Dotty stepped into the attic and immediately sneezed. “Damn, I always forget to bring a cloth with me to cover my nose. This has to be the dustiest room in the entire house.” Looking around at all the boxes of memorabilia and various other items, including one marked old clothes, she shook her head. “One of these days, I need to tie my daughter down and the two of us need to go through all this stuff and get rid of some of this junk.”
However, Dotty wasn’t rushed, though a little one-on-one time with her daughter would be nice. Ever since Amanda had brought Lee home at Christmas, and the two had admitted they were dating, her daughter’s spare time was extremely limited. What time she didn’t spend with the boys, or working, she spent with Lee Stetson. But Amanda’s happiness was worth the limited time shared with her daughter.
The first time she had met Lee Stetson, Dotty had known that the man was much more than a boss to her daughter. She remembered being slightly embarrassed, later, having called him the termite man, only to find out he was the elusive Mr. Stetson. And when Amanda had finally come clean that she was dating Lee, Dotty had wanted to shout from the roof tops that she had known all along, but she had kept her mouth shut. She had even told Andrei Zernov, that nice Russian scientist who had gotten mixed up with some very bad government men, that she thought her daughter was involved with someone at work. What other explanation could there have been for Amanda’s break up with Dean.
Sneezing again, Dotty decided that her walk down memory lane was over. She needed to find what she came up here for and get back downstairs. “Now what did I come up here for? Oh that’s right, Jamie needed one of Amanda’s old books for his book report.” Her youngest grandson had been given an assignment to write a report on one of their parents’ favorite childhood books, and for some reason he didn’t want to do it on Sky Chief Rides Again. “Now where did Amanda say it was?” Snapping her fingers, she remembered. Amanda had told her that her old boxes were back in the corner, next to the Christmas decorations.
Dotty maneuvered her way over, covering her nose and mouth as best she could with her arm as she navigated around the assortment of boxes. Reaching the corner, she saw three boxes marked ‘Amanda’s stuff’. One of these had to be the right one. Choosing the one on top, she sat down on the Rubbermaid container beside her, and placed it on the floor. As she opened the flap, and saw the first item, she felt she’d struck gold on the first try. There on top was a copy of that awful play Amanda had been last year, ‘Parisian Intrigue.’ Well if the script was in here then this box had to contain other books.
Removing the script, Dotty placed it on a closed box beside her and then, looking back inside the open box in front her, her brow furrowed in confusion. She picked up the device that was clearly not a book and sneezed again. “Now what is this old hairdryer doing up here, and what the devil is all this white stuff on it.” Suddenly she began to have serious doubts that this box held anymore books. Peering back inside the box, her suspicions were confirmed as she took a look at the assortment of colors and edges of items she couldn’t quite make out peeking back at her. “What a pile of old rubbish.”
Dotty was about to put the hairdryer back in and shut the box, when she looked closer at the pink article now lying on top. It looked vaguely familiar. Putting the hairdryer on the box next to her where the script now lay, she wrapped her fingers around the pink cotton fabric and removed it from the box. She had been right; it was familiar, very familiar in fact. It was Amanda’s favorite sweater, or had been up until about a year ago, when she’d suddenly stopped wearing it. She remembered briefly wanting to ask Amanda what had happened to it, but every time she had gotten the chance, something had come up and her daughter would dash off before she could get the question out. “What on Earth is it doing up here?”
Examining the sweater closer, Dotty noticed a small hole in the side. It didn’t look like something that could easily be fixed, so why was it in this box and not in the trash? The shape of the hole was a perfect circle, almost as if it had been burned by a cigarette. But her daughter didn’t smoke, and as far as she knew, Amanda didn’t have any friends who did, either. Though a co-worker of hers could have gotten a little too close and accidentally destroyed the sweater. Bringing it up to her nose, she sniffed. There was no trace of cigarette left behind. “Clearly not a burn. I wonder what could have made a hole like that.” Shrugging, she put it next to the hairdryer and, now that her curiosity was in high gear, she glanced back into the box to see what other oddities were inside.
The next item looked like an antique music box. Pulling it out, she opened the lid and, expecting to hear sweet music, was greatly disappointed to find that it didn’t work at all. ‘Funny,’ she mused silently. The small wooden box reminded her of another box that one of her grandson’s had admitted to breaking. Apparently it was supposed to be a gift for Aunt Minnie, but because they had gotten curious, it had never actually made it to Maine.
Placing the old box beside the other items, Dotty shook her head in bewilderment. “Why on Earth would Amanda want to keep a hairdryer covered in white powder-looking stuff, a broken music box and a damaged sweater?” So far all the items she pulled out, looked like they belonged in a garbage heap, with the exception of the script, and even that was debatable.
Peering back inside the box, the next item made Dotty really scrunch up her face in confusion. It had to be the ugliest stuffed duck she’d ever seen. Removing it from the box, she saw it had one of those pull strings. Throwing caution to the wind, she pulled on the little hoop. ‘Success comes one step at a time,’ it quacked out. Now she was very confused. At first glance she thought that maybe it had been a prize she or Joe, or even Dean might have won at a carnival. Now she wasn't sure at all. Carnival animals didn't usually talk and if they did, the certainly didn't give career advice. “Hmm... maybe Amanda went to a career fair or one of those personal improvement seminars and this was a give away.” Though, as she put it with the other items, she couldn’t help but thinking that it was a very strange type of give away.
Dotty glanced back into the box and her gaze fell on a bit of gray cloth. Removing it, she discovered that it was a maid’s uniform. When was Amanda ever a maid? She knew her daughter had volunteered at the hospital as a Bedside Bluebell, but a maid? Then again, her daughter did have some strange jobs there for awhile, what with that plant watering and pet sitting business, so maybe one of her customers had needed their house cleaned too. “Well if that’s the case, why wouldn’t this be hanging in her closet?” Shrugging again, she chuckled. With all this shrugging, her shoulders were getting a good work out.
Dotty piled the uniform on top of the sweater and glancing back into the box, saw two last items. One of which, confirmed her suspicions that the uniform had to be related to that pet-plant business. It was a box of fish food. Picking it up, she examined it closer. “This looks like it’s for some kind of exotic fish.” She shook her head. Her daughter really had some strange clients. She chuckled to herself as she remembered that one blonde with the chimpanzee. Who in their right mind would want a chimp? Especially someone as well-groomed as that Ms Diamond was it? Despot? Putting the fish food with all the other items she’d already uncovered, she reached in and pulled out the last item.
“Now this belongs on display.” In her hand she held an autographed football. “The boys would love to see this. “ Then, noticing the inscription ‘To a heck of a good reporter, best wishes, Sandy Newcome,’ Dotty was once again stumped. Reporter? As far as she knew her daughter had never worked for a newspaper. Then, remembering the script and the fact that Amanda had told her that she’d auditioned for the play because it was similar to one she’d been in college, she began to wonder. “Perhaps Amanda got this while she was in college.” If memory served her correctly, she was pretty sure her daughter had worked on the school paper for awhile. Perhaps she’d had to interview one of the college football players.
Well the football and the script were going downstairs to be put on the bookshelves in the den. And not just anywhere, they were going to go right in plain sight so that when Amanda asked what they were doing there, then Dotty could find the perfect opening to ask about everything in the box. Putting the football on her other side next to the script, she reached down to start placing the other items she considered more junk than anything else, back in the box. “I’m very curious to know why Amanda’s kept all of this stuff.”
“Mother? Are you up here?” Amanda stepped into the attic and stopped. There on the box next to her mother was a pile of items she’d secretly gathered from various cases she’d been on long before she and Lee had admitted their feelings for each other, but held strange sentimental value to her. She’d almost forgotten about the stupid duck that had brainwashed Lee into killing Mr. Melrose, and the fish food she’d snuck out of Lee’s apartment after she’d been kidnapped by Russians thinking she was the mighty Scarecrow. There was the hairdryer from the Retzig fiasco and the football. She’d kept that as a souvenir of the first time Lee had kissed her.
Dotty turned to see the object of her musings standing in the doorway looking for all the world like she’d just seen a ghost. “Amanda, just the person I was hoping to see.” She motioned towards the items next to her. “I’m dying to know what all of this is doing up here.”
If only her mother knew about the Agency, it would make everything so much easier. “Um, Mother, I can explain…” Though, as she moved towards her mother, she realized that she didn’t have the foggiest idea how.
The End