“The remaining fifty percent that he owned he left half to each of you with the provision that Cass’s half is only for her lifetime and to go to his children in the event of her death.”
The two women exchanged looks wondering what this meant.
“You mean we can’t sell or do anything with the farm?” Cass asked.
“Sell it?” Stephanie asked alarmed, all her hard work and Cass wanted to sell it? It had never occurred to her that they would sell it!
“No, I don’t want to sell it, I just want to understand what all this means,” she clarified.
Brian nodded, she obviously grasped all of this a little more than most women would but then Cal had said she had been out in the world more than his wife whose business acumen he so admired. “No, if you two wished to sell you could of course; it is owned by you both. You, Cass, own seventy five percent, the twenty five percent for your lifetime held in trust for the twins. The other twenty five percent owned by Stephanie as his wife to be used as she sees fit. Your other fifty percent can be used as you see fit.”
They both absorbed this. Stephanie wasn’t happy that she didn’t own fifty percent as she should. Why hadn’t Cal trusted her to see that she would manage it as she already had?
Cass still wasn’t happy that her share in all of this was bequeathed by her brother and not acknowledged until he had done so. Her parents had left it to them both, or so she thought. There had never been any conflict in that. She worked the farm, he did his thing. Now it took a will to make it so?
He went on to explain some other legal jargon to them and then read the will to them so they saw in Cal’s words exactly what he wanted. “Furthermore, he took out a life insurance policy that left you both his beneficiaries.”
“A life insurance policy?” Stephanie asked amazed. Who did that?
Cass too had only known of the one she had through the Army. They had had to repay that small sum which would have been just enough to pay funeral expenses if she hadn’t come back to life. She was surprised to find Cal had even thought of that.
It was as though Brian knew what they were both thinking. “I suggested since Cal was in a dangerous business, a bear could get him, anything really, that he should have this policy. Now we all know that it was hazardous under the best of times but with the business that Scheimer Farms has become…”
“Stephanie did most of that!” Cass went to defend her friend. “That wasn’t Cals!”
“You started it though,” Stephanie argued with Cass who dismissed it with a wave.
“Well, women don’t own businesses too often and you never incorporated or anything so technically since Cal owned the farm, he owned the business too.”
They both sat there stunned. Stephanie because of all the hard work and ideas she had put into it. Cass because Cal had been a reluctant worker in the business that Scheimer Farms had become.
“Now the business itself is part of the farm and subject to the fifty-fifty clause, again Call split his half twenty five percent of the business is held by Miss Scheimer, Cass for her lifetime for the twins and the other twenty five to you Mrs. Scheimer.” He swallowed knowing that many women would be confused at this point but he could see they were following. “It’s the life insurance policy I’d like to return to here,” he pointed at some folded papers. “It’s for the sum of fifty thousand dollars and it’s to be split evenly between the two of you.”
The women sat there speechless. Fifty thousand dollars was a lot of money. It was actually a fortune.
“Where did Cal get that kind of money?” began Stephanie but she quieted as she remembered it was Cal’s money that had started hiring the men to work the farm when his leg had made him incapacitated for so long. He never spent any of the fur money that he brought in and Cass took into town for him. He saved everything.
“No Mrs. Scheimer, this is insurance. It was a policy that kind of bet that Cal would return hale and hearty and go on living. He paid a premium to take the insurance out. In the event of his death you would both be beneficiaries.”
They both understood that. It was simple and straight forward how he explained it.
“It’s death money,” Cass said disgustedly. “I don’t want to profit from Cal’s death.”
Stephanie shook her head, she didn’t want to either but that kind of money, she was already thinking of the men they could hire to clear fields, how they could expand, they could… “That’s right, we shouldn’t get money for his death!” she said indignantly.
“He wanted you to have it, for the children’s sake if he couldn’t be here to work and help you with the farm and business. It’s to take care of you when he couldn’t.”
Both women laughed, Cal had never ‘taken care’ of anyone but himself. It wasn’t that he was selfish but he could see that they took care of themselves just fine. That someone had told him about this insurance policy and had him turn over hard earned money for the premium astounded both of them. Fifty thousand dollars was an absolute fortune and if he had said a million dollars they couldn’t have been any more amazed.
“Now the money will come from a company in Milwaukee. I’ve already drafted a letter that I sent off to them that informs them of Cal’s demise and directed them to make the check out to you both.”
That was it.
It was a little bit overwhelming but both women understood what they had been told. Some of it Stephanie resented that she hadn’t gotten Cal’s half of the farm out right. Cass too had assumed she owned half the farm out right. To be told that they were ‘bequeathed’ the rights they had thought were theirs already was a bit alarming.
“Now I would suggest, not today mind you, but soon, that you both draw up wills for your shares of both the business and the farms for your heirs. Again, I remind you Miss Scheimer, Cass that your twenty-five percent of the overall farm and business, is to be left to the twins. Other than that you can leave your fifty percent to whomever you wish.”
“Mrs. Scheimer, I need not remind you that you have five children. Two of which are generously taken care of in your husbands will. However, you may wish to provide for your other three children in the event of your untimely death as well as who will care for them. I am assuming you would want you sister-in-law to take them.” He looked at them both expectantly and hesitantly they both nodded, they were both in shock.
“Good, then if you will both sign here and here acknowledging the will, I will leave you both with a copy and get to processing everything. I think in a week or two you and I could meet again and draw up your own wills. You should see your check from the insurance company within a month or so.” With that and their signatures he left them a copy of the will so they could read it at their leisure and left them.
“Well if that don’t beat all,” Stephanie commented once he had left.
“And then some,” Cass added as she sat down from seeing the lawyer off.
“I never thought you didn’t own the farm, Cal came and went and I thought when you…” she hesitated to say it, “You know, passed away.” At Cass’s nod she continued, “That he inherited it all.”
“Goes to show you that a lawyer and the law will have your property and things off you in an instant if you don’t watch it,” Cass said as she thought over all the years of hard work that would have gone for naught if Cal hadn’t taken legal steps. Why the State might have taken everything just because she was a woman! Where would Cass and Stephanie be if they didn’t have the farm?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
A few days later they had their first altercation over decisions on the farm. Stephanie already resented that Cass had more say so by the simple fact that she owned seventy five percent of the farm. Cass didn’t care as they had always discussed things in the past and while she didn’t always agree with Stephanie and her decisions they could discuss them and reach a compromise.
“I want the men to clear all the trees from Melanie and Ray’s Farm, that way we can grow more…” she had begun.
“It doesn’t make sense to clear them all. There are quite a few maples over that way and some young stuff that will be good for the mill in a few years. Let’s leave that for later,” Cass objected. She also secretly loved some of the old growth, some of those trees were so thick that it would require two men with crosscut saws days to cut them down, they reminded her of pictures she has seen of the Sequoia’s in California, just not as tall. They were at least five or six feet thick! She wanted to leave those.
It went back and forth and Stephanie finally agreed but she wasn’t happy that Cass wouldn’t clear cut. When Cass later explained that the runoff wouldn’t be good for the land she grudgingly admitted that Cass was right but it still irked her.
Cass did however agree that they should be on the lookout for more land as it became available in the area, even she could see that they would need more acreage for the orchards and trees that Stephanie was growing in the greenhouse. It would take years before these trees were big enough to bear fruit and the ones already planted out in the orchard but doing it in stages made sense.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Stephanie was puzzled as summer went on. Cass made no move to be closer to her. Cal was dead. It made her think that perhaps, possibly, they should try this relationship again. She still wanted her, hungered for her, but Cass treated her as a friend, a close friend and business partner, but no more than that.
It wasn’t that Cass hadn’t thought of sex with Stephanie. It had been too many years since they had been together and she well remembered the passion that they had shared. Her guilt however would not allow her to even step across the line she had drawn in their relationship. Despite temptation, despite opportunity, and they had a lot of opportunity, they made no move to share the bedroom upstairs again.
It was creating tension between them. A casual touch, even in accident as they shared jobs caused one or the other to pull back with a muttered, “Sorry,” under their breath.
It all came to a head one day right before the haying season began. Cass had gone out to harvest the honey from the hives, pulling honey laden combs from the hives, leaving enough for the bees to survive off of until spring. Stephanie had urged her to collect even more.
“They don’t need all you leave in there, look at the size of those hives and what you leave in there, it’s a waste I tell you, a pure waste!” she ranted as Cass brought the combs into the screen house to work on in the large barrel that spun the honey off the combs.
“The whole hive is not honey, some of that is the young that they are raising; they have to have honey to feed the young!” Cass shot back. She was hot as she rubbed her sweaty forehead against her sleeve, she was tired, and she had been stung many times despite the protection she wore, the white overalls, shirt, gloves, and hat with netting.
“They have plenty of time to make more, you’ve said so yourself. We have limited amounts of hives and you barely pull an entire box from each one!” She stamped her foot in her anger.
“All you think of is profit and I’ll have you know if I took an entire box from each hive the hives would die. They can’t afford that great of a loss! I have never taken too much or gotten greedy!”
“We need all the honey we can get, I have orders…” she began and Cass cut her off.
“All you think of is your damned orders. Tell them we are out and they will have to wait!”
“Don’t you swear at me Cass Scheimer! If I tell them they have to wait they will find another supplier!” she ranted.
“Good, we can’t supply the whole damned state and I’ll swear if I want to, it’s my farm too you know!”
“Yeah, I’m well aware it’s yours and you get the final say, I’m not the boss anymore and that’s what you want isn’t?”
“What makes you think I wanted all this?” She spread her arms and took in the farm beyond the small screen house that her grandfather had built to sit outdoors without having to worry about mosquitos.
“Well you got it all didn’t you? All I wanted to be was a Scheimer and I guess all I got is the name didn’t I?” she sneered.
Cass looked her in dismay; she had heard her before say that she had always wanted to be a Scheimer but to hear her say it now with contempt enraged Cass. She took off her outfit one piece at a time and laid it neatly on a table. Closing the door of the screen house behind her to keep out the buzzing bees that knew there was honey in there she advanced on Stephanie and breathed into her face as she said, “Fine, you can have it, you can have it all!” Without a look back she went into the house leaving a surprised Stephanie in her wake.
Cass went into the den and packed her bag, she would go to Milwaukee, maybe Chicago and see if she could get a job there, she didn’t have to stay here and be treated like hired help. There were more clothes than when she had arrived a little over a year ago and she looked around for something to put things in. Instead she shrugged, took out her ‘farm’ clothes and kept her dressier trousers and shirts. The rest she packed in the box Stephanie had stored her things in when they thought she was gone. She reached into the box to adjust things and sliced open her hand.
“Son of a bitch,” she hissed under her breath as she pulled it out. She looked down and saw the shards of glass she had never removed from the box from when she had broken the picture frames. “Son of a bitch,” she said louder.
“What, now you have to swear loud enough for the children to hear you?” Stephanie said from the kitchen as she came through the living room to see what was going on. She saw the packed bag, she saw the box, and then she saw the blood that was pouring from Cass’s hand. “What did you do?” she asked in concern immediately coming in to the den.
Cass was trying to stem the flow but her expert eye told her that she needed stitches to stem the flow. She grabbed one of her work shirts, one she had been about to pack away and wrapped it around her hand.
“Let me see that,” Stephanie said in a soft mothering voice, the worry evident in her tone.
“I need my doctor’s bag, we are going to have to suture this,” Cass pulled back from letting her see it. She could see the blood soaking the material. She was already feeling faint but maybe it was the bee stings she could see on her wrists where the little buggers had crawled up despite her long gloves and stung her. “I’ll meet you in the kitchen; I need to wash this off.”
Stephanie hurried to the closet where Cass kept her bag in case someone came by and needed her doctoring or midwifery skills. The new doctor appreciated her help these days as he tried to fit in and people respected him. It was a marked difference from Doctor Mavis and his arrogance. Doctor Pfennig was a little older, a widow, and had two children who were well mannered. It said a lot about him that he had moved to their small community to get away from the memories of his old life and start over.
Cass was using the large faucet in the kitchen to wash out the wound but as soon as the water hit it and washed away the blood more poured out of the gash, the glass had been wide and cut in a two pronged slit across her left hand and part of her wrist. Just a little more and it would have slit the vein in her wrist and she might bleed out. As it was she was bleeding profusely.
“Here, here it is, what do you want me to do?” Stephanie said as she hurried into the kitchen with the bag.
“Can you sew me up or should I?” Cass asked her knowingly. She knew Stephanie could sew a beautiful dress or shirt but sewing up people was not her forte.
“I’ll thread it for you,” Stephanie said swallowing at the amount of blood in her sink.
Cass’s forehead beaded up as she poked the needle in her own skin to pull them together and close the wound. She had trouble seeing and had to dab at the wound to remove the blood that wanted to keep coming out of her body. She kept stitching though until it stopped and then dabbed a final time. “Hand me that ointment,” she pointed to tube and Stephanie helped her apply it. It was not only an antiseptic but it would aid in the healing of her hand. Together they bandaged it as the swea
t dripped down Cass’s face not only from the pain, much of which was numb now from the ointment, but from all of it. The weather had been hot and perfect to work with the bees but to stitch herself up and the tremendous blood loss was a little much to ask of anyone.
“Let’s get you sitting down,” Stephanie said putting her arm around Cass and helping her to the living room and her favorite easy chair. She pulled up the foot rest and put Cass’s feet on it and gently removed her boots. “Let me get you something to drink,” she said as she watched how white Cass had become.
She brought back some lemonade, the vitamin C would help with the blood loss and she was already planning on making liver with plenty of leafy vegetables for dinner for Cass’s sake. The boys would complain but the iron in the meat would help. She also brought a cool wet rag to wipe Cass’s brow after she had drunk down the glass quickly.
“Just sit here for a while; I’m going to make you a late lunch.” She planned to fix the liver now, if the boys didn’t see it they wouldn’t complain so and she could add it to something else later, perhaps with gravy so they wouldn’t even know they were eating liver.
Cass managed another glass of the refreshing lemonade and a bit of the liver on a sandwich before she complained. “I’m going to go lay down, I don’t feel well,” and headed to the den and the bed she had been in for nearly a year and a half.
Stephanie watched her go, she hadn’t said much since the cut but she had seen how deep it was and how it pained her. There was not much she could do but help her get better. So she could leave. She had seen the bag Cass was packing. She had often wondered if there might somewhere be someone else. Cass rarely talked about the years she had been away, first because she was so angry at Stephanie and the situation and then later after she had heard of the bombs being dropped on Japan she talked about the places she had been and the things she had seen not at all. The newspaper accounts that managed to make their way to their small corner of the world told horrific tales of islands overrun by the Japanese and the prison camps people had endured. Stephanie had wanted to ask questions but Cass was strangely quiet on the subject.
The Journey Home Page 42