{"id":175,"date":"2022-04-11T16:53:05","date_gmt":"2022-04-11T16:53:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypixelobsession.com\/stories\/?page_id=175"},"modified":"2022-04-11T16:53:05","modified_gmt":"2022-04-11T16:53:05","slug":"forwoman","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/rmullhollanddesign.com\/stories\/index.php\/locke-ranch\/forwoman\/","title":{"rendered":"For(wo)man"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Caoihme Locke<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s handwriting sucked. I hoped he hadn\u2019t gotten a job yet, I really needed a foreman. To be honest with me, I needed more than one hand for the cattle ranch\u2019s 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

\u201cThis is Sam,\u201d came a pleasantly pitched alto voice.

\u201cGood morning Sam, my name is Caoihme Locke. I\u2019m returning your call regarding the Foreman job, are you still interested?\u201d I said in my best professional voice.

\u201cYes Ma\u2019am\u201d they replied. \u201cMy 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?\u201d

\u201cThat would be great. You can email it to CLocke@lockeranch.net<\/a>. I\u2019d like to schedule a sit down as well if you\u2019ve got time.\u201d Hotdamn! I thought, Foreman and hand in the same swoop.

\u201cNuthin but time\u201d 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.

\u201cI\u2019ve got this afternoon free, or Wednesday early morning.\u201d

\u201cThis afternoon works for me.\u201d Came the unexpected reply.

\u201cWow, really? That\u2019s amazing. Please send your resume and I\u2019ll send back directions to the ranch. Once you turn on Locke Ranch Rd, GPS gets confused.\u201d I laughed lightly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Sam Bishop<\/strong>
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.

\u201cI need to get on the PC and send both of our resumes\u201d Sam spoke softly. \u201cShe wants yours too\u201d An edge of excitement crept into her voice.
\u201cBoth!?\u201d Lore exclaimed \u201cThat\u2019s excellent\u201d
\u201cAnd I meet her this afternoon, She\u2019s not wasting any time. I hope that\u2019s a good thing.\u201d
\u201cShe wouldn\u2019t even offer to take the resume if she had a problem with us,\u201d Lore said softly \u201cShe wouldn\u2019t have asked for my resume.\u201d

Sam smiled at her partner. She\u2019d had to fight to keep her job at Johnson\u2019s 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\u2019d had to sell, they were all close. Lore had been the balm her soul had needed and Sam hadn\u2019t even known. It was lore that gave her the confidence to step out as a lesbian in this \u201cMan\u2019s world\u201d of cattle ranching. If she could go back in time, she\u2019d 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.

\u201cWe\u2019re going to be fine\u201d Lore spoke into the silence created by Sam\u2019s introspection. \u201cI\u2019ve not heard that the Locke\u2019s are bigots and I looked into Caoihme, she went to college in California. Surely her views are broader because of it. \u201c

\u201cYou looked into her?\u201d Sam asked, surprised and gratified because she would have never thought to do it.

\u201cYep, ran one of those background checks online too. I just want to be sure, right. These days you can\u2019t be too careful.\u201d 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.

\u201cI\u2019m gonna send the resumes and then shower.\u201d Sam reached for the laptop. Lore laid a hand on hers \u201cIt\u2019s going to be okay.\u201d

\u201cI must look worried. You keep saying that.\u201d Sam was tight-lipped as she said it.


\u201cI\u2019m assuring myself as much as you, babe.\u201d Lore admitted. \u201cWe really need it to be okay\u201d

\u201cI know\u2026\u201d Sam said as she got to work on the resumes. \u201cShe said 3:00 and it\u2019s an hour drive. I need to hurry\u201d
\u201cI\u2019ll send the resumes\u201d Lore offered as she reached for the laptop \u201cDid you write down her email?\u201d
Sam slid both laptop and slip of paper to her partner.
\u201cThanks, babe\u201d and she headed to the shower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Lorelei Feathers<\/strong>
Lore watched her walk to the tiny shower that graced the back of the \u201cBy the month\u201d Hotel they\u2019d lived in for the last month. The space was cramped but it was what they had. She\u2019d 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\u2019d 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\u2019s resume read as any 40 something ranch hands should. She\u2019d started as a hand on the ranch her Pop\u2019s had worked his whole life. Then she\u2019d gone on to school and got a degree in Agribusiness from the University of Wyoming. She\u2019d met Jacob in college and gotten a job with his dad, and later, Jacob. Sam\u2019s 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\u2019d been working as a waitress in Laramie for 3 years. She\u2019d 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\u2019d met Sam at Frontier Days. Lorelei was working concessions and Sam had been smitten. Typically, their relationship moved fast. They\u2019d 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\u2019t speak when she was or you\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

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.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":199,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-fullwide.php","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmullhollanddesign.com\/stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/175"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmullhollanddesign.com\/stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmullhollanddesign.com\/stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmullhollanddesign.com\/stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmullhollanddesign.com\/stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rmullhollanddesign.com\/stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/175\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmullhollanddesign.com\/stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmullhollanddesign.com\/stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}