I wrote this because seeing “Brokeback Mountain” broke me down completely, and I needed to imagine a world where something better had happened. Here is that world.
This is a crossover with “Brokeback Mountain,” and it’s only AU for BBM, not S&H.
Wyoming, 1983
“Where the hell are we?” Starsky wondered aloud. They’d been driving on twisty roads all afternoon, with mountains looming on either side, since they’d left the flat hard rocks of Utah. He poked at the map that Hutch struggled with. “Come on, come on, what kind of a shotgun rider are you?”
“I’m getting it, I’m getting it.” Hutch unfolded the unwieldy map and then refolded it. “What was that we just passed, Bondurant?” Starsky uh-huhed yes. “Oh, okay, here we are,” Hutch said, and pointed.
“That doesn’t help me much.”
“We’re about 30 miles from Jackson.” Hutch checked the dashboard clock. “I say we stop there for dinner and see about getting a motel room.” They’d been driving nearly ten hours, and hadn’t stopped since lunch in Salt Lake City four and a half hours ago.
“Sounds like a plan,” Starsky said, and rubbed his stomach. I’m starved.”
“You are not starved. Little kids in Ethiopia are starved. You’re just hungry.”
“And you’re grumpy, so I know you’re starved too.”
***********************
The sign for Jackson came up, and Starsky slowed the Torino down and pulled off the highway. They turned onto Main Street, where they saw lots of little shops, some motels and restaurants and a place called The Cowboy Bar. There were a couple of gas stations and a small town square. All the buildings had the stone-front rustic look of a mountain ski resort. Starsky figured they couldn’t be very busy this time of year.
“Let’s try here,” Starsky said, pulling into a motel called The E-Z Inn. There was a No Vacancy sign out front, but he found that hard to believe.
Inside, a middle-aged woman with glasses on a chain was doing a crossword. She looked up slowly.
“Help you?” she asked.
Starsky grinned winningly. “Yes ma’am. Me and my partner here-we’re police detectives-we’re looking for a place to stay for the night.”
She looked them over. “Just one night?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Well, I can’t help you.” She frowned. “We’re booked up solid now through Sunday, on account of the convention.”
“Convention?”
“Yeah. Bunch a artistic types making turquoise jewelry. Don’t ask.” She rolled her eyes. “Now, I would love to help out a couple a law enforcement types, but ‘less you have a reservation-you don’t have a reservation, do you?”
Starsky shook his head.
“Well, then, I’m awfully sorry, boys. All the motels in town’re booked solid. You could try Jack and Ennis, though.”
“Who’re they?” Hutch asked.
“Couple a guys run a ranch just up the road from here. The Double Bull. They might have a room. Hold on a sec.” She picked up the phone and dialed. A few moments later, someone answered.
“Hey, Jack, it’s me Erma, at the E-Z Inn. You got any vacancies there for the night? Uh huh. Uh huh. Yeah, I’m sending a couple a customers your way. I know I know. I’m sure you’ll think of something.” She laughed, and then hung up.
“Well, you’re in luck. They got rooms open.”
“Great,” said Starsky. “Where are they, somewhere near, I hope.”
“Oh yeah, it’s right out of town about fifteen miles on the Old Post Road.” She gave them directions.
“You said it was a ranch?” Hutch asked.
“Yeah, that’s what it’s called, but it’s really just a nice kinda inn, with breakfast and dinner served. Couple a fellas run it, army buddies I think, real nice. Mostly they get the skiing folks. Not much business in summer; they’ll prolly be glad to have you.”
“Well thank you very much for your help, ma’am,” Starsky said, bowing slightly as they left.
“I saw a general store a couple of blocks back,” Hutch said, climbing into the car. “Why don’t we pick up some beer? Might make our hosts even more glad to have us.”
“Good idea.”
***********************
Fifteen miles on the Old Post Road and there it was, just as Erma had promised. They drove under the “Double Bull Ranch” arch, about a half mile up to the main house. There was also a smaller house, up a bit farther and in back of the main house, and Starsky thought he saw some barns way in the distance.
Starsky ran up to the front door and knocked. Hutch followed, clutching a paper bag full of beer.
The door opened, and a lean man with smoky blue eyes, dark hair flecked with gray and a mustache greeted them.
“Well, howdy, fellas. You must be the folks Erma sent.” He smiled broadly.
“That’s us. Hope we’re not imposing. Me and my partner’ve been driving all day and need a place for the night.”
“Partner?” the man asked.
“We’re police detectives.”
“Ah.” Another man appeared, also lean but blond, with fair skin and thick sideburns. “Whaddaya think, Ennis, we got a room for these fellas?”
Hutch lifted the bag and offered, “We brought beer.”
The one named Ennis looked at the dark-haired man,. “Best offer we had all night.” He had a deep, rumbling voice, like marbles in his throat.
“Well come on in already. My name’s Jack, this here’s Ennis.” He put out his hand.
Starsky shook it. “I’m Starsky, and this is Hutch.” They shook hands all around, and Jack and Ennis led them into a sparsely furnished living room. I hope you don’t mind, we ain’t got nothing fancy here. Just the basics: a bed, a hot meal, a shower,” Jack explained with a smile.
“That’s all we need, right Hutch?”
“Right,” Hutch said. “You got a bottle opener?”
“Sure. Hope you don’t mind, it’ll be about an hour till dinner. We wasn’t spectin no guests.” As if on cue, Ennis got up to go to the kitchen. He came back wearing an apron and holding a bottle opener.
“Elk burgers,” he said, by way of explanation. “The sauce splatters.”
“Elk?” Hutch asked.
“Yeah, Ennis shot one couple a weeks ago; we’ll have meat in the freezer till March.”
“Course I did, you can’t shoot worth a damn,” Ennis grumbled on his way back to the kitchen.
Jack smiled, as if it were some private joke. “You fellas mind eatin’ outside? We got a screen, keeps the mosquitoes out. Helluva mosquito problem, this time a year.”
“Not at all. Sounds nice, actually.” Hutch carried the beer and the bottle opener through the kitchen and out the backdoor, onto a screened-in porch. There was a picnic table with benches and some chairs, and a screen door with steps leading down to a small fenced-in yard. Ennis was just to the left of the steps, heating up the grill and still grumbling.
“I didn’t shoot something now and then we’d never have no meat at all,” he said, to no one in particular.
“You ever hear of supermarkets?” Jack asked, opening up a beer and handing it to him. “They have them now in town; I hear they’re all the rage.” Ennis shot Jack a look that turned from a frown into the tiniest of grins. Jack grinned back at him, and Starsky thought, Oh.
***********************
“So, you fellas cops? You ain’t from around here, huh?”
They were sitting around the picnic table, finishing up their burgers and potato chips, nursing third and fourth beers. Ennis and Jack were smoking cigarettes, and they’d taken the bench that faced east, to allow their guests a view of the Grand Tetons as the sun set slowly behind them. It had been a hot summer day, but the night would be chilly. This was the best part of it; sun going down and cool, but not so cool yet that you had to go inside to get warm. A citronella candle burned in the center of the table, and the crickets were starting up their nightly racket.
“No, we’re from L.A. We’re here to pick up a perp, up in Cody. He’s being extradited to California, and we’re providing the transportation.”
“Really? They give that kind a work to detectives?” Jack took another drag on his cigarette.
“Well, Wild Willy isn’t your ordinary criminal, Jack,” Hutch explained. “He’s got a rap sheet a mile long-this latest warrant’s for a double homicide, committed after a drug deal went bad.”
“Yeah, Wild Willy’s the one went bad,” Starsky interjected.
“Anyway, he’s gotten away twice before from police escorts,” Hutch continued. “That’s why they sent us. We’ve got a good record for bringing in bad guys.” He smiled at his partner.
Starsky grinned. “Yeah, Wild Willy ain’t nothing. You should see some of the creeps we’ve busted. Enough to give you nightmares.”
“Big city cops, you hear that, Ennis?” Ennis grunted his assent. “Must be different for you, here in Wyoming.”
“It’s different, all right,” Starsky agreed, thinking of the thousand miles of road they’d traversed, miles and miles of desert and rocks, and then rocks and trees, no people except in the cars passing by. “How long you guys been here?”
“Oh, we’ve been here, what, ten years? Not a lot of people, that’s for sure. You get used to it.”
“You must do something else besides put up guests…”
“Oh yeah, sheep. We got a flock of sheep.”
“Sheep?”
“Yeah. Targhee sheep, related to Merino. We raise ’em for their wool. Be surprised how much you can get for it. Right, Ennis?”
“Yep,” said Ennis, taking a long swallow of beer.
“We didn’t see any sheep on the way in,” Hutch noted.
“Oh, they’re way out back, at the foot of the mountain. Grass and clover there’s the best for grazing. Got us a couple a sheep herders, bring ’em in at night so the coyotes don’t get ’em.”
Starsky raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah, we do all right.” Jack drained the last bit of beer from his bottle, then opened another one.
“You…live here alone?” Starsky ventured, though he knew the answer.
“Uh-huh.”
“Ever married?”
“Divorced,” Jack answered. “I got one kid, Ennis two. They come visit once in awhile.” He stared at Starsky, who had finished his own chips and was now eating chips from Hutch’s plate.
Starsky caught his eye. “Never remarried?”
“No.” Jack paused. “How ’bout you two? Married?”
“No.”
“You like living in L.A.?”
“It has its charms.”
“Actually,” Hutch added, “We just bought a house ourselves.”
“Oh yeah? You two?” Jack was looking intently at Hutch now.
“Yeah. Cheaper than renting, and we can work on it on our days off.” Hutch held Jack’s eye deliberately, just a little too long. Jack did not remove his gaze.
“Woman at the motel said you two were army buddies.”
“Yeah, well. We never told ’em we weren’t.”
“Folks don’t bother you around here?” Starsky asked boldly.
Ennis caught his eye, and held it. “People see what they want a see. We’re just a couple a old army buddies, runnin’ a ranch.”
“Ain’t nobody’s business,” Jack mumbled.
Starsky exchanged a glance with Hutch.
“Same with us,” he said. “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”
Jack leaned forward in his chair. “Ain’t it dangerous, you being cops and all?”
“Yeah, it’s dangerous. The world’s a dangerous place for people like us. But we’re good cops, and that buys us some good will.”
People like us. The words hung in the air. All four men were silent for a few minutes. The crickets chirped loudly and insistently. Ennis flicked ash into an ashtray.
“We think of quitting sometimes,” Hutch finally said. “Maybe move up to San Francisco. But what would we do? We’re cops. It’s all we know.”
Ennis nodded, and lit another cigarette. “Yeah. We’ve thought about moving, but ranching’s all we know.” He exhaled a long stream of smoke.
“And never any trouble?” Starsky asked.
“No. Well, there was the time couple a guys came up from Bondurant, beat up Jack pretty bad. But the folks here in Jackson were real nice about it. Maybe it made ’em feel sorry for us, I don’t know. Visited Jack in the hospital, even helped us with a loan till we could pay the bills.”
Jack was staring at his beer bottle, as though he were remembering.
“That was a long time ago,” Ennis continued. “Ain’t been no trouble since.” Jack looked up at Ennis, smiled, reached over to pat his hand, then stopped suddenly and paled, like stopping was a reflex.
“It’s okay,” Starsky nodded. Jack looked down, and completed the gesture.
***********************
“You boys need anything, you just let us know. Towels are in the bathroom. Extra blankets in the closet, case you get cold.”
“Thanks. I’m sure we’ll be fine.”
“Breakfast at 8 am. We can wake you at 7, if you want.”
“That’s okay,” Starsky said. “My partner here wakes up every day at 7, like he’s got an alarm clock built into his brain.” Hutch smiled shyly.
“Okay, then,” Jack said. “G’night.”
They said their good nights and went to their rooms. Starsky usually brought a bed roll in from the car, for appearances, whenever they were given a room with only one bed. But tonight he didn’t see the point.
***********************
In their room stood a queen-sized bed with wrought-iron headboard, a bureau and a nightstand. On the bureau was a small mirror and a hand-carved wooden figurine-a bear, rearing up on its hind legs, mouth open in a roar. Starsky picked it up and examined it.
“I’m gonna take a shower,” Hutch said.
“Ok.” He heard Hutch go down the hall to the bathroom. Starsky got undressed, folding his clothes neatly and placing them in a drawer. He touched the bear admiringly again, then got into bed.
A few minutes later Hutch returned, wrapped in a towel and carrying his clothes, which he dumped in a pile on the floor.
“Slob,” Starsky commented. Hutch grunted, removed the towel and started drying his hair. Starsky watched him.
“Funny, isn’t it?” he asked.
“What? Oh, them?” Hutch smiled. “Yeah. Must be hard on them, out here, all alone.”
“L.A.’s no picnic.”
“No, but there’s always West Hollywood if we want to relax, and San Francisco’s just a few hours away if we want to disappear. Where can they go?”
“This ranch is pretty big.”
“Not when they’ve got guests.”
Starsky shrugged. “They seem to have adjusted.”
Hutch threw the towel on the floor and walked over to the bed. He leaned over Starsky and kissed him.
“I guess we don’t have to worry about making noise,” he murmured.
Starsky smiled.
***********************
Down the hall in their own bedroom, Jack said, “Well that was somethin’, huh?”
“Hmmmph,” Ennis replied, sitting up in bed and smoking.
“I mean, who’d a guessed? Two cops from California.” Jack was folding towels that had just been laundered. “Really somethin’,” he repeated. After folding each towel separately, he took it to the linen closet in the private bathroom he and Ennis shared, and stacked it on a growing pile of towels. Ennis watched him for some time. Finally he said, “Quit yer fussin’ and come to bed.”
***********************
Starsky bounded into the kitchen the next morning at 7:45. Jack was making coffee.
“Mornin’! How’d you sleep?”
“Like a log. Nothing like that fresh Wyoming air.” Starsky breathed deeply and pounded his chest.
“Glad to hear it. You want beans with your eggs?”
“Sure.”
“Toast?”
“Why not?”
“Bacon?”
“Uh-huh.”
“How ’bout Hutch, what does he like?”
“He likes raw eggs and wheat germ and goat’s milk, all whipped together in a blender.” Jack gave him a puzzled look. “Never mind. He’ll have what I’m having.”
“Where is Hutch, anyway?”
“He’s running.”
“Runnin’?” Jack looked puzzled again.
“Yeah, I don’t get it either.” Starsky took a sip of coffee. “Listen, I don’t mean to pry, but I’ve been wondering something. You don’t have to answer if you don’t want.”
“Okay.”
“Usually, I find, in couples like us, one of the partners…had to do a lot of convincing, and the other one had to be convinced. You know what I mean?”
“Yeah.” Jack looked into the frying pan where he was stirring the scrambled eggs.
“Well, was that true for you and Ennis? Did one of you have to do a lot of convincing?”
“Yeah.”
“It was you, wasn’t it.”
“Yeah. How’d you know that?” Jack turned to look at him.
Starsky shrugged. “I dunno. You just struck me as the type.”
“How ’bout you? You need to do some convincing?”
Starsky nodded. “Yup. Hutch can be stubborn when he wants to be.”
Jack turned back to the eggs. “I know that type.”
“So how’d you do it? If you don’t mind my asking.”
Jack turned off the flame and leaned back against the counter. “It happened after his divorce. He sent me a postcard and I was sure he was ready. I drove eighteen hours straight, and when I got there he tells me no, I don’t understand, he’s got his kids with him. I started to leave and then I stopped, turned around, told him no. I wasn’t goin’ nowhere. I’d stay, sleep on the couch while his kids were there, I didn’t care. And I did stay. I stayed and stayed. I wore him down with stayin’.” Jack smiled.
“What’d he say?”
“He was sure that we’d get ourselves killed. Who knows?” He shrugged. “Might still happen. Be worth it, though, for these ten years.”
Starsky nodded.
“How ’bout you?” Jack asked, getting bacon out of the fridge.
“Hutch was convinced I couldn’t bear to keep it secret, that it would eat away at me till I resented him enough to leave.”
“And?”
“Hasn’t happened yet. It’s tough, but the other would be tougher.”
“Yeah.”
***********************
Hutch was doing his usual ten-minute mile, on the range instead of on the road. Ennis had been up early, mending a fence in front of the ranch, and Hutch had asked him for a good route. Ennis showed him a trail the sheep herders took to the foot of the Tetons, so that’s where he was running. He breathed deeply in the crisp mountain air, enjoying the feeling of earth beneath his running shoes. Clover and grass covered the hillocks all around him, and in the distance the snowy peaks of the Tetons glimmered in the early morning light.
Then suddenly he saw the sheep. There were hundreds of them, maybe a thousand, spread all over the hillside in front of him. As he came up close, they did not seem to startle or mind. They kept right on living their sheepy lives, chewing and grazing and making sheep noises. Hutch slowed, enjoying the sight of them, big and woolly and mild, until he noticed the smell and picked up his pace.
On his way back, he saw one of the sheep herders up on his mare, and waved.
“Howdy!”
“Howdy,” the man waved back.
Hutch arrived back at the house sweaty but full of ideas.
***********************
“Hey, Starsk, you’ll never guess what I-oh hey, Jack. I just saw some of your sheep. They’re beautiful, just beauties. Starsky, you’ve gotta see them. You’ve gotta see the mountains, smell the air.”
“I was just mentioning the air myself…”
“I mean, it’s incredible. This is summer. Here, you notice the seasons. No freeways, no semis hogging up the road and polluting the ecology. I could stay here for a week, maybe two. Whaddaya say, Starsk, our next vacation, we pack up our fishing gear and head back out here.” Starsky looked uncomfortable.
“Now don’t get all carried away. You know me and nature don’t get along so good. I mean, I don’t mind passing through, but…”
But Hutch was on a roll. “We could ride horses! How many times have you said, we should go horseback riding?”
“I meant in Griffith Park, where’s it’s safe, not out on the range where a wild horse can throw you for no good reason and leave you lying there, no one around, lost, no food or water…”
Hutch waved a hand at him. “Please. If I can go to your monster truck rallies, you can certainly spend a week in the ‘dangerous’ mountains.”
“I hate to interrupt you fellas,” Jack said, “but your eggs are ready.” He set down steaming plates of eggs, beans, bacon and toast, and poured them both some coffee.
“Hey, thanks,” Hutch said.
“Where’s Ennis?” Starsky asked.
“Oh, he should be in any minute now. Doin’ his mornin’ chores is all.”
***********************
A few minutes later Ennis arrived and they all sat down for breakfast. The kitchen was small, with a wooden table in the middle and white cupboards on the walls. Starsky noticed the appliances all worked fine but were at least twenty years old; the stove was like the one his aunt Martha had had back in Brooklyn.
“So,” Starsky said, digging into his eggs, “How’d you guys meet?”
Jack looked at Ennis, who nodded barely perceptibly. “We met at Brokeback Mountain one summer, herdin’ sheep.”
“Really. When was that?” Hutch asked.
“1963,” Ennis said. He looked like he wanted to end this conversation right away.
“That so. You were awfully young then, no? Hutch and me met at the Police Academy. 1968. We were 25.”
Jack looked interested. “Yeah? Did you…did you start up right away?”
“Nah, took a long time. Hutch here put up a big struggle, but I got him in the end.”
“How long you been together now?”
“Depends when you start counting. I started chasing his ass seven years ago, but he didn’t finally stop running till three years later.”
Hutch, also, did not seem pleased with the conversation. “You did not ‘chase’ me, Starsky. And I didn’t run, like some scared teenager.”
“That so.”
“Yes, that is so.”
“Uh huh.”
“I was just cautious.”
“Right.”
“Because someone has to be. Isn’t that right, Ennis?”
” ‘s right,” Ennis said, staring at his eggs.
“Good man. I knew you’d understand.” Hutch stabbed at his bacon triumphantly.
“A man can be too cautious,” said Jack quietly. Starsky looked over at him.
“When was that…what year was that divorce you mentioned?”
“1973,” Jack said. Hutch raised his eyebrows at Starsky questioningly. Starsky told him with a look that he would explain later, and got back to his meal.
***********************
By ten o’clock Starsky and Hutch had their bags packed and were ready to hit the road. Jack estimated it would be about four hours to Cody, and recommended a place in town where they could get gas and air for their tires.
“Well, it sure has been nice havin’ ya,” Jack said, as they gathered just outside the front door. The sun was higher in the sky and the day was getting warm already. “Hope you have a safe trip. Maybe we’ll see you on the way back.”
“I’m afraid we won’t be able to,” said Starsky. “We’ll have Wild Willy with us, and he needs to be in lock-up every night. So we’ll be taking turns sleeping outside a jail cell.” He did not look pleased at this prospect.
Jack looked disappointed. He didn’t say anything, but Starsky saw the sad shadows bloom under his eyes.
“But hey, maybe I’ll let my partner here talk me into coming back for our next vacation. How does that sound?”
Jack brightened. “You come here in spring, be here for lambin’.”
Hutch slapped Starsky on the arm. “Did you hear that? Lambing season! The miracle of birth, the smell of early spring, the cold mountain air…”
“The bears,” Starsky continued. “The mosquitoes, standing out in hip-high freezing water for hours without catching anything…”
“I’ll work on him,” Hutch smiled.
“It was good to meet you, Ennis,” Starsky said, shaking his hand. He noticed Ennis’s big, meaty hands, rough from ranch work. His own city hands seemed soft by comparison.
“Good to meet you, fellas,” Ennis said. “Real good. You’re always welcome here.”
“And you boys are always welcome in L.A. We’ve got a spare bedroom. Think about it.”
Jack picked up their bags and walked with Starsky to the car.
“Listen,” Starsky said, “seriously. You ever feel the need to get away-for whatever reason-you give us a call, okay? It’d be no trouble, no trouble at all.”
“Well, thank you kindly. I sure do appreciate the offer.”
“Jack. If you’re ever in trouble, you call us. Do you hear me? Call.” Starsky’s tone was dead serious.
Jack looked at him. “I will. We will.”
“Okay,” Starsky grinned widely, and shook Jack’s hand. “You take care of yourselves. Don’t go messing with any bears; they’re more dangerous than they look.”
“Oh, I know it, don’t you worry. And you be careful with Wild Willy. Don’t let him go all wild on your ass.”
“Don’t worry about us. We can handle the bad guys. It’s what we do.”
***********************
The car was gassed up, the tires inflated, the oil checked, the maps re-folded, when Starsky and Hutch left Jackson. They drove in companionable silence for awhile.
Finally, Starsky spoke. “Think they’ll be okay?”
“They’ve been okay this long.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
Hutch looked over at him. “Yeah, I think they’ll be okay.”
“I gave them our number, just in case. In case they need to get away or something. Told them they could call us anytime.”
Hutch smiled, and closed his eyes. “That was nice, Starsk.” He patted Starsky’s hand on the steering wheel.
“Least I could do.”
And they drove off in the clear mountain morning, on their way to Cody to pick up the bad guy.
The End
Chapter End Notes:
The sequel to this story is Jack and Ennis Go to L.A..
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