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Even though she was dressed for the job, Amanda sighed heavily. Standing at the top of the stairs, looking around at the rooms that made up the top story of her home, she dreaded even beginning to clean them. They usually seemed to be too few and too small, but today they seemed to be too big and too many. She liked having a clean house, but spring-cleaning was a dirty job. In her mind, she could hear Lee saying in his husky voice, "But somebody's got to do it."
She could remember standing in this hallway after she and Joe had agreed to divorce. They had planned to tell the boys that night after dinner. She cleaned for the entire day, scrubbing corners that never even seen light. Thoughts of being alone, of being the only one responsible for herself and her children had almost overwhelmed her that day.
She had made it though. More than made it. She was a stronger, more confidante woman today than she had ever been. Her income was now higher than Joe's. Her sons were bright, intelligent, well-behaved--most of the time--boys. One other thing was certain; working at the Agency had made her a more efficient housekeeper.
As she began to be trusted more, as she did more with Lee, the lack of time had forced her to delegate responsibilities to the boys. Seeing the stress on her daughter's face had encouraged Dotty to finally get her driver's license, and she had taken over the job of shopping for the family. Even spring-cleaning was now easier for Amanda. The boys already knew that this weekend was reserved for cleaning their rooms from top to bottom, and they had lists throughout the year to handle chores that had only been done once a year when they were younger.
The boys, with Dotty's help, would also be doing the curtains and outside windows this weekend. Amanda did not have to worry about those jobs; she just had to decide which room to begin cleaning. The bathroom was the smallest, and Dotty hated cleaning it . . ..
She looked up at the ceiling. The attic, full of its numerous boxes, was another room that her mother hated dealing with, to the point it was a family joke. Recalling all the times Dotty had helped her since the divorce decided the issue for Amanda. While her mother was out today, she would clean the attic. Dotty would not even have to see it this year.
An hour later, Amanda began wondering how they usually managed to clean it in half-an-hour. Wiping the dust from her nose, she walked over to the far corner that held all of Dotty's boxes. No one except Dotty dared to touch them, but they did need to be dusted and swept around. Her experienced hands made short work of the dusting, but when she moved the broom around the far corner of the pile, she knocked over a small shoebox that she had not even noticed before.
Pictures scattered across the floor, and Amanda winced as she squatted down to pick them up. She tossed in a handful of photos without even looking at them. The second batch stayed in her hands. Lifting them up so she could see them better in the weak light, she realized what she was holding in her hands. They were her mother's wedding photographs. All of them were ripped.
She gathered them back into the box and went downstairs to the kitchen table. There, she tried to fit some of them together, but all had a missing piece. She quickly looked through them. Every photograph had been taken at her parents' wedding. Amanda had seen a few photos from that day, but she assumed that they had been unable to afford many since there were so few. Even as a young girl, she had found it sad that Dotty did not have a single photograph of her as a blushing bride with her parents.
Amanda kept looking back to the photographs of the entire wedding party. Someone had been ripped from each photograph. From the unknown person's location in the group photo, she thought it had to have been the best man.
Thinking about all of the stories she had heard about her parents' wedding, she realized that she could not remember having even heard the best man's name. Not once. Which was amazing, considering all the various other small disasters that had everyone seemed to have that day. Dotty's matron-of-honor still blushed at the retelling of how she passed out into the cake. No stories, funny or otherwise, had been shared about the man her father had considered so important in his life that day.
The shrill ring of the telephone startled her. Reaching over to answer it, she had a strong suspicion that she knew who would be on the other end. She could be wrong--after all, the hour was prime time for phone solicitors--but she doubted it. "Hello, Amanda," his voice said into her ear.
Her toes curled at the sound. Everything about the man, even almost six months after their marriage, still excited her. She had expected it would be this way. She expected he would still have the same effect on her in 50 years.
What amazed them both in some ways was Lee's response to the marriage. Although they had never discussed, they both had fears when they entered their marriage. It was not so much that marriage itself frightened them. Change did.
However, Lee was becoming more domesticated by the day. Amanda had watched him become more relaxed, had seen the fear leave his eyes as time passed. Both of them had had a small, nagging fear that a relaxed Lee would be too different, too boring. Instead, they had found that they appreciated the movies watched curled up on the couch together just as much after the wedding ring as they did before, and that a domesticated Lee was just as exciting, if not more so, than a wild one.
"I thought you were going to call me later tonight," she said, a note of teasing in her voice. Even when they agreed to a day of no contact, Amanda had known that one of them would eventually give in and call the other.
Lee's laugh was low. Her toes curled even tighter at the sound. "And I was doing a very good job of waiting." Amanda's laughter filled her kitchen. The thought of a patient Lee Stetson was amusing. "Well, maybe not a good job," his embarrassed voice admitted over the phone. "But I was waiting. Unfortunately, I'm not calling to talk."
She groaned, knowing exactly where this conversation was heading. "Lee, this if the first day I've had off in a month--"
"I know. I know, but Billy's asking for you to come in, because Green's just been spotted at--"
"Green? He's daring to show his face again?"
Lee laughed at the amazement in her voice. "No one ever accused the man of great intelligence, Amanda." Looking over at the photos, she sighed. "Amanda," he said, "I'm sorry to interrupt your day of cleaning with your Mother."
He knew how much she had been looking forward to the time spent with Dotty. They both had had so little time for anything outside of the Agency recently. Amanda sighed. "Mother's not here. Aunt Katherine called, so she went out to lunch with her."
Silenced hummed over the telephone line for several seconds. "Aunt Katherine? Isn't that your father's sister, the one that lives in Germany?"
"Yeah, she called this morning and told that she was in and needed to talk to Mother. I'm having lunch with her on Friday. She's taking the boys out Friday night, and eating with us all on Saturday night." Katherine always made sure to spend individual time with everyone as well as with the family as a whole.
Amanda started putting the scattered photos back into the box. "I've been cleaning all by myself."
Lee's smile was obvious to his wife, even if she could not see him. "Sorry I wasn't there to help."
She returned his unseen smile, knowing that they would have gotten little cleaning done if he had been here. They would have spent the entire morning in the bedroom. "I am, too, Stetson. Just wait to next spring."
"Spring cleaning? Me? Never!" he mocked. At one time in his life, he would have been serious. Lee Stetson of four years ago might have hired someone to clean for him, but he would have never done the job himself.
"Don't knock it until you try it," she said as she laughed. She looked at the box sitting on her table. "You can never tell what mysteries you may encounter."
"Oh, I don't know," he answered. "I still remember that strange unidentified object we found in my refrigerator."
Amanda shuddered at the memory. "Fortunately, mine is just a box of photos."
"Photos?" Even after all this time, she could still confuse him with her line of thinking.
"I was cleaning the attic," she told him, playing with the lid of her box. "When I knocked over a box and photographs spilled out of it. Photos from my parents' wedding."
"Amanda," his gentle voice said, "I think you've been in the spy business too long. Try as she might, your mother cannot put out every photograph that she has."
Lee had always been amazed at the number of photographs her family had. Amanda was sad at the scarcity of photos he had. She had never seen a candid shot of young Lee Stetson after the age of four. There were some school photos, some team photos, and little else after he went to live with the Colonel.
Dotty loved photographs of her daughter and grandchildren. Most of her photos of Carl West were hidden away, an effort to hide from the pain of seeing his smiling face. Even today, Dotty had a hard time looking at pictures of her beloved husband. "No," Amanda agreed, "but she doesn't usually rip someone out of them, either."
"What?" Lee was often amused, but seldom surprised by, the actions of his mother-in-law. He had watched, and heard about her, for years before they met.
Wishing she could find humor in Lee's shock, Amanda sighed. Then, she nibbled on her lip. "She deliberately with through all these photos-- which I've never seen--and ripped someone--the best man I think--out of every one."
Lee's reply was mixed seriousness and teasing. "You know, Amanda, looking at someone else's photos is dangerous business."
"Oh, come on--"
"I'm serious. You might find something out that you don't want to know. You don't know what deep and dark secret your mother might be hiding."
Amanda heard the warning, but she had a hard time taking it seriously. Her mother would never hide anything important. She suspected that the best man ended up being a jerk, probably hurting her father in some way. Her mother, in a fit of anger, tore of him out of every photo. Later, she could not bear to part with the photos and it would be too humiliating to show them to anyone. That was why they were hidden away in the box. The idea of Dotty West having a secret was ludicrous. Her smile was tired and worried, but it was a smile. "It'll take me about an hour to get dressed."
"I'll be there to pick you up." A quick goodbye and he was gone. Amanda stared at the box, wondering what to do. Shaking her head, she grabbed it back up and took it back to the attic. She didn't have the time to deal with it now, but she would make sure to ask her mother about them later. She wanted to know about this mysterious best man.
****
Green was having fun with Lee and Amanda chasing after him. They had followed up on so many false leads, they both felt like screaming. However, Amanda refused to even consider canceling her luncheon date with Aunt Katherine. Lee would not hear of it either.
She had seen little of her Aunt Katherine since the woman moved to Germany, but she had many fond memories of her. The vivacious woman stood out in a family of staid Wests. Her brother, Amanda's father, had also been different with his wonderful sense of humor. However, he had been quieter than his sister.
Katherine West had also been so different from any woman Amanda had met as a child. Instead of being married and having children, she was off dating and trying new adventures. Amanda had treasured the post cards from Lake Tahoe and the Grand Cannon and other places that had seemed so far away and so mysterious to the child she had been. Katherine had always brought something different with her when she visited.
Leaning back into her chair after finishing a way-too-fattening desert, Amanda had to admit that Aunt Katherine looked good. She hoped she would look half-as-good when she reached the older lady's age. Katherine's eyes had kept their youthful sparkle, and that restless energy that had made her so different was still evident in the way she held her body.
Katherine smiled as their waiter filled her wine glass. "So, has Dotty managed to keep the news to herself?"
Amanda snorted when she remembered Dotty's near slip that morning. Her poor mother had looked as if she was about to bite her own tongue in two, but she had managed to not say anything about Katherine. "She's been anxious to say something for the last two days, but she kept it all to herself."
She leaned forward, resting her arms lightly on the table. "So, what's the big news? Are you finally getting married?"
Aunt Katherine's laughter filled the restaurant. Amanda noticed a few people looking in their direction, but most were smiling. Katherine's laughter was one of pure joy. "Me? Married? Please, Amanda, you know me better than that! I have too much fun looking to ever stay with just one."
It was then that Amanda noticed how much Katherine reminded her of Lee, the old Lee. She acted as if she enjoyed being a loner, but there was a sense that she was running from something instead of towards it. Unlike Lee, she had had a happy home life with two loving parents. Amanda silently laughed at herself for even making the comparison. The two of them were nothing alike.
"Okay, so tell me your news," Amanda urged. She knew from Dotty's recent excitement that it had to be good.
"I'm moving back home." Katherine leaned back and grinned as she waited for the response.
Amanda's jaw dropped open. She could not believe her ears. "You're moving to Arlington?"
"Well, D.C. actually, but I thought it was close enough." The patrons of the restaurant looked back over in their direction when Amanda squealed in delight.
****