Kinfolk
"Ok, Amanda. It's your turn." said Scarecrow.
Amanda turned from her position at the window, "I am doing my turn."
Lee said, "no not that. You spent time this morning asking about my childhood. That puts yours up for discussion so spill it."
She agreed, "you're on. What do you want to know?"
"More or less everything in order, skiing?"
We went to visit what my Grandma called 'the kinfolk' a lot when I was young. We went to New England almost every winter. Aunt Mimi and Uncle Bill lived in Maine, Uncle Herman and Aunt Doris lived in Vermont. When we could we were there most of Christmas vacation, but if Daddy couldn't take that much time, Mother just took us for a few days. The boys would ditch me when ever they could. They thought little sisters were a drag. I guess most brothers do."
"Alright, you don't fight, did you ever?"
"Not like you and the boys did, hitting, kicking, hair pulling, that sort of thing for a short while when I was very small." she replied.
"Manners?"
"Mother insisted, in fact all the adults insisted. Mother said that while not everyone could make A's in school, everyone could be polite."
Lee asked, "all the adults insisted?"
Amanda nodded, "Mother, Daddy, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, teachers, neighbors, all of them."
"Next, learning to cook?"
"I was the only girl, so cooking, cleaning, laundry. Girl stuff."
"Dancing?"
Amanda watched the people who had come out onto the veranda down the hill and adjusted the audio and video equipment. The agents listened and observed, hoping to get a break. After a while the suspects returned inside and a car left.
"Now about dancing?" he inquired.
"What about dancing," she asked in a confused voice.
"When did you learn to dance?" he asked reminding her of the earlier conversation.
Amanda replied, "well, I have always been around dancing. I have been told that Daddy danced around with me when I was a baby. He and Mother danced in the house a lot when we were young. There was music and dancing at parties. I learned to waltz standing on Daddy's shoes."
"Anything else?"
"Well, sure, if you really want to know," she said with a question in her voice.
Lee nodded as he glanced away from the slope to her. "Would I ask if I didn't want to know?"
"Probably."
"So?"
Amanda suggested, "stop me when you get bored. I started taking ballet and tap when I was five. I continued throughout elementary school."
"Go on.." he encouraged.
"Charley and Jeff liked to go to the movies, all kinds of movies," she continued.
"Dancing, Amanda," Lee interrupted.
"I was getting there," she asserted. "They liked spy movies, too; danger, excitement and girls. They exchanged smiles before she went on, "anyway, they liked to take girls with them. Protect her when she got scared, hold hands in the dark, I'm sure you understand. I don't remember who brought it up but one of them came home saying that his girlfriend loved some actor who danced. It appeared that all of the girls loved that actor. Suddenly both of my brothers decided that they needed to become the best dancers at school."
"And?"
"and Daddy agreed to teach them. Ballroom, swing, even the jitterbug, we spent hours. Mother and I were their practice partners. It was a lot of fun. When I was old enough to attend the same parties, they made sure that I had partners, they vetted my dates and my partners.
Stetson asked, "what else did you do?"
She replies, "just the usual stuff; swimming, roller skating, jump rope, reading, school plays, cheerleading".
"Ok, last question ... when did you decide that you wanted to become an intelligence operative .. a spy? and why?" he inquired.
"I read the books, saw the movies, it was exciting. The Bond girls were beautiful, intelligent, the spies were all handsome. It was a great fantasy," she answered. "I decided that I really wanted to do it after I saved you from Mrs. Welch." The smile on her face was huge as she watched his reaction.
End