Between finishing my studies, reports, and studying for exams life continued as usual. Melanie and I would find a meal to share each day. I continued to enjoy getting to know her. The fact that she wanted to focus on the environmental sciences both with a high degree of intelligence in research as well as practical application intrigued me. We would go to national or state parks or preserves, but we always went off the beaten path.
Here I was a grown-up farm boy growing as a woman. And she was getting me to see things with a new perspective. She’d ask me questions like: ‘if my brother was under pressure to sell out to larger corporations.’
My brother and father had switched to a cooperative focusing on cheese and ice-cream production. It had gone from twenty-three original members to where they were only one of eight not pressured to sell out or going back to general milk production. They were however able to attract four new dairy farms into the coop and each had grown on average by fifteen percent.
Melanie and my sister Rachel quickly became good friends.
Where I romantically fell for Katy Wright; I came to feel more like a younger woman or a little sister being groomed to be her version of me. My relationship with Melanie was different. It brought a breath of fresh air where I was being encouraged to grow. We had interests in common as well as a love for the other. However, there was more as I learned to see the outdoors and the environment as something to enjoy more and understand better.
She loved my taste in skirts and dresses, but also encouraged me into wearing leggings, jeans, as well as women’s work clothes. As she said, part of the fun in talking me into them was talking me out of them. The wearing of snug jeans, fitness clothing, and leggings were having an impact on my manhood.
She took me out to a stable where we were able to ride horses along Honey Creek. Our horses enjoyed running the trails and along the creek. I knew how to ride, but only the horses and Melanie knew where we were running. It was an excellent way to unwind the stress for the coming exams. We got to a sunny meadow where Melanie unfurled a blanket for us to lie on.
There was a golf course and rural roads not far away, but I was assured we would not be disturbed. Her lips were sultry, like berries dripping sweet and inviting. Her eyes were dazzling as I looked up at her. Her breasts appeared through the top of her blouse. I hungered as Nicole to taste all her goodness. Our hands were under the other’s blouse gliding over our upper torsos. Melanie had my blouse and bra off and was pleasuring herself with my small but aroused breasts.
We quietly enjoyed over an hour on the blanket, before putting ourselves back together. I didn’t know that my hair has sprigs from where we had been. The woman who took our horses and Melanie’s payment rejoiced that we had a good time. Melanie told the woman that while she was graduating, she’d be back. “I wanted to give Nicole a taste of riding horses out here. I am sure I will have her back out here this summer and next fall. Hadley introduced herself, “You are welcome out here on your own. Just remind me that you and April ride well together. You two should take a couple of days to be part of an archaeological site here this summer. It’s a native American village site.”
While we were driving back to campus, Melanie told me about the discovery and that she was already signed up for three days to be at the site. It was believed to be a summer village site. Melanie had a special gratification with me being happy as I shared in her day. “You may not realize how important it is to me that we can enjoy our times of relaxation together.”
She had taken a picture of me enjoying a small blossom and sniffing its delicate scent. To me, it was a meadow flower, but Mel knew it was rare in that area. As she said, it was rarer to find someone to share and adore it with.
I whispered, “You like to soften the life of this farm boy and help my metamorphic transformation into womanhood.”
She said, “Yes, that and Nick will always be savored, and Nicole will be able to blossom fully are important to our relationship.”
I had my reports and projects all done before my first final exam. I was happy and doing well on the exams. They were to be part of my celebrating of another year well learned. Inwardly, I quietly celebrated the many ways in which I was growing.
I had heard from Ms. Martha Hansen from the John Deere Ankeny operations. I was not to be helping to fill vacation slots but to be a summer assistant in an ongoing program. She said, “When you travel with me in August to our Europe operations. You will need to know your stuff and be open to learning how their operations can help us as well. Disconnects are more costly than some understand. I want you to be an asset, not an outstanding cost.”
My summer classes were set up and would work with my job schedule though it meant two long days each week. There would be reading and studying most of the week.
I had gone home and then to Rachel’s graduation on Saturday and Melanie’s graduation on Sunday. Ceremonies not being high on my list were testimonies to my love for both of them. I did travel back with Melanie to her family home near Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Her Dad and one brother John were railroad people and were initially taken back by Melanie’s attraction to a transgender woman. But it was where I learned where her love of horses and horseback riding came from. Mrs. Adams and Melanie’s sisters were first intrigued and quickly very accepting of me.
Her brother Sam Adams was a huge football player type, but his delight was in flowers, plants, and landscaping. He was going to a community college but was smart and in many areas self-taught. He was a lean 230 pounds on a six-foot three-inch frame.
He came up to me and took me aside, “Nicole, I want to encourage you not to be any shrinking violet, especially around my brother and dad. What you think of yourself and what Melanie thinks should count the most. My sister has good taste in people most of the time. I get good vibes about her assessment of you.
“Railroads have their place, and we’re proud of my dad and brother. It’s easier for the women not to be stamped from the same mold. I love flowers, trees, and landscaping that will outlast the people I work for. That I’m strong and like flowering trees and plants is who I am.” With that, he hugged me. His arms were strong, but his embrace wouldn’t have bruised a flower blossom. And I did meet his girlfriend Jennifer Storm.
Her sister Heather and mom, Audra Adams, both surprised us by suggesting we live together. “You know Melanie, you can become pregnant while you do your graduate studies.” I did not learn of this conversation until well into the summer. It then had to do with my moving into an apartment with her.
That I was accepted by Mrs. Adams, sisters Heather and Cara, and brother Sam as I was heading back to campus with Melanie meant a lot more than I had expected. “I am surprised by how well you’ve been taken into my family.”
I said, “I am even more surprised by how well your family, friends, and neighbors are accepting of us.”
“Yes,” she said, “While I don’t expect it is a total surprise that I have lesbian leanings. I’ve tried hard to deny it. I know some at the pub were as surprised by how strong our connection is. I’ve played hard with some guys, and I don’t want that to surprise you. Connie who celebrated with us yesterday was the first girl I shared kisses with.”
“So, her saying, ‘I’m happy for you,’ means more coming from her,” I questioned?
I had suspected I did well on my exams, but to find out I had ‘A’ three exams, had two ‘B+’ and one ‘B’. And even with the B on my exam I still had a B+ for the course. That put me on the honor roll for having over a B+ average.
I had a full two weeks in at work, before Memorial Day weekend, and my summer classes wouldn’t begin until June 1. Memorial Day weekend, I was taking Melanie home with me.
While both ironically are old river towns, we both lived out of town. She loved the bluffs along the Missouri River; I loved the rolling hills and farmland of northeast Iowa. Haley had rustled up some good riding horses. She and Melanie recognized two good horse trails near our farms that I wasn’t aware of. One I had been on with a dirt bike, but riding a horse and having no motor deafening one’s world was a new experience.
We had ridden four miles out and were now walking our horses along the Mississippi River, much of it a hundred feet above the river. Two Harley bikers came toward us to give us a hard time.
It was a rare time for me to experience the hospitality of river people. Two men and their families came out of their homes with three sporting shot-guns. One family ran a hook-up point for barges making their way up and down the river.
The riverman said boldly, “Your biker image doesn’t scare much around here.” When a biker said they could come back with friends. The riverman said, “We already have another two guns on you and others ready. Turn around, and don’t bring back any trouble, or we won’t be so neighborly. You can tell Jeffries, I said hello, and he’ll tell you himself we’re good people, not to be messed with.”
I knew of Jeffries, who had a country bar that served the rural community along with bikers. The other family was the Millers who had owned an old river mill almost a hundred years back. They had the three of us step down from our horses for an informal meal. Mrs. Natalie Miller had recognized me as well as Haley from back when she was Haley Schmidt. “Please, file this where you live in your head; you know where the Schmidt’s live now this is another safe house. Nicole, you should be learning these things and realizing as a young woman you’re more open to the unwanted company and possibly trouble.” Haley and Melanie both acknowledge they often had pepper spray with them.
Mrs. Miller said, “My daughter Terese will be disappointed that she missed you.” I acknowledge knowing Terese is a year ahead of me in school. “I suspect you’ve lost a dress size or two and look more naturally feminine.” Jamie a younger daughter was there and taken by the three of us being warmly received into their home.
Mr. Miller said, “It’s a good learning time for her, being all you are can’t always be easy. Jamie’s told us of how you spoke up for other country kids at school in Dubuque. You can find trouble anywhere, hopefully, you will find as many or more friends. You have friends here.”
I mentioned Traverse who had come out and spoke up for us. Mr. Miller said, “Unwelcomed strangers are too dangerous around here where Traverse is concerned. We had seen the bikers earlier, and when Traverse Phillips saw you three he smelled water and bad fuel oil and knew it didn’t mix well. The Strayer name is good here and while Traverse would have done it anyway. He’d like your dad and brothers on his side if ever needed. It’s part of the way he thinks… I wouldn’t be surprised if Traverse has a journal he writes such things in. I know he told me things his old grandfather wrote a long time ago.”
Melanie spoke up and asked, “Do you think Traverse and yourselves would be open to talking to me. I’m going to grad school at ISU for environmental engineering, and I’m hoping to stay away from becoming a corporation’s P.R. cover woman.”
Hank Miller had called Traverse up and he came over to talk about the possibilities. Running a barge port is not always a clean business. He loves the environment but said he worked in the shady area's part of the time. Here they were only twenty feet above the river and had a river edge that generally went another 100-150 from the base of the hill.
“We have three barges that often bring back north material for you JD friends.”
Part of me was torn, I felt the desire to find Nick’s voice and once again prove I was a man. It was a relief for me to finally ride away come four o’clock. Part of it was that being vulnerable scared me, and part of me thinks not embracing my manhood discounts me in the eyes of others.
When we rode the horses back to the Schmidt’s, Haley drove us back to my house and came in with Melanie and me. She called for my mother and shared with her about our day. “I think, Nick experienced a surprising time of being vulnerable as a girl. He won’t acknowledge it, but I thought you should know.”
Melanie hugged me, “I hadn’t realized that might be what was upsetting you.”
I said, “I wasn’t any more scared than either of you. It just surprised me.”
Melanie said, “I thought being the three of us we’re relatively safe, but then today was an exception to the rule. I’d understand if it got to you a little differently. Like Haley, I want you free to talk about it.”
I said, “It’s just as a guy I felt a responsibility to protect us.”
They began to lightly laugh, Haley said, “It was Nicole who was with us. Natalie Miller knew who you were, and she hadn’t expected that to change the situation. Hank, Traverse, and Natalie had come out with weapons. That was something the bikers understood.”
Mom spoke up, “I’m thankful the three of you women are safe. Nicki, I can appreciate your mixed feelings, but you need to learn to talk them out.”
The larger Memorial Day gathering was at our place. People were celebrating Rachel’s new job at Valley High School in West Des Moines. I was being better accepted by those from Mom’s side of the family who came.
I had a Tuesday appointment with Dr. Printz my GYN/Endocrinologist. She commented on knowing I had a different friend come with me to my appointment. I told her about Melanie and I becoming close friends but taking our time. She was happy that Melanie was accepting me as Nick as well.
She said, “When you have someone in your life and are ready; I would be willing to visit with the two of you, if helpful.”
“I’m guessing you realize that might not be far away,” I said. “But I want to give us more time. I’m not used to a relationship feeling this good lasting very long…”
To be continued…
