In Limbo

Chapter 60

As Lee brought Amanda to the couch after she arrived, she asked, "How have you been, Colonel?"

Colonel Clayton stated abruptly, "Right as rain, Amanda...Now, what was so urgent that Lee and I needed to discuss, hmm?"

Glancing at Lee, and then at the Colonel, Amanda replied slowly, "Well, Lee and I had dinner with my mother earlier this evening, and she...Well, she asked Lee about his parents, because he didn't go into much detail when my son Phillip asked earlier this week, and-"

The Colonel bewildered, queried to Lee, "Does she do this often?"

Lee asked, "Excuse me?"

Colonel Clayton sighed, answering with a gesture, "Go around the block in her mind without giving people head maps to follow?"

Lee remarked with a low chuckle, getting the meaning of the Colonel's question, "Y-Yes, Sir...Most of the time-"

Amanda queried to Lee, "Hey! What is he talking about?"

Clearing his throat, Lee stated to Amanda, "He wants you to get to the point!"

Then Lee put up a hand to Amanda to stop her talking, and looking at the Colonel, replied, "Sir, Amanda's ex-husband, Joe King died recently, and there was some misspoken words said when he had dinner with the family for the last time. It left her sons confused and angry, not knowing how to feel about the man. Well, I had dinner with the family last week, and her eldest son, Phillip, asked me what my folks did for a living when I was a kid...I simply said that they traveled a lot. They don't know about Amanda being my partner, so I wasn't about to tell the kid about my folks being agents..."

-SMK-

Taking another sip of his drink, Lee swallowed and continued, responding, "Anyway, like Amanda said, I had dinner with her and her mother the other night. They were remembering Amanda's late father's birthday, but then Dotty asked me later about my folks, and for some odd reason, I was recounting some discussion from their funeral day, and I guess I was out of it for a few minutes."

The Colonel was confused and after a moment, he queried, "The funeral? But I didn't see you until after I arrived...Where were you?"

Swallowing hard, Lee answered, "Grandmother and Aunt Sally needed to talk, so I was in another room waiting...But the door wasn't completely shut...I-I heard some things..."

Colonel Clayton nodded, asking, with concern, " Okay...What things?"

Lee glancing at Amanda, shook his head uncomfortably querying, "Happy now?"

Amanda remarked with a shrug, "At-At least you're talking..."

Lee groaned, and with a nod, narrowed his eyes at her, saying, "If you had just stayed the hell out of this, we would've been fine-"

The Colonel tried to intervene, saying firmly, "Skip! Hold on! What-"

Amanda argued back, answering in a ramble with gestures, "Oh, sure! He's upset because you're upset, and he doesn't know why, so why not just talk about whatever was going on with you the other night-"

But Lee angrily answered with a shake of his head and pointing a finger at Amanda, "Oh no, Mrs. Buttinski! You started this, so why don't you finish it-"

The Colonel, hearing enough, stood up suddenly from the couch, and with a booming voice, stated loudly, "ATTEN-TION!"

Lee stood up immediately, straight and tall, while Amanda, still sitting, answered to Lee's tap to her arm, with a shrug, "I didn't grow up with him. I don't have to-"

The Colonel barked, "I SAID ATTENTION!"

Amanda quickly rose and straightened up stiffly, and when the Colonel was satisfied, he commented, "At Ease..."

-SMK-

When Lee and Amanda relaxed, Colonel Clayton answered, "Now, Amanda, I can appreciate your wanting to help Skip with whatever is troubling him, but I think I know what's on his mind-"

Lee and Amanda both perplexed, asked, "You do?"

Colonel Clayton nodding, remarked to Lee, "Yes...You've wanted to ask me this ever since you came to live with me, right? So, ask me...I've often wondered if you'd ever bring it up."

As Amanda sat back down on the couch, she watched Lee, taking a deep breath, and letting it out, slowly began to pace around the room, and running a hand through his hair as he often did when he was upset about something, stopped at one point, and when it finally dawned on him what the Colonel meant, he then faced the man who had raised him, and queried painfully, " Okay...Where the hell were you back then, and why did it take three lousy years for you to come get me?!"

TBC