Fiona laughed, but found it to be true as she washed away her cares of the day. She toweled her hair dry, not liking the sound of a blow dryer and turned out the lights as she went into the bedroom. Looking at Allyssa, she saw she was asleep again. Hands on hips, she wondered if the woman had done it deliberately, but thinking back on the long day of driving, probably not. Still, it wasn’t very romantic, and she wondered if Allyssa had even thought about sex. Sighing, she climbed into her side of the bed—apparently that was on the left—and pulled the covers up to her armpits. She lay a while thinking about this impulsive marriage and the problems they faced, before drifting off.
* * * * *
They found a computer store the next day and not only bought the laptop, but a printer and some accounting and design programs that the salesman promised would help them with their new business enterprise and website. As they slipped their purchases into the Jeep, and a very nosy Rex snuffled their packages, Allyssa wished she could sit down and read the programs on the trip. It would have given her something else to think about other than their destination.
“Hey, you. We’ll be home before dark today,” Fiona said excitedly, looking forward to showing her where she grew up. She was sad that her grandparents wouldn’t be there and wondered how they would have liked Allyssa. She smiled to herself knowing they would have loved her. She was bright and hardworking, which went far in their books, and she realized she had judged her the same way.
“Don’t take this wrong. I’m not complaining, but I’ll be glad not to have to haul that anymore,” she thumb-pointed to the U-Haul.
“Is it that bad?”
“Some of those mountain roads were very scary.”
Fiona looked up into her eyes, worried that it had all been too much for her and she hadn’t realized. She put her arms around the younger woman and smiled up at her. “You’re amazing and you don’t complain.”
Pleased at the compliment, Allyssa took the initiative and leaned down for a kiss, delighted when Fiona immediately responded, making no effort to end it as they explored a moment. Only the cold and the honk of a car from across the lot had them pulling apart, a delighted smile on both their faces at the impulsive kiss. Squeezing her close in a hug for a moment, Fiona held her before releasing her.
“Follow me,” she teased the younger woman and headed for the truck.
Momentarily confused, Alyssa thought Fiona meant to seduce her in the back of the camper, then realizing the joke, she returned to the Jeep to follow her the rest of the way.
Before embarking on the last leg of their journey across Oregon, Fiona filled up both vehicles and bought some more snacks. They had a lot of mountainous driving and Fiona worried, constantly looking behind her when she could until they came down and began to go through the Umatilla National Forest. Once across, it was only a short drive to the ranch. As she drove along Highway 26 and then switched to Highway 20 she worried the terrain might frighten her wife off from living so far out. She was a city girl from Denver and the loneliness might be too much for her. Still, she was a game thing and of good spirits. As she drove onto a backroad that went for miles in the dirt and then onto the ranch road that wound away into the hills she was pleased to see the little valley her grandparents had settled in. It was odd not to see the little red house they had lived in all their lives. All that was left was a pile of black timbers; the fire had burned hot and hard and left very little for them to find. She was glad there was a sprinkling of snow that covered most of the fire-blackened timbers of the site. She’d have to deal with that in the spring. For now, she drove past the old cabin, the sheds, the barn, and around back to show Allyssa where to park the Jeep and trailer. The old mobile home looked worse than she remembered as she got out in the late afternoon sunshine.
“Well, we’re here,” she smiled as Allyssa got out and stretched. Rex hopped out and immediately started sniffling around the length of his leash. “You can probably let him off that.”
“Won’t he run away?”
“I hope not or we’ll have to catch him. Hopefully he wants to stay by us and with us.”
It was an experiment, but they cautiously let him off the lead and he just continued snuffling at smells that interested him, not even aware he was even the lead, and that freed them to explore and unpack.
Seeing Allyssa staring at the mobile home in an almost horrified manner, Fiona felt defensive. “It’s just temporary,” she assured her bride.
Allyssa caught herself. She had never even been inside such a place and walked confidently up to the door to open it. She noted the yellow siding, probably someone’s attempt to be festive and make it homey. She wondered if Fiona’s grandmother had chosen it. As she looked in she saw how small and cramped the quarters were.
“Go on inside. I need to get the heater going,” Fiona told her and headed to the other side to start the motor. She’d brought along a bottle of propane and that should get them going. She was going to have to get the bottle on it filled eventually. She could keep the empty one on the truck and fill it in town when she was there. She’d have to go into town, a little one called Sweetwater, to set up their mailbox and have her old mail forwarded.
Allyssa went inside. The door opened immediately into a living room area that was very cramped with seating around the end of the house and on the two sides. That led to the kitchen area, which had a small refrigerator and an even smaller stove and oven. Cupboards lined the top near the ceiling. She walked through the kitchen and found a small shower stall. She was going to miss having baths, but she had given them up at the clinic too. The small hallway led to a bedroom that looked to be the same size as the living room area. The bed was ripped up and someone had taken a knife to the mattress. The blankets looked older than dirt and just as muddy. She swallowed. This was not what she had expected. She walked back out to the living room area and out the door, looking out at the hills that surrounded the place and on one end, the mountains beyond those hills. The beauty of the area appealed to her a whole lot more than that tiny, cramped, and dirty place.
“Hey, whatcha doing?” Fiona asked as she came around the side of the mobile home.
“Looking at the view. It’s lovely,” she stated honestly. She wouldn’t complain, would not say a word about the horrid inside of the house. How anyone could call it a home she had no idea. “Did your grandparents ever live in there?” she asked, wondering how old it was.
“No,” Fiona shook her head. “They lived in the log cabin when he decided to settle here. It’s now a catch-all building and I hope to put most of the vet supplies in there. Would you like to unpack the Jeep now or take a tour?”
Wanting to avoid the mobile home as long as possible she said, “A tour please.”
It was really cold, and the mobile home needed time to warm up. Fiona led the way around the large ranch barn that had served for cattle and horses. She showed Allyssa the neat and orderly stalls where her grandfather had kept his work horses. “He tried farming a bit, but the land is better for grazing. Grandmother said her garden grew fine and he was just a bad farmer, but a good rancher,” she laughed at the memory, feeling pains that they weren’t here to tease and tell stories. She realized she would have a lot of stories to share with her wife and almost all of them involved her grandparents. She hoped it wouldn’t hurt too much.
“It’s so clean,” she commented as they walked in the large barn, their boots echoing on the wood plank floor.
“Yes, grandfather taught me well how to keep order and cleanliness, although I think my grandmother did too now that I think of it. Her house was impeccable.”
She showed her the loft that had an excellent view of the distant hills with pine trees clinging precariously to their sides. To get to the loft Allyssa had expected to take a ladder and had been surprised to find a staircase.
“Grandfather was a bit of a builder and he said it was dangerous to be on a ladder with a bale of hay,” she explained. “I always thought having a dovecot or pigeon coop
up here would be awesome. I used to imagine sending messages tied to their legs.”
“What’s a dovecot?” she asked, never having heard the term, but assuming it had something to do with doves.
“Oh, it’s just a fancy name for a pigeon coop,” she answered distractedly as she peered off at the dog snuffling in bushes near the house.
“I thought it would house doves?” she laughed.
“You would think so, wouldn’t you? Some pigeons look like doves and I’m sure it took its name from that originally, but I have no idea,” she confessed.
There were several sheds around the place for various functions including a well house across the yard by the garden that pumped fresh and delicious water. “Wow, that’s cold!” Allyssa exclaimed when Fiona encouraged her to take a drink.
Nodding, Fiona explained that it probably came directly from the creek that ran through the ranch. “Grandfather said when they dug down to make the well they hit a spring and it’s been fresh and clear since day one.”
Allyssa considered that a lucky thing. She’d never had anything but tap water in the city and this tasted so much better.
The last thing Fiona showed her was the old cabin. It now had boards over the original log walls, tapered to keep off the weather, but the inside was full of odds and ends; the mark of a ranch with rope and leather, and debris. She was surprised it wasn’t as clean as the barn. Still, it was a bit bigger than the mobile home. She suddenly had an idea.
“Why don’t we make this our house until we can build the other one? When we are done with it we could turn it into an on-ranch office for anyone who wants to make the drive?”
Considering Fiona had only thought of using it to store the sometimes expensive and valuable supplies she had brought with them, she wasn’t sure. Looking around, she thought about how much it would take to clean it up. “I don’t know how the fireplace draws, and we don’t have very much wood on the woodpile,” she said doubtfully.
“Well, we can live in the mobile home for now and clean this up. It won’t take much elbow grease,” she said enthusiastically.
“We have to get the electric installed here and the mobile’s generator,” she said aloud as she mused over the idea, liking it more. There was a lot more elbow room in the cabin than in the mobile home. She could tell Allyssa hadn’t really liked the mobile home. She’d thought it fun as a kid to use it as a ‘fort,’ but could always go back to the house at night and had never slept in it. “Let’s clean up this corner and stack the boxes for the clinic here. Tomorrow, we’ll clean up the place and see,” she promised, willing to compromise from her original plans.
They put the cat and the carrier in the mobile home. Fiona saw what had happened to the bed when she brought their suitcases inside and swore over someone’s vandalism. “I wonder when this happened?” she asked no one as she viewed the mess they had made.
“Do random people just come out here?” Allyssa asked.
Fiona shrugged then considered her city-born bride and thought again. “They come looking for work. Maybe someone used this place for a while. They’ll stay away or make themselves known now that someone is living out here. Rex will teach them respect, ‘Won’t you boy?’” she asked as she walked outside with the damaged mattress she was manhandling.
He looked up, wagging his tail. He was having a delightful time smelling all the new smells and making his own as he peed on bushes and posts.
Allyssa began bringing in the groceries they had picked up and putting them away. They had stayed cold in the camper. She wiped down the shelves twice and let them air. They stacked up the flats of food in the living room area, creating a table with them. She learned the actual table came out of the wall.
They drove both vehicles over to the cabin and hurried to unload the vet supplies. It was getting late and without electricity they would soon be in the dark.
“Why don’t we sleep in the camper tonight since there is no mattress in the mobile home?” Fiona suggested as they unloaded box after box. Finally, they discovered it was easier for Allyssa to stack boxes on the porch and for Fiona to take them inside from there.
“Sounds like a plan, but will the cats and dog fit?” she asked, half seriously. If there were random strangers about she wanted some protection.
“Well, the cats will stay in the mobile home. The dog might need a boost to get up in the camper, but he can come in,” she answered with a grin, trying to keep things light. She knew her wife wasn’t happy with the accommodations, but they really had no choice for now.
They put all the vet supplies on one side in the corner of the cabin, stacking it all quite high and then Fiona’s things in another corner, moving aside a sawhorse and tack to make room. It all needed a good vacuuming, but Allyssa remained optimistic they could live in the small cabin and looked up at the loft, pleased that her unknown grandfather-in-law had put in steps. A nice bed up there sounded wonderful, but for now it was all covered in an inch or more of dust—they’d thrown up enough just bringing in the vet supplies that she didn’t want to tackle until it was daylight. The shadows were getting long and it was hard to see already. The snow-covered hills were becoming ominous in this little valley and she rushed to finish emptying the Jeep. They finally decided to put her boxes from the Jeep on top of Fiona’s things just to finish emptying the Cherokee.
“Well, that’s one thing done,” Fiona said, slapping her gloved hands together. “Now, for dinner,” she said almost mournfully.
“Should I order in or are you going out for a pizza?” Allyssa teased and was rewarded with a smile.
“I’m going to park this over by the mobile home since it will be easier to cook in that than in the camper,” she explained as she got in the Cherokee, adjusting the seat for her shorter legs. “Bring the truck?”
Having never driven the vet’s truck, Allyssa was unsure at first and hesitated to drive it, but she adjusted the seat back to accommodate her long legs and followed where Fiona had gone. She parked and took the key, wondering if it was necessary with no neighbors, but still locking the doors. Looking for Fiona, she found her in the cramped quarters of the mobile home. “Should I let Rex in here or not?” she asked, looking for the cat but not seeing her in the carrier.
“No, I don’t think Mama Cat would be too happy about that. Could you find his food and feed him outside?” She was opening a can of stew and had a pan on the burner already heating up.
“Will do,” she answered, searching and finding all the cat and dog food they had left right inside on the couch seat.
They easily fed both the dog, the cats, and themselves using the dishes that were in the mobile home, which Allyssa insisted on washing before and after they used them.
“I’m sorry this isn’t what you had expected,” Fiona said miserably as she caught Allyssa in her arms.
“I knew your house had burned down,” she answered truthfully, but she wouldn’t complain. “We will make it work!” she tried to say encouragingly. “We will rebuild,” she paraphrased some TV show.
“We can go into town tomorrow and find a place to return the trailer. I know where to pay the electric bill and we’ll see about getting the electric run to the cabin. Do you think I should have this place hooked up too? Just in case?” They both looked around the mobile home.
“Doesn’t this work on gas or something?”
“Yeah, I turned on the propane for the heat and the dinner,” she pointed to the stove with her chin.
“Well, let’s keep it that way. We’ll clean it up and it won’t be so bad. Meanwhile, Mama Cat will keep it rodent free and we have the camper for now.”
“I’m so grateful you’re here,” Fiona nuzzled into Allyssa’s neck.
Squeezing her back, she smiled at the sensation that engendered. She liked it very much. “We’re just camping! I’ve never really been camping.”
“Well, camping in the middle of winter is overrated. I’m just glad we have no stock to take care of yet,” she an
swered, pulling back to look up at her wife. She pulled back to arm’s length but didn’t let go, casually holding her, hoping to get her used to her touch.
“Well,” going on the same thread and trying to keep it light, “Rex thinks he’s a horse with all his galumphing around. He’s pretty big.”
“Yes,” she nodded thoughtfully, “he definitely is.” She shared a smile with her bride. Leaning her head up onto Allyssa’s forehead, something she couldn’t achieve unless the blonde leaned down, which she did, she said, “I’m sorry. This isn’t much of a honeymoon, is it?”
“It’s fine,” she assured her.
Fiona didn’t tell her that ‘fine’ in lesbian terms wasn’t exactly what it meant. She promised herself she would take care of things as soon as she could. Meanwhile, she was grateful her wife was so cheerful and easy to please. She finally let her go as she said, “Well, let’s get ready for bed. Do you want to use the bathroom in here first?”
“It needs to be washed down. Other than the toilet, I suggest we leave that for tomorrow,” she suggested as her hands fell away from her wife.
“I bet I have to clean out the tank too,” she murmured aloud.
“The tank?”
“It’s where all the debris goes and I’m certain my grandparents hooked it up to the septic tank but maybe…” she frowned trying to remember. “We’ll have to have that looked at in the spring. Nothing we can do now.”
“Does all the debris go into this tank?” she asked, looking to the kitchen sink where they had washed the dishes that were now drying in a strainer.
“No, the shower and the sink would drain off into the hill, but the toilet would go into the tank. Since my grandparents’ house is no longer there it wouldn’t be full, I don’t think. Still, when we start building we should have that inspected to be sure.”
“I’ll start a list,” she told her earnestly.
“That’s a good idea, partner,” she smiled at her.
They ended up using a combination of the small bathroom in the mobile home and the one in the camper. Fiona boosted the dog up onto the high floor of the camper where they fed him again to settle him down. He couldn’t sprawl in the cramped quarters and Fiona would not let him lay on the bed that could be made on the table and couch. She took out the table, laying it against the wall so he had more space. The two humans crawled up onto the bed above the cab of the truck and had a hilarious time trying to put a sheet on the mattress with them both on it too. Using sleeping bags that they zippered together so they could share body heat, they made a cozy little bed for themselves.
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