Entering the cabin, Allyssa blew on her hands. It was cold out there and she considered lighting a small fire in the fireplace. Fiona must have gone out to the storage shed.
“Gimme a kiss and I’ll get on my way.” Fiona breezed in, handing her wife a sheet ripped from a small pad of paper where she wrote what she had taken from their supplies.
Allyssa happily obliged, prolonging the kiss for a moment and giving a promise of more if Fiona got home early enough. Remembering how she had felt in the mobile home this morning, the doctor regretted not following up on her impulse and briefly considered taking her wife upstairs to their more comfortable bed; however, she was a conscientious doctor and patients were waiting on her. Animals couldn’t tell her where it hurt, and she knew some might be suffering as they waited for her to arrive. She sighed regretfully as she picked up a toolbox filled with some of her more valuable drugs and smiled up at her taller wife before leaving her with a small pat and caress on her buttock.
Allyssa watched as the truck with the cumbersome camper on the back slowly drove out of the ranch yard. It was soon out of their little valley and over the hill. The quiet settled around the office. Already, Rex was done with his breakfast. He was full, at least full enough that the cats could now come up for the few kibbles he had left them. Allyssa picked up a sling and Rex thumped his tail. He knew what that meant and was happy about it. She carefully wrapped it around his middle, away from the sore spots where he had been hurt but lodged firmly enough that she could help him walk. She would have carried him down the steps, but he was just too big. They slowly made their way as he visited his favorite pee spots. Unable to lift his leg, he almost looked ashamed when he was forced to squat like a female dog. Still, it was necessary while he healed. Allyssa glanced around the lonely ranch yard as the dog took his time, frequently peeing, sniffing interestedly, and finally, pooping.
She knew that the loneliness and the quiet should scare her but it didn’t. She relished being alone. She loved the feeling that she was so necessary to the running of the ranch. Fey depended on her, absolutely trusted her, and loved her unconditionally. She had nothing to prove and no one was judging her here. As she walked about the place, utterly confident in her own abilities, she carried the pistol her wife had given her. It was a necessity to carry a gun since they didn’t know if anyone lingered about who would want to cause them harm. Rex glanced back at her as though to say, ‘Hurry up,’ his tail wagging in the small breeze that had sprung up. His wrapped injuries looked glaringly white against his tan fur. She slowly maneuvered him back towards the porch, his perch of choice since he couldn’t do much as he slowly healed from his injuries. Finally, he was comfortably ensconced on the porch, dozing in the early morning sun, and she went inside, closing the door against the cold. She returned two phone calls, telling the Kleins that Doctor Herriot would try to stop by today to look at their sheep. The other, an admirer, decided they didn’t need the doctor when she mentioned the fee for the doctor to drive out to their place. She smiled. Fey had called that one.
Taking the portable phone with her, she put it in a holster Fey had found somewhere. It was ridiculous, but so was wearing a gun in this day and age. Still, she carried both and knew how to use them. She headed outside to warm up the backhoe. She started it, and while the engine warmed up, she fed their llama. The llama already had fresh hay to eat, but Allyssa put a little grain in a bucket for her too. She was due to have her baby any day; Fey said she was overdue.
Mounting the backhoe, she headed for the house site. She turned the machine, so she could enter from what was going to be the exposed basement side of the house. The fire had burned so hot from the accelerant the rustlers used that even the cinder blocks would have to go, and the builders would have to start over. She scooped up a large load of burned and charred blocks, knocking into what had been a solid wall as she cleared it away. When the bucket was full, she pulled back and headed across the yard towards the fence they had come through earlier that morning. She stopped, set the brake and left it idling, then got down to open the gate. She would have loved to have left the gate open, but now there were cattle on the range. The cattle frequently came up to the fences and gate around the ranch yard, eating the grasses on their side and whatever they could reach on the other side through the fences that held them back. She sometimes thought it was curiosity that drew them, and other times she was sure it was loneliness. Frequently, they could be seen chewing their cud and staring at the humans that inhabited their world. The humans didn’t want these critters in their yard, so leaving gates open was foolish in ranch country. Fiona had stressed the importance of closing the gates every time. Also, there were a few ornery bulls out there and no one needed one of those buggers getting into their yard.
So, she drove the backhoe through the gate, stopped, set the brake again, and closed the gate behind her before driving on down the road. She took the load of charred and sometimes melted blocks mixed with burned wood and other debris from the house site and looked for a hole to bury it. She’d done this once before with the charred remains of Fey’s grandparents’ home. That house had been burned down as well, but that time the grandparents were inside it. Finding out after the fact that the rustlers had burned that house and killed her grandparents had been almost too much for Fey. Her grandparents had been killed by those men when all along, she had thought her grandfather’s absentmindedness was the cause. She was still dealing with that on her psyche. Allyssa knew it still hurt…it would probably always hurt.
It was a slow process, and finally, she began to load the debris on the trailers they kept in the yard. They had a surplus of trailers now. They had confiscated some of the rustlers’ ill-gotten gains, putting liens on the abandoned items, which they now owned. Filling the mostly platform trailers, she was able haul them with her SUV to the site one by one and park them. When she had them all out there next to the enormous crack in the Earth, she used the backhoe to scrape the debris into the sides of the crack before using the front-end loader and bulldozing it in. It took many days to get all the debris out of the hole that would become the base of their home once again, but Allyssa had a lot more time than Fiona, who traveled all over their section of the state visiting sick animals and keeping the healthy ones in order.
Allyssa made time to go into the little town called Sweetwater, where they kept a mailbox, at least two or three times a week. She was always happy to see Margaret, their gossipy postmistress. She was a truly kind, older woman and remembered Fiona’s grandparents and her father very fondly. Allyssa checked for bills and checks, depositing any checks into their account at the bank. They had a new bank manager since it turned out the old one had been in league with the rustlers. She liked this one better. She was efficient, friendly, and not homophobic like the last one. Charlie Hutchins, the old bank manager, had died by the gun of Allyssa Herriot in the yard of the Falling Pines Ranch. Everyone knew that now. He had deserved it too; everyone agreed on that once the facts came out. He had been stealing from people, and he had alerted the rustlers to land they could use for their illegal gains, getting a percentage of the take for himself. It had all come out in the weeks since the sheriff investigated the men involved.
Allyssa had stopped in at the laundromat and started the wash cycles on several loads before she went to get her mail and deposit the checks. She carefully noted them down, so she could enter them in the computer later. She was very efficient that way. She put the loads of laundry in the dryer while she read from the book she had brought along, waiting for the clothes to finish before folding them and putting them back in the baskets she had brought. She debated with herself about going to the small store in town but decided it could wait until they made the trek up to Pendleton, a much larger town by the interstate where it would be cheaper to shop. They tried to get there at least once a month, so they didn’t pay too much for their groceries. They had to stock up at a Wal-Mart or Sam’s Club type of store anyway. Winter was coming on, a
nd Fiona had warned Allyssa they could get snowed in for weeks. She was worried about getting to her patients if that happened. Still, they both anticipated using the front-end loader on the backhoe and plowing out their driveway, and Fiona had four-wheel drive on her truck in case she got stuck anywhere.
When they made the time to go up to Pendleton, they both had lists of things they thought they would need. They pulled an enclosed trailer behind the SUV, so they could stock up and buy in quantity. It took several trips from the warehouse store to get everything on the carts they filled. They purchased multiple flats of canned vegetables, fruits, and other necessities to fill their pantry against the coming winter snows.
“Want to eat out?” Fey suggested, knowing that getting off the ranch was a big deal to her wife. She knew she owed this woman a lot for taking on the chores she wouldn’t have had time for if she was doing it all herself. She wanted to treat her and was pleased when her wife’s face lit up with joy at the question.
“Sure. You have any place special in mind?” she asked.
“Well, we aren’t really dressed for a night out,” she glanced down at her customary jeans, cowboy boots, and flannel shirt covered up with an insulated vest.
Allyssa laughed. She was dressed similarly. “We should do that someday,” she stated as she put the sixth large bag of toilet paper into the trailer from the flat cart.
“Do what?” her wife asked as she hauled a couple bags of salt and piled them to one side. They had to stop at the feed store for dog food, cat food, horse feed, and something for the llama.
“Dress up and go somewhere nice,” her wife commented as she wiped her hair back from her face.
“Do you miss that?” Fiona asked, suddenly concerned that her young wife might be missing the bright lights of Denver where she came from. Fey remembered the nice neighborhood the younger woman’s parents had lived in and remembered how poor their ranch was. She worried that Allyssa might leave her someday. That insecurity gnawed at her gut sometimes as she drove around the countryside and left her bride at home.
“Nope,” Allyssa answered and didn’t elaborate. She was more concerned with loading their trailer. She loved living out at the ranch and her only regret was missing her wife when she was out on calls. The rest of it didn’t affect her. Amazingly, she found being alone calming and it was very fulfilling to be such a necessary part of their operation.
They decided not to eat at a restaurant since so much of what they had purchased required freezing or refrigeration. When they got home, they left the trailer parked by the mobile home and filled every nook and cranny with canned food and other supplies until there was no further room in there. Then, they put some of it in the cabin. Allyssa was tempted to just pile it in stacks inside the picturesque room, but Fiona vetoed that idea. They needed their space to relax and live, so the last of the supplies went in an unused box stall. It would be guarded by their cats, who kept the place relatively rodent-free.
It was quite dark as they finished up, and they already had a new list of things they might need on their next trip without the trailer. “Does that list ever end?” Fiona sighed as she took the last of the dog food into the barn. Still, she was in a chipper mood after their successful trip to town and getting to spend a few hours away from the ranch with her wife.
“I think our to-do list is even longer,” Allyssa answered as she followed with a fifty-pound bag of cat food that she quickly double-bagged from a wide roll they kept in the barn. It would keep out the rodents that might dare to enter their barn and it would prevent the cats from smelling their food and clawing the bags open. They had made that mistake once, and the ensuing mess had ensured they would keep the animals out of their own feed in the future. Fey did the same with the dog food.
Fey caught Allyssa before she could walk back to the trailer, knowing these were the last two bags. She pulled her close and said, “You know, I think I’m going to keep you. You’re a hard worker.”
Allyssa smiled at the compliment. She returned the hug, looking down at her shorter and older wife. “I kinda think I’d like to keep you too, although you smell a little,” she teased. They were both sweating from hauling all the heavy bags, flats, and boxes.
“I do, huh?” she answered with a gleam in her eye as she began to tickle the taller woman.
Allyssa squirmed out of her wife’s grasp and ran, trying to get around the trailer and tripping over her own feet. She went down with a whoomp, and her wife tripped over her sprawled form.
“Oh shit! Are you okay?” Fey asked, concerned.
“That’s what we get for goofing around in the dark like kids,” Allyssa sat up, brushing at her hands and finding she had scraped them.
“Let me see that,” Fey commanded, grasping them and peering through the darkness at the abrasions. She ended up using the light from her cell phone to take a closer look at them. “Come on. You need some antiseptic, and that one looks deep.” She rose and pulled her wife up by the wrist, so she wouldn’t touch her scraped hands.
“Damn! That stings,” the blonde gasped as Fey cleaned her hands. Turning on the surgery lights in the operating theater they had built in an unused box stall, the glare was blinding, but it also allowed the doctor to see the injuries clearly.
“I’m sorry, Allyssa. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have tickled you or chased you.”
“It’s okay, Fey. We were just playing, and I tripped. Clumsy me.” She smiled at her wife, who looked very serious as she removed the gravel from the deeper cut. She heard the ting sounds as her wife tossed the gravel in the metal basin. Fey expertly wrapped the hand to cover the scrapes and then kissed both hands. “That will do it,” Allyssa said softly and emotionally as Fey looked up with tears in her eyes for the hurt she had caused. “It’s okay, baby. It’s okay,” she said.
“I don’t know why I’m so damned hormonal tonight. All I wanted to do was hold you and let you know how much I appreciate you.”
“You tell me that all the time. I’m grateful to you for bringing me here. I’m enjoying myself more now than I ever have before.”
“Are you sure?’
Nodding, she smiled as she slid off the examination table and into Fey’s arms. Holding the smaller woman gently, despite her bandaged hands, she smiled down at her wife and said, “I wouldn’t want to be anyplace else.”
They shared a lingering kiss, and when it might have become more amorous, both remembered the hurt hands and how hungry they were. “Come on. I’ll fix you dinner,” Fey offered as she quickly cleaned up the supplies they had used and turned out the lights.
“I’ll lock up,” Allyssa offered and grasped the barn door to slide it closed before she remembered her hand was bandaged. Her gasp of pain had Fey pushing her gently aside and closing the barn door herself. The cats always found ways in and out of the barn regardless if the big door was open or shut but so did other rodents, and fortunately, the cats kept those well in check. It was a good balance.
Fey parked the trailer back where it belonged and unhitched it, then parked the truck, so they could go in and wash up and eat. She redid the bandages after dinner once Allyssa had showered, and they headed to bed. That night, the doctor held her wife instead making love to her as she would have preferred.
CHAPTER TWO
Allyssa watched as the men expertly heaved rocks the size of their heads and sometimes larger into place to create the base of the new addition to their cabin. It looked easy, but even her inexperienced eyes could tell they knew what they were doing. Great streams of fog poured from their mouths in the cold, late fall weather as they heaved the heavy rocks into place and then later, placed the concrete. They’d already gotten a couple dustings of snow but still, the men worked quickly at creating the addition to the cabin. It wouldn’t match exactly, of course. The logs were a lot newer as were the techniques being used. Still, time would age the logs and eventually, you wouldn’t be able to tell that this addition had been added nearly a hundred years after the
original cabin had been built.
Allyssa’s hands had been healing over the past few days, and watching the men work gave her something to do while they healed. She couldn’t type well as the scrape on one hand had been quite deep, and the bandages her wife, the doctor, had insisted she keep on always got in the way. She spent her time watching the men work, petting the dog, and catering to their llama mama, who was giving off all the signs she was ready to give birth. She was cranky, and Fey had asked Allyssa to keep a close eye on her, but the llama didn’t appreciate Allyssa’s presence in the least.
Log by log, they raised the walls from the stock the men had hauled out to the ranch. It was fascinating to watch as they used modern tools to cut, square, and bond the logs together. Even the cement they used to chink between the logs looked like the mud the settlers had used to keep out the winds of winter. The floor was polished smooth, and the half logs they used were authentic. Fey was really pleased when she came home each night and saw all they had accomplished. They’d be able to use the space by winter.
Fey gazed sadly at the hollowed-out space her wife had made with the backhoe, hauling away the burned debris where their home and her grandparents’ home had once stood. They should be living in that space now in their newly-built house, but it was all gone. She missed her grandparents desperately but tried not to think about how they had died at the hands of the same rustlers and what they must have gone through at the end. The men had paid with their lives, and it gave her a certain satisfaction knowing she had killed some of them. If people could read her mind when they brought up the subject of the rustlers, they would be horrified. Allyssa was the only one she could share these dark thoughts with. She understood because she’d been there.
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