The Far Side of the Hill

After a week or so I discover it actually isn’t so bad to have Momma in charge. Once we learned her schedule things went pretty smoothly. It could have been worse, she could have taken over the studios too.

 © 2010 by Lilith Langtree & Rénae Dáºmas. This work may not be replicated or presented in whole or in part by any means electronic or otherwise without the express consent of the work’s Owner (copyright holder), with the exception of the private and non-commercial viewing by the reader who is also the end purchaser. ALL Rights Reserved, including but not limited to ownership of Characters, final content decision, and more. This is a work of Fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this story are fictional and any resemblance to real people or incidents past, present or future is purely coincidental. Any and all images which may be shown within this work are taken through license under Corel with the exception of the title image which is Photo Credit to Irina Sheik. No affiliations, involvement or gender assignations through the use of these or any images of the subject or subjects contained within those posted images is to be implied, intended or inferred.
An Aldoennetti & Langtree Original.

“Why should I do the cleaning and take care of everything here? This is your fiancee’s world, I am not responsible for correcting all the little mistakes and filth he makes here. That will be your responsibility after you are married. For now, I’ll just show you how to tidy it up a little.”

“Yes, Momma.” Humor her... she gives in as soon as she thinks she has gotten her way and goes off to lecture someone else. I think she’s laying it on a little thicker for me since I didn’t have all those years to learn everything. She’s trying to pack it all into a few months. You know, she needs to strip out all my boy training and refill me with the girl stuff I should have received. I’m beginning to see more merit in Tan’s suggestion that we should just elope. I’m torn since I’m certain Momma would likely track us down and drag us back by our ears before delivering a lecture about not allowing her to plan our wedding before once again beginning the ‘training’ she feels I should have before Tan and I begin our lives together. Sis just watches it all. I just know she’s hiding back there in her corner where we can’t see her smirking about it. Now that I think about it, we should never have let her know about the farm nor to have talked with Tony. It seems we have mutual relatives somewhere back a few generations and Tony and his wife are interested in talking more with Momma. What scares me is she might wind up being the “den mother” for the farm. It would never survive.

One surprise I received happened to occur when Sis showed me some editing she did of the XHD stuff we now do during the modeling sessions. She had a composited excerpt of me from both the shows and several other locations which she was going to show to Tan and probably add to my portfolio.

“Gosh Kat, you look like you’ve been doing this stuff all your life. You look great.”

She doesn’t know how close she is to the truth. I’ve only been me for a short time, so I’ve been doing this for almost as long as I’ve had a chance to be me. There was what, a difference of thirty or forty minutes? That counts as being all my ‘life’ doesn’t it?

Other than Momma taking over my house... well, Tan’s house actually, things are progressing pretty normally. By now, both Sis and I have successfully completed several cinematography courses via the farm that isn’t a farm, and their connections with the Universities. Gee, I’m getting better at this double think. Does that mean I’m almost a spy? So far I don’t know of any spy training I’ve received except maybe being able to shoot and understand other languages. Everything I’ve been learning is more to distract and support rather than what I would have thought being a spy entails. I’m still wondering if I’m the comic relief in this farce.

Anyway, Tan is great at the still stuff but motion pics are treated a quite a bit differently. They also require editing beyond that which still pics need. A lot of editing. Oh, and now I’m more certain about the definition of ‘frames’. One second is divided into thirty frames or twenty nine point nine four if we shoot in colour which we do all the time. It has something to do with how TV works. Don’t ask me, all I know is how to count in film or television otherwise it makes absolutely no sense to me. Oh, and film is different than TV with twenty four frames each shown twice unless it’s being shown for television then each two frames in succession are shown twice for the first one and three times for the second . Sometimes it’s quite confusing. Especially if I forget if I’m shooting film or shooting XHD. A quick glance at the cameras helps me figure that out.

Our first productions turned out all right but were a little embarrassing, especially later on when we’ve had some more courses and a few productions under our belts. Sis can’t stand it and re-edits the old material we did for Tony then sends him disks of the newly edited material.

Gee, thanks Sis. That little effort brought us back up on Tony’s radar and he began prodding Tan for us to take a few more ‘little’ assignments along with more training. By the end of the year we added eleven short term (less than two weeks each) assignments to my portfolio — and nearly two more months of training.

On our next trip back to the farm I discovered they have finally acquired horses. It isn’t long after that I have another new course to attend. Someone whom I know and love blabbed, which now has Tony scheduling me through some new courses; ie. learning to ride so I may eventually add Eventing to my stable (sic) of distraction talents. It only took me three years to become halfway proficient. My first event (disaster) occurred after only a year and a half of training. I came in sixteenth out of eighteen competitors. The other two dropped out due to injuries.

Also, around a year and a half after all this started, I saved enough money modeling and producing documentaries to pay for my transition and the doctors gave me the ‘boost’ to my system over a four week period which they hoped would jump start my uterus. That ‘boost’ also brought my B-cup up to just under a C. Tan and I were married about four months after those four weeks of injections which tipped my gender scales to the female side of the ledger. Mom, of course, invited the world to the wedding, “So, the more people you invite the more presents you receive for your house.” She managed to use up the rest of my remaining funds on the wedding and put me in hock for about twenty thou besides. Prior to our wedding she spent the last three weeks drilling me in everything I never wanted to know about being a wife and lover as well as exactly how I’m expected to act during the wedding so I don’t embarrass either her or my sister. Tan has been trying to seriously convince me to elope during these past few days.

...“Do you Katrina Van Derholt take this man, Phillip Tanner Hamersley, for your lawful wedded husband, for richer, for poorer, in sickness”...

I always thought I would get married some day but for some reason my mind never wrapped around the possibility I would be the woman of the twosome. Tan looks nervous. He also looks really cute in that tuxedo. I can’t wait to get it off him.

It’s so strange to find myself here, well... not here, but in this particular roll. NO! I won’t trade it for the other, I don’t care that it still seems strange every now and then. I’ll get over it. Anyway, I’ve got to get some milage out of all the clothes I’ve been buying, so being the girl is about the only way I can do that. Geez, I’m just kidding, don’t take me so seriously.

After Tan and I escaped our reception we traveled to Europe for our honeymoon. There we discovered we were collecting the cameras, lighting equipment, motion picture XHD cameras and eight other people including Irina at our overnight stop passing through London before we arrived at our destination to begin our working honeymoon. (If Tony ever offers to plan an all expenses paid honeymoon for you, don’t take him up on it. In fact, run the other way — fast.)

Our happy little group spent the next two months in four different countries plying our trade. I’m getting better at both photography and cinematography. Tan and I managed to bring in no little bit of income to our company and I’m going to replenish a small portion of what I’ve spent becoming me over these past eighteen months. I’ve also been keeping this diary but haven’t had much time to write in it lately. Tan seems to feel it isn’t necessary any longer. When we are at home we tend to be certain our door is locked far more frequently now. If I have to explain that then I’m certain you’re not from this planet.

“How’s my wife doing today?”

“I’m doing the same as yesterday, Tan. And the day before and the day before that. Come on, I can read you like a book. What’s Tony got for us before we return home, now? And no, I won’t take any assignments after this one. I want to see my Mom and my sister again. We also need to dust the cobwebs off our business building.”

“Don’t be that way, Kat. We can use the money.”

“Sweetheart, we’ve just pulled Tony’s fat out of the fire no less than twice during the past two and a half months. Not to mention the three times we were ‘loaned’ out to aid a needy ‘business’. I want to go home and rest for a month before we get involved in much more.”

“I thought you wanted to see France?”

“Yes. But not a working vacation.”

“Not even when it’s something you like to do?”

“Like what?”

“Riding Champion.”

“Champion? Champion’s in France? What’s Tony up to now?”

“He thought you might like to ride in another competition.”

“Uh, huh. And what, pray tell, are you going to be doing while I’m out becoming saddle sore and weary?”

“I’ll be cheering you on.”

“Of course you will, my love. Just how far away will you be while you ‘cheer me on’?”

Tan looks at me with his wounded expression which I’ve learned means he is about to hide something.

“I’ll be close, Kat. I promise.”

“Exactly how close is ‘close’?”

“Close.”

“Tan. It better be less than twenty miles. If I come up in the money again, I want you to be there.”

“I will be, Kat. I promise.”

“Uh, huh. Just like when you promised last time? I came in higher than fourth for the first time in my riding career and you were nowhere to be found. I’m beginning to feel like the spare tyre in a car, I’m just going along for the ride. What would Tony do if I said, no?”

Tan gets his distressed look.

“Tan. Tell me you didn’t already accept the assignment.”

“I didn’t accept the assignment.”

“Why? You know I wanted to go home. We’ve been out here nearly three months...”

“Two and a half.”

“Fine. Two and a half. I want to go home. How many more jobs have you two planned over here before I get to do that?”

“You can go home right after this one.” he pleads.

“I can go home? What happened to we? I want us to go home. I want to sleep with my husband in our own bed, under our own roof. I want to cook. I want to spend some alone time with my husband, which I haven’t been able to do since we first came over here.”

“We will, Kat.”

“When? And you still haven’t told me how many jobs you have planned.”

“Aww, Kat.”

“Tan. How many?”

“Just...”

“HOW many?”

His shoulders droop and he looks crestfallen. In a quiet voice, “four.”

“What?” I begin to swing on him but stop myself just before my hand gets to his face.

I pat him on the face instead, “Tan. How much time will these four jobs require?”

“Not much.”

“Tan. Stop it. I’m your wife. Exactly how much time?”

“A month, maybe two.”

“TWO?!” I shout out, “You get on the net and tell Tony that if either of you plans one day past those two months then I’m coming hunting and he won’t be able to find a hole deep enough to hide in.”

“Aww, Kat.”

“Don’t you ‘Kat’ me, Tanner Hamersley. I’m your wife, not your slave. If we are here one day past sixty then I’m going to take it out in hide from the both of you.”

“Aww, Kat.”

“Tannn...”

“Okay. He can get along okay without our help on the last two but these first two we really are needed. The AIPs are having conniptions.”

“Uh, huh. I’m needed so badly that I’m riding in an event rather than working; and what, pray tell, is an AIP?”

“ Our Agents in Place. As to the event, the reason you’re in the event is because one of the participants is the subject of interest. We can get closer to him if you participate as a competitor.”

I close my eyes and sigh, “Tan. I feel like eating out. Come take me somewhere expensive on Tony’s tab while you tell me more about this event... and these next four jobs.”

~O~

When we arrived back at the hotel after spending an exorbitant amount of Tony’s money, I bring up my notebook and send Sis an e-mail saying we will be delayed and that I’m transferring more funds into the account they use so they at least may continue to eat and pay the bills. I switch to our bank and make the transfer lest I forget.

She sends an e-mail back a few hours later thanking me and saying they had only used two thirds of the previous deposit during our absence, however the property tax bill had arrived. It was for $3,893. I’m about to transfer four thousand more into the account when Tan reminds me the bill for the office building will likely arrive soon since the one for the house has shown up.

“Wonderful. Any idea how much that will be?”

“Not a clue. The taxes are supposed to be going up so it will be more than $178,000.”

“How much?” I ask incredulously.

“$178,000.”

“Why so much? That studio is only about the size of your house.”

“Uh, the bill is for the whole building, Kat.”

“You own the building?”

He gives me an apologetic smile, “and the five story next door to it, plus the parking structure across the street and down a block.”

“When, pray tell, were you planning to tell me about this?”

“I sort of did. I told you I was into property investments.”

“I was thinking houses, farms and land, not business buildings and parking structures.”

“I had to do something with the money Tony pays me. I’ve invested some of the girls money in the properties as well. Pam for instance, since she and you are close friends now, has invested something like a hundred twenty thousand of what she has earned over the past eight years. I don’t know the exact figures since I don’t have the books here. Her investments over those same eight years have earned another sixty thousand. We all lost a bit when the market blew out due to the economy but I used that opportunity to pick up a few properties here and there in several cities. The girls share proportionally in those since I spread all the money across the entire base regardless of source. When the economy rebounds the girls who have been in this program will make out like bandits.”

I’m sitting there staring at him while my mouth would make a good flytrap.

“Tan, what about my money? Has what I’ve contributed been a part of that?”

“Yep.” he answers as if proud about it.

“Do you have any diversification?”

“Sure, I buy all sorts of properties.”

“I mean, do you invest in anything other than property... and the business?” I add quickly.

He gives me a frown, “Like what?”

“Didn’t your mother ever teach you not to put all of your eggs in one basket?”

“Sure, I remember her saying stuff like that when I was growing up. What’s that mean, anyway? I don’t deal in farm produce, that’s too iffy.”

I look at my spouse unable to believe what I’m hearing, “It means, my dear foolish one, that when you invest, it should not all be in one commodity; such as property. You should have diversification. You should also invest in other kinds of things, such as businesses through stock purchases, and not just one kind of business but many and several in each type of production. You should invest in futures as well and maybe precious metals. Sometimes you can make a killing with the right investment. Of course you can also lose out but not so often if you know your market and have good investment strategy.”

“Geez, Kat. You talk like my broker. He’s always after me to put more money into some of those you just mentioned. I don’t know anything about them so I don’t feel safe doing that. I know properties.”

“Tan. I don’t know properties, but I do know the stocks and commodities. Right now the market is rather volatile but we should still look at it as a possible source of income. Yes, right now, even though it is a bit of a risk. Small amounts of money invested carefully could yield great rewards in a very short time.”

“I don’t have the time to stay on top of it, Kat. Properties are nearly an invest and forget proposition. It fits my lifestyle.”

“So... are you investing in this relationship with me so you may forget it?”

“Not like that, Kat,” he protests as he comes over to give me a hug. “I really like having you around and it’s nice to be able to give you hugs and kisses and know there is someone around who cares... Oh, and I like your cookies.” giving me a little boy smile before starting to laugh as he comes over to help me to my feet giving me another long hug and several kisses.

“Tan. Sometimes I wonder about you. Let me start watching the markets and maybe I’ll come up with a few short term recommendations. My last three years of school I did this as a hobby and better than eighty percent of my projected investments would have made money. Overall I would have come out better than sixty percent ahead if I’d had the money to invest. It just takes me a couple of months to get a feel for the markets. Let’s hold onto some of the funds for a bit so I have something to use when I’m ready and we’ll see how it goes, okay?”

“We won’t come up short on it, will we? I’d hate to lose the girl’s money.”

“No guarantees, but with three or four investments we likely won’t do badly. The market has dropped dramatically twice now and I expect that is likely to happen once more before it begins to climb out of the hole. If the smart asses wake up and bring jobs back into the states then we will begin to rebound even more dramatically. Right now the people in charge of everything can only see the short term bottom line. When they begin to look at the long term bottom line then things will begin to improve. If I begin looking at the past three years and track the markets from then to now, then I’ll be able to decide how to invest for when the time comes.

There are several areas I’ve been glancing at which intrigue me. We could use the properties as the more or less stable low yield portion of our investment strategy and place less than ten to fifteen percent into the higher risk strategies. That ten or fifteen could earn us a quarter or more of the overall income, but it isn’t something you can forget. It must be watched every day and in several markets across the world. The clue to get out could come from almost anywhere.”

“Geez, Kat. I don’t know. That sounds awfully risky.”

“Granted, there is more risk but there could be far more profit as well. That’s the reason we don’t invest more than ten or fifteen percent of the overall.”

“Why don’t we just use the money Tony pays us?”

“He isn’t paying us all that much, Tan. After taxes it will drop even lower.”

“That’s the best part, Kat. There’s no taxes on that money.”

“What?”

“There’s no taxes...”

“I heard you. When were you going to tell me about that?”

“I thought you knew.”

“Not a clue. Are you certain that money is tax free?”

“Absolutely. It’s all honest and above board. It’s supposed to be an incentive to acquire and keep the best in this business.”

“That means I shouldn’t have paid taxes on that money last year? I’ve got close to twenty thousand from this year that I could invest right now?”

“I suppose so. You’ve got roughly thirty eight percent of your income which would have gone for Federal taxes. Oh, and that includes all of your income sources. You don’t pay Federal tax. You’re still liable for the state taxes though and they go up a bit when you don’t pay Federal.”

“So could I assume I’ve got twenty percent and possibly as much as thirty percent of my income with which to play? I don’t believe I would want to invest more than fifteen percent though.”

“Yeah, I think that sounds about right. There’s no Federal taxes on my investments and the girl’s don’t need to pay taxes on their investment income until they take it back out of the investment program. A net profit statement is given out along with the money and taxes are pulled at that time but they still wind up in pretty good shape.”

“Could I invest fifteen percent of yours along with mine from these jobs we are about to do? I would need around a hundred or two, thousand that is, to begin. That would also give me the time to track the markets and see where I think it is all going.”

The smile drops from Tanner’s face.

“Uh, how safe is it, Kat?”

“About as safe as your property investments. The difference is I can get out of the market far more quickly and your properties are a much slower process so you stand to lose a much larger percentage than do I.”

He obviously doesn’t want to put his money into what he doesn’t understand.

“Tan. If I lose it then we both are hurting together. We just take a couple of jobs to make it up... After we spend a month at home. We do need to be in touch with all of the girls and see how they’re doing. They will need more jobs lined up for them.”

Now we are back into something he understands.

“I do that from here via computer, Kat. The next potential job you and I have at home is in seven weeks and there’s only one girl who needs a job right now. Not much is coming in so I’ve been farming them out temporarily to cover other photographer’s jobs.”

“Did you ever stop to think that the reason there aren’t that many jobs is because we aren’t there to do the photography?”

“You think so?”

“I know so, dummy.”

“I love when you talk dirty.”

“That does it. I’m rationing your cookies again.”

“Oh not that. Anything but that.”

My husband still is a jokester, however the remainder of the evening spiraled into something best left to the imagination.

After our night of serendipity and wonderful dreams, I awakened in total bliss. My dream last night seemed so real that I didn’t realise it was a dream. No, it was nothing like the one’s I had due to Dear Old Dad. Then again it was almost as bad — the waking I mean. Our love making had continued into my dreams, which was wonderful, however it continued with me becoming pregnant.

Now the feelings I had as a result of knowing absolutely that I was pregnant simply cannot be described. The joy was almost overwhelming.
I don’t believe I’ve ever been so happy. The dream even included a visit to my doctor and confirmation of my ‘condition’. I couldn’t wait to tell Tan so when I awoke this next morning I was bubbling and began to describe my feelings to Tan, who took it quite differently than I thought he would. It took him about ten minutes to get me to realise it was just a dream. I began crying and continued to do so off and on for most of the day and part way into the next. It was difficult to accept that the most marvelous thing I could ever have to share with Tan was only a dream.

to be continued