“Brokeback Mountain” begins with two italicized paragraphs in present tense that feature the story’s protagonist, Ennis Del Mar, well after the story’s main events have taken place. Ennis, a middle-aged ranch hand, wakes before five in his trailer. The ranch’s owner has sold the place, and Ennis must move out this morning. He is unsure of what he will do, where he will go, or what his next job will be, but for now the uncertainty is assuaged by the pleasure of a dream he has just had about a man named Jack Twist.