Vicki drove past the sign proclaiming, 'John's Farm, ' even though she was expecting to see it. She stopped the car and backed up to the gravel driveway next to the sign. The gravel driveway was a bit of a surprise. This was her first trip to the place and she didn't know what to expect. It was definitely rural despite the fact that it was only minutes from a suburb.
She pulled to a stop in front of the house after following the driveway for a hundred yards. The two story structure looked like a farm house was supposed to look. It even had a real porch that wrapped around the outside of the building rather than just a flat spot in front of a door over a set of stairs. There were a half a dozen rocking chairs scattered around the porch.
John stepped out of the house and waved to her. She got out of the car and then reached in for the plate of cookies she had brought with her. By the time she had retrieved them, John was standing next to her.
"I didn't know what to expect," Vicki said.
John said, "I'll show you around."
"Let me put these cookies out for the kids before you do that," Vicki said.
John smiled. He said, "It is their first day at a new school and you've brought cookies for them to eat when they get home. I think they'll appreciate that more than fruit juice and slices of fruit."
"I remembered you telling me about that," Vicki said.
John asked, "Will you stay here until they return from school?"
"I don't think so. I still need to diffuse some of Lisa's anger," Vicki said.
John looked at her and said, "That's the kind of thing Victoria would say."
"Maybe, but I talked with David about Lisa one afternoon. This is self-preservation, not Victoria, at work," Vicki said sadly. "Besides, you were the one who told me that I had to approach this like a guerilla war with random acts of kindness."
John gently took her by the arm and started leading her up to the house. As they walked, he said, "You've managed to keep her off balance for the past couple of weeks."
"She's the middle child and needs to feel special. The spa, shopper, and dance lessons with daddy accomplish that. She did take me by surprise with the invitation to the fashion show last Friday," Vicki said.
She had truly expected Lisa to take two of her friends from the old neighborhood to the fashion show. The invitation had caused her to scramble a bit, particularly in arranging for the press credentials. She had realized that if she didn't keep Lisa distracted, then the entire evening could easily go up in flames.
"Same here," John said while opening the front door for her.
Vicki stepped into the house and looked around immediately feeling comfortable. The living room furniture was familiar since it had once occupied the other house. She said, "Nice."
"We kept the same basic flow for the living room and dining room. The biggest difference is the size of the kitchen and the fact that all of the bedrooms are upstairs," John said.
"The kitchen is bigger?" Vicki asked.
Leading her towards it, John said, "A lot bigger. It is a farm kitchen with lots of room for canning. It has a large walk-in pantry."
Vicki was speechless when she saw the size of the kitchen. She said, "You weren't kidding when you said it was bigger. You could ride a horse in here."
"I guess," John said with a smile.
Dominating the kitchen was a huge industrial quality eight burner enamel stove with two ovens. The stove cost more than all of the appliances in the kitchen of the old house combined. It was a work of art.
"Do you like the stove?" John asked.
"Yes," Vicki said.
"I saw a smaller version of it at one of the kitchen gadget stores and fell in love with it. Then I found that the manufacturer made this larger version of the stove. I bought it and designed the kitchen around it," John said.
Vicki looked around at the rest of the kitchen. There was a full sized refrigerator and a full sized freezer standing side by side. There was so much counter space that she figured John could buy every gadget invented over the next twenty years and still have counter space left. She was really impressed by it.
At the end of the kitchen was a huge antique wooden table. The table top showed the marks of years of use. She set the plate of cookies on it.
"This is beautiful," Vicki said while running a hand over the surface.
John said, "I'm glad that you like it. Let me show you upstairs."
Vicki followed John upstairs.
"There are five bedrooms. I wanted to have a guest room. The master bedroom has its own bathroom. There is a common bathroom with a shower for the other rooms. I'd show you the kid's rooms but ... well ... you know," John said.
"You want to respect their privacy," Vicki said.
"Yes," John said.
They entered the master bedroom. It was basically unfurnished except for a king-sized bed. She turned around taking in the blank walls and empty space.
"I left it for you to decorate," John said.
"Thank you," Vicki said surprised by his consideration.
She looked in the bathroom. It was rather plain with simple fixtures. She was surprised that it wasn't fancier.
"I would have figured you to include a jacuzzi bathtub or fancy shower system," Vicki said.
"Too much work," John said. "I don't want to spend all of my time maintaining things."
"Smart," Vicki said.
John asked, "So what do you think of it?"
"I like it," Vicki said.
Considering how much money he had, he could have built a McMansion. Instead, he had created a basic functional house. The kitchen might have been a little extravagant, but it had been designed to be used.
"I'm glad you like it," John said. "Let me show you the outbuilding."
"Outbuilding?"
John said, "It is a combination barn and storage area. I don't plan on having any livestock, so a barn wasn't really necessary. I did need a place to store the tractors and stuff."
"Tractors?" Vicki asked.
Even though he called it a farm, she hadn't thought about it like a real farm. The image of John riding a tractor clashed sharply with her memories of him hunched over his computer terminal programming late at night. She realized that she still had a lot to learn about the man to whom she was married.
"Yes. We do have a rather large garden that needs tending and a large lawn that needs mowing," John said.
The tour of the outbuilding didn't take long. Vicki had stared at the farm equipment without knowing what each item was used for. She cringed at seeing the dirt bikes lined up along one side of the barn. Just the idea of her kids riding motorcycles made her nervous.
John said, "I think I'm going to get a large fruit press. Our experience making apple juice wasn't exactly the best. When our trees really start producing, we'll never be able to process it all unless we get some larger equipment. Fortunately, we have enough room left for it."
"I guess I'm going to have to learn how to be a farmer's wife," Vicki said.
"It's not that bad," John said.
They took a ride on a Gator 4x4 to see the property. The garden was a lot larger than she had imagined. Her concept of a garden was a little patch in a backyard. The orchard seemed smaller than she had expected. In thinking of an orchard, she imagined hundreds of trees all in rows.
John stopped by a little empty area. "This is where I plan to plant some grapevines. I'm thinking about a couple Concord and a couple Riesling grapevines. The concord grapes can be used for grape juice. We can make some wine with the riesling grapes."
"That sounds like a lot of work," Vicki said.
"I'm retired now," John said.
"I keep forgetting that," Vicki said. "Come to think of it, so am I."
Vicki had thought of leaving her job in terms of saving her family rather than retiring from work. The sudden realization that she was retired put a whole new twist on things. She looked around thinking that this whole farming thing could be a major part of the rest of her life. She wasn't sure how she felt about that.
"Oh, right. I didn't think of it like that," John said.
It wasn't surprising to John that Vicki was having a hard time coming to grips with his retirement. Retirement had come a good twenty years early. His announcement of retirement had to have shocked her.
"Let's finish going around the property. There's still lots to see," John said.
"Okay," Vicki said.
He drove over to a little house on stilts. Pointing to it, he said, "That's the deer stand that the previous owner put up."
"Deer stand?"
"For hunting," John said. "The orchard appears to have attracted a lot more deer to the area. They enjoy the apples."
"I forgot that you and your father used to go hunting," Vicki said. She didn't really like the idea of hunting.
John said, "You might say that I'm returning to my roots."
"I guess so," Vicki said without much enthusiasm.
A little later, they stopped by the motocross track. It wasn't really much to look at; just a dirt path over some slightly rough terrain. A lot of the roughness had been the result of sculpting the landscape with a dozer. She could see that it was very tame compared to the track she had visited earlier.
John said, "This is where we ride the dirt bikes."
"Isn't that a little dangerous?" Vicki asked unable to hold back her concerns any longer.
"Sure. I won't lie to you and tell you that they will never get hurt. I've made a real effort to minimize the risk. They have all of the best safety equipment on the market. I found a good instructor to work with them," John said.
"Why let them do it?" Vicki asked.
"They like it," John answered. Seeing that she wasn't pleased with his answer, he added, "I could give you a bunch of psycho babble about them learning self-confidence. I could spout a dozen lame justifications about getting physically active over being couch potatoes and all of that. The fact is, they like it. It seemed to me at the time they started doing it that they needed something they liked in their life."
"I guess I can accept that," Vicki said feeling that she had no real choice in the matter.
She realized that she hadn't been there at the time. Would she have done things differently? Probably, but it was too late to change things now.
John drove to the back end of the property. The slow moving stream was twenty feet across. The water was crystal clear to the point where it was hard to judge the depth of it. Parking the Gator under an oak tree, he said, "This is the stream."
"How deep is it?" Vicki asked.
"About three feet at the deepest. It's really great to swim in," John said.
Looking around at the trees that lined the stream, Vicki said, "This is really a beautiful spot."
Making sure she was looking at him, John looked around theatrically. He leaned over to her and said, "There's no one around. We can take a quick dip."
"I didn't bring a bathing suit," Vicki said.
"Who says you need a bathing suit?" John asked.
"I've never..."
"There's a first time for everything," John said giving her a wink.
Vicki discovered that she really liked the stream. She enjoyed lying in the warm sun after the short swim in the cool water just as much. She could see some real advantages to living there.
"This is ... ah ... nice," Vicki said.
She couldn't believe that she was lying nude outdoors. It felt so naughty. In a way, it felt like something she might have done as a teenager on a dare. Then she would have been giggling and trying to cover up rather than enjoy the sensation of the wind and sun on her skin.
"Someday we'll be able to do this all of the time," John said. "For now, we should probably get dressed."
"Why?"
She was really enjoying the moment. It seemed to her that all of the tensions of the past month were evaporating with the water on her skin.
"Sunburn."
"Oh that would be horrible," Vicki said.
She sat up and reached for her clothes to get dressed. John stared up at her amazed at her beauty. It was hard to believe that he had almost lost her. He had gotten divorce papers to use in a last ditch effort to get her to talk to him. He was pleased that he hadn't had to use that threat.
"My God you're a splendid looking woman," John said.
"I'm yours," Vicki said.
He kissed her and then said, "We'd really better get dressed before we get sunburned."
An hour later, the kids returned home from their first day of school. David had ridden his motorcycle while Rose and Lisa had taken a bus. They all met up in front of the house. On a normal school day David would have shown up after the two girls. Since this was the first day of classes, the high school had a shortened day and he had left at the same time as the students in the junior high school.
They wandered into the kitchen as a group to tell their father all about their day. Lisa had become a member of the school newspaper and her photographs of the fashion show were to appear in the first issue of the school year. David was excited to discover that the school had a very active computer club and he joined it. Rose had just enjoyed her day meeting new people.
Rose froze upon seeing the plate of cookies and three glasses of milk set out on the kitchen table. She bit her lip wondering if it meant what she thought it meant. She tried to ask, but the words wouldn't come out.
From his seat at the end of the table, John had a cookie in one hand and a glass in the other. He held up the cookie and said, "How about some milk and cookies? They're chocolate chip."
"From Mom?" Rose asked finding her voice.
"Yes," John answered.
"Where is she?" Rose asked looking around for her mother.
"She's at the other house hoping that you'll call her and tell her all about your day," John answered.
Lisa stood there with a frown trying to figure out how she felt about this. Smiling, David grabbed a handful of cookies. Rose was dialing her cell phone.