great news.

E: No, no! Jack, you hear me? (To a dead line): Do NOT come up here. Hello? Jack? Jack?

(Later. Ennis opening a can. Truck sound, Jack pounding up the stairs.)

E: Jack, I told you not to come.

J: No you didn’t.

E: Yes I did. But you hung up.

J. You’re gettin divorced, Ennis! I came up to be with you. We’ll look at ranches. To buy. Be together all the time. Not just once in a while.

E: Tired of tellin you. I can’t do it. I CANNOT DO IT. That part has not changed. It wont’t never change. I don’t want to be like them … sissy guys they make jokes about. And I don’t want to be dead.

J: You said that before. What do you mean, “be dead”?

(Ennis hesitates, then decides to dredge up the ugly and unforgettable memory.)

E: OK, Jack. Down home. There was these two old guys ranched together. Little cow-calf operation like you keep wantin. Earl and Rich. Dad would pass a remark when he seen one of them. Tough old birds, but kind of a local joke. I was nine years old when they found Earl dead in a irrigation ditch. Earl and Rich.

J: Yeah? So what? Lots a ranchers drop dead in irrigation ditches.

E: Dad took me and my brother to get a look. They took a tire iron to him. Spurred him up, dragged him around so he was a bloody pulp. He was just a piece of dirty meat. I didn’t understand. Dad said he did bad things with Rich. He told us what them bad things was.

J: You seen that? Your dad showed that to you? When you was a little kid? Jesus! No wonder you’re so mule-headed about us.

E: It was a lesson not to be like Earl. Dad could be one of them that done it. If he was alive an seen us doin what we do it might be us. Two guys living together? Earl and Rich? Jack and Ennis? I can’t see it. And I can’t do it.

J: You’re afraid, Ennis, ain’t you?

E: Yeah, I’m afraid a them.

J: You’re afraid a them people out there.

E: But I ain’t afraid of nothin else.

J: Your neighbors and them people downtown?

E: Jack, you don’t know …

J: Hell, they’re just people. Plain, ordinary people.

E: … what plain ordinary people can do to somebody that ain’t. (Wrenching admission. Subdued. First time he has admitted this.) Like you. And me.

J: I feel pretty damn ordinary. I’m as ordinary as anybody else.

E: You think so. Probably old Earl thought him and rich was ordinary. But his neighbors didn’t see it that way. It’s a hell of a thing to kill a man, Jack, because he’s “plain, ordinary people”.

J: That was a long time ago. Things is changed now.

E: Not here. Things never change here. They never will.

J (puts his arm around Ennis, speaks consolingly): Forget about that stuff. It’s goin a be all right, Ennis. Come on.

(Jack makes a move toward the bedroom. Ennis stops him and moves away.)

E: Off limits. That’s where Alma and me sleep. I mean slept.

J (sarcastic, jealous and hurt): Already forget you are gettin divorced from her.

E (trying to explain but getting in deeper with every word): It’s just the idea. Anyways, talkin about old Earl and Rich, I ain’t in the mood.

J: That’s a first. Sounds like me and Lureen.

E: Fact is, I don’t have no hard feelins for Alma.

J: What about MY feelins?

E: Nothin that happened it wasn’t Alma’s fault. She’s a good person.

J: I can’t stand this.

(Jack leaves, pounds his head on the wall three times in the stairwell, pounds down the stairs, truck screeches away.)

SCENE 6

Alma and Bills dining room, kitchen. Thanksgiving dinner over.

A: Too bad your daddy never showed up, but that’s how he is. He drives that broken old truck. He’s not dependable, like Bill. He don’t take you to the movies and buy you popcorn like Bill.

(Ennis enters hastily.)

E: Sorry I’m late.

(Ennis goes around the table, kisses daughters, shakes Bill’s hand, gives Alma her pink princess phone.)

E: Truck wouldn’t start. I know you favored this thing. Remembered it when I was halfway here and turned around to get it. I can sure live without it.

A: Want some turkey?

E: I ain’t hungry. I fried some eggs. But I’ll help you clean up.

(Ennis and Alma carry dishes to the kitchen. Bill, Francine and Alma Jr. stay in the dining room and start a game of Monopoly. Ennis sets a stack of dishes in the sink near Alma.)

A (tension in voice): Well. How are you, Ennis?

E: OK, I guess.

A: Why don’t you get married again? It might be good for you. (Urgently): For your own sake, get married again, Ennis.

E (snorts derisively): Once burned …

A: You wasn’t burned. I was the one got burned.

E (increasingly loud and angry): What the hell do you mean, “you got burned”? Had your way about everthing. EVERTHING. I give you the divorce. I pay you child support. I stay out of your way. I hardly ever see the kids. So what do you mean, you got burned.

(Alma is furious but cold, the long-smothered knowledge erupting.)

A: You always blow up, don’t you? Just get mad.

E (angrily): I am NOT MAD!

A: Well, I can get mad, too. You think I am dumb, but maybe I am not so dumb.

E (clenched teeth, trying not to shout): I don’t think you are dumb.

A: All them fishin trips? You never brought home any fish. So once I tied a note on the end of the fishin line. It said “Bring some fish home. Love, Alma. (She weeps a little.) You told me you caught a whole mess of brown trouts. You ate them up. With him. Remember? When you went to work, I looked. There was my note still tied on the end of the line. That fishline was never near water!

E: That don’t mean NOTHIN. I used one of Jack’s rods.

A: Don’t lie, don’t try to fool me, Ennis. I KNOW what it means. Jack Twist? Jack Nasty! You and him … You and him … (chokes up) You and him … it makes me SICK!

E: Shut up!

A: That’s why you don’t want to get married again. Why should you?

E (wild, shouting): SHUT UP!

A: You got HIM!

(He seizes her wrist and twists, she drops a dish, goes to her knees, but he continues to twist.)

E: SHUT UP! Mind your own fuckin business. You don’t know nothin about it.

A: I’m gonna yell for Bill.

(Ennis shoves her hard, storms out of the kitchen. Bill has arisen and is advancing toward them.)

E: Go ahead. I’ll make him eat the floor. And you too!

BILL: Whoa! What’s going on here?

ALMA, FRANCINE, ALMA JR., BILL: Stop! Wait! Daddy, wait! Ennis! No! No! Get back here Del Mar!

(Ennis rushes at Bill, swings at him, misses, crashes out the door.)

SCENE 7

1983. In the mountains. Jack waits for Ennis. Brightens when he sees Ennis.

J: Up here! Take the left fork.

(Ennis enters, throws down his gear.)

E: Dammit, Jack, I missed you. I missed you pretty bad.

(They embrace, hug and kiss. Ennis pulls away abruptly, excuses himself.)

E: Still makes me nervous right out in broad daylight. (Looks around at the camp site.) Nice with the creek just over there. It’s runnin high with snow melt. And noisy. (Jokingly): We can’t hear them bad guys sneak up on us.

J: Miles a blue sky. When I come in I seen a bear downtrail.

E: I seen his tracks. And yours.

J: I hope he don’t decide to join us.

E: Feels good to be here. It’s been too long. I missed the smell of wood smoke in your hair, your shirt, on your skin. Missed bein close to you.

(Ennis hugs Jack again inhaling his scent.)

J: Looked like he was comin right at me. But he crossed the trail and ran off. Better hang up the food tonight.

E/J: All the headaches go away when we get back in the mountains. It’s like we’re both kids again with the whole world in front of us.

E: We can do anything.

(Jack sits close beside Ennis, rolls a joint, lights it and passes it to Ennis who takes a crag, passes it back.)

J: Jeez, I wish that was true.

E: Me too. But we’re OK. Makin the best a what we got. How’s little Bobby doin?

J: Not so little anymore. He’s taller than me. At that smart-guy stage.

E: I used a want a boy for a kid, but just got girls.

J (bleakly): I didn’t want no kids of either kind, but fuck-all worked the way I wanted. Nothin ever come to my hand the right way.

E: Surprised to hear you say that. Compared to me you made out pretty good. You made a lot of money, Jack. Nice clothes, new truck.

J: You know what I mean.

E (laughs): Still married.

(Ennis slides his hands between Jack’s legs. Jack pauses, responds to his touch.)

J: Oh yeah.

(They embrace, roll to the ground on the far side of the log.)

-----------------

Same camp. Jack and Ennis packing up to leave.

J: Here we go again, sayin goodbye. This was one of the best times. Ennis, I wish …

E (cutting off this too-familiar wish): Headin back to Texas now?

J: Not yet. Guess I’ll go see my folks first. God, I can’t wait until our big horse trip in August. Ten beautiful days. I’m going to buy a new hat for the occasion.

E (uneasy, shifting around): I been puttin off tellin you, Jack. I can’t get way again until November.

J (stunned): November. NOVEMBER!

E: After we ship stock.

J: What in hell happened to August, to our horse trip? We said AUGUST, ten days. Christ, Ennis, whyn’t you tell me this before? You had a fuckin week to say somethin about it. And why do we always have to meet in the friggin cold weather?

E (placatingly): Jack, Jack …

J: We ought to go south for a change. We ought to go to Mexico one time.

E: Mexico? Jack, all the travelin I ever done is goin round the coffee pot lookin for the handle. We can hunt in November. Get a nice elk?

(A very chill silence. Jack is icy, gathering himself for a show down.)

J: You know, friend, this is a goddamn bitch of an unsatisfactory situation.  You used to come away easy. Now it’s like seein the pope!

(Ennis is apologetic, but a little nettled.)

E: Jack, I got to work. Them earlier times I used to quit the jobs. You got money. You forget how it is bein broke all the time. I need this job. I can’t quit. And I can’t get loose in August. This week was the trade-off for August. You got a better idea?

J (bitter and accusatory): I did once.

(Ennis walks away, turns and walks back until he is almost nose to nose with Jack.)

E: Mexico? Mexico. You been to Mexico, Jack?

J (defiant): Hell yes, I been. What’s the fuckin problem?

(Ennis is clenched and threatening and even deadly.)

E: I will say this to you one time, Jack, and I ain’t foolin. (Menacing pause.) What I don’t know, all them things I don’t know could get you killed if I should come to know them.

J (fed up with the situation): Try this one, and I’ll say it just one time. We could have had a good life together, a real good life. You wouldn’t do it, Ennis. What we got now is Brokeback Mountain. It’s ALL we got boy, fuckin all.

E (interrupting): No! It’s more than …

J: It’s ALL we got, Ennis. I hope you know that if you don’t never know the rest. Count them! The damn few times we been together in 20 years. Then ask me about Mexico. Then tell me you’ll kill me for needin it and not hardly never getting it. (Low and intense): You got no idea how bad it gets. I’m not you! I can’t make it on a couple a high altitude fucks once or twice a year!

(Ennis holds out hands to Jack who does not clasp them.)

E: Stop! No more. Jack, we always git along. We always look at each other and understand.

J (tense with anger): Not this time.

(There is a long silence while they stare at each other.)

J: I’m rich enough, Ennis. We could buy a small ranch and some stock. Your goddamn horses. We could do it. But you won’t. It’s the same sorry situation. Don’t you think I got feelins?

E (suffering): Nobody knows better than me that you got feelins. I wish I could do what you wanted. I wish we lived in a diff’rent world.

J: We don’t have to stay here.

E: I belong here. I don’t fit nowhere else.

J (with increasing bitterness): Nothin has changed.

E: I was born here and I belong …

J: Nothin can change.

E: … to this place, whatever it is.

J: When I was a kid I wanted …

E: I can’t leave.

J: I wanted to see …

E: Not even for you.

J: … the places of the world …

E: Not even for us.

J: I wanted to go everywhere. To be happy. I wanted to fall in love. And I did. I did. I wish I knew how to quit you.

(Ennis is devastated at the worst possibility voiced.)

E: Don’t’ never say that!

(Ennis half-turns toward Jack, puts his hands out again, doubles over, collapses.)

J: No! No! Ennis, what’s wrong?

(Jack, fearing heart attack, runs to Ennis, kneels. On their knees, they cling to each other, weep.)

J: I’m here. I’m here. Close to you, close to you.

SCENE 8

Front of Riverton post office. Ennis comes out of post office.

COWBOY: Hey Ennis. How ya doin?

E: Good enough. You?

COWBOY: Just scrapin along. Stoutamire hirin?

E: Maybe in the spring. Calvin time. Fence work after snow’s gone.

COWBOY: I’ll check in. You take care, now.

E: You bet.

(Ennis sorts mail into trash bin. Discovers the postcard he sent Jack the week before, turns it over, looks at both sides, then sees the red stamped message.)

E (puzzled): Deceased? (Understands.) Deceased. (Shouts): DEAD! NO! NO! JACK! NO!

(Ennis drops the card, wind blows it and he has to scramble on all fours and crawl around to retrieve it. Everyone has stopped and is looking at him.)

CHORUS: What is wrong with him? Who is he? Works for Stoutamire. Bad news, bad news. He keeps to himself. Somethin not quite right. He’s a hard man. Always gets in fights. That’s him, always lookin for a figtht. Somethin diff’rent about him. Bad news. Bad news.

(Ennis shakes and trembles, near panic, spins looking for a phone. Goes into phone booth, pulls out his wallet and finds Jack’s number. Drops he wallet, drops the postcard again. Leans against the phone and tries to control himself.)

CHORUS: Somethin not right. Nervous. He’s had bad news. Who was his people? Killed in a car wreck. Over in sage long ago. Del Mar! Somethin not right. Long ago.

(Chorus follows Ennis to the phone booth and eavesdrop. Ennis dials Jack’s number. Lureen answers, cold little voice.)

L: Hello?

E (voice trembling): Can I talk to Jack. I need to talk to Jack. Please!

CHORUS (mocking): Please. Please.

L: Who? Who is this?

E: Ennis Del Mar? His fishin buddy?

CHORUS: Old friends.

L: I’m sorry to tell you this but Jack passed away in July. An accident. Couldn’t notify his friends. Didn’t know how to get in touch.

(Ennis tries not to sob, keep up the pretence they were just buddies.)

E: What happened? I seen him in may and he was (wrenches this word out): beautiful.

CHORUS: Beautiful.

L: A freak accident. They said he pumped up a tire on some back road. They said the rim flew up, broke his jaw and knocked him out. They said he drowned in his own blood.

E: Oh God. Drowned in his own blood!

CHORUS: Drowned in blood. Drowned in blood.

L: Would have let you know but I didn’t have your address. He was only 39 years old.

(Ennis’s voice is steadier, mastery over self achieved.)

E: Is he buried down there?

CHORUS: Buried down there?

L: He always said he wanted to be cremated, scatter his ashes on Brokeback Mountain. I sent his ashes up to his folks. I thought Brokeback Mountain was up there. Somewhere.

E (choking up): We herded sheep together one summer on Brokeback.

CHORUS: Beautiful. One summer on Brokeback.

L: He said it was his special place.

E: His folks still up in Lightnin Flats?

L: They’ll be there until they die. You get in touch with them. Maybe a good idea if his wishes were carried out.

E: I’m going up there. Now.

SCENE 9

Twist kitchen.

JM: Want some coffee, don’t’ you? Piece of cherry cake?

E: Thank you, ma’am. I’ll take a cup of coffee but I can’t eat no cake just now.

(The old man glares at Ennis, sits silently with his hands fold in front of him waiting for Ennis to speak.)

E: I feel awful bad about Jack. Can’t begin to say how bad I feel. I known him a long time. We was good friends. I come by to tell you that if want me to carry his ashes up … up to Brokeback Mountain like his wife says he wanted, I’d be proud to do it.

(Long tense silence. Ennis clears his throat but says nothing more. He waits and we wait.)

JF (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.

JM (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.)

JM: I kept his room like it was when he was a boy. He slept there when he visited. You are welcome to go up to his room if you want.

JF (angrily): I can’t get no help out here. Jack used to say [cruel parody of Jack’s voice, whiny and babyish], “I’m goin to bring Ennis Del Mar up here and we’ll 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)

E: Ma’am, I would like to see his room.

(She gestures wordlessly toward the stairway.)

JF (almost plaintively): I can’t get no help out here.

SCENE 10

Jack’s room. Ennis enters slowly, as if in pain.

E (softly, looking through the window): There’s old Brokeback in the west. Jack, I know you looked out that window a thousand times before you broke loose.

(Ennis moves around the room touching the furniture Jack had touched so many times. He goes to the closet, slides the curtain and looks inside. Jack’s boots, old wool hunting jacket, jeans on wooden hangers. Slides the curtain closed, half walks away, opens curtain again and looks far inside. Reaches in and pulls out Jack’s old shirt from Brokeback, holds it to his chest, buries his face in it. Very slowly holds it out and looks at it and finds there is another shirt inside, slowly draws out his own blood-stained shirt from the long-ago last day on the mountain and the breakup fight.)

E: Oh God. Jack. Your shirt. My shirt. Your blood. All the years you kept these hid.

(Overwhelmed by memory and longing, he begins to weep. Stops abruptly, afraid they will hear him downstairs. Folds the shirts together.)

E: We was always on the edge, always. Our life together. Our life apart. Now it’s too late and we’re both alone forever.

(Ennis goes down to the kitchen holding the shirts reverently. Looks at Jack’s mother questioningly. She nods.)

JM: You take them. I know Jack would want it so. I think you was his only friend. Life isn’t easy for us, wasn’t easy for him.

JF: Tell you what. We got a family plot and he’s goin in it. He ain’t goin up on Brokeback.

(Jack’s mother walks to the door with Ennis.)

JM: You come again. To see his room. To remember Jack, to remember.

SCENE 11

Interior of Ennis's ratty trailer on the current ranch where he works.  He comes in wearily.  Drapes the shirts over a chair back. Pours a glass of whiskey and tosses it back, deliberately pours another, picks up the shirts.  What follows is an inarticulate man trying to express unspeakable grief.  The shadows of pain spread out like black oil.

Ennis (holding shirts):  This is what's left, Jack. I got nothing else.  Two shirts the same age now we was when we started.  Couple a postcards.  What I can remember. No pictures.  No letters.  Can't even carry your ashes up to Brokeback.  Hard to take. 

(Sits at the table.)

Jack, I'm choked up with love.  Love too late, too late … My fault.  My fault. I can't sleep.  Bone-tired, I can't sleep.  Over and over them pictures go through my head.  Is it you or old Earl in the ditch? Can't talk to nobody about you.  My secret. Nobody knows even now. There is a price to that secret.  When something bad happens, a man with a secret can't show pain. Feels like my heart's cut out, nothin there but a little stain a blood. And if you can't fix it, you got to stand it. I know that.

(He rises, gets a wire hanger and puts the shirts on the hanger so that his shirt embraces Jack's, a forlorn gesture. Gets hammer and nail and pounds nail three times into the wall.)

All them years I told you "No, no, no".  I never give you nothing but "No".

[He puts the hanger on the nail.]

I never give you nothing and I never said what you wanted me to say.  I got only one thing I can give you now. Jack, I swear. I swear there will never be anybody but you. It was only you in my life and it will always, always be only you, only you.  Jack, I swear.