Allyssa nodded and took the pile of mail into her arms.
“You’re having your mail forwarded for Allyssa Webster?” Margaret nosily inquired of the blonde.
Allyssa nodded and said, “I’m changing my last name today to Herriot, now that it’s official.”
“Official?”
“We got married in Denver this week, Margaret,” Fiona answered for them both, knowing the gossip would be shared with everyone who came into the post office from now on. There was no hiding things like this with a town this small and a postmistress this nosy.
Soon enough, the box was paid for and they put the keys on their respective key rings. Waving and saying goodbye to Margaret, they headed to their trucks.
“Why don’t you put that in the back seat?” Fiona indicated the pile of mail. “We can walk over to the bank and then see about the electric,” her chin took in a building on the side street that said Oregon Electric and Power.
“Do you want to take care of the bank and I could take care of the power?” she offered to save time.
“I’d normally say yes, but we both need to be on everything.”
So, Allyssa found herself following Fiona into the bank where everyone seemed to ‘remember’ Fiona from long ago. She noticed that no one here called her Fey and wondered at that. She remembered when Fiona had introduced herself long ago and added, “Fey to my friends.” Didn’t she have any friends in this town?
Fiona had them open a joint checking account for Herriot Veterinary Services. Both their names were on the account so they could both access it and either could sign on it. Then she opened a separate checking account for them personally. “Do you want your own checking account? Your own money?” Fiona asked in a whisper.
“What’s mine is yours,” Allyssa added just as quietly. She reached into her jacket and withdrew the money she had taken from the bank in Denver and slid that onto the bank manager’s desk.
“Why don’t we keep some of this out to keep on hand?” Fiona whispered again and withdrew a hundred dollars, handing it back to her wife who stuffed it back in her pocket.
“You want both your names on both accounts?” he double-checked as he read the names on the paperwork that Fiona filled out.
“Yes, please,” she said as she pulled out her wallet to retrieve her driver’s license.
“My name change hasn’t been done,” Allyssa whispered to Fiona.
“Don’t worry about it,” she whispered back.
“Well, we do need a legal name on this,” Charlie, the bank manager told them a little while later. It was then that Fiona pulled out the envelope that contained their marriage certificate. His eyebrows raised a little as he read the official document signed by a judge in Denver and containing the raised seal. “Well, that all seems to be in order,” he said, clearing his throat and trying not to show any emotion.
“Is there anything else?” he asked a while later when he had created the accounts and ordered the first one hundred checks and ATM cards for each of them on both accounts.
“Yes, I’d like to apply for credit cards for both of us,” Fiona told him. “And one for the business.”
He got up to get the applications and while he was gone Allyssa hissed, “I don’t need a credit card!”
“Yes, you do,” Fiona told her low. “We need to order things for the business. You will need to order seeds. Just don’t use the business card for personal use.”
“Can’t I use the ATM card? It has that little Visa logo on it?”
“This will be better, trust me. We need to build up our credit here, and with your car payment I’m sure you have good credit, so you can have your own. Just don’t go shoe shopping!” she teased.
Since the boots she was wearing were big and clumpy, she couldn’t imagine the shoes her mother would have forced her to wear. She hadn’t even packed those when she cleaned out her bedroom. There had been a lot she had left there including some of the clothes she had worn for rush week.
It took a while to fill out the applications, but the bank manager promised to send them off. When Allyssa saw they had the business reply on the backs she offered to mail them herself. He reluctantly handed them back and she wondered about that.
“I also have this,” Fiona pulled out another envelope and slid it across. It contained documents showing she was the owner of the Falling Pines Ranch and its trust. “I’d like all of my grandparents’ bank accounts put into our names, so we can access the funds should we need them.”
“I’ll just make copies of this and do that for you,” Charlie told them, already tired from all he had done for them. As he went to make the copies, Fiona turned to Allyssa and made a face.
“What’s going on?” Allyssa asked, feeling she had missed something.
“You don’t realize he’s homophobic?” she asked, laughing a little about it.
“No, how can you tell?”
“It was the marriage certificate that did it, I think.”
Remembering his attitude about the credit card applications, she thought to ask, “Do you think he would have sent in the credit applications or thrown them away and claimed they got lost in the mail?”
“Bingo in one, my dear,” she answered in a sardonic voice as Charlie returned with his copies and handed Fiona her paperwork.
“I’ll change over their ranch account and you’ll get the statements from now on. They had a checking account, a savings account, and of course, the trust.”
“Yes, that’s what I was informed by the lawyer,” Fiona answered.
“Will you be changing the name of the ranch or anything?”
“No, but the funds from the checking account should be deposited to the account we just opened for my wife and I,” she watched him flinch at the word wife.
“I can do that,” he said.
They waited patiently as he made the change, transferred the funds, and then closed out the account that had been Fiona’s grandparents’.
“Do you want to close the savings account too?” he inquired. “I can transfer those funds...” he began, but Fiona was shaking her head.
“I want that savings account put in both our names, but leave the rest the same. I think they had that account for probably over fifty years.”
He nodded, stiffening slightly but obeying as he rapidly typed. He printed out receipts for the transfer of funds and gave them a paper showing the accounts.
“Now, about the trust….”
“That’s for my lawyer to work out. I believe my father, brother, and sister are also beneficiaries, so for now, we will leave it alone.”
He nodded and passed her all her paperwork. She handed it to Allyssa, who had watched her wife handle the homophobe with respect and ease. She didn’t know if she would have been as patient with him.
Once they were outside and heading for the electric company she asked her about it.
“It’s easier to ignore it to a degree rather than confront him. It would have made him defensive and we would have been given even crappier service. It’s the only bank around and he knows it. He also knows that my grandparents were here long before he was and were respected. We shall see him change his tune yet. He would hate it if I moved all our accounts to the next town. Hell, I would hate the inconvenience of that.”
“But you’d do if we had to?”
“You bet. In a heartbeat. There is nothing wrong with our relationship and it’s guys like that who kept it from becoming law for far too long.”
Allyssa hadn’t thought of it that way. She hadn’t thought about all the men and women who had to wait years to marry, if at all. There were those who had thought civil unions should be enough. She hadn’t thought either way because it didn’t involve her…then. She was so happy being married to her best friend, she couldn’t imagine not being allowed to.
They soon arranged for the power to be turned on back at the ranch and for someone to come out and wire the cabin for them. The power company man pointed out the
even smaller building where the phone and cable company for this area was housed and they headed over there. It was almost lunch time and Allyssa didn’t think she could go another day without regular meals. They arranged for someone to come out and install their services in the cabin, putting it under the business name.
“Can we get in trouble using the company phone or cable for our own personal needs?” Allyssa asked, earnestly.
“Did you get in trouble for going on social media for your own personal accounts down in Denver?” she countered with a smile.
Realizing it had probably been a stupid question, Allyssa laughed with Fiona.
“I’m hungry. How about you?”
“Yes, I was wondering if you were going to skip lunch again.”
“Let’s pick up something at the market and then head up to Pendletown and eat it on the way.”
* * * * *
It took them a while to get to Pendletown as they’d gotten more snow than the ranch area and driving was rough. They didn’t find a place to turn in the U-Haul until then either. For Allyssa, it was a relief to have that off the Cherokee after all those miles. She put the hitch in the back of the SUV. Fiona had told her they had driven over twenty-two hundred miles. She was astounded.
It took a while and one gas station to get directions and find the place where they could get the license and registration changed over to Oregon from Colorado. Allyssa was thrilled to have an official document with her new name of Allyssa Herriot. She kept smiling as she looked at the new license.
“What, did they give you a good picture on your license?” Fiona teased her when she saw her.
“No, look,” Allyssa handed it to her and waited.
Fiona was touched. It read ‘Allyssa Herriot, PO Box 100, Sweetwater, OR.’ She looked up and smiled at her wife. “You’re official!”
“And the picture?” she asked in a funny tone.
“It looks like you just sneezed,” she admitted and then showed hers. She looked like she had been convicted of a crime and was up against the wall.
“Not much better,” the blonde admitted, and they shared a laugh as they left the DMV. “Where to now?”
“Well, I’d say stock up on food, but we already did that. Why don’t we head home and start cleaning?”
“Wait! We’re in the ‘big city.’ Let’s shop!” she said excitedly, making quotation marks with her fingers.
“Shop? You want to shop?” she pretended to be horrified at the idea.
“We need a mop, a couple brooms, a vacuum cleaner, and lots and lots of cleaners!” she told her emphatically.
“You know,” she said as she put her arm around her to give her a sideways hug, “you’re right!”
They ended up at a local store that was like a scaled down version of Wal-Mart. Penny-Mart had everything they were looking for and more. They added a couple of phones to the shopping list since they hadn’t thought that part out, a TV, since neither of them owned one, and a few other odds and ends.
“Okay, that’s enough. I give. No more shopping. Ever,” Allyssa declared as they put all the things they had bought in the back of the now empty Cherokee. “Could you take Rex for a quick walk?” she asked as she unloaded the cart.
“Don’t you want any help?” Fiona asked, concerned. The TV looked heavy, but those new flat screen TVs were deceptive.
“I’ll do this, you do that, and we’ll be ready to escape home in no time!”
* * * * *
Once again, they were exhausted by the time they made it back to the ranch. Fiona was eager to start cleaning, but it was too late. The sun had set, and without electricity they didn’t have the light to work in. Allyssa was so glad to see the ranch, she never wanted to leave it again. She was looking forward to not going anywhere for a while.
They left the things in the Jeep in front of the cabin and parked the work truck next to the mobile home again. Rex eagerly went off to snuffle the bushes he had left marked that morning, anxious to see if something might have tried to leave its mark too.
“He loves it here,” Allyssa remarked, looking at the distant mountains beyond the hills surrounding them.
“What about you? Do you love it here?” Fiona asked as she came up behind her wife and put her arms around her. She was just able to put her chin on her wife’s shoulder by standing on her tip-toes.
“I love the view and I love the ideas we have to make this our home together. I’m pretty sure I’m going to love it here,” she answered before turning and taking Fiona in her arms. “I also love being here with you.”
There was that ‘L’ word again. Why wouldn’t she tell her right out if she loved her or not? She smiled despite her thoughts as she held her wife and leaned up for a kiss. “I’m going to make you fall in love with it all,” she said aloud, but thought privately, ‘and me too’!
They tried to reorganize now that the cupboards were dry, but Allyssa insisted she wanted to use the disinfectant they had purchased before they put everything away and Fiona didn’t have a flashlight ready to go out in the dark to look for it in the Jeep.
“We should put that on our list,” Fiona said mock seriously.
“What?” Allyssa asked from where she was sitting on the couch watching the cat clean herself while giving very suspicious looks at the dog they had allowed in the mobile home tonight.
“Flashlights. We should have one in here, one in each truck, and one in the camper too. Then one in the cabin, one in the barn...” she left off as she flipped the hamburgers she was making and reached across to stir the fries she was frying in a pot.
“God that smells good, and it doesn’t look hard to make,” Allyssa remarked.
“It isn’t hard. Didn’t you ever watch your mother or Juanita cook?”
“Rarely. I was usually shooed out of the kitchen.”
Shaking her head, Fiona couldn’t imagine.
“Oh no, we forgot to get mattresses for the bed,” Fiona exclaimed as she looked to the back of the mobile home and the bare springs.
“We’ll add it to the list,” Allyssa promised her.
As they prepared for their second night in the camper, Fiona was pleased when Allyssa kissed her goodnight and initiated their lovemaking. She didn’t want to think she was forcing herself on the younger woman, but it was obvious she was willing. They really enjoyed themselves as they got to know each other’s bodies, touching and caressing wherever the whim took them. Finally, replete, they fell asleep in each other’s arms.
Fiona came awake in the middle of the night to hear coyotes howling. That wasn’t the only thing that woke her though. Much to her surprise, her wife was snoring … loudly. She hadn’t noticed her snore before, but then she wasn’t usually the first awake. Not only was she snoring, but she’d spread out in the sleeping bag and was sprawled on her back. At first, Fiona tried to move one arm and one leg over to cuddle up with her wife, but that didn’t work because then she was immediately under the snoring noises coming from her wife’s mouth. She tried to push her over, but it was like her form was glued to the mattress. Finally, her superior strength saved her. With a little tickling of her wife, she got her to turn on her side and cuddled up to her back. The snoring turned off as soon as Allyssa closed her mouth. It didn’t take long for Fiona to fall back to sleep, and by then the coyotes had settled down too.
Chapter Fourteen
They spent the next couple of days cleaning. They started with the cabin, which they let air out with the clean citrus scent that Allyssa had insisted on.
“I’ve had enough antiseptic smell from the clinic to last me a lifetime,” she declared and insisted on the citrus smell that was quite pleasing, if a bit overwhelming at first.
Allyssa also wanted to mop down the walls and every piece of wood that was visible in the small cabin. Since they had their boxes stored in there it made two large areas unavailable and that bothered her. She also couldn’t use the vacuum cleaner they had purchased since they didn’t have electricity.
“How long until they come out?” she asked by the second day.
“They’ll get here when they get here,” Fiona told her. That was the way it was in these rural areas. They had to send for the technicians to fix or install lines. The substations weren’t manned except by paper-pushers. “It’s the same with the phone company and cable,” she mentioned, in case Allyssa got upset about that.
They weren’t ready for the cable anyway. Allyssa had broken out the laptop and started by installing the software they had purchased. She was having fun playing with the pictures and creating letterhead and business cards for the business. The battery died after the first night and with no way to recharge it she was bummed. She’d really enjoyed playing with it and looked forward to getting started, but she couldn’t print out anything she had created anyway; the printer required power. “Maybe we should get one of those car inverter thingies so we can charge this?” she hinted to her wife.
“Put it on the list,” Fiona said dryly, ducking when her wife took a playful swipe at her. The list, or rather the lists, were becoming quite long as they discovered what they needed day by day.
The power company and the phone company showed up the same day…Tuesday. Apparently, that was a relatively short wait time considering where they were. It was a good thing Fiona’s grandparents had these things strung out to the ranch long ago, or it would have cost a mint coming from town and wiring it from the substation. As it was, wiring the now clean cabin was going to be expensive.
The power in the barn was on well before they put in the outlets or attached the electric to the cabin, so Allyssa plugged the computer in out there to recharge it. She was busy making sure they didn’t damage the foot-thick logs of the cabin. She loved the glow of the wood after she had cleaned it up a second time. Fiona took pride in it too once she realized the years of accumulated filth were gone. She had even stuck a broom handle up the chimney to find it clear, but knocked down enough soot that she was glad there was a shower in the mobile home.
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