Caoihme Locke
I was sitting in my office staring out the window. This morning was the business of running the ranch. Phone calls to order hay. Phone calls to order Silage. Phone calls to order Bedding.
Now it was time to return the call of one Sam. I was pretty sure it said Sam Bishop, though Noodle’s handwriting sucked. I hoped he hadn’t gotten a job yet, I really needed a foreman. To be honest with me, I needed more than one hand for the cattle ranch’s day-to-day. First the foreman, then the hands. Most foremen wanted a say in who worked with them
I dialed and it picked up on the second rig
“This is Sam,” came a pleasantly pitched alto voice.
“Good morning Sam, my name is Caoihme Locke. I’m returning your call regarding the Foreman job, are you still interested?” I said in my best professional voice.
“Yes Ma’am” they replied. “My partner and I work in tandem on jobs, I worked on Johnson’s ranch until they sold. I would love to Fax or email a resume to you. Would you like hers as well?”
“That would be great. You can email it to CLocke@lockeranch.net. I’d like to schedule a sit down as well if you’ve got time.” Hotdamn! I thought, Foreman and hand in the same swoop.
“Nuthin but time” they replied with a smile in their voice. I could not for the life of my pinpoint a gender. One second I thought man, another woman. Not that It mattered to me.
“I’ve got this afternoon free, or Wednesday early morning.”
“This afternoon works for me.” Came the unexpected reply.
“Wow, really? That’s amazing. Please send your resume and I’ll send back directions to the ranch. Once you turn on Locke Ranch Rd, GPS gets confused.” I laughed lightly.
Sam Bishop
Sam looked up from the phone once she had hung up. Lore looked at her with both brows raised. Life was getting tight for the pair of them. Finding work as a foreman was hard, and working as a cowhand was not enough money.
“I need to get on the PC and send both of our resumes” Sam spoke softly. “She wants yours too” An edge of excitement crept into her voice.
“Both!?” Lore exclaimed “That’s excellent”
“And I meet her this afternoon, She’s not wasting any time. I hope that’s a good thing.”
“She wouldn’t even offer to take the resume if she had a problem with us,” Lore said softly “She wouldn’t have asked for my resume.”
Sam smiled at her partner. She’d had to fight to keep her job at Johnson’s ranch when they started dating, but by the time they married, a year later Jacob had gotten past his notions and bigotry. By the time he’d had to sell, they were all close. Lore had been the balm her soul had needed and Sam hadn’t even known. It was lore that gave her the confidence to step out as a lesbian in this “Man’s world” of cattle ranching. If she could go back in time, she’d have come out sooner. Being gay had been her biggest secret, and the weight of the world had lifted once it was out in the open. Anymore her biggest secret was what color her panties were.
“We’re going to be fine” Lore spoke into the silence created by Sam’s introspection. “I’ve not heard that the Locke’s are bigots and I looked into Caoihme, she went to college in California. Surely her views are broader because of it. “
“You looked into her?” Sam asked, surprised and gratified because she would have never thought to do it.
“Yep, ran one of those background checks online too. I just want to be sure, right. These days you can’t be too careful.” They had lost a friend at Pulse, and we’re still afraid to take a vacation because of it. Afraid to vacation but never afraid to protest. Equal rights were a passion for both women.
“I’m gonna send the resumes and then shower.” Sam reached for the laptop. Lore laid a hand on hers “It’s going to be okay.”
“I must look worried. You keep saying that.” Sam was tight-lipped as she said it.
“I’m assuring myself as much as you, babe.” Lore admitted. “We really need it to be okay”
“I know…” Sam said as she got to work on the resumes. “She said 3:00 and it’s an hour drive. I need to hurry”
“I’ll send the resumes” Lore offered as she reached for the laptop “Did you write down her email?”
Sam slid both laptop and slip of paper to her partner.
“Thanks, babe” and she headed to the shower.
Lorelei Feathers
Lore watched her walk to the tiny shower that graced the back of the “By the month” Hotel they’d lived in for the last month. The space was cramped but it was what they had. She’d gotten a job at one of the gift stores associated with the state park. So, this room was what they could afford. Sam had zero experience at anything but ranching and horses so she’d had trouble finding a job and had refused to work fast food. Not that Lorelei could blame her, that was a hard and fast rule for them both.
Sam’s resume read as any 40 something ranch hands should. She’d started as a hand on the ranch her Pop’s had worked his whole life. Then she’d gone on to school and got a degree in Agribusiness from the University of Wyoming. She’d met Jacob in college and gotten a job with his dad, and later, Jacob. Sam’s list of skills was as long but her work history was not.
Lorelei on the other hand had bounced all over the US once she broke away from bad home life at the age of 18. By then she’d been working as a waitress in Laramie for 3 years. She’d saved her money and moved to Oregon for several years. She got a job riding horses from a fairly well-known trainer and had that job for years until it became common knowledge she was gay, then they suddenly found fault with her work and let her go. With it came a black mark with the local farms and she had grudgingly moved back to Wyoming at the age of 40.
She’d met Sam at Frontier Days. Lorelei was working concessions and Sam had been smitten. Typically, their relationship moved fast. They’d talked after Lore had gotten off work about every topic known to humankind and spent the night together. Sam had an easy way about her, soft-spoken to the point you couldn’t speak when she was or you’d miss it. She was so calm on the surface, but her mind never stopped moving.
When sam stepped out of the shower in nothing but a towel, her hair wet and leaving slow trails of water over the swell of her breast, Lore forgot her musings and they spent lunchtime relieving some stress.
I would like to take a moment to give credit for the names of Sam and Lorelei to my grandson, who came out to everyone not so very long ago. It was his idea to have them be a same-sex couple. Thanks for this community for him and for myself.