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Lee sat at his desk and stared at the manila envelope lying in the center. He'd received two other identical envelopes this week. They all had no return address and his name printed exactly in the center.

So far, the contents hadn't been dangerous, just intriguing. Ragmop had dropped off the first one on Monday but had no idea who’d sent it. Lee carefully opened it and dumped the contents on his desk. Billy walked in, just as he picked up a cardboard of safety pins and a note asking him to "remember the Mole." To keep Billy from asking questions he couldn’t answer, he’d schooled his expression and told his boss the note was from Amanda, reminding him to put the pins in his briefcase so they wouldn't forget to take them home.

The next day another envelope appeared, a little bulkier than the previous one, containing a duplicate note and one yellow rubber duck. He vaguely remembered having one as a kid.  Francine happened to catch sight of the duck on his desk and had asked if he needed more fun in the bath. Of course, Amanda made bath time lots of fun, but Francine didn't need to know that.

He couldn't remember any enemy agent code-named the Mole and had spent most of yesterday searching the Agency database. Very carefully, he slit the new envelope open and extracted the contents--one cigar and the expected note. He picked up the cigar and ran it under his nose. Taking a deep breath, he inhaled the rich aroma of grade-A tobacco. Cuba's finest. Very expensive and very illegal.

Lee put the cigar in the locked box in his desk next to the pins and the rubber duck, gathered up the latest envelope, and headed down to the lab. Maybe his mysterious pen pal finally made a mistake and left some clue to his identity.

He decided to wait until he got the lab results before sharing the mystery with his wife. Noticing the time, he left the lab and drove to pick up Amanda. She'd been taking some extra target practice in the mornings at the FBI shooting range. She had a firearms qualification exam next week and wanted to ace it. He had a friend in the Bureau who had agreed to give her a hand before shift. So each morning this week, he'd dropped her off and picked her up again.

They’d no sooner returned to the Agency than all hell broke loose. Francine got a line on the IRA plot to assassinate the British Ambassador, so they turned around to go help pick up the suspect.

He spent the rest of the day in interrogation and never got back to the lab to check their findings on his mysterious mail. Lee planned to get Amanda’s take on the mystifying mail during the drive home, but she had different ideas.

She told him, in intimate detail, what she had planned for him this weekend. Since Sunday was Father’s Day, the boys would be spending the entire weekend with Joe. By the time they had a moment alone together, work was the last thing on his mind.

Thursday morning Lee went to the lab and learned there were no clues on the envelope. The only prints were his. When Ragmop brought the morning mail up to the Q-Bureau, the usual manila envelope was absent, and he figured his pen pal was tired of the game. No such luck. Instead of an envelope, a small box containing three wooden blocks and the now familiar note arrived. Every block had a letter of the alphabet carved on each side.

Amanda had the afternoon off to shop with her mother. Instead of doing the filing that he’d promised her, he spent the entire afternoon trying to unscramble the letters on the blocks. He went through every code file and came up empty. It seemed they were just letters. Maybe tonight, if things were quiet at home, he’d get a chance to talk to Amanda about it. She’d see things he never would.  

That night, as they washed and dried the dinner dishes, Lee had a chance to tell her about the curious mail he’d been receiving.  She convinced him, based on the evidence, that someone within the Agency had to be sending it to him.

If the letters went through normal mail delivery, there would be fingerprints on them. If not the sender’s, the post office employees’ at least. One of their colleagues must be playing a practical joke on him.

Friday morning Amanda decided not to go to the shooting range, so they checked with Lee’s family before heading into the Agency. None of them had any idea who the Mole could be. They went back to work in time for the morning briefing, but there were no new assignments. It looked like it was going to be a quiet weekend in the intelligence community.

After opening the door to the Q, Lee noticed a huge box on his desk. Raking his fingers through his hair, he strode across the office and ripped the box open. A honey-colored teddy bear sat inside. He pulled it out and presented it to his wife. A note was pinned to the yellow ribbon around its neck. He tore the flap and saw the familiar phrase--remember the Mole.

Amanda smiled and cuddled the bear to her chest, promptly naming him Ted E. Bear. She placed the bear on the couch, adjusting him so she could look at him from her desk.

He just shook his head as she sat behind her desk. She picked up a file and winked at him.

If he didn’t find out who was sending him these packages soon, he would go crazy. What were they trying to tell him? The only mole he remembered was the one Amanda had told him about--the one that ate all the carrots in her garden.

He paced around the office, trying to puzzle it out. His restlessness must have bothered his wife because she put her file away, tucked the bear under her arm, and dragged him out of the office.

They drove to Rock Creek Park and spent the morning walking around the picturesque grounds before grabbing a couple of hot dogs for an impromptu picnic lunch. He loved times like this--a beautiful day, no work, and just being with his wife.

They arrived home in time for supper. The boys surprised him with a Father’s Day dinner. They’d cooked spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread, and a salad. He couldn’t believe they’d gone to all this trouble for him. He felt honored that they considered him their “father.”

After the boys cleared the supper dishes, they brought out a blueberry pie and some vanilla ice cream. They admitted they hadn’t made the pie but coerced their grandmother into making it for them.

Then the boys gave him gifts, humbling him even further. Jamie presented him with a beautiful picture of the whole family taken at the restaurant on Amanda’s birthday. Phillip gave him a book on the strategies of the Civil War.

He didn’t know what to say. “Thank you” didn’t quite cover it. He hugged them both, but before he could say anything else, Joe arrived and the King trio quickly left.

Lee returned from locking up after the boys to find a box, wrapped in car paper, sitting in front of his place at the dining room table. Amanda sat at the table with an enigmatic smile on her face.

She patted the chair next to her. When he sat, she pushed the box in front of him. Curious as to what she was up to, he tore the paper off and opened the box. Inside, nestled in tissue paper, was a baseball cap with “Bombers” stitched across the front and “Coach” on the back.

Puzzled by its meaning, he pulled it out of the box. Inside the cap was a note, written in Amanda’s neat script--Do you remember the Mole?

He couldn’t believe she’d sent him all of the items. Why would she send him safety pins, a rubber duck, a cigar, blocks, a teddy bear, and a baseball cap? Then it hit him. He finally figured out who the Mole was.

A few years ago, he’d had to uncover a mole in the Agency. Amanda did some legwork for him, and he met her at one of the boys’ Little League games. She wanted him to wear a cap, to fit in with the other fathers. He’d adamantly refused, saying, “he’d never be a Bomber father,” or something to that effect. 

“Are you trying to tell me what I think you’re trying to tell me?” At her nod, his smile widened.

“Happy Father’s Day!”

End