Chapter 2
While our families accepted the fact that Lisa-Marie and I had decided that we were meant for each other, I can't say the same for all of our neighbours or even for those people we thought of as our friends. In fact the next few months, while Lisa-Marie and I were still going to high school together, were quite interesting to say the least. Luckily, Pam had never let my brother Joe formally adopt Lisa-Marie, so that at least meant that her last name and mine weren't the same. However since we made no secret of how we felt about each other or about the fact that we were dating, all those people who thought we were blood relatives tried their best to raise a stink, thinking our relationship was some form or other of incest.
The first day after we were back in school after my abortive dance date with Sherry, she met us in the hall as Lisa-Marie and I walked in holding hands. She seemed to understand instantly that we were a couple and demanded to know what was going on. When I told her that the way she had treated me at the dance had made me realise that I loved Lisa-Marie, she simply exploded in anger, accusing me of being all sorts of things and calling Lisa-Marie a bitch and a whore. If someone hadn't hauled her off, I think either Lisa-Marie or I might have lost our temper.
Sherry couldn't have done a better job of advertising if she had tried. In only minutes rumours were flying around the school and by lunch time we were met by people in the hall, waving bibles and shouting that Lisa-Marie and I were "incestual sinners" and sure to burn in hell.
The Principal, Mr. Milford, broke up the impromptu demonstration and took us into his office.
"Now, exactly what is going on?" He asked quietly. "What is this talk about incest?"
"I wish we knew." Lisa-Marie was almost in tears. "Tom and I are dating and people think we're related but we're not, not really. It's complicated. My mother, who was married and then widowed when she was pregnant with me, is now married to Tom's brother Joe."
"So you aren't related then." He growled.
"No sir. We are not related in any way. My biological father was in the army and died while serving for Canada on a peace keeping mission. My mother remarried when I was seven years old and she just happened to marry Tom's older brother."
"Your mother married Tom's brother? Isn't there an age problem in this puzzle?"
"No sir and it's not a puzzle." I sighed. "First off, I'm a bit more than year older than Lisa-Marie and my older brother is actually seventeen years older than I am. Joe is actually a year older than Pam, who is Lisa-Marie's mother."
"Hmm. Well, after having the whole situation explained, I can certainly see where the confusion would arise." He nodded his head.
The long and short of it was that we got sent home while he tried to straighten out the mistaken impression that had built up around us over the years. He actually came out to the farm that night to have a talk with our parents and he suggested that we stay at home for the whole week, so that he could "get a handle on things." In fact, he'd brought along our books and assignments from school. For that week, we did our school work at home.
During that week, while he was trying to defuse the situation at school, Dad and Joe managed to get into town and spoke to some of the more influential people that they knew explaining the situation. On top of that both Mom and Pam had their hair done and made sure that the biggest gossips in town knew the real story about Pam having had a daughter long before she ever met and married Joe. It was surprising how many people had either forgotten that little fact or else didn't know about it in the first place. Since the biggest gossip mongers as well as some of the most influential men in town were telling our version of the story, the kafuffle about our being together soon died down.
I think what happened on November 11th that year put a final end to the vicious rumours. I'd never paid much attention to Memorial Day or to the services held in honour of all the men who had served and died in the defence of Canada, probably because it seemed to me that no one I knew was affected by the deaths in those old wars. However, that year Lisa-Marie was asked by the local Canadian Legion branch to lay a wreath at the town cenotaph in honour of the present day soldiers who died while serving in peace-keeping duties around the world.
The photographer for the local paper realised that a pretty blonde teenager laying a wreath on Memorial day was newsworthy, so her picture appeared in the local newspaper. Along with it was the story of how she had never met her father because he had died before she was born, leaving Pam as a pregnant widow. The reporter had interviewed Pam, so she explained that she'd been a single mother for years after her first husband had died, then she had met Joe and married him.
There was no mention of the fact that Lisa-Marie was dating me, but the word got around and the rumours stopped altogether. Oh, there were occasional times when someone would bring up the subject and try to make us the butt of a joke, but Lisa-Marie and I managed to ignore them. Actually I think the whole issue brought us closer together during my last year of highschool.
Lisa-Marie and I had talked over what we wanted to do after highschool and although we knew that the home farm wasn't big enough to support three families, we both wanted to stay as close to the farm as we could. Since I was planning on getting into some kind of farm business, that fall I went off to Agricultural College for three years. Meanwhile Lisa-Marie went on to finish her last year of highschool, then took a two-year business administration course that was aimed toward running a small business. We had our lives carefully planned, finish school, get a job, and then get married, unfortunately sometimes plans get changed.
I only had two months left to complete my final year at the college when one afternoon, I got called in to see the Dean. He had asked me to sit down and we chatted for a moment, then his face grew serious and I knew something was wrong.
"I'm sorry Tom, but I'm afraid I have some sad new for you." He said. "Your father just called and there's been a serious accident. Your Uncle Silas had a bad fall."
The immediate thought that flashed through my mind was that I was going to have to quit college, which was a shame since I was so close to the finish of my full credits. I knew instantly that I should go look after Uncle Silas and his farm again, then the Dean carried on speaking slowly and carefully.
"There isn't any nice way of saying this, so I'll just pass on the facts as I understand them. It seems there was a heavy wind storm that damaged the roof of his barn and your Uncle was trying to repair it. The ladder he was using collapsed from under him. The neighbour who found him couldn't do anything for him. It seems that he must have fallen in such a way that he broke his neck and died instantly. At least you can take comfort that he had no pain."
I couldn't say anything aloud, it was as if my throat had swollen closed and I suspect that I was in shock. After all, this was the first time that anyone close to me had died.
"Your father mentioned that you and your uncle were quite close." The Dean said quietly. "I realise that you're completing your last year with us and you may be feeling pressed to cram for your finals. However I've looked at you grades and since they're certainly adequate, I'd recommend that you take a week or two and go home to take care of all the necessary details."
It was a chilly February day when we buried Uncle Silas and there weren't many people there. There was only the preacher, the six of us from my family, and about a dozen of Uncle Silas' neighbours, all farmers and their wives, but the small turnout wasn't surprising. Uncle Silas had been a very quiet, almost solitary man.
After the funeral I was surprised that several of the farmers that I'd met a few years before when I was helping look after Uncle Silas' farm came around to me and quietly shook my hand. One of them paused long enough to explain that his son was going over to the farm every day to do the few chores that needed to be done and that it was no trouble for him to carry on until we could make other arrangements.
When I thanked him, he just waved his hand as if it was nothing special.
"Nothin' anybody wouldn't do for a friend." He said quietly. "Do you folks know what's goin' to happen with the farm?"
"Not really, not yet." I sighed softly. "I know Uncle Silas left a will and that it's to be read the day after tomorrow, so we don't really know too much about mortgages or debts or anything yet."
"Yeah, Silas was pretty quiet about things." He nodded. "He sure thought a lot of you though."
"He was family." I smiled. "That counts for a lot with us."
"Huh! Well, there's family, and then there's family." He said shortly, then he walked away leaving me with a strange feeling about him.
"I wonder what he meant by that?" Lisa-Marie asked.
"I'm really not sure." I answered. "I hardly remember him or any of Uncle Silas' neighbours."
"But they all seem to know you."
"That's because I was the outsider." I shrugged. "We each found out a bit about the other, but they have the advantage, they could compare notes."
"I suppose." She smiled, then shivered. "It's cold."
It was later that day that I found out Uncle Silas' neighbour hadn't been talking about his family, but had meant ours. Late that night Mom explained part of the story when she and I were alone. It seems that she dated Uncle Silas once or twice before meeting Dad. When she'd become engaged to Dad, Uncle Silas and Dad had argued and afterward they hadn't talked for years, not until after I was born. Even she didn't know the whole story, but she guessed that all those years, Uncle Silas had felt that Dad stole his girl.
Uncle Silas hadn't told anyone about his will, so when it was read, we were all astounded to find that he had left the farm and almost everything else to me. While the rest of the family each got a few mementos as well as a small sum of money, the rest was mine. There were no mortgages on the farm, no debts, and enough money in the bank to do some necessary improvements with enough left to plant a crop and get the farm through a growing season. Suddenly I was a full-fledged farmer with animals and fields to care for.
I was completely flabbergasted. Having lived with Uncle Silas for a while and having seen how he scrimped and made do with what he had at hand, I'd thought he was in debt and fighting his way out. Instead, he had been a frugal man and I was gaining the benefit of his years of economical living. I simply couldn't believe his munificence toward me.
While I was stunned, the rest of my family was ecstatic. I think their reaction even astounded the lawyer who had read the will to us, but the fact that he found their reaction strange didn't stop him from shaking everyone's hand. When he came to me, he paused, telling me that he'd register the change of title of the land and would advise the bank of the change of name on the bank account. The last thing he told me before he left was that I'd have to have proof of identity at the bank and that it might take a few days to do the paperwork before I could do anything with the money.
After he left, we were alone and I found myself being hugged by everyone in the family and having both Dad and Joe shake my hand in congratulations, then Lisa-Marie stunned everyone.
"All right, that does it!" She announced firmly as she stood in front of me with her hands on her hips. "You told me that when you had a full time job and a place to live, we'd get married. Now you've got a farm with a house and it's all paid for. So when do I get to hear wedding bells, Buster?"
"Umm . . ." I managed to stammer.
"Oh honey. You have to see that house first." Mom interrupted my stunned attempt to speak. "I think Tom has a lot of work to do before any woman would be willing to live in that!"
"It's not that bad." Dad protested. "That's a good solid old house."
"It may be solid, but it's old fashioned and it's dirty!" Mom retaliated. "There are two things in that house that are fairly clean, the kitchen sink and the toilet seat. The kitchen sink is fairly clean because he used it for washing up everything he could fit in it and the toilet seat is fairly clean because he rarely sat on it, he only used it when it was too cold to use the outhouse."
"But . . ." Dad started to say.
"No buts!" Mom snapped. "Tom, you need to take Lisa-Marie to see what she'd be getting into if you moved in now. Neither of you has to go back to class for the rest of this week, why don't you take some food and some clean bedding, then go spend a couple of days in your new house. That way you'll know just what she thinks needs to be done before she joins you there permanently."
"But . . . just the two of us? We'd . . ." This time it was Lisa-Marie who seemed to be trying to protest.
"Oh for goodness sake girl! Are you worried that we might know you'll be sleeping in the same bed? You've been going out with each other for more than three years. If you haven't tried him out yet, it's darn well time you did." Mom was trying to sound stern, yet trying to hide a grin at the same time. "Just call this a trial honeymoon, but treat it as a camping trip because I think you'll find that you're roughing it."
I was standing there open mouthed and happened to glance at Pam, wondering if she'd protest about her daughter spending a day or two with me. Instead of looking upset, she grinned and winked. Lisa-Marie caught it and turned toward me.
"Well, want a trial honeymoon?" I managed to say before she could open her mouth.
"Trial hell! This is probably the only honeymoon that we're ever going to be able to afford." She snapped. "We're dirt poor farmers now, you know."
The grin on her face took any sting out of her quick-witted remark.
I didn't expect that we'd get away before sometime the next day, but somehow with everyone helping us to pack 'essentials' into the car, we were ready to go in the late afternoon. As we left, we both got huge hugs from both Pam and Mom along with well wishes from Joe and Dad.
"I wonder what Uncle Silas would think of our doing this?" I asked Mom while still holding her.
"I think he's probably looking down and cheering." She smiled. "He certainly liked Lisa-Marie and he simply loved you from the day you were born. Of course it didn't hurt that your middle name happens to be Silas either." She smiled.
I suddenly realised how she had ended the fight between the brothers and now I didn't mind my middle name as much, although I had hated it when I was younger and had done my best to get everyone to forget it. One year of being called Tom Silage by school bullies had done that. Now though I smiled and hugged Mom again.
"Now get going and remember, I want you to really listen to whatever changes Lisa-Marie wants you to make in her new house, do you hear?" She frowned.
"Yes Mom." I grinned, hugging her once more and giving her a quick peck on the cheek before getting into the car.
Now I don't know many people who would have thought of the next four days as a honeymoon, because we spent those four days working like little beavers, stripping all of Uncle Silas' years of accumulated old clothes and assorted junk out of that old house as well as cleaning it from top to bottom. Perhaps the fact that we'd been raised on a farm so we were used to getting up early and working late made it seem easy, but I think it was the five nights that made all the difference. That was when Lisa-Marie and I could go into the bedroom and be guaranteed that no one was going to disturb us.
It didn't hurt either that the weather cooperated. While we were there it was warm and dry and since we'd had an early melt that year there was hardly any snow around, even though it was still February. There was slightly more snow as we neared the farm than there had been back home, but a chinook wind was blowing and we enjoyed the view of the mountains to the west. Actually, our new farm was almost into the foothills, but that certainly didn't worry us. We were young and we were happy, this was an adventure that we were enjoying together.
We arrived at the farm just in time to meet the young neighbour who was looking after the chores around the place. We'd introduced ourselves, explaining that I was the person who had inherited the farm and that Lisa-Marie was my fiancée. His name was Willy and he lived about a half mile down the road on the nearest farm. He was only a few years younger than we were and a truly likeable guy who impressed both Lisa-Marie and me as someone we wanted for a friend.
I found myself suggesting that since I wanted to go back and finish off my college degree in Agronomy and since I wanted to fix some of the things that I knew needed repair before we moved to the farm permanently, I wanted to hire him to carry on doing the chores for the next two months. Otherwise I was going to have to sell all the animals and I really didn't want to do that.
He countered with a suggestion that he might be able to help me out on weekends as well and the wage he asked for was a bargain. We came to a deal in only minutes. Then he excused himself, explaining that he had to get home because his supper would be waiting and his mother hated him to be late.
As we walked toward the old two story house, Lisa-Marie wrapped an arm around me and squeezed gently.
"I think he looked at the two of us and wanted to get away before we embarrassed him by being the least bit physical." She giggled.
"Oh come on!" I laughed.
"Well, I do!" She snorted. "As soon as you told him that I was your fiancée, he looked at me and he blushed."
"I think he's just shy." I grinned and opened the front door to the old house. "Meanwhile my dear, may I invite you to tour your new/old house?"
Mom had been right, the place really was a mess, but Dad was right too, it was a wonderful old house. My first impression was that the place smelled stale and looked abandoned as well as quite dirty. Uncle Silas had not been a good housekeeper, but while everything was old, everything worked. The house was certainly fixable and best of all, it was warm.
On the main floor, it had a kitchen with a pantry, a living room and a parlour with a fireplace on one wall, a box room or oversized closet as well as a utility room of sorts that had an old washing machine and a sink in it. Since the box room backed up to the utility room, we decided that it that it would make a perfect main floor bathroom.
Upstairs there were actually three small bedrooms and one larger one that was next door to a huge old-fashioned bathroom. Mom had been right about the bathroom, the toilet looked like it was seldom used, but the tub looked like it hadn't been cleaned in years. Every fixture was old, in fact the only thing in the bathroom that looked new was the shower curtain and it dangled over the old claw foot tub on a ring that hung from the ceiling.
The surprising thing was that every room in the house was fully furnished, even if the room was empty of anything else in the way of personal belongings. It was as if Uncle Silas had furnished the place for a family and then waited for one to show up. In some ways it was eerie and yet it made life for us both simpler and more complex at the same time. Some of the furniture had been left to others in the family, but we still had more than we were going to need at the moment.
We took one look at the bigger bedroom that Uncle Silas had been using and decided that before we'd be spending any time there, we wanted to completely clean it out and refurbish it from top to bottom. Instead, we moved our clothing and bedding into an obviously unused bedroom at the other end of the short hall, but even had to give that a quick cleaning to get rid of the dirt and dust bunnies.
After we had our sleeping arrangements made, we paused and sat out on the front porch to eat the picnic of sorts that Mom had insisted we'd need that night. It was a little cool out there, but the view was worth sitting in our coats and shivering a little.
Following our meal, we decided to do some cleanup downstairs. The natural place to start was the kitchen and that kept us busy all evening as we swept and sorted, washed and cleaned. Just cleaning up all the dishes and washing the counters and table as well as the stove and fridge took hours. Finally at almost ten o'clock at night, I pulled the plug on the drain of the kitchen sink, wiped my hands one last time and turned to Lisa-Marie as she wiped a last plate and hung up the old dish towel.
"We're going to need all new linens." She said flatly as she straightened the way the old towel hung on the rack.
"Right now, we need something else." I said quietly.
"Oh, what's that?" She asked, turning to look at me.
"Bed!" I growled.
Then I scooped her up and carried her over my shoulder as I hurried upstairs to the bedroom.
"But I want to get cleaned up." She squealed as I walked into the bedroom we had chosen and tossed her onto the bed.
"Why, I'm just going to get you all hot and sweaty anyway." I grinned, sliding next to her on the bed and running my hands over her lush body.
"No way!" She pushed my hands away. "If this is my honeymoon, I want to be clean and sexy when I get into bed. Besides, I have a brand-new negligee that I want to wear and this is the perfect time for it."
She won. She even insisted that I have a quick shower before she went into the bathroom. While I was cleaning up she found some candles and lit them, so when I came back into the bedroom it was to soft candle light. Then she went to get ready while I lay in bed waiting impatiently for her to come back.
The wait was certainly worthwhile. I thought she was the most beautiful woman I could even imagine as she slowly moved toward me and invited me to take off the negligee that she had just put on. I certainly didn't refuse.
Somehow, knowing that there was no chance that we'd be disturbed in any way made the act of making love more wonderful. At the same time, knowing that we were in our own house, on our own farm highlighted that night even more. There was no need to hurry. There was no need to be quiet. We knew we'd be undisturbed. The candles had burned out long before we fell into a deep and untroubled sleep of complete exhaustion.
The next morning, I awakened to find that she was using her hands and mouth to make sure that I was awake and in a mood matching hers. Both of us were soon in the mood to play and we spent hours doing whatever came naturally. It was almost nine in the morning before we managed to wander downstairs to cook and eat our first breakfast in our new home and both of us felt completely decadent at eating breakfast that late in the day.
We talked about all the things that Uncle Silas had saved, but that we'd have to dispose of as we ate and Lisa-Marie wondered how we could get rid of everything. I suggested that we load anything we wanted to get rid of into the old two-ton farm truck that was parked down by the barn. We could back it in close to the house, then simply load everything we were going to junk into the stake box and cover it with a tarp for the trip to the dump.
With that in mind, we went for a walk around the farm yard after breakfast, looking at the two Holstein cows and their calves in the pen behind the old barn, even pausing to glance inside the barn while we were there. Then after collecting a few eggs, Lisa-Marie went back to the house while I went to get the old truck. It started easily and although I had to move my car, I managed to get the truck backed in close to the house and just off the end of the front porch before going inside.
Lisa-Marie and I were hunting for some plastic garbage bags when we were surprised by a knock on the door. It was our young friend Willy and three of his friends, two girls and a guy.
"Good morning." Willy grinned. "We thought you might need some help cleaning up and since it's the middle of the winter, we weren't doing anything special today, so we figured we'd offer to give you a hand."
"I'm Andrea, Willy's sister." One of the girls announced. "And this is my boyfriend Fred and his sister Jean from down the road a ways. I don't know if you remember us from when you stayed here before, but one day we were down at the creek swimming and you joined us. Anyway, since you're our new neighbours, we thought that helping you clean up was a great way to get to know the two of you better."
"Well, I'm Tom and this is Lisa-Marie." I grinned. "And we certainly aren't going to turn down any help that's offered."
It's astounding how much work a half-dozen farm-raised kids can do in one day. By four in the afternoon, all of Uncle Silas' old clothes and personal things that we didn't want to save were in the back of the old truck, along with a ton of other junk that he'd saved. The load was topped with the mattress and box spring from the bed in the master bedroom because after I sat on it and had felt what it was like, I knew Uncle Silas had used it for far too long.
At four o'clock in the afternoon, our helpers had to go home to do chores, but before they went we insisted that they take the time for a cup of tea. While we were relaxing at the kitchen table we thanked them all.
By then we'd accomplished a tremendous amount. In addition to all the rubbish we'd hauled out to the truck, the whole house had been swept and all the floors had been washed. Even the walls in the kitchen and living room had been washed and although the house stank so much of the pine scented cleaner that we had to have the doors cracked open, at least we knew that we were making progress on getting the place clean. On top of that all of the old bedding from all the bedrooms had been put through the old washing machine and was now hanging on the clothesline out back of the house.
Before they left, all of our new friends promised to be back at ten the next morning.
"Wow, if those four are any example, I think I'm going to like our new neighbours" Lisa-Marie laughed as we sat in the kitchen having another cup of tea after they'd gone.
"Going to? I already do." I laughed. "All four of them are wonderful."
"Did you notice Willy and Jean?" She giggled. "They have a huge crush on each other and yet they seem like they might be too shy to get together."
"Maybe, I don't know." I laughed. "I think we should stay out of it though."
"Spoilsport." She laughed, then stretched and looked around the kitchen. "Do you suppose I could use your car to go to town tomorrow? We found an old treadle sewing machine in the parlour. Jean offered to help me to make new curtains. Besides, we're going to need more food for lunch tomorrow and more cleaning supplies."
"Sure, I can give you a cheque to buy what you need, but I hope you can keep it under two hundred bucks." I offered. "I can't get at the farm money yet, however I know I've got at least that much to spare in my personal account."
"Oh don't be daft." She growled. "I just need to use your car. Since I don't plan on letting you get out of marrying me, I'm not going to worry about spending some of my money on our house. After all, I'm part of this enterprise."
Oops, sorry, it's going to take a while to realise that it's not just my money, but instead it's our money." I apologised.
"I forgive you." She grinned. "This is going to take a while to get used to for me too."
I leaned forward and kissed her, then sat back again and watched her in appreciation.
"What are you staring at?"
"Oh, just a very sexy woman that insists she wants to marry me."
"Sexy, hah! Right now I'm just grubby. I wish we had a bigger hot water tank and that it heated faster. I want to have a shower, but we used so much hot water cleaning up this place and doing the washing that I can't. I have to wait." She complained.
"Well, we could always have a cold shower and then warm each other up afterward."
"Eww, I just thought about that." She stretched slowly and her face developed a mischievous grin. "I'll bet all of our neighbours are doing chores now, wouldn't you think?"
"Probably, why? What did you have in mind?"
"Rather than a cold shower, why don't we heat some water on the stove and then have a quick sponge bath in our nice clean bathroom? You can sponge me off and I can do the same to you."
"If I sponge you off woman, we might not come back downstairs for a while."
"That's the whole point." She laughed as she moved to the stove and started heating a teakettle. "If everyone is doing chores, we won't get disturbed and we've never made love in bed in the daylight. We can close the doors down here and no one will disturb us. That way, we can run around upstairs in the nude and just have fun until we get all hot and sweaty. By that time we should be able to have a shower in hot water."
"I'll get the doors." I grinned.
Ten minutes later, we were upstairs and giggling like school kids as we tried to use as little water as possible to clean off as much sweat and grime as we could. There was a wonderful feeling about being nude in our own house, able to simply touch and play with each other. It was something that we'd never felt before. Yet in a way there was that tiny feeling, niggling at our minds that we were being naughty, that we were venturing into the forbidden. That added an extra spice that made our play all that much more arousing. On top of that, both of us knew that the outside doors weren't locked, so there was even a slight chance of being caught.
Washing each other was fun, but it wasn't until we set about drying each other that we got really aroused. Lisa-Marie was doing her best to tease and tantalise me until I was almost ready to scream. Finally she had teased me into such a state that I simply scooped her up in my arms, carried her into the bedroom, tossed her onto the bed, then dove after her.
She giggled and faked an attempt to get away, but I was too fast and too strong to allow that. We rolled and teased, kissed and tantalised, petted and stimulated, both seeking to make the other even more aroused. Soon our passion overwhelmed us and we could wait no longer. Then I was above her, moving with her, seeking to satisfy her. I held back, waiting, watching my sweet darling's face as she climbed and clawed toward orgasm, then suddenly she squealed in pure joy. Her climax triggered mine and I could no more hold back than fly.
Afterward, we relaxed, slowly easing back to reality. I rolled to the side and held her gently. I stroked her wonderful curves, marvelled at her delightful shape, snuggled tightly against her sweet form and realised once more how lucky I was to be with her and to have her want to be with me. We might have dozed in each others arms for a short while, but soon the perspiration on our bodies made us feel cool. We aroused to kiss and cuddle for a few moments before we ran to the bathroom and showered together, then we changed into clean clothes.
When we went downstairs we found that with both the front and back doors closed, the smell of pine cleaner in the kitchen was a bit too strong for us to tolerate. I think the linoleum on the kitchen floor was so old that it had absorbed the cleaner and the smell was way too strong to be pleasant. While Lisa-Marie started to cook something for our evening meal, I opened the doors, then set about trying to get the windows in the kitchen unstuck so we could open them too.
I'd succeeded with only one window by the time that Lisa-Marie had supper on the table so I paused work to join her in our first real sit down meal in our new house. She was a top notch cook and I made sure to let her know that I thought so. Although she simply waved my compliments aside, I know it pleased her.
After we'd eaten, I went back to work on those silly windows and I was carefully tapping on a screw driver to chip away the paint that was gluing one window solidly in place when I realized that my tapping had an echo. I turned and happened to glance at the door where I saw a pair of grey-haired ladies smiling and looking back at me.
"Oh! Hello, I'm sorry if I took a while to notice you." I smiled back. "I thought we had an echo."
"That's quite all right, young man. Anyone that is as industrious as you two young people seem to be shouldn't really be disturbed at their work anyway." The taller of the two women said quietly. "We won't keep you away from it for long, although from the looks of this place, you two must be magicians."
"Oh, we had help." Lisa-Marie turned from the sink and wiped her hands. "Won't you come in?"
"Dear me, we really shouldn't, should we Matilda?" The shorter one spoke.
"Oh no, please come in." Lisa-Marie smiled. "We have been busy and need a break, besides talking to new neighbours is always a pleasure. I'm Lisa-Marie and this is my fiancé, Tom. He inherited the farm from his Uncle Silas. We're getting married soon, then we'll move here permanently."
"Oh, how perfectly delightful." The shorter one smiled again as they stepped inside. "I'm Nettie and this is my sister Matilda. We're the Granger sisters and since our husbands passed on, we've been living in my house and renting our land to my nephew. I think you met his son, Fred, and his daughter, Jean? They said that they had dropped by."
"They sure did." I grinned. "They were two of our helpers today and were helping us to clean up. Without them and their friends Willy and Andrea, we would hardly have gotten a start on all that was done."
"Well, that's sort of why we came by." Matilda smiled and lifted a basket that she had in her hand, holding it out to me. "Jean told me that they were coming by again tomorrow and knowing how young people like to eat, we decided to help out a bit too by baking you a cake and a pie. It's my chocolate cake and Nettie's apple pie."
"Oh, you shouldn't have." Lisa-Marie protested.
"Oh but we should." Nettie laughed softly. "It's not very often that we actually get young people moving onto the farm instead of moving away. We certainly want to encourage you as much as we can."
"Nettie is absolutely right, just look at our families. I had three children and only one son is still farming while all four of Nettie's boys have moved to the city." Matilda shook her head slowly. "Now, we've held up your work long enough. When you've eaten the cake and the pie, just give the basket and plates to Jean and she'll see we get everything back. Oh, and don't let my grandson hog too much of that cake. In fact you should have some of it tonight, just to be sure you get a taste."
"Well, the way he and the others worked today, we certainly won't begrudge him a piece or two of cake." I grinned. "But just for you, we'll make sure everyone else has a piece as well. Now are you sure you won't stay and have a cup of tea or coffee with us? After all if we're going to be neighbours, we should get to know each other a bit."
"Oh no, we can see that you two are busy and we'd just be holding up progress." Nettie stated. "Once you are all moved in for good, then we'll drop around for a nice long visit."
There was no arguing with them. Only a minute or two later, they were getting into a little car and driving away.
"Well, it is a friendly neighbourhood, isn't it?" I smiled at Lisa-Marie as we stood on the front porch and watched the little old ladies' car travel away from us.
Thankfully they were the only visitors we had that evening so we were able to carry on doing small jobs, but even that soon came to a halt because we were actually extremely tired. It wasn't long before we went upstairs, made love gently, then fell into a well-deserved sleep.