The day dawned bright and clear, flooding the room with sunlight, prodding them awake earlier than either would have liked.
Jaime was sitting on the bed combing out her wet hair when Oscar, clad only in a towel, emerged from the bathroom with a puzzled look on his face. Without a word he handed her a small square of blue construction paper. On it was a drawing of a lidded box, carefully but naively done. She returned his frown.
"It was in my shaving kit – where my razor should have been."
"Your razor is gone?" Jaime considered the paper again. "Looks to me like there's only one person who could be responsible for this - judging by the drawing - I'd say somebody roughly nine years old."
"That's what I thought - but why would Katie take my razor?"
"Beats me."
"She can't just come in here and root around in our belongings and take my razor." he said indignantly. "I'm going to have to talk to Judy. It's my new one – the one you bought me."
"Now hold on Bup." Jaime soothed. "She didn't steal it – after all she left us this clue. I don't think she's even trying to cover her tracks."
"Well, what the…?" he sputtered. "I'm going to look like a gorilla by midday."
"You won't look like a gorilla. You'll look...rugged." She waggled her eyebrows.
He gave her a look that was both skeptical and appeased - then a new thought illuminated his expression. "Hey - " He snapped his fingers and sat down beside her. "I just remembered...Bruce and I did a treasure hunt for Katie's birthday a few years ago. It was just like this...pictorial clues that lead to her present."
"You did that?" This is what she loved about him – his charms ran deep and quiet.
"You need not look so amazed."
"That's not amazement. That's my heart melting." Jaime replied, taking his hand. "You know - I bet those kids think you lead a glamorous life. You - and I guess I - have to be a major mystery to them. Maybe this is her way of getting into our world."
"Could be. When Sam was little he used to beg me for stories because he thought I was James Bond. He was a little disappointed when I told him I was more like Bond's boss. Anyway, I obliged with the occasional bedtime story – I always warned him they were a pack of lies, but he loved them and probably believed them. He hasn't made that request in years..." he added, a little wistfully.
"Now that I would like to witness." Jaime said, having before never imagined him in such a scenario.
"So are you up for a treasure hunt?"
"Yup. Could be fun. It's a mission - and we all know how much you love missions."
"No," he said, lifting his index finger for emphasis. "I love sending other people on missions while I sit in the comfort of my office."
"You big rat." Jaime guffawed, giving a firm shove that toppled him backward onto the bed.
"Okay, okay - just this once!" he added, wincing in mock fear.
They opened every box they could find in the room - five file boxes, two cardboard boxes, three gift boxes in the closet and one containing checks in the desk drawer - but they found no further clues. Oscar dressed and left Jaime to dry her hair.
Walking toward the kitchen he could hear Katie pleading with her mother. "Mom, I want you to take me, please? Dad's car is all dusty and it makes me sneeze and he'll call me rancid again." Her request was tinged with that whine - which caused Oscar to grit his teeth.
"Can you ask without that tone in your voice please?" he mother said, her teeth evidently also having been set on edge.
"Good morning!" Oscar said amiably, entering the room.
"Good morning Bup." Judy replied, turning to face him. 'Oh!" she added. "You're unusually unkempt."
"I'm on vacation." Oscar replied, turning pointedly to Katie. "I don't need to shave." In the intervening moments Katie, clad in a pink tutu and tights, had thrown herself into a chair, and was staring into her soggy cereal with a burning intensity.
"For heaven's sake, Katherine!" her mother said. "Posture! You look like you're going snorkeling in your milk."
"Morning, kiddo." he said.
"Morning Uncle Oscar." she peeped guiltily, without looking up.
He poured himself a cup of coffee and ambled into the living room, eying the room for boxes.
"Mom," he heard Katie say in a frank and remarkably adult voice, "would you please drive me to ballet? I think this would be a nice opportunity for us to spend some time together."
He heard Judy laugh. "That's better. Yes, I would be delighted to drive you."
Oscar spotted a small ebony box by the telephone. Just as he lifted the lid and peered into it Judy walked into the room.
"Oscar I've just got to…what are you doing?"
"I'm snooping." he replied defensively.
"Oh. All right." Judy said, slightly taken aback. "Listen, I've got to run Katie in for her ballet class."
"You put her in ballet class?" Oscar's tone was incredulous.
"If there's one thing I've learned in life it's that you should never stand between a little girl and her tutu. Don't you remember my ballet phase?"
"You had a ballet phase?" The image of his earthy sister in a tutu was almost impossible to put together.
"You might have been too young to remember. I loved it for about three months and then I got bored. Anyway, if you two can fix yourselves some breakfast, I'll be back in an hour and a half and we can figure out the day from there. Bruce is preparing some pieces for delivery, so he's probably tied up for awhile. You know your way around the kitchen."
Oscar felt an ridiculous thrum of excitement at the prospect of free time, unobserved by members of the household, with a mystery to solve. He saw his sister off, and just as he closed the door behind them Jaime appeared, discreetly but triumphantly waving another small square of paper. She was accompanied by two jubilant dogs.
"Laundry room." she said, before he could ask the question.
"Such a well trained agent." he murmured, kissing her cheek.
"Where is everybody?"
He explained the respective whereabouts of all the family while frowning at the little drawing. "Is that a stork or a pair of scissors?"
"I think it's scissors."
"That kid can count out a career in art, that's for sure."
Jaime giggled and gave him a light reprimanding whack.
Pouring herself a cup of coffee she prompted him to make the first of his three daily security calls. He had needed reminding lately – that was a memory slip that could produce dramatic consequences. Fortunately this little rigmarole had gotten much easier since he had been given a new state-of-the-art telephone - so small he could carry it in a pocket. Now he could call from just about anywhere at any time and the call flew up to space, bounced off a satellite and landed in Washington at the OSI's Remote Security department. The reception was usually so murky it sounded as though he was actually calling from space, but still - it was fantastic technology. Oscar insisted that one day everyone would have one, but Jaime was skeptical. Who would want one? Who would want to be available to everyone all the time?
Forgetting to make his security check calls was just one indication of Oscar's new laissez-faire approach to that high powered job of his. He still worked like a dog, but he also was getting better at stepping back and taking breaks. "I'm not God stepping out on the third day of creation, Russ." he had said irritably to his favorite subordinate just a few days earlier. "I'm just going out of town for a few days. You can run the show. If the President can take vacations, why the hell can't I?"
"What do you think Katie's up to?" Jaime asked, after Oscar had slipped the phone into his pocket and topped up his coffee.
"I thought we had that all figured out." Oscar replied, joining her at the kitchen table.
"I'm not so sure. She's never done anything like this before?"
"Nope."
Fred and Ginger sat together facing the humans, wagging their tales uncertainly, hoping to be entertained or, better yet, fed.
Jaime scratched Ginger's head absently. "It seems to me that something is bothering Katie. Is she always so intense?"
"Not that I recall. I think of her as having her Dad's nature. I figured she was overexcited because you were here."
"Does it seem to you like she's mad at him?"
"At Bruce? Yeah...maybe." Oscar mused. "She didn't want him to drive her to her ballet lesson this morning."
"Really? And when you've talked to Judy lately she hasn't told you of any…domestic unrest, or anything like that? Nothing's wrong at school?"
"Not that I've heard about."
"Huh." Jaime gazed into the big dog's eyes. "What's up Ginger? You must know."
"Okay Sherlock...Dr. Dolittle, whatever you are..." Oscar said, rising to his feet, "we can theorize later – let's get hunting."
"Indubitably, my dear Watson."
The scissor clue proved easy. The little square of paper was hidden in Judy's office – their bedroom – in a mug on her desk that held scissors and pencils.
Unfortunately, the drawing was harder to decipher this time. It was an irregular oblong shape punctuated by a few dots.
"Rock?"
"Amoeba?"
"Pond?"
"Mango?"
"Potato?"
"Let's start with potato." A peruse of the kitchen yielded nothing, despite the able assistance of the dogs, who poked their noses helpfully into every low cupboard Oscar opened. Then Jaime thought of looking in the basement. The dogs made any attempt to sneak completely futile, thundering down the stairs together, panting happily, toenails clicking on the hardwood. Nonetheless the humans carefully tiptoed past Sam's closed door toward the unfinished part of the basement. It was stuffed with the usual contents of basements, old toys, boxes, tools, shelves of canned fruit and vegetables...and a bag of potatoes. Another clue was placed neatly on top.
This time it was a chair. They crept back upstairs and commenced examining every chair in the house. After half an hour and a thorough re-check, they were forced to admit defeat.
"It must be in Sam's room." Oscar muttered.
"Great." Jaime grumbled.
Judy and Katie arrived home shortly after the investigation had ground to a halt. Two minutes later Carl clanked into the driveway on his ancient ten speed, a thick wad of papers under one arm. Jaime realized she had forgotten that he existed.
He came bearing bad news - Judy's regular teaching assistant had the flu, and was too sick to mark the mountain of essay papers that were due to be returned to students on Monday. Carl would help as much as he could, but he had a commitment in the afternoon, which meant the job would fall back to Judy.
"But we have company!" she cried out to no one in particular. Wandering into the kitchen, she could be heard to hiss, "Damn it all to hell!".
Jaime quickly hatched a plan to take Katie on a hike, and Oscar nodded his assent, just a little reluctantly. He had doubtless not planned to spend the day entertaining a child. It was worth it - a look of desperate gratitude crept on to Judy's face - with a few undisturbed hours she thought she could get the job done - and Jaime wondered if she might have made a dent in the armor.