Harriet Holt-Steele stepped off the bus and surveyed the twin office buildings in front of her. She'd been to the Century Towers, where her parents had their offices, many times, but this was the first time she'd navigated the route their on her own. Her parents weren't expecting her, and Harriet felt quite proud of herself for figuring out the bus route all on her own. She felt less proud about the purpose of her visit to her parents' office.
As she made her way through the lobby, signed in as a visitor and took the elevator to the 11th floor, Harriet contemplated her plan. She had a note from her fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Anderson – a very troublesome note that required one of her parents' signatures. Harriet, however, preferred to avoid explaining the contents of the note to either parent, and particularly her mother. Hence the plan. Harriet had overheard how her father had, on more than one occasion, failed to read the documents he was signing. Her plan was based upon the assumption that this held true.
Harriet stepped off the elevator and carefully surveyed her surroundings while acting nonchalant. She had seen her parents do the same on many occasions, and she was practicing her own skills at sizing up a situation and taking action. As she stepped into the suite of offices that was home to her parents' detective agency, she put on her brightest and most innocent face to greet her "Aunt" Mildred.
She stepped up to Mildred Kreb's reception and computing desk, and waiting for Mildred to look up. When Mildred did, Harriet said cheerily, "Hi Aunt Mildred! I thought I'd come by for a visit!"
"Well, hi Kiddo! I wasn't expecting you." Mildred paused and looked at Harriet a bit suspiciously. "How did you get here?"
Harriet smiled wisely. "I took the bus." Then she grinned. "I figured out the route from school by myself!"
"Oh, you're growing up so quickly sweetie! Come give Aunt Mildred a hug!:
Harriet did. She liked Mildred's hugs. Mildred loved her dearly and didn't hesitate to show it, even as Harriet was growing up. It was refreshing compared to some grown ups who didn't know whether to treat her as a kid or an adult. It was nice to feel safely in the "kid" category, even while she knew Mildred respected her as a person.
"Hey, Mildred. Can I help with anything while I'm here? I want to go say hi to mom and dad." Harriet was hoping she had arrived in time to take the day's worth of paperwork in for her father's signature, since her plan depended on it.
"As a matter of fact, I have a small stack of papers for your mom and dad to sign. And the day's mail. You wanna take those in to them?"
"Sure!" said Harriet. Mildred was handing over the two stacks just as Harriet's mom walked out of her office.
Laura Holt-Steele stopped in her tracks seeing her youngest child in her office unexpectedly. She recovered and strode over to Harriet, who now had all of the papers and mail in her hand.
"Harriet, honey, what are you doing here? Is everything okay?" Harriet's mom was just a head taller than her daughter, and she leaned over and absently gave the girl a kiss on the top of her head and smoothed her hair. Then, Laura looked into Harriet's eyes to try to read if her daughter's surprise visit was a reason for concern.
"No mom. I just wanted to come say hello and see if I could get myself here alone."
Harriet's mom sighed. Half with relief and half with exasperation. "Harriet, our understanding is that you go directly home from school on days you don't have dance or gymnastics."
"I know, mom." But this is almost as easy to get to as home, and just as safe. I kind of wanted to be with you and dad."
Her mom looked at her, kind of like she'd never seen her before. "All by yourself, huh?" Her mom grinned, and gave her a squeeze. "You're growing up so fast." Laura shook her head and turned to Mildred to say something about the file on the Lightner case, then turned back to Harriet – go surprise your dad. I think he'll be pretty impressed you made it here alone!"
As Harriet walked to her dad's big office, she snuck one more piece of paper from her jacket pocket and unfolded it while she walked, trying to be discrete. It was really tricky, but she had to get the paper into the pile. She got it unfolded before she got to the door. Then she, paused, acting like she was juggling the papers and the mail to be able to get to the doorknob. While she was paused, she stuffed the note from her teacher in the middle of the other papers. She'd seen how Mildred would place sticky arrows where her dad needed to sign, and she'd stopped at Walgreens and used some of her allowance to buy some of the yellow arrows Mildred used.
She walked into the office purposefully, and sat the mail down quietly. Her dad barely looked up from the game of chess he was playing on the sleek Mac in his office. When he glanced up, he realized who had brought the mail.
"Harriet, my dear." He boomed. Her dad was larger than life sometimes, but she knew he was being a little bit silly when he said her name like she was an important businesswoman. Harriet ran over to his desk, beaming. "Hi, daddy."
"What are you doing her, dear heart?" Remington contemplated his daughter, who was growing up so quickly. She was named after the name his own father had called him – Harry. Although, of course, Remington hadn't known Daniel was his father until just before Daniel died almost 20 years ago. Remington didn't know his real name, but he'd long since come to terms with that fact and taken on the mantle of Remington Steele in name and heart. Still, naming his son after Daniel and his daughter after Daniel's name for him helped bring that part of his history into the present.
"I thought I'd come by for a visit. I figured out the bus myself."
"All by yourself, eh? That's quite ingenious. I dare say, I wouldn't know what bus to take."
"Well, it's easy – google maps tells me exactly where to go."
"Ah. My daugher the computer whiz!"
Harriet smiled, then pointed, with her left pointer finger, at the mail and paperwork. "I brought you the mail., And Aunt Mildred sent in some papers for you to sign." Harriet threw in her own bid for her father to hurry. "She wants them back as soon as you can – Mom needs to review them before she leaves for the day."
"Ah, I see. Well, I'll get right to it then."
"thanks, daddy. I'll come back in in just a few minutes for them."
Harriet went back to the reception area, and walked over to Mildred, who was just getting off the phone. "Cop a squat, honey. Tell me what's new in your life," said Mildred
Harriet went and sat on the edge of Mildred's desk, close to the office doors. "Well, I'm dancing a solo in the spring dance concert, and we have a dance at school in April before we go to 6th grade."
"Oooh. Are there any young men you're excited to dance with?"
"Ewww!! Shrieked Harriet. Then she kind of smiled. "Well, I wouldn't mind too much if Patrick O'Reilly asked me to dance. He has pretty blue eyes and he's in my dance class."
Mildred knew better than to laugh at the mix of little girl and young woman in the 11 year old. She was especially tempted to laugh when Harriet asked in a quite serious and grown up way, "How's Mack doing? Are you still going hot and heavy?" Mildred hoped Harriet didn't have a clue what hot and heavy meant.
"So to speak my dear. He took me on his sailboat last Saturday, and view was divine."
"Do you think he'll ask you to marry him?"
"I don't know honey. And I'm not sure what I'd say if he did. But I sure do like his company. We have a swell time together."
Harriet smiled knowingly. "I'm glad Aunt Midlred. Really glad for you. Maybe you can give me some dating tips if Patrick O"Reilly asks me to dance."
"Sure, kiddo. I'm no expert, but I've been around the block a few times." Mildred winked.
Harried winked back. "I'm gonna go see if daddy is done with his signatures."
"thanks, hon."
Harriet stepped to her dad's office, just as he signed his name on the last page, with a characteristic flourish. "All done, daddy? I can take them in to Mommy."
"Well here you go, my little busy bee," he said as he handed the papers off to her. She turned around to walk to the reception doors.
"Aren't you going to use the connecting door?" her father said.
"Harriet turned to look at him. "I thought mom locks it sometimes so you can't barge in on her."
Her father laughed wholeheartedly, at his daughter's observation and matter-of-fact approach to his and Laura's relationship.
"Only when she's angry with me, darling. Which I think is not the case right now."
"Oh, okay." Said Harriet as she shifted directions. She had been hoping to pull her teacher's note out as she was between offices. Going through the adjoining door would make this difficult.
Just as she reached her mother's doorknob, her father said. "Oh, and about that note from your teacher, what gives?"
Harriet paused as if she'd been punched. She'd been caught. She turned slowly to face the music. "Ummm."
"Yes, uumm. Go ahead."
"Well, I didn't want to bother you with it. It's nothing, really."
"Ah, yes, a note your teacher asked your parents to sign, so she could be sure we'd seen it. Definitely sounds like nothing. Why were you picking the lock on your teacher's desk at school? We've talked about this. I only taught you to pick locks in case you got locked out of the house."
"Well. I just wanted to see if I could."
"Aah. So you were alone?"
"Well, no. Other kids were watching."
"Ah. You know, my dear Harriet. I think we should get the full story later. Perhaps after dinner. In the meantime, do you want to tell you mother about your lock-picking escapades, and the somewhat shady reason for your visit to the office, or shall I?"
Harriet signed. "Well. I guess I should." She hung her head, then looked up, and smiled a wry smile. "I think she's gonna be mad at both of us to find out you taught me how to pick a lock."
"Nonsense. It was your mother's idea." Said Remington Steele, confidently. He knew full well Laura would be furious. "Perhaps you should break that part to her gently, dear. It might help both of us get an easier punishment." He smiled and walked over to his daughter, kissed her head, and then nudged her in the direction of her mother's door.
"Hi, mom,"
"Hi, dear."
"I have some papers for you."
"Oh, thanks."
Her mother was a bit absent as she focused on the papers already in front of her. Harriet put the papers in her hand down to her mother's left, then went behind her and leaned against her mom, playing with her mom's hair. She knew her mom liked this.
"Mommy, I have to tell you something."
Her mom's dark brown eyes looked into Harriet's, which were blue like her fathers. Harriet, however, had her mum's auburn wavy hair and delicate features.
Harriet burst into tears.
"what's wrong dear?" Her mom gave her a hug, dismayed to see her daughter to distraught."
Harrietn just sobbed for a minute, feeling like she had disappointed her mother horribly. She knew her father had been as much dismayed as proud of her lock-picking skill. But she knew her mother wasn't likely to find it as amusing. Her parents both had a good sense of humor, except when they disagreed. But her mom was a bit more of a stickler for rules than her dad, who Harriet thought, sort of saw rules as dares, or at least thought rules didn't apply to him.
Harriet recovered a bit. "Mom. I got in trouble at school!" She sobbed again, then caught her breath and it all tumbled out. "I was picking the lock on my teacher's desk, and got caught. She sent a note home for you and daddy, and I snuck it in for daddy to sign, since he never reads anything anyway, only he did, and I got caught again!" Harriet found fresh tears, and stopped her story in wail.
Laura Holt-Steele tried to suppress a laugh at her irrepressible precocious daughter. "You got caught you say? Well, we'll have to work on your finesse then, won't we?" She smiled, so Harriet could see she wasn't really angry. "But this is a serious matter, this deception. We'll have to talk it out, don't you think, and come up with an appropriate punishment?"
Harriet nodded soberly, then quiet tears streamed down her face. Her mum was being so nice. And her dad too for that matter. Her mom laughed. "I don't know if you're more like him" she nodded in the direction of Remington's door, "or me." She stood and gave her daughter a big hug, then pulled away a bit to look into her daughter's eyes. "How did you learn to pick a lock anyway?"
Harriet mimicked her mother's gesture, and nodded her head toward her father's door.
"Ah, so you won't be alone getting into trouble tonight, huh?" Her mom laughed heartily. "Oh, Harriet, what WILL I do with you or your father? What say I take off early and we spend some time together. Shall we go catch some waves?"
harriet nodeed vigorously.
"Leb me just go tell you're father that I'm outta here."" Why don't you go out and talk to Aunt Mildred?"
Harriet went out to lay on the couch in reception. In a moment she could hear her parents – the walls of the suite were quite thin.
Laura sidled up to her husband, as affectionate with him as Harriet had been with her. Laura ran her hands through Remington's hair. Gave him a kiss on the cheek, then whispered in his ear. "So, you taught our 11-year-old daugher how to pick a lock, did you?"
Her father put his arms up in mock protest." I'm innocent, Laura, I swerat it."
Then the argument began. "I thought we agreed to shelter the kids from our work, and there you go, teaching them the trade."
"you have to admit, she's quite the student, Laura. I'm proud of her creativity."
"Creativity? Laura spat. "deception, you mean?"
"Ah, Laura, you know you are as amused as I."
Harriet heard a pause, then her parents giggling like her and her friends.
"She is quite a kid, Rem."
"A chip off the old block."