The Journey Home

by K'Anne Meinel

  “I can wash my own damn clothes,” she found herself yelling at her after finding her new jeans and trousers hanging on the line.

  “I was just trying to help; you were so busy in the fields…” Stephanie defended herself.

  Cass just shook her head as she went off to find something else to do. She had re-strung fencing around the poultry pens in many places, strengthening it, creating the double barrier which had proved so affective against the various animals that tried to find an easy meal. She had found the odd little fences around the bee hives were to keep out the bears which had apparently raided a few of the hives while she was gone. The farm that Melanie and Ray had built was unrecognizable. Their home, deep in the woods was now a corn crib and the woods surrounding their home long gone, the timber lumbered off, cut up, and sold. Every inch of their fields was utilized and plowed, no grazing land left despite the stones that were carted to the edge of the fields and piled. Cass took it upon herself to start making fences with the stones, she wasn’t a good stone mason but her knowledge was such that only an expert would tell the difference as she stacked them without cement along the edge of the fields. It also kept her well away from Stephanie at the home farm.

  Cal rode home after a few weeks and came in time for supper. One of the few times that Stephanie and Cass would be in the same room at the same time. He rode in on his mules and after leaving his catch in the well house he turned his mules lose in one of the paddocks. Coming inside, his gun in his hand he stopped to see his sister sitting at the end of the kitchen table eating in his customary spot. He stared at her in disbelief.

  “Cal, isn’t it wonderful?” Stephanie asked as she rose to make him a plate and a place at the table. “The Army had it all wrong, Cass made it!” She sounded false to all their ears.

  To Cass it sounded like Stephanie wasn’t so happy that she had made it.

  To Cal it sounded like she was a bit high spirited and brittle. He wondered at that. He had hoped when he returned from this trip that things would be better between them. He had married her after all and while it wasn’t a normal marriage, they were having a child together. He hadn’t planned for any of this to happen. He had felt guilty for Cass leaving, Stephanie had been biter and her complaints hadn’t fallen on deaf ears, he had tried, repeatedly tried to make her happy. The expansion of the farm had been her idea but he had the monies to hire the men and see that it got done. He had hoped to make it up to her and the loss of Cass had been the tip of the iceberg, he had only meant to console her and found himself kissing her instead to shut her up from the tears that seemed to fall all the time. One thing led to another and she came to him two months later telling him she was pregnant and asking him what they should do. Marriage seemed the only right thing to do. Now here sat his sister looking daggers at him and he felt decidedly uncomfortable.

  Stephanie placed a full plate on the table next to hers and said, “Put the gun up and join us for dinner.”

  Cal nodded and obeyed going to the powder room to wash up and returning running his fingers through his now damp hair. He nodded at Cass as he sat down and grunted, “Cass,” in greeting.

  Cass nodded back and grunted, “Cal.”

  Stephanie looked from one to the other wondering if either sibling was going to explode. She felt very uncomfortable and not from the baby she was carrying that was related to both these people. She cared for Cal, she truly did, but she loved Cass and waiting to see what would be decided between them was causing her stress. Stress was not good for her or the baby.

  The tone was set at that meal. Cass and Cal ignored each other and Stephanie. Cal, never a particularly vocal individual couldn’t or wouldn’t discuss things with his wife much less his sister. He had known that Stephanie was Cass’s woman; he had understood that about his sister and accepted it. The Indians called it twin spirits or twin souls within the same body. He had long ago acknowledged that his sister was a lesbian and while most of society frowned on it he knew that she was still a kind and loving person. The person he knew now after the war was angry and standoffish. He saw that she ignored Stephanie and didn’t pay her any attention.

  Cass didn’t know what to say to her brother. She had no standing with the now married couple. She had found out that her estate had been left to her brother so getting it back wasn’t difficult, Cal willingly signed papers that allotted her half of the farm but she had refused when offered half of Melanie and Ray’s as well. To her it was the product of Stephanie’s greed to be a big farmer and sell her produce. She was always making something in the big kitchen and slapping a label on it, at least that was how Cass saw it. She was merely an overseer to the products that would end up as Scheimers Farms Produce or whatever label she wanted on it.

  “This tastes…odd,” Cass did mention when tasting some of the apple cider pressed last year.

  “Something wrong in the mix,” Cal grunted in agreement.

  “We followed your procedures Cass, maybe you should check the press,” Stephanie offered hoping after the weeks of near silence between them that they could communicate on some level. She was standing at the stove mixing a mess of dies for the soaps she would be making soon. Soap with delicate colors and scents, the women loved them and bought them up from the stores she supplied them with.

  “You’d think you’d want the best if you’re gonna put the Scheimer name on it,” Cass said cuttingly. She took another sip and spit it back out in the glass looking at it distastefully.

  “Well you weren’t here to make it right!” Stephanie said indignantly. It was bad enough to be ignored but to now have the products of their labors being subjected to Cass’s opinion was too much.

  “Well I’m here now and I’m not going anywhere!” Cass rejoined, surprised when Stephanie showed any spirit. She had been going around with a long face since she had refused to sleep in her bed, instead choosing the couch while Cal slept up in the loft. That perky fake happiness she had displayed that first night was long gone. Cass didn’t realize until she had said it that she had seriously been considering leaving the farm. Stephanie found her in the well house later pouring out gallons of cider.

  “What the heck are you doing?” she shrieked in dismay seeing their profits being poured out on the grass.

  “I’m getting rid of this stuff, there is a mold in it causing it to taste off, that was the problem, someone didn’t clean the presses enough. I’m going to check the juices later.” She indicated the barrels of apple and pear juice and the few of cherry lying in racks along the sides.

  “But…but just throwing it out, it’s such a waste!” Stephanie said in dismay. All that lovely cider that people loved and bought, the loss of all those profits and the work involved in making it! She had special bottles made in the shape of apples that they put Scheimers Cider labels on. Such a waste, she shook her head.

  “Sooner throw it out than make people sick, if word got out you’d be ruined,” Cass told her wisely.

  Stephanie had to agree, the thought of what people would say if they knew that this batch was bad frightened her. The Scheimer name had come to mean something, she couldn’t jeopardize that! “Can I help you?” she asked realizing the enormity of the task.

  Cass shook her head looking at Stephanie curiously, what new game was she playing? “The casks are too heavy for you in your condition. You should be resting more, what does Doc Stettin say?”

  “I wouldn’t know, he passed away two years ago, a younger doctor is seeing me, his name is Doctor Mavis, he is rather…progressive,” she finished and then realized she had given Cass information she hadn’t known before.

  “Doc Stettin is dead?” she said numbly in wonderment. She had known him all her life; he had helped and influenced her as well as her mother. Becoming a midwife and then a nurse had been ordained almost from birth because of these two people. Now both of them were gone. He had arranged for her training in Milwaukee and she realized now it had been expedited on his recommendation, he knew the right
people to tell and write to.

  “I’m sorry Cass,” Stephanie sounded like the woman she had known years ago once again as she saw her friend coping with her grief. She desperately wanted to take her in her arms and comfort her.

  Cass looked up with tears in her eyes and she put down the small barrel she was emptying and sat on it. “He did so much for this community,” she said but what she really meant is that he changed her life and while she hadn’t thought so at the time it had been for the better. She had come out stronger after being in the Nursing Corps. The mess that her life was now was not of anyone elses making but fate. She took a deep breath to keep the tears from falling and pulled herself together.

  Stephanie watched her for a moment and then turned away to look about the farm, things were busy this spring, the men were as busy as ants going about their jobs, plowing and planting every inch of the fields on both farms. Planning on expanding the fields, pulling stumps from the trees that had been cut over the winter months. They now made a ‘stump remover’ formula based on the liquid that Ray had given Cass to remove her own stumps easier. She turned back as Cass got up from sitting on the barrel.

  “Why are you here Stephanie?” Cass asked quietly looking at her.

  “Oh, some mail came for you. I was in town and picked it up,” she said as she handed the letter to her. The return address read Chicago and Stephanie was curious as to who had written her.

  Cass looked at the envelope and recognized Annette’s handwriting. They had both written so many reports over the years she would have to be stupid not to recognize her friends writing. She smiled a little seeing the familiar delicate scrawl.

  Stephanie realized she was staring and went into the well house to determine how much they were going to lose of last year’s crop and hoping the earlier barrels weren’t infected. Some were stored longer to give a better taste and those were further back. They had spoken about building a larger well house to store the barrels as the business grew. Cal had wanted to wait and Stephanie had agreed.

  Stephanie watched out of the corner of her eye as Cass opened and read her letter smiling with genuine pleasure at whatever it was that was contained in the letter. She nodded as though in agreement at what she read. Stephanie had recognized a decidedly feminine slant to the letter and wondered if she should be jealous. She watched Cass closer and decided she was jealous. Anyone who had Cass’s affection besides her was the enemy. Cass showed no sign of affection towards her anymore. She was jealous of whoever had written her Cass, she felt proprietary toward Cass but really, did she have the right? She was after all married to Cal and while they didn’t have a normal marriage, Cass wasn’t involved with anyone so she was still her Cass. It didn’t mean that Cass might not always stay alone, perhaps there had been someone? She hadn’t written much in the last years as she explained it was the same thing over and over again. She had told of her friends Pamela and Annette, the doctors, the patients, as well as the crazy Lieutenant Colonel and his wife, what she could carefully word in her letters. Stephanie suddenly wondered if Cass had met someone else. Maybe that was why she was so angry and distant? The joy on her face as she read was not feigned but very real and Stephanie suddenly wondered if Cass would leave them. She watched as Cass finished reading the missive and folded it carefully, put it back in its envelope and tucked it carefully into her pocket.

  Stephanie could tell Cass was in a happier mood that afternoon. She stayed to keep Cass company she told herself as they tasted barrel after a barrel to determine which had to be poured out.

  “Why don’t you pour it out towards the pond,” Stephanie asked as the ground outside became squishy and muddy.

  “And poison the pond and anything that drinks there?” Cass said dryly as she poured out another barrel.

  Stephanie felt chastised and stupid. Being seven months pregnant she felt ungainly. She had felt attractive to Cass when she arrived but in the weeks since then she had felt unloved and very unwanted as she basically ignored her.

  Cass hadn’t meant to be sarcastic but she thought it obvious as she disgustedly tasted and threw out barrel after barrel. She could see Stephanie was relieved that the few barrels they had from previous years were still okay but last years must have all had the blight that affected the taste. An entire year’s crop would hurt them financially but better lose the crop than their business completely.

  “At least there is someone benefitting,” she nodded to the bees and other bugs that had discovered the sticky sweet wet ground outside the well house and were drinking themselves drunk. Stephanie looked relieved that Cass wasn’t snipping at her anymore.

  Later that afternoon after she had poured out what was essentially the entire previous falls crop of cider, juice, both pear and apple, Cass was called away by a local farmer whose wife had gone into labor and they couldn’t locate the young doctor anywhere. News of Cass’s return had relieved many of the locals as the new doctor was not well liked.

  “So I hear you are the local midwife,” sneered the baby faced Doctor Mavis said when he had met Cass.

  “That’s what I hear too but then I didn’t give me the label,” Cass answered him as she unloaded some things from the wagon she had driven into Merrill. She liked the new stone streets and clumped her boots on them appreciatively. It was a definite difference from the days of mud. They now had street sweepers too, people that went around picking up horse plops and keeping the streets that had been done clear of debris. It was not a highly sought after job but a necessary one.

  He laughed thinking she had made a flirtatious joke. “Perhaps we could go out sometime and discuss it,” he said as he pretended to pet one of the horses and unfortunately chose Stanley who tried to bite him.

  Cass thought animals a good judge of character. Stanley obviously didn’t like the young doctor and she knew who he was by the description she had been given of him by various people, so she didn’t like him too much either. Too good looking was the general consensus by the men and the women swooned to have them treating them. He also could be frequently found in the various taverns or fishing, too busy to keep up on the practice that he had taken over after Doc Stettin’s death. “And why would we do that?” she asked annoyed by his asking her out. She was dressed in trousers and a flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up, it was obvious by his dapper suit that he hadn’t rolled up his sleeves and done any real work in a long time.

  “Well,” he looked at her charmingly. He thought she was an attractive woman if she would just wear more feminine clothing. “You have to admit we have a lot in common?”

  “We do?” she feigned innocence but she was surprised that he would approach her.

  “Cass, you got any eggs for me, can’t seem to get as many as I need these days,” Hank complained to her as she continued to unload her wagon with no help being offered from the good doctor.

  “Building up the flocks again, they lost a lot to varmints and other things,” she answered Hank. “Got to order more babies from one of the hatcheries.”

  “They have those new-fangled incubators so you can raise more and leave the hens setting on another batch or take their eggs to hatch yourself,” Hank commented.

  “Do you have any literature on that?” Cass asked interested.

  “Somewhere around the store, I’ll ring you later with the address and keep the magazine for you next time you’re in town.”

  She thanked him and he picked up some of the things from the sidewalk where she was stacking them.

  The doctor, not used to being ignored had listened to this exchange with disgust. He tried again. “You know as a professional midwife you should take better care not to mix with farm animals, in unhygienic,” he informed her.

  Cass stopped to look at him. “I’m not a professional midwife though; I’m a farmer who happens to be a nurse and a midwife.”

  “You should go to dinner with me so we could discuss your options,” he tried again charmingly. She seemed a little dense to him. Perhaps
if he explained his interest she would understand that she wouldn’t have to stay on a dirty old farm the rest of her days. After all a ‘professional midwife’ should marry into the medical community and her options weren’t that great otherwise.

  “But I don’t want to go to dinner with you,” Cass said with devastating ease. She was amused that this, this DANDY would condescend to approach her dressed in trousers and flannel and probably smelling of her farm and ask her out. “As to my ‘options,’ they are open, wide open…” She began to move the last of the boxes she was delivering to the general store. Hank was amused as he overheard most of the conversation between the ‘Dapper Doctor’ as he was coined and Cass.

  The doctor was furious at being turned down. He was further angered when he heard it bruited about town that not all the females in town were immune to his charms. He had heard a lot about Cass Scheimer, how she was descended from her mother another ‘great’ midwife and backwoods doctor and how Cass had surpassed her. How she had gone into the Army and become a nurse and survived great odds. He was sick of hearing from his past patients that something he couldn’t figure out they had brought to Cass or she had visited and cured.

  Stephanie was upset to hear that the doctor had asked Cass out but relieved when she heard how Cass had turned him down.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  Stephanie went into labor two months ‘early’ according to the information that the doctor spread about town and seven months to the day from her marriage to Cal. The doctor was called by Stephanie and Cass came into the house to hear Stephanie screaming from upstairs in the master bedroom. She ran up the steep stairs and nearly crashed into the doctor as he came out of the bedroom to wash his hands in the bathroom.

  “Oh good, you are here, you can assist me, I need a nurse,” he told her condescendingly.

  Cass looked at him and then went past him to see what Stephanie was screaming about. She found her thrashing on the bed in extreme pain.

  “Oh Cass, thank God, get this baby out of me!” she begged in relief at seeing Cass standing there.