| Author's Note: After noting (well, actually getting
it pointed out to by a few people) that my stories are usually sad or depressing,
I decided that I needed to do another happy fic. Thanks to Tammy, Jenny,
Brenda, Mara, and Kathy for answering questions that they had no idea why
I was asking at first. The Quotes come from the works of Shakespeare, including
Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Tempest. The
poem in part two comes from Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken. Translations
for the Italian sentences and phrases are at the end of the part they appear
in. Thanks to my beta reader: Brenda |
| Sigh no more, ladies Sigh no more Men were deceivers ever One foot in sea, and one on shore To one thing constant never But sigh not so But let them go And be you blithe and bonny Converting all your sounds of woe Into Hey nonny nonny Sing no more ditties Sing no more Of dumps so dull and heavy The flight of man was ever so Since summer was first leavy But sigh not so But let them go And be you blithe and bonny Converting all your sounds of woe Into hey nonny nonny 1530, 29 October 1988 The Agency "Where is everyone?" Amanda asked herself as she walked down the dimly
lit Agency hallway. She was confused and frustrated at the same time.
The past week had been very hard on her. Lee was away on assignment, the
boys were out of town on a camping trip with Joe, and Mother was off skiing
with Captain Kurt somewhere out west. She needed to talk to someone. Her
week of vacation was turning into one frustration after another. What
she really needed was Lee to be home. Or, at the very least, be able to
call and talk about nothing for a couple of hours. Seeing no one in the
bullpen, she took out the notes she'd been given throughout the day. Amanda woke up feeling slightly chilly. This was the first time in a
year that Lee hadn't been there while her Mother and the boys were gone.
She put her robe on and headed downstairs to make some hot chocolate.
'The house sure is quiet, now,' she thought as she brought the water to
boil. Amanda walked over to the pantry where she kept the special hot
chocolate that Lee had given her for their anniversary. When she turned
back to the counter, a single red rose rested there. Attached to it was
a note. How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world that has such people in it! Follow your heart to where your adventure began. "'To where your adventure began'? Now what does that mean?" Amanda stared at the note until the teakettle whistled. She poured the hot water into a mug and added just a dash of sprite to it. She placed the rose into a vase, took it, the note, and her hot chocolate into the living room with her. Placing the items on the coffee table she went over to the bookcase and selected one of her favorite books from the shelf. The Complete Works of Shakespeare. It had been a wedding gift from her Shakespearean Lit professor when she married Joe. 'My, this needs a good dusting,' she thought as she sat down on the couch with the tome. Twenty minutes later she found the quote she was looking for. She reread the note again. "Of course! Where my adventure began! The train station!" Amanda placed the book on the table next to the vase and ran up the
stairs to change. Ten minutes later she rushed out of the house and drove
to the start of her new life. She spent an hour that morning at the train
station where she met Lee for the first time. A man dressed in a white
suit approached her with a small package that had her name on it. Inside
the package was a small gold and silver locket. When she opened it, music
began to play. She identified it as 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow'. Inside
the locket was a small picture of a red rose and a piece of straw. Amanda fingered the locket delicately. There was only one person, well
make that two people, who could have gotten her the locket. The note that
had accompanied the locket was like the one that mysteriously appeared
on her counter earlier. |