“What’s he doing here?” Rhianyn wondered, then stopped, taking Lorewyn’s arm and urging her to pause as well. “Hold on,” she whispered. Rhianyn pulled her wife behind a nearby tree, the truck still in sight, and pointed. “Look… do you see what I see?” Her eyes widened a bit in surprise.
It was clearly Brett in the driver’s seat. There was apparently someone else in the cab as well, on the passenger side. But it wasn’t Gail. Given the angle and distance, Lorewyn and Rhianyn couldn’t make out facial features specifically, but it was pretty evident that the other person was another man.
Whoever this other man was, his head was in Brett’s lap… moving in such a way as to indicate that he was performing an act that Brett had said was “sinful.”
Lorewyn gave Rhianyn a startled look. She opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. Rhianyn pulled her very close and whispered something quietly in her ear. Lorewyn grinned slyly and nodded. She pulled out her cell phone and began moving stealthily through the trees toward the truck. Rhianyn posted up and kept watch for anyone else who might come along.
It was daytime, and Lorewyn’s maneuver would be tricky, Elf or otherwise. Fortunately, both Brett and his friend were somewhat occupied. Lorewyn was able to get within twenty feet or so of the truck before the trees thinned out too much. She found a good one to climb and jumped up to the lowest limb, then silently pulling herself up and creeping to a place in the arbor where she’d have both some cover and an excellent bird’s eye view.
I can’t believe we’re doing this, she thought. But, it was a rare opportunity to do something about their situation with the neighbors.
Brett’s friend was still engaged in his task. Brett himself was quite distracted. Lorewyn found a place above in the tree where she could take a good photo, one that would show Brett’s face through the truck window and the position of his friend.
She snapped the pic with her phone camera and climbed back down, rejoining her wife a moment later. They both watched as the two men finished and then drove away in the truck. Lorewyn just held up the phone, smiling and nodding.
They walked over to Brett and Gail’s house later that evening. Both appeared to be home. Lorewyn rang the bell. Gail answered.
“Gail, we’re sorry to bother you, but we need to have a word with Brett for a moment,” Rhianyn said. “If that’s okay.”
“Sure,” Gail responded, seeming surprised as to their unexpected visit. She called into the house. “Brett… Lorraine and Lena are here. They want to speak with you for a minute!”
Brett came to the door as Gail went back to what she was doing. “Close the door,” Rhianyn instructed. Brett looked confused, but closed the door.
“We’re not here to judge you,” Lorewyn explained. “It would be prudent, however, for you to have a long overdue talk with Gail about some things… and it seems like you’ve got some issues concerning guilt, your own feelings, and perhaps some self-hate that need addressing. Talking with someone might help. Seeing a counselor. It’s not good to leave this kind of stuff alone.”
“My wife has her own approach with people,” Rhianyn broke in. “My approach is somewhat different.” She pulled out Lorewyn’s cell phone and held it in front of Brett, the photo taken earlier on screen. “This is the only time we’re saying anything. Cut the shit. No more signs. No more propaganda. No more hate literature. No more homophobic comments, suggestions, activities, whatever. You can say and do what you want in your home, at your church, in your private life, even in your truck… but if your hate ever touches the lives of my wife and me again, Gail will see this photo.”
She snapped the phone shut and looked solemnly at Brett. Lorewyn spoke again. “Do we understand each other… neighbor?”
Brett said nothing as he just gazed at the two women with a “deer in the headlights” look on his face.
“I hope you and Gail have a nice evening,” Rhianyn offered, then she and Lorewyn left and returned to their house.
The signs indeed stopped. Neither Lorewyn nor Rhianyn saw or heard a hint of anything homophobic from Brett ever again. Gail left him two years later and moved out of the house. Brett seemed to have a series of girlfriends after that, nothing long-term, with the exception of a woman 20 years younger than him who lived with him for less than a year. She ended up crashing and totaling his truck.
But the effects of Prop 8 didn’t truly end until seven years after Lorewyn and Rhianyn’s incident with their neighbor… not until the Obergefell v. Hodges case in 2015 legally recognized the right of same-sex couples to marry nationwide and officially nullified Prop 8 and any similar local and state laws.
A Rainbow Pride flag was displayed on Lorewyn and Rhianyn’s house the day that decision was handed down, and a few other houses in the area as well… without a single complaint from Brett Williams.
CHAPTER 29
When Lorewyn awoke from reverie on the morning of April 9, 2017, a Sunday, she had a surprise waiting next to her on the bed.
It was a giant stuffed unicorn, white in color with long eyelashes and a rainbow hued horn. It had a ribbon wrapped around its neck and a card from Rhianyn which read: “Happy Birthday, S’trysthyl… and Happy Unicorn Day!”
Lorewyn hugged the gift gleefully and got up, bringing the unicorn with her into the kitchen, where Rhianyn was making breakfast for her.
After a delightful round of thankful embraces and kisses, Lorewyn asked the question. “Unicorn Day?”
“As luck would have it,” Rhianyn explained, “apparently April 9th, your chosen birthday, is National Unicorn Day. For real! It’s actually a thing. I only found out recently, so I figured this year for your birthday, you get a unicorn.”
“I love her,” Lorewyn exclaimed, squeezing the plush equine.
“You’re sure it’s a her?” Rhianyn teased.
Lorewyn laughed and placed her ear to the unicorn’s mouth, as if the toy was speaking to her. She withdrew a moment later, nodding.
“Yep, her. ‘She/her’ are her pronouns… she told me so.”
“No telepathy?” Rhianyn asked again, enjoying this line of play.
“Oh, don’t worry… we’ll develop that bond in time,” Lorewyn mused. She set her new unicorn toy aside for a moment. “I don’t suppose there’s a National Owl Day, is there?” she asked, grinning.
Rhianyn served her some tea. “I guess you’ll just have to research that and surprise me… Professor,” she chuckled.
Dealings with their neighbor Brett had been quiet for the past several years. He still lived across the road… divorced from Gail for some time, well into his 50’s now and closing in on retirement from his job with a local winery. Other than the “Trump-Pence 2016” signs on his yard that had popped up the year before and had lingered even after Trump had won the presidential election, nothing much had happened. That changed, however, six months after Lorewyn’s birthday.
It had been a dry summer, and autumn’s fire season in Sonoma County was especially dangerous. The risk of a large-scale fire was high, and residents were being warned to keep grass cut low to help minimize the risk. Lorewyn and Rhianyn were diligent in keeping the turf on their property trimmed tight… but Brett had been letting his go, much of his acreage far above the recommended height, and quite dry.
“I don’t get it,” Rhianyn stated. “The man even works in agriculture!”
“I’ll talk to him tomorrow,” Lorewyn said. “You’re on rotation in the morning. Lucky you… I get to deal with him.”
“You deserve a good foot and back rub when I get home for taking on that task,” Rhianyn offered affectionately.
“Oh, this one’s worth more than just feet and back,” Lorewyn grinned.
But she did go over and talk to Brett about it. His answer was predictable.
“It’s not enough that you shove your lesbian lifestyle in my face, is it?” he scoffed. “Now you’re telling me what to do with my yard? Like you said once before… my property… my choice! Your ty
pe is big on that, right? Pro-choice?”
Lorewyn just sighed. “Brett… this is common sense. And since your property is adjacent to other people’s property, anything you do or fail to do in the area of fire safety this time of year affects your neighbors. If you lived on an island all to yourself, great… no problem. Grow your grass as high as Mt. Everest for all I care! But increasing risk by your personal choice in this scenario doesn’t just increase risk for you… it increases risk for everyone else in this neighborhood who will have to face a fire if your land goes up in blazes because it’s saturated with dry tall vegetation. You have a social responsibility. You live in a community. Act like it! If you want, I’ll arrange to cut the grass myself… I’ll even bale it for you! But please do the right thing! Climate change is real. Our natural environment matters. We can’t afford to be careless with the risk of large-scale fires that cause a lot of harm.”
Brett didn’t follow Lorewyn’s advice and a few more days passed. He had horses on his property. When he and Gail had been married, he had kept more, but in the past few years the number had dwindled down to just two, both mares. Lorewyn and Rhianyn would stop and pet them, talk to them, even feed them a treat sometimes if they saw them in the pasture on the other side of the fence, and if they were near the road at the moment. Lorewyn’s offer to cut and bale was sincere.
Rhianyn came home from rotation. Lorewyn was packing up, with some urgency. “There’s report of a fire up near Calistoga,” she explained. “It’s moving south, this way, the wind’s giving it a lot of speed and strength. We’re under evacuation warning. We need to be ready to leave quickly if needed.”
They watched the news meticulously. The fire continued south, with areas of Santa Rosa just to the north of them being ordered to evacuate. Then, the wind changed, heading west. The fire crossed U.S. Hwy 101, but a portion of it continued to burn areas south, until it got to State Hwy 12. The order to evacuate Bennett Valley came through that night.
Lorewyn and Rhianyn could see the glow from the fire and smoke in the distance as they packed the Mustang. Rhianyn had her helmet ready and was about to get on her cycle. “I got the hotel in Richmond booked,” she stated. “We’ll meet there and… wait.” She had noticed that Brett’s car was still in his driveway, with no sign of him preparing to leave. Rhianyn sighed in disbelief.
“I’m guessing he’s making the choice to stay, despite the evacuation order? Because no one can tell him what to do?”
Lorewyn just looked at her wife, shaking her head. “We can only try, Blackbird. We can’t make him do anything. That’s life.”
Rhianyn nodded and was about to put on her helmet and fire up her bike as Lorewyn was closing the trunk of the car, about to depart, when they both saw a change in the fire-glow. It wasn’t as far away as they thought. The trees behind Brett’s house had caught fire! Rhianyn tossed her helmet aside.
“Yellowfeather!” she exclaimed.
Not only that, but a corner of the barn where the horses were kept had just caught as well. Lorewyn gasped.
“The horses!”
Rhianyn was already on the move. “Get the horses out of there!” she shouted. “I’ll check the house… he might be inside!”
Lorewyn nodded and started running as well, jumping the fence by the road and racing toward the barn.
Rhianyn rushed to the front door of Brett’s house. It was locked. She could see smoke inside. Holding her breath, she rammed her jacketed elbow into one of the front windows, shattering it, and leaped inside.
Lorewyn entered the barn from the smaller back entrance. The smoke was filling the inside of the structure, and the fire had already ignited a section of one side. Both horses were panicking, as to be expected. Lorewyn had no time to equip them with any tack… she had to evacuate them quickly… but also as calmly as possible!
She ran to the main doors and threw them open, then jumped into one of the stalls, unlatching it. The mare was rearing up, neighing in terror.
You have to work with me! Lorewyn reached out to the frightened animal. I know, this is scary. But I’m going to get you out, both of you… you have to stay calm!
It was difficult to get through to the horse on this level… she was in such a state of fear and panic. But Lorewyn centered herself and channeled all the energy she could into reassuring the horse subconsciously. It took a few seconds, but the mare calmed down enough for Lorewyn to get on her back. She rode on her to the other stall and unlatched it. Again, it took a few seconds, but she was able to calm the other one down. The fire was covering at least half the barn now. A beam fell down.
Lorewyn was out of time. Getting both horses close together, she guided them to the main entrance. Once outside, she got them galloping, at first riding one, then jumping up and riding tandem style, one foot on each horse’s back as they ran parallel, as she had done before in the past. The fence at the perimeter of the property was a problem, but she had a solution.
Jump! She coaxed them in her mind.
Still riding tandem, straddling both mares, they reached the fence and leaped over it in unison. Had Lorewyn been in the frame of mind to think about her days as a stuntwoman in Hollywood, she would’ve smiled with the satisfaction of executing a move that she had never done even on film before!
On the other side, she now rode them safety, beyond the confines of Brett’s property, as the barn behind her burned to the ground.
Rhianyn was searching room by room. The smoke detector batteries apparently had not been checked and replaced for a long time. She finally found Brett… asleep on his bed. A closer inspection of the man showed that he actually had been asleep, but was now unconscious due to smoke inhalation.
Rhianyn picked him up, carrying him fireman style, and proceeded to exit the bedroom. At that moment, a burst of flame flashed at the window. She bolted, reaching the front door, unlocking it, and racing outside with Brett in tow, running toward her and Lorewyn’s house. She placed Brett, still unconscious, in the passenger side of the Mustang. Lorewyn rode up with the two horses a moment later.
“The wind’s changing,” Rhianyn observed. “It’s moving the fire away from the road now. I don’t think it’ll jump over to our side… at least not soon.”
“I know efforts are underway to contain it,” Lorewyn added. “We still have to evacuate. The horses…” She shook her head, trying to think.
“The stables in Glen Ellen!” Rhianyn remembered. “They should be safe there. Give me your car keys, I’ll drive Brett to the hospital in Petaluma. I’ll meet you at the stables in a couple of hours, okay? My motorcycle, well… hopefully it and our house will be all right!”
Lorewyn tossed her the keys to the Mustang. It would take her a solid hour to get the horses to the stables Rhianyn had mentioned cross country… but it was the best option. They couldn’t leave the animals untended in a fire.
“Sounds good,” she replied, starting off with the horses away from the road. Lorewyn looked back at her wife, however, as Rhianyn was starting up the car. “We still make one hell of a team, Blackbird!”
The destruction from what was called the Tubbs Fire was extensive, but fortunately the flames didn’t cross the road in the part of Bennett Valley where Lorewyn and Rhianyn lived. Their house was spared.
Brett was treated for smoke inhalation at Petaluma Valley Hospital and was released a couple days later. His house suffered considerable damage. He never returned there to live, instead moving to an unincorporated part of the county west of Windsor. Lorewyn and Rhianyn lost track of him.
But his horses were another story. Lorewyn made a deal with him. He could’ve been charged with a misdemeanor for reckless endangerment and abandonment of his two mares by not moving them to safety under an evacuation order. Lorewyn agreed to spare him that fate and not inform the authorities if he turned ownership of the horses over to her and Rhianyn. He did, without argument.
Lorewyn and Rhianyn built a barn and corral on their property and took in the two mares.
They would ride them often… usually bareback to the surprise of those in Bennett Valley who saw them ride on occasion.
Brett had given them names, but Lorewyn and Rhianyn agreed that like their new owners experienced from time to time, the horses had the chance to start a new life… with new aliases and identities.
The mares were named Perys and Blythe.
CHAPTER 30
As Lorewyn discovered, there was in fact an International Owl Awareness Day! It fell each year on August 4th. But she didn’t give Rhianyn a plush owl in recognition of it. Instead, on that day in 2019, Lorewyn presented her wife with a special gift.
“It’s illegal to keep owls as pets in California, apparently,” she explained. “And my guess is that proving why you’d be completely qualified regardless would create a lot of problems… but...”
Lorewyn had learned that the Bird Rescue Center in Sonoma County had obtained a beautiful spotted owl some time ago and was offering a public exhibit where people could come and talk to the handlers, see the owl, and learn about owls for International Owl Awareness Day.
So, they went to the exhibit. Spotted Owls were similar in appearance to the Crescent Owls of New Sylestia, which in turn were essentially a miniaturized version of the Giant Owls from Cordysia’s past, like Rhianyn’s bonded mount, Pypp. Lorewyn had spoken to the handler in advance and informed her that Rhianyn was an expert in working with owls and would love an opportunity to hold this particular one.
At the end of the exhibit, Rhianyn got her chance.
“He’s nervous around strangers,” the handler explained, giving Rhianyn a raptor glove to wear. “But he’s very perceptive, and intuitive. If he picks up good vibes from you, he’ll do well.”
Rhianyn secured the glove, and the handler gently transferred the owl to her.
“What’s his name?” Rhianyn asked.
Two Birds, One Feather: The Lives and Times of Lorewyn & Rhianyn in America Page 29
