Katie was delighted. She scooped a cat from the kitchen chair and clutching him tight cried out in a terrible British accent, "I'm so very happy! Dance with me Edgar, my darling, and we shall run away together!" Edgar hung like a sack in her arms, limp and tolerant.

"Quit hamming and go change your clothes Katie." Judy commanded, a reluctant smile on her lips. "That poor cat."

Katie returned to the kitchen in moments, halfway dressed in sturdier clothing, and proceeded to tie her running shoes, tuck in her blouse and re-ponytail her hair there - as though she was compelled to keep the house guests in sight, should they try to leave without her. "Where's Daddy?" she panted.

"In his workshop I think." Judy replied absently, thumbing the pile of papers now stacked on the kitchen table.

"Are you sure?" Katie's voice was oddly loud.

"No I'm not sure." Judy fixed an irritated look on her daughter.

"Well you should know where he is." she insisted.

"For all I know he might have gnawed through the rope I keep him tied to and is now making a run for it up to Canada." Judy's tone edged toward sarcasm, but her manner was gentle bemusement. "Your Dad comes and goes as he pleases honey. That's the way we do it around here. Now I suggest you go on your hike and leave the fretting to me."

It was decided the dogs would enjoy the outing too, so they were given the entire backseat, while humans sat together in the front. As soon as she was buckled in Katie turned stiff and silent as though it had occurred to her that she was sandwiched between two people from whom she had liberated a personal belonging. She kept glancing furtively at Oscar's unshaven chin. Jaime broke the ice by commencing a game of Punch-Bug, and after whacking both her companions smartly on the arm twice apiece, Katie loosened up and was chattering freely about anything and everything.

From the guidebook Judy gave them they chose an easy hike around the base of Mount Hood, a high snowy peak that floated like a dream in front of them as they drove. When they finally piled out of the car, the dogs bursting forth as though they'd been launched, Katie yelling "Whoo whoo whoo!", Jaime felt a flood of contentment. There was something so wonderful about being in a small herd, everyone bent on having a good time. Children always brought a special enthusiasm.

The air was soft and damp and smelled of earth, the dark wooded trail ahead of them inviting - and surprisingly dry, considering the rain the night before. Jaime glanced way up to the tops of the lofty conifers, the canopy that kept the earth beneath them moist but not soaked.

They set off. The dogs sniffed and explored, while Katie skipped and sang and impressed her companions with her knowledge of ferns and mushrooms and wildflowers. When they stopped midway for a snack of juice and trail mix (provided by Judy), she told them an Indian legend she had read in school, which she recited in reverential tones, complete with dramatic hand gestures and wide eyes.

Jaime found her to be an endearing character – diverse in her interests, bright and curious. She could tell Oscar was enjoying her too. He had a quizzical, admiring look on his face. While Katie amused them they walked hand in hand in happy silence. When undistracted by OSI business Oscar had a sweet serenity to him which Jaime adored.

How often she had dreamed a scenario like this one – a walk in the woods with a beloved husband and a child or two…except of course, in her dream the children were her own. She felt a pang in her breastbone and suppressed a sigh. As much as she loved children they were not in the cards for her. She wasn't even sure she could have children after that accident - and on top of it she had chosen to marry a practical man who sensibly figured he was too old to start a family.

However these moments of melancholy came infrequently and went quickly. She turned her attention outward. "What do you want to be when you grow up, Katie?" she asked.

"Well um..." she said, reverting from a skip to a walk, "maybe a ballet dancer or a veterinarian, or a famous scientist...or maybe a spy...or maybe a teacher – like you!" She beamed at Jaime.

"Not an archeologist?" Oscar inquired.

"No way!" Katie cried. "Too dirty. Too dirty and too boring! Mom and Dad like doing dusty things. I don't want to do yucky dusty things."

When Oscar and Jaime laughed she looked pleased and amazed to have brought amusement to the adults.

A minute later Oscar made his second call to Washington, which Katie watched with rapt attention.

"Cool." she whispered and then she skipped off ahead of them. A moment later she skipped back, flushed with inspiration. "Let's play a game!" She herded Jaime about twenty feet down the trail and urged Oscar to stay back. They were to continue walking like this - isolated from one another, and Katie would be the "host" and ask them questions.

She trotted to her uncle and addressed him while walking backwards, pretending to hold a microphone.

"Uncle Oscar." she said, "If we were to ask your wife what the most embarrassing moment was on your wedding night, what would she say?"

Oscar's eyebrows shot up. "Uh…I don't know."

"Please, think harder." Katie said soberly into her invisible microphone before pointing it back to him.

For the life of him he couldn't think of anything particularly embarrassing, except for the nudging and winking and tapping of glasses with spoons designed to make them kiss. "When I stepped on her foot when we were dancing." he said finally, recalling the scuff he had left on her shoe.

"Kay." Katie skipped down the path toward Jaime who was obediently strolling a good distance in front of them, trying not to eavesdrop. "Jaime!" she cried, panting slightly. "Question number one. What was the most embarrassing moment on your wedding night?"

"Hmm." Jaime said gamely. "What if there wasn't anything to be embarrassed about?"

"No, there was!" Katie insisted.

"Okay. Ah…oh, I know. I accidentally jammed my finger into the cake as we were cutting it because I lost my balance. Remember that?"

"That's not what Uncle Oscar said!" Katie cried, looking stricken. "He said it was when he stepped on your toes dancing."

"Oh yeah." Jaime replied, perplexed by the little girl's intensity. "Okay."

"Let's try another one!" she bellowed, as she ran back to Oscar. "We're trying another one!"

She hadn't quite formulated a question so she walked beside him for some time repeating, "Uncle Oscar….um…um…." He couldn't help but laugh watching her lost in her role - so serious and so intent.

"Yes, Katie?"

"Uncle Oscar, when was the last time ….what did you do that …Jaime most wanted to hit you with a frying pan?"

Oscar guffawed and shook his head. Odd to hear a little girl using the terminology of a borscht belt comedian. Unfortunately the answer readily came to mind. "Forgot to call to tell her I was going to be staying late at work."

"Kay." Katie said, and tore off toward Jaime.

When Jaime's answer matched her husband's, Katie's arms shot triumphantly into the air and she tore back to contestant number one. "You got one! Uncle Oscar, you got one! Next question. You got one right. You could get a prize."

"That's swell."

"Okay. If you had to compare your wife's chest to a kind of fruit, what would it be? Melons, grapefruit or strawberries?"

He was shocked into silence for a moment, and then he was angry. "Would I what?" he growled. "What kind of question is that?"

Katie froze and shuddered, as though his voice were a physical blow.

"You don't ask questions like that!" he added, having not quite registered the effect he was having.

Convinced that there was something peculiar in Katie's manner that needed attention, Jaime had begun a little guilty eavesdropping. She immediately doubled back and found them in a stand off, Oscar glaring at Katie and Katie pinned under his gaze.

"Hey." she said, hovering close, waiting for what she knew was coming. And she was right - at that moment a tear rolled down the little girl's cheek. Jaime drew her into a hug and simultaneously gave Oscar of warning which she meant as 'calm down', but he would likely read as a rebuke.

"Do you know what she just asked me?" he blurted.

Katie was meanwhile whimpering into Jaime's belly, hugging her tight. "I know." she said quietly.

Looking simultaneously crushed and frustrated, Oscar paced twice across the trail.

"It's okay honey. Uncle Oscar didn't mean to make you cry. Sometimes he has a big voice, that's all."

"I'm sorry Katie." Oscar said, placing his hand gently on the child's back. "I didn't mean to scare you."

Katie made a sulky squeak and recoiled from his touch.

Jaime rolled her eyes for his benefit and smiled at him. "She's fine." she mouthed. After indulging the tears with pats on the back and sympathetic murmurings, she said in a kindly but resolute tone, "Okay, honey. You're going to be okay. Why don't we get moving? You'll feel better in a minute."

Thank goodness they were close to the trail head. The last quarter mile they walked in silence, Katie still nursing her injury and Oscar looking stricken and fed up. Only the dogs were unfazed, sniffing and rooting and trotting ahead on the trail as they had all morning, their day unblemished by disagreement.

Katie climbed into the backseat and sat squeezed between the dogs, her arms crossed. Oscar glumly started the car and they rolled out of the parking lot. Placing her hand on his shoulder, Jaime smiled at him but all she got back was an unhappy glance. Just as she was about to suggest they pull into the roadside snack stand ahead, Oscar flicked the blinker on.

"Milkshakes." he grumbled.

Katie quietly chose strawberry while Jaime and Oscar opted to split a medium chocolate. They sat at one of the crooked picnic tables that dotted the lawn behind the stand, and spent more silent minutes trying to get the shakes started. Jaime wondered if it was just hard ice cream thrown into a cup. Oscar watched Katie as she carefully avoided his gaze, sucking so hard on her straw it made her cross-eyed. He quickly retrieved some spoons.

"Katie," Jaime started carefully, "Where did you get the idea for that game?"

Katie shrugged.

"Was it from The Newlywed Game?"

Katie began another shrug, which then gave over to the tiniest nod of acknowledgement.

"What's that?" Oscar asked, at a cautious whisper.

Jaime gave him a rough outline of the show – couples separated and then asked to guess what their spouse would say about any given topic. The questions usually encouraged criticism and hostility – the supposed comedy occurring when an outraged wife slapped her husband with the answer card or impugned his virility. Jaime chose the word 'virility' carefully, trusting that Katie wouldn't understand it, and as there was no change of expression on the girl's face, she judged she had been correct.

"You watch that?" Oscar asked, as though she had just confessed a murder.

"I've seen it once or twice." Jaime said defensively, "Naturally you're the only person in the country who hasn't heard of it. So you decided," she said, turning her attention back to the little girl, "that because we're newlyweds, we should play the game?"

Katie nodded, more boldly this time.

"You seemed awfully serious about it. You got pretty upset when we didn't answer that first question correctly."

Katie slumped and stared hard at her cup. With one fingernail she pushed tiny curls of wax from the surface. "Not as serious as Uncle Oscar got." she mumbled in a small, high voice.

Jaime placed her hand over Oscar's - a request for silence.

"Honey, that's because you were asking him a question that he doesn't expect to hear from a ten year old girl. Actually – I hope he doesn't hear that question from anybody. Do you understand why he might not have liked that?"

The little girl shrugged. She looked so very small.

"I don't think you understood when you asked it, but that's not a polite question. That's why Oscar got upset -because he's my pal and he doesn't talk that way about me. That's the problem with that show. People are rude to each other."

"Well that's why I wanted you to win! I thought you would win!" Katie protested. "Then they're always happy and they hug and they get a trip to Hawaii. And then they won't get a divorce."

Jaime couldn't help but laugh. "We just got married, Katie, I think it's a little early to be talking about divorce!"

"Sometimes the newlyweds say they're going to get a divorce." Katie returned.

Jaime was about to reply when Oscar squeezed her hand and said, "Katie, I've already won. I don't need to enter a contest. I can go to Hawaii anytime, but I could never buy the love of a person like Jaime. I don't have to tell you how terrific she is, do I? You like her a lot, don't you?"

"Yeah." Katie said shyly, blushing and smiling at Jaime.

"Well then you know how lucky I am."

A little embarrassed but more pleased, Jaime murmured, "You are too much." He routinely sent her into a state of giddy warmth with remarks like that. She hadn't thought he had it in him.

"It's true." he affirmed.

"But then how come people get divorces?" Katie blurted, breaking the brief romantic moment. "Is it because they're fooling around?"

Jaime frowned. "Fooling around? What's your definition of 'fooling around'?"

"It means getting a new girlfriend or boyfriend instead of an old wife. Brenda's Mom and Dad and getting divorced and Brenda says her dad has been fooling around."

"Oh." Oscar said, looking to Jaime to provide a fuller response.

"People have all kinds of problems for all kinds of reasons, Katie." she said. She ran her hand over the surface of the picnic table - it was patterned by roughly carved initials, several year's worth. SHe paused at "LR + TT". The letters gouged deeply and carefully into the wood. How were they doing now? she wondered.

"Well I don't want you to have problems and I don't want Mom and Dad to either!"

Oscar and Jaime exchanged a look.

"Katie," Oscar said, "I talk to your Mom enough to know that if she was unhappy with your Dad I would have heard about it."

Katie looked at him doubtfully. "Sometimes they fight."

"Who doesn't?" Oscar shrugged.

"It's true. They can fight and still love each other honey." Jaime added. "You fight with them sometimes and you still love them don't you?"

"That's different. I have to love them because they're my parents." Katie stirred her shake thoughtfully with her spoon and made another attempt to drink it through the straw.

Oscar looked at his niece as though she were a complex logistical problem that needed to be solved. He drummed the table with his fingertips. "I think maybe we should talk to your Mom and Dad about your TV watching."

Katie's eyes widened in horror. "No!" she cried, gripping the picnic table. "No, please don't! Sam lets me watch it on his babysitting days even though he's not supposed to and if you tell he's going to get big trouble and then he'll be mad at me! I only saw it once! Honest!"

"Ah-ha!" Jaime said. "Forbidden fruit!"

"I never should have said anything!" Katie said, smacking herself on the forehead, then slumping to hold her head in her hands - utterly despondent. An instant later she was sitting up straight, gazing hard at the adults - an appeal written on her face. "Sam babysits me two days a week and sometimes we watch Star Trek reruns even though he's supposed to be doing homework and sometimes I am too but it's really fun. Once Star Trek wasn't on and we watched that Newlywed show and he hated it anyway. It was only once! Please don't tell."

"Okay. We won't." Oscar said almost immediately. Jaime looked at him in amazement - she had expected him to take the hard line. Instead, he had a wistful smile on his face.

Katie clasped her hands together in a gesture of gratitude.

"Well then," Jaime said, "if we don't want to get Sam in trouble, you'll have to start figuring this out for yourself. And I think you're big enough to do that. Now how close do you think Bugs Bunny is to real life?"

"Not even a little bit!" Katie chuckled knowingly.

"Well the Newlywed Game is just about as real as Bugs Bunny. You remember that, okay? Lots of TV is like that. Just silly stuff. And when you start taking a show seriously, ask yourself if maybe you're taking it too seriously."

Katie nodded slowly.

"It's important you figure this out, because you don't want people freaking out at you when you ask them to compare their wives' chests to watermelons or prunes or whatever, right?"

"No!" Katie replied emphatically. "It wasn't watermelons!" she said through a burst of giggles, covering her mouth with her hand. "Or prunes!" After a lengthy chortle, the wide, gap toothed grin slowly faded and was replaced by a puzzled frown. "How did you know that was what the question was? How did you hear that?"

"I tried not to, I promise." Jaime lied, "but your voice carries."

"Really?"

"Mm-hmm." Jaime murmured, draining the last dregs of the milkshake.

"Hey!" Oscar said indignantly. "We were supposed to share that!"

"Oops!" Jaime slapped her had over her mouth. "I wasn't paying attention."

"Now that's how people end up getting divorces." he said, frowning.

Jaime put her hand on the little girl's forearm, "He's kidding."

"I am kidding." Oscar agreed. "But it's still a rotten thing to do."

"You can have the rest of mine, Uncle Oscar." Katie said, holding it out to him.

"You don't have to do that, kiddo."

"It's okay. I can't finish it. Here."

Oscar took it from her, returning her smile. "Thanks. You must be the best niece ever."

Jaime smiled at both of them. It was a lovely truce.

The hour long drive home was very pleasant. Katie spoke with enthusiasm of her home room teacher, Mrs. Mills, and quizzed Jaime about her own classroom. Oscar spun two very exciting OSI stories, stating first that none of it was true. Jaime recognized some elements from her own adventures, but discreetly kept her mouth shut. No mention was made of the missing razor and the trail of clues. Somehow, it would have felt like cheating.