Allyssa handled the clients in the cabin, which now had a discreet carved wooden plaque that said ‘Office’ that Fiona had found somewhere. Allyssa got them to prepay for the service the doctor was about to perform, starting a chart for their file and then escorting them to the box stall surgery. They’d placed a few benches around the barn inside and out in case of weather. They had views of the far-off mountains. Some stayed, but a few opted to pick their pets up in the hours after it would take for the anesthesia to wear off. Fiona had gotten a quantity of the gas canisters they needed to put the various cats and dogs under. It didn’t take long to put the animal under, shave the site, and either remove the inside of the sack or expose the womb and remove it; no more were the sacks merely cut off. It was found to be better to do it this way. The animal would then be stitched up, taken off the gas, given oxygen, and carried to an individual stall or put in a carrier with a cone around its head. Herriot Veterinary Services had opted to use the pillow type of cone instead of the hard ones for the cone of shame, and they ordered them in bulk. Fiona felt it was more humane and less upsetting to the animals.
They fixed a lot of animals that day…even Fiona was impressed with the speed and efficiency of it. She’d started her day by doing their own cats and finished it with Rex. She knew they would need a third person or even a fourth if they did this sort of thing monthly. Allyssa was busy with the paperwork stacking up on her desk. She needed to enter it in the computer and deposit the cash and many checks she had accumulated. She had even managed to get a merchant account and could accept credit cards. Fiona was enthralled. Soon after they started the business, Allyssa had presented her with a little triangle-shaped wedge of plastic that plugged into her cell phone, which allowed the client to pay their bill. She hadn’t used it much. Sometimes the service through the phone wasn’t good but still, it stored the information on her cell phone wedge until it could be sent through a tower it could reach. It amazed the clients, and it certainly amazed the doctor when it went through right away and she could send a ‘receipt’ to the client’s email address.
As Fiona was cleaning up after their last patient, Rex, who was laid out and still sleepy, Allyssa had gently carried the last cat out to its carrier and then handed it to its owner with a list of instructions she had typed up for them. Fiona stretched, exhausted from all the surgeries and grateful it was over. Her back would probably not forgive her anytime soon. Still, she was glad they had done it. She had met people and patients she wouldn’t have otherwise. Most owners simply made do and tried to keep their unfixed pets away from others. She’d even met a few sheep ranchers who put the sheep bands used on their rams’ testicles and sheep’s tails and ears on their dogs and cats. Sometimes it was effective, and sometimes it wasn’t. As she turned on the water in the corner and sprayed down the stainless steel, she looked at the gardening sprayer her wife had purchased and shook her head. She’d replaced the insecticide bottle with soap so that they could spray and clean the stall thoroughly.
“All done?” Allyssa returned from seeing their last patient off.
“Yep, just have to put that batch in the sterilizer,” she pointed to the last tray and Allyssa took it to the office where the sterilizer had seen a lot of use today. They’d prepared five trays in advance and still ran out of some necessary tools. If not for the speed of the sterilizer, they would have been in trouble with all the surgeries Fiona had performed. Still, Allyssa had learned fast and prepared the next trays quickly, putting a surgical sheet on each of them as she carried them to the box stall.
“That, my dear,” she smiled to her wife, “was a success. I wouldn’t want to do it every weekend, but once in a while will be good.”
“Well, we’ll see them back when they have the stitches removed, if they don’t do it themselves,” she pointed out, annoyed how self-reliant the people around here were. Still, it had been nice to meet so many people who had made the long trip out to the ranch for the procedures. They had probably spent as much on gas as they would have saved, but low-cost had caught their attention. They were the salt of the earth and much friendlier than Allyssa had expected. They’d admired the pretty cabin, had been impressed by the cabinets, and sat on the couch watching the flat screen TV as Allyssa processed them and collected their payments.
“I don’t think that TV has gotten that much use since we moved here,” Fiona commented as they walked in the cabin and turned it off.
“Well, I prefer movies or watching that,” she gestured to the mountains that rose behind the ranch.
“I do too, baby. I do too,” she admitted with a smile as they put the last of the tools in the sterilizer.
Chapter Twenty
They finally agreed on the plans for their new house and the combination builder and pre-fab order would start in a month. It would be tight to get it done for winter, but Allyssa herself started to dig out where the basement would have to be set. The builder agreed to pour that well before the house was finished at the factory, giving it plenty of time to set. He quoted them an outrageous fee for digging the basement and was surprised when the tall blonde said she’d do it herself. He tried to warn her he needed exact specifications, but she told him, “A hole is a hole,” and began using the backhoe the next day after she and Fiona marked off what they needed. It wasn’t an exact science, and she pulled back a much bigger space than the house had before. Fiona’s grandparents had only needed a root cellar before, and that had collapsed with the debris from the fire.
Slowly, but surely, Allyssa pulled the arm of the noisy backhoe up and out and away from the building site, bringing up more and more of the dirt mixed with sand and even some burnt debris that was mixed in. The torrential rain of the previous day had washed in one side and she had to redo it. She’d sworn about the rain, but it was necessary in this high area of the plains. It had been too dry this season and now everything would green up again. Today, it was sunny and warm, and she was dressed in a skimpy wife-beater t-shirt that barely held in her bra. Everything felt tight as the sweat dripped down her neck and into her shirt. She rubbed her forehead several times, squinting at the brightness of the sun and wishing she had new pair of sunglasses. It was on the list as Rex had accidentally broken her last pair with his playfulness. She laughed at herself. She was a long way from the days of racing the Volvo down the freeways in Denver as she manipulated the backhoe.
She was considering stopping for the day or at least pulling back from this area and moving the machine over a length to get at the rest of the dirt and sand that had washed down when she heard Rex barking. He was looking at the rise and she looked up in time to see an unfamiliar car. Since the animal clinic they had more frequent visitors but only by appointment. Sometimes people didn’t realize that and were disappointed when the doctor wasn’t in and waiting for random people to show up. Allyssa had to explain that she drove all over for clients. Seeing the type of car and realizing how out of place it was back here on the ranch, she figured it was one of those people. She turned off the backhoe, setting it down so everything including the hoe was on the ground and resting, and got down off the machine, squinting at their visitor who had stopped in front of the cabin. She was walking towards the car across what used to be the farmyard, pulling off her sweaty and dirty gloves, when her sister Carmen got out of the expensive car. She didn’t know who was more surprised.
“Carmen?” Allyssa asked, incredulous to see her sister, her big city sister, out here in the never-never part of Oregon.
“Hello,” she said almost shyly as she looked at her very dirty sister. She had never seen her in such an outfit, sweaty and covered in a layer of dirt.
“What in the world are you doing all the way out here?” she asked, wiping at her brow, which was dripping into her eyes and unknowingly smearing the sweat and dirt across both her arm and forehead.
“That was quite the drive,” she answered, fidgeting slightly, especially with the big dog rushing her and barking.
“Rex!
It’s okay. Friend, Rex, friend!” she told him, trying to teach him since they had more visitors at the ranch these days.
“Um, do you have a bathroom?” she asked, looking around and raising her eyebrows at the weathered look of the place.
“In there,” she indicated the cabin. “In the far corner there is a closet,” she answered, grateful they had put in the toilet and sink. She didn’t think sending her sister to the mobile home would be a good idea. She watched as her sister hesitantly walked in the open door of the cabin and looked around, spying the closet door and heading for it. Allyssa followed, wondering in what condition she had left the office. She’d caught up almost immediately on the paperwork from the clinic, reordered supplies, and announced the success on the internet, but her everyday work was ongoing. She saw it was all neat and tidy, just the way she liked it. Carmen had no call to complain but then this was her domain, her home, and no one, not even their mother in the form of Carmen was going to criticize. She slapped her gloves on her dirty jeans, the last of her Gloria Vanderbilt collection. They really didn’t fit right anymore and Fiona had put some sturdy Levis on ‘the list’ for their next trip up to Pendletown.
She saw the phone blinking, which meant she had missed a call and someone had left a message. She unhooked the receiver from her belt. The backhoe had been too loud to hear a call anyway. She rubbed down the phone before replacing it on the charger and hitting play on the answering machine. She took a message for Fiona to stop in at a ranch and check some sheep for worms. Carmen walked out of the bathroom as the message came across, wrinkling her nose at it. Allyssa didn’t apologize, merely writing it down on a two-part message pad, so the original could be torn off and Fiona could take it with her on her calls. Since this was an established customer no additional notes or directions were necessary.
“Wow, I can’t believe you’re here,” she said to Carmen as she waved her to the sofa.
“Mind if we sit outside?” she asked, indicating the chairs and bench Fiona had found for them. They were called Adirondacks, at least that was the style, and they laid back comfortably. They were perfect for sitting on the porch and gazing off into the mountains.
“Sure. Are you thirsty? Do you want something to drink?”
“No, I’m good for the moment. I just didn’t realize how far a drive that would be and I think the GPS took me around the long way.”
Allyssa blinked. It had been a long time since she worried about GPS. Most people gave directions a lot differently than the computer would, and she would bet her sister had only come via established routes, making the trip that much longer.
They sat down comfortably on the chairs and Carmen gazed about. “I didn’t know you knew how to run one of those,” she indicated the backhoe.
“Well, I’ve learned a lot. Fiona taught me,” she admitted. The removal of the stones and grading of their long driveway had taken some time and cut down the learning curve.
“Oh, where is your…wife?” she asked, hesitating only slightly.
“Probably out on calls. She’ll be back tonight. You’ll see her then. You are staying, right? You didn’t make that long drive just to turn around and leave again?”
“Yes, I’ll stay a couple of days, if that’s okay?” she asked, suddenly sounding unsure of herself.
“Oh, that’s fine. Great actually,” she admitted, and they both looked down at the barn as two horse heads came around the corral and looked up at them curiously.
“You have horses!” Carmen said, delighted.
“Yes, Fiona got a good deal on them by trading vet work, and we use them to ride out on the range now and then.
“And cattle,” she added, seeing some that were always seeming to hang around near the inner fences since the grass looked greener on the horses’ pasturage.
“Well, those aren’t ours actually,” she laughed and then explained about Toby Colbert renting the land from them.
“That makes sense,” she said as her younger sister explained. “And smart, so the land doesn’t go to waste.”
Allyssa was surprised at the compliment from her sister, who always seemed to criticize her. Suddenly restless, she sat up. “Why don’t I show you the barn and our surgery?” she asked, feeling a need to show her something.
“Okaaay,” her sister answered, suddenly unsure again and following her as the big dog smelled her Jimmy Chongs. “Hi there,” she said, petting Rex between the ears. He immediately thumped his tail back and forth, hitting her with it.
“Careful, that tail is a deadly weapon in some circles,” Allyssa teased as she led the way down to the barn.
Carmen was duly impressed with the barn, which held only a very sick goat that Fiona was treating. The cleanliness in the large space was a surprise, and she was intrigued by the operating theater.
“Wow, you two built this yourself?” she exclaimed in wonderment as she looked at the shiny stainless-steel.
“Yeah,” she said, looking around at the room. “You should have seen us try to put in those lights,” she pointed at the surgical lights they had waited for forever. “It was impressive, but Fiona knows about pulleys and fulcrums and things.”
“Oh, geometry. Yuck,” Carmen answered, and they shared a laugh.
“Well, to be a doctor you have to know math.” Allyssa let her meet the good-natured horses who, after having their curiosity appeased, trotted off to get at the grass on their side of the fence before the cows stuck their heads through and got at it.
“It’s really beautiful here, Allyssa,” she said, breathing in the clear, hot air.
“Yeah, it is, and far away from all the traffic and smog,” she agreed.
“You seem different? Are you happy?”
Allyssa stopped, putting her booted foot up on the lower rung of the fence. She smiled and nodded. “Yes, I’m happy. I’m very happy.”
“I’m glad. I’m really glad for you.”
“Why did you come all this way?” she felt she had to ask.
She shrugged. “I felt the need to get away and I wanted to see what you had found.”
“What I had found?”
She turned a little, looking at her sister. “You seem so much more confident than I remember. I don’t remember you being this decisive back in Denver.”
“I did try, but I always got cut off and was prevented from making my own decisions,” she pointed out. She’d thought about it a lot in the months she’d been alone out here, working hard to make a home for Fiona, cleaning up the place and making things livable.
Carmen nodded. “You were always the little sister. I used to worry about you all the time.”
“Worry about me?” she asked, astonished.
“You were always such a tomboy. Always doing things that were going to embarrass me. I never dreamed that Father would be the one...” she stopped herself.
“Father embarrassed you and the family with his behavior?”
Carmen nodded, almost guiltily. “And you had gone off and married a woman. I thought that was the most embarrassing thing that could happen...” she trailed off, finally realizing how insulting she really was. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it that way.”
“Yes, you did,” Allyssa said in return, quickly, before she lost her nerve. “You’ve never been shy about telling us what you think.”
“Well, you never indicated that you liked...” she began hesitantly, not sure how to say it.
“Women?” Allyssa finished for her, enjoying how uncomfortable her sister seemed to be. She’d never seen her at a loss for words. She’d always enjoyed putting her little sister in her place, keeping her there.
Carmen nodded miserably.
“I don’t like women,” she explained. She’d thought about this a long time. “I like Fiona. It’s different. It’s certainly not what we all thought I’d end up with from the country club,” she pointed out, and Carmen was listening, actually listening. “But, I couldn’t mold myself into that. I couldn’t be that person or have t
hat life. Fiona has given me so much, and I love it. I am happy,” she repeated.
“That life is a lie anyway,” Carmen stated.
“You realized that, did you?”
She nodded. She sighed. “I’d modeled my whole life on that and now I don’t know why. Father and Mother are divorcing, selling the house, and moving on.”
“They’re moving?” Allyssa realized she hadn’t asked much the few times she talked to her mother on the phone and in the infrequent emails they shared.
“Father has an apartment, and I’ve seen some of the women he’s dating,” she shuddered delicately. “It isn’t pretty,” she stated, indicating the situation.
“Well, I don’t know why he started doing that. He and mother seemed okay,” she shrugged. She hadn’t really noticed their relationship. It just was there and she had been more concerned about school, her grades, and her own little world.
Carmen narrowed her eyes a little, first from a bug that was buzzing around that she swatted at, and then in response to what they were talking about. “You knew something was up, didn’t you?”
Allyssa nodded, breaking eye contact to look down at her boots and then back up at the hills surrounding their little valley. “I caught Father attempting to put the make on Juanita long ago,” she stated, remembering back to that day.
“Juanita!” she gasped. “Is that why she quit?”
Allyssa nodded again and then looked over at her sister’s shock.
“She was with us forever,” she murmured wonderingly, then she shook her head.
“How’s Mother doing?”
“She’s stubborn. She’s decided to go back to school and is enrolled in the fall. I think she’s too old, but she won’t listen!”
“What’s she going back to school for?” she asked, surprised at this news.
“Well, I think she wants to sell real estate. She’s not moving out of the house until it sells. They’ve had a couple of offers, but she’s waiting for the right one. Her attorney says she has the home-court advantage, whatever that means.”
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