Chapter 7

After a meal where Phillip polished off three loaded burgers and two helpings of sides, plus a couple of the chocolate brownies Matt Davis had picked up at the supermarket bakery, Deb Davis said, " We really appreciate having you here to eat with us, Phillip, but I know you and Kendra probably want to go out and see a movie or go somewhere and listen to music instead of hanging around here with us old folks. Matt will see that I get to bed all right, and he's going to sleep in the guest room in case I need anything at night. You two go on and have some fun."

"I thought that's what we were having, Deb," Phillip said.

"Good answer, Phillip," Matt said, " but Deb's right. Go out and spend some time together."

"Kendra?" Phillip asked.

"I'll get my purse. You can follow me over to my place, I'll leave my car there, and we'll go from there."

"Sounds good to me."

A few minutes later, after they'd agreed that they'd go into Washington and go for a walk on the National Mall, she got into the passenger seat of his Saturn and said, "I don't usually let guys know where I live on the first date, but you made a very good impression on my dad, and believe me, impressing Colonel Matthew Davis is not easy."

"I'm glad to hear it. You were really surprised to find him at your mom's house today, weren't you?"

"Oh, yeah. Well, you know what I said about him; I honestly thought he'd never change."

"People can, though; when they first met in '83, Lee was very good at his job, but he was not the kind of person I'd ever expect my mom to fall in love with. She was dating another guy at the time, someone safe and reliable and…."

"Dull as a stick?"

"He must have been, because even though it took her three years to break down Lee's defenses, she saw the potential and she never gave up on him. Now, it's the most solid marriage I know of, and I'm not just saying that because they're my parents."

"You haven't said much about your father, other than that he's remarried."

"Joe King is a good guy, someone with a real heart for service to the less fortunate people of this world, and his wife Carrie is the same way. She was a Peace Corps volunteer in the 70's, and now they both work for Outstretched Hands International. At the moment they're in Estoccia; Dad was there for several years in the early eighties, when he was with the Economic Aid Organization."

"Wasn't there some scandal about ten years ago about EAO people here in Washington using the agency to line their own pockets?"

"Yes, and when Dad tried to blow the whistle on them, they rigged it so it looked like he'd shot the prime minister. It was a real mess. Mom and Lee worked that case."

"Oh, wow, that must have been tough."

"Yeah, but Mom never believed Dad was capable of anything like that, and she and Lee proved it. That was before they were even engaged. Anyway, the Prime Minister chucked the EAO out of his country, but he told Dad that he was welcome any time, and after Dad and Carrie joined OHI, they got an invitation to go back and run the operation there. They come home about once a year. I love him, he's my dad, but Lee Stetson was the one who got me through the times when the girl I liked in high school went to the homecoming dance with somebody else, you know?"

"It's so rare to hear a man your age talk about his stepfather that way."

"Well, it's true."

"I know it is."

"Changing the subject – what motivated you to apply for a job at the Agency?"

"I guess you could call it a family tradition of service to the nation. My dad is a fourth-generation graduate of West Point and career army officer, and even further back, the first Matthew Davis – Dad is Matthew Lee Davis IV, legally – was a Union army officer during the Civil War. He was trained as a lawyer, but when the war began in 1861, he volunteered for an Illinois regiment almost immediately. He ended up in the intelligence business, the last couple of years on General Grant's staff."

"Wow. But you didn't want to go to West Point?"

"No. My father would have loved the idea, but to quote you regarding applying for the Agency, 'it wasn't my scene'.

"I understand. I asked Lee one time if he was disappointed that neither Jamie nor I chose the Agency, but he said 'no'. He said that it's the kind of life that you have to really, really want to do or it's no good. He also said that he considered leaving and doing something else more than once, especially after he fell in love with Mom, but she talked him out of it because she knew that was what he was born to do."

"And now he's legendary."

"Yeah." He found a parking space near the Lincoln Memorial and went around to open her door and hand her out of the car.

"Oh, it's a gorgeous night," she said. "I'm glad we stopped here. I never tire of visiting this spot."

"Let's go pay our respects," Phillip said, offering a hand. They walked around Lincoln Memorial Circle to the front of the monument and stood gazing up at the massive statue of Lincoln, seated and gazing out toward the Washington Monument.

"That first Matthew Davis, the Civil War one? He knew Lincoln personally," she said. "He lived to be eighty and died in 1909. You know, 1909 was the hundredth anniversary of Lincoln's birth, so some of the people who had known him contributed to a book about him. Matthew wrote an essay for that book, and my dad has a copy."

"That's quite a legacy."

"Yes. When I think of all they gave up to preserve our freedoms and our way of life, Phillip, volunteering for the Agency doesn't seem like that much of a big deal, you know?"

"I understand. Lee has talked some about his father, who was killed when Lee was only five, and how his dad was in army intelligence in England during World War II; that's how he met Lee's mom, who was killed in the same car wreck."

"Oh, how terrible! What happened to Lee? Did his grandparents take him in?"

"They were all dead by then. He was in foster care for a couple of years until his father's stepbrother, his Uncle Robert Clayton, took custody of him. My brother Bobby is named for his uncle. Oh, and here's an interesting fact: his father's full name was Matthew Davis Stetson."

"Really? When was he born, do you know?"

"Not a clue, but Lee would know. Hey, do you want to go back to their house with me? You could ask him."

"Sure."

Phillip drove them back into Arlington and into the neighborhood served by Lyon Elementary. He pointed out an older home and said, "That's Leeanne and Jack's house."

She already knew that Leeanne, who would be finishing out the school year for her mother, was his adopted sister, and that she ran a Montessori school in her house.

"I'm so glad Mrs. McCracken is available to teach these last couple of weeks; Mom loves her kids, and she doesn't want to hand them over to just anyone. When she found out Mrs. McCracken was available to take over, she was really happy."

"Leeanne's great with the kids; Bobby and Emmy just adore her, but even though she's their big sister, she doesn't let them get away with bad behavior. Mom says it's uncanny – all she has to do is frown at them and they stop misbehaving."

"Wow. No wonder Mom wanted her to take the class. You have a very unusual family, Phillip."

"Sometimes, Lee calls it the 'Family Circus', after that comic strip, you know? It can get crazy at times, but we love it." He turned a corner, drove up to a large house, and parked in the driveway beside Amanda's Tahoe.

"Where's the famous Corvette?" Kendra asked.

"Oh, in the garage; if he's not driving it, that's where it stays. We're one of the few families I know that can actually park a car in the garage, but Lee was pretty insistent about leaving room for his 'Vette."

He went around to open her door and hand her out, and once he'd locked the doors, he held out a hand, which she took.

"Brace yourself," he warned. "Mom and Lee try to keep them from asking too many questions, but it's a losing battle."

"I'll be all right," she said, laughing.