Scarecrow and Mrs. King is the copyrighted property of B&E Enterprises/Shoot the Moon Enterprises and Warner Brothers Television. This fiction item is intended for entertainment purposes only. While all characters, settings, and plot elements associated with the original work are the property of the copyright holders and/or other creators as indicated, any original characters, settings, and plot elements are the property of this item's author. No compensation has been received or will be accepted, and no copyright infringement is intended or should be implied.

The Energy of Sun Rays

Joe: Gatherings

On his way back from the mail kiosk, Joe saw that Amanda's minivan was in front of their townhouse, so he detoured over. He'd mentioned to Carrie that he might do this, but he made a mental note to make sure he called her if it looked like he'd be more than half an hour.

Amanda looked a bit frazzled as she opened the door. "Oh. Hi. You're here to talk about Jamie's doctor's appointment?"

Joe nodded.

"Well, come on in, but I should warn you that things are looking pretty stormy right now."

She hadn't been kidding. Jamie was sprawled on the living room floor; and despite the fact that he had a comic book open in front of him, his face was crumpled into one of the most severe scowls Joe had ever seen. Amanda hovered in the doorway between the living room and kitchen while he lowered himself down next to his son. "Hi."

"Hi," said Jamie, and the surliness in his face was reflected in his voice. "I guess you want to know how it went. Well, not very well."

"Actually, Jamie," said Amanda, "that's not quite true and you know it."

"I still have the cast on, don't I?" At the initial appointment, x-rays had showed a break to the scaphoid bone, just at the base of his thumb.

"Yes," said Amanda. "But the doctor said you're healing fine and that there's no reason it can't come off in another two or three weeks."

"That's nearly another month."

"You've already made it six weeks, Jamie," said Joe. "So you're past the halfway point."

"Whatever." He flipped the comic book to its next page.

"I don't like this attitude of yours," said Joe. "It's not okay to talk back to your Mom like that. You also need to look at me while I'm talking to you."

With exaggerated movements, Jamie sat up straight and looked him right in the eye. His expression and tone, though, didn't show the slightest evidence of moderation. "Fine. Whatever you say."

Joe sighed. "How about confirming whether your homework's done."

"It is, okay? I wouldn't be reading this if it weren't."

"That's true, Joe," said Amanda. "He's been turning in all his assignments on time this semester, and his teachers say he's participating in classes. His grades are at or near the top in every class."

"Not like that's difficult," muttered Jamie. "Everyone in this new school is a moron, including the teachers."

"Jamie!" admonished Amanda.

His response was to flop over onto his stomach and stare at the comic book again.

"Sit up," said Joe. "And close that book. Amanda, is there anything else the teachers are saying?"

"Yes. They say that he's making no effort to be friends or fit in, and that while he's not impolite, he's not pleasant or friendly either."

"I'm answering them when they call on me and I'm doing all the work!" snapped Jamie. "Even when it's stupid busywork that anyone with a brain should be able to get a hundred on. What else am I supposed to be doing? Acting like I'm happy to be there when I'm not?"

Joe frowned. "That's your own choice. We talked about that before you started there after winter break. Most situations are about as fun and pleasant as you want them to be."

"Yeah? Well I don't want this one to be," he shouted. "I want to go back to my old school and have my old friends back!"

"Your old bullies, you mean," said Joe, reminding himself not to allow Jamie to bait him. "Anyone who treated you like that can't have actually been your friend."

"They were before you came back," he flung back. "Before you married Carrie and Mom married Lee, and then Phillip and Grandma died because of Mom and Lee's stupid jobs!"

"Hey," said Amanda. There was a stricken look on her face. "We don't know if that last one is true yet."

"But it's true that you lied about your jobs!" he shot back. "And then you lied about being married for months, which means I don't know if I can trust anything you say anymore!" Pushing to his feet, Jamie kicked the comic book to the side and stomped up the stairs. Joe stood up to follow.

"Let him go, Joe," said Amanda as she came in and picked up the discarded book. "He just somehow got it into his head that the cast might come off today, even though the doctor said it could be anywhere from six to nine weeks. Then he had to do homework that he found boring, and his chores, before I would let him read this. Plus, he finally figured out that he doesn't have anyone to invite to his birthday party anymore. He's been building up this head of steam most of the afternoon."

"I'll say. But does he understand his behavior isn't acceptable? That it's his own fault he has no one to invite to the party? Which I suppose we'll have to postpone again anyway." Jamie's birthday had actually been a couple of weeks before, and they'd made a special dinner for him, but he'd asked to delay any other celebrations until after the cast was off.

"He just turned thirteen. He's still learning what's acceptable and what isn't." She sat down on the couch. "I'll talk to him about it in the morning, including reminding him that he does have people he can invite. You and Carrie, and some of the people from church. There are a couple of friends from Arlington Heights. It won't be an empty party. But anything I said tonight would just go in one ear and out the other."

With another sigh, Joe acquiesced to her greater knowledge. After all, Amanda still knew Jamie better than he did, and she'd done an amazing job raising him so far. He'd been exhausted for a week after Jamie had moved back over here, just from the sheer amount of work it had taken to deal with a pre-teen boy for several weeks. He didn't want to think about how much more difficult Jamie would be as he made his way through his teen years.

"Okay, then. I should get back over to place anyway. Carrie thinks I've just gone out for the mail." But then, as he was putting his coat on, he noticed the stapled pages lying on the coffee table. "What's that? Something to do with the case?"

"No," she answered, and her demeanor began to brighten. "It's Phillip's first draft of the paper he'd been working on. I got it in the mail from the high school yesterday." She picked it up and offered it to him. "You should read it. I — well, Phillip had really seemed to be headed toward a major in girls, and getting him to do his homework was sometimes worse than Jamie's bad moods. So I was really surprised to see how much research and work he'd done on it." She paused. "If you look, you can see that he was going to get an A-plus on this part of the project."

"Really? Maybe I should borrow your phone, then, just so I can let Carrie know where I am."

"Oh, don't be silly. There aren't any, um, special details in it. The kind that could lead to…well, you know."

He nodded, understanding her implied statement.

"So you can just take it over there and share it with her, too, if you'd like. Carrie has been so good about all this, even though she hadn't spent much time with the boys before…" she trailed off and took a breath. "Before Phillip and mother died."

"No," he acknowledged. "But she's been grieving, too, Amanda, even if not the way we have."

"I know, but she's been such a rock every time someone's gone to pieces. I don't know that I've told her how much I appreciate that. Will you let her know that I'm planning to tell her in person the next time I see her? Which I really hope is sooner instead of later, by the way. We'd love to have you over for dinner sometime soon."

"I sure would," he said, and then he noticed that her hands were cradling her navel. It wasn't the first time she'd done that during this conversation, and he pondered some of the other things Amanda had been doing lately: feeling tired more frequently. Being queasy, probably to the point of actual nausea. Heading to the bathroom more often. Plus, he noticed now, there was a subtle difference about her, a change he'd seen before.

"Amanda," he began, hesitantly, "can I ask you a question?"

"Probably?"

"Are you…do you think you could be…I mean, I know it's not the same this time, especially since you're married to Lee, now, but —"

"Just ask the question, Joe."

"Are you pregnant?"

Her eyes widened. "How did you — we haven't told anyone because we wanted Jamie to be the first, and I'm not all that far along yet and — Joe, how did you know?"

"Because I've seen you pregnant before. There's just something different about you, something that's the same as the way you were when we were expecting the boys. Little signs here and there, the kinds of things no one else would even know to ask about." He looked her over again. "You aren't very far along yet, are you?"

"I'm somewhere between twelve and fourteen weeks right now. My next checkup's next week, and they're going to measure to see if they can't narrow that down enough to set a due date."

Any reply he might have had was interrupted by the sound of a key in the front door. "Amanda," called Lee, "you'll never believe what I just — oh. Hi, Joe."

"Hi." He glanced over at Amanda, and then back. "I guess I should offer some congratulations. To both of you."

"For what?" asked Lee.

"He's just figured out that we're going to have a baby."

"Oh," said Lee, and one of his lopsided smiles appeared. "Thanks, then. Did you tell Jamie, too?"

"No," said Amanda. "You know we'd planned to…" she trailed off, looking back at Joe. "We were going to wait and tell all three of you after my next appointment, but we…" she looked at her husband. "We might as well do that sooner. Maybe even tonight, since dinner's still in the oven and I made enough for leftovers, which means I also made enough for a couple of extra people. Or — wait. Did you have something else you want to talk about?"

"I do," said Lee, "but it'll wait until later tonight."

Joe nodded. "Okay, then. I'll go call Carrie."

Author's Note: I am "borrowing" Greg Morton's birthday of January 12 for Jamie.