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When she was a little girl, Amanda West could see angels.
It had taken a while for her mother to figure it out, only slowly dawning on her over the course of several years. As an infant, Amanda was always a happy smiling baby and it had often seemed she'd been smiling at someone just out of Dotty's peripheral vision, but when Dotty would turn to look, there'd be no one there, just a shift in the light, or a rainbow or a single feather floating through the air. It was when Amanda began to talk that she started to understand it.
"Momma, there's an angel in the car next to us," the small six-year old voice had said from the backseat. Dotty had turned to look past Carl at the middle-aged man staring into the stop-and-go traffic through his own windshield. He was very average looking, no reason for Amanda to think he was angelic, she thought, although there was an odd trick of the light that meant the setting sun behind him gave him a kind of aura.
"Why do you think that man's an angel, Darling?" she asked.
"Oh Momma, the man isn't the angel!" laughed Amanda. "He's just a man! No, the angel's gone now but I think she wanted us to help him."
Dotty turned to look at her daughter who was staring into the adjacent car with a concerned expression. She let her eyes drift in the same direction and realized suddenly that the man was now slumped over his steering wheel, a blueish tinge to his skin.
"Oh my God, Carl! Stop the car!" She was out of the car before he'd even realized something was wrong, racing to pull the man from his car and try to revive him.
Miraculously, he'd lived, and it hadn't been until she was tucking Amanda into bed that night that she'd remembered to ask about the 'angel'. "What exactly did you see, Darling? In that man's car today?"
"Just an angel," shrugged Amanda. "You know."
Dotty was taken aback by her daughter's nonchalance. "Not really, Dear. What did the angel look like?"
"She's pretty. She has dark eyes like you and brown hair and she's always smiling."
"Always? Do you see her a lot?"
Dotty had just about decided this was some kind of imaginary friend Amanda had come up with when Amanda answered seriously. "No, she's only just started visiting. Before that it was different ones. There was the one that whacked Jimmy on the back when he was choking on that hot dog and a different one that sat with me that day you were late to pick me up from school."
Dotty stared at Amanda, completely nonplussed. She could remember arriving half an hour late to pick up Amanda from kindergarten, delayed by traffic and panic-stricken only to find her tiny daughter happily perched on a bench, humming to herself – but completely alone. She remembered the hot dog incident too – at the Henderson's barbecue the previous summer. The adults had all been chatting when Amanda began calling out and they had all looked over to see Jimmy choking on something, but before any of them could even move, he had pitched forward onto his knees and coughed it up on his own.
"There was an angel with Jimmy?" she asked doubtfully.
"Oh yeah," Amanda's dark head nodded emphatically. "He came up behind him and whacked him so hard on the back that Jimmy fell down. Didn't you see him?" Her dark eyes looked up at Dotty's in confusion. "You musta seen him Momma, 'cause angels glow."
She'd seemed so certain that all Dotty could do was nod.
"Mother Dearest! Are you home?"
Dotty rolled her eyes as the front door slammed and her daughter danced into the kitchen, smiling broadly. It had become a running joke for Amanda to call her that ever since Carl's mother had scolded her granddaughter for referring to her parents as "Ma and Pa Kettle", saying it was rude to suggest her parents – and thus herself – were some kind of backwoods yokels. Amanda, face schooled to look serious, had tried to explain to her that it was a compliment to her parents' salt of the earth common sense, but it hadn't swayed her grandmother's sense of injury and in response, Amanda had called them 'Darling Papa' and 'Mother Dearest' for the rest of Grandmother West's visit. Her grandmother had seemed suspicious of the sudden change in tone, but as a woman with virtually no sense of humor, she hadn't been able to detect the laughter in Amanda's eyes, and Carl – definitely his father's son – had done nothing to discourage her, lips pressed firmly together to hide his amusement.
"You're in a good mood, Darling."
"Just glad to be alive," grinned Amanda. "Daddy always makes it such a big deal when he takes me for a driving lesson and pretends that every intersection is a death trap!"
"I'm sure you're a very good driver, Darling – and your father does tend to overreact to every little thing. He tried to teach me once and we both just gave up for the sake of our marriage." Dotty dimpled at her husband as he walked into the kitchen and slumped into a chair at the table. "He agreed he'd be at my beck and call until we're 100 years old and I agreed not to ask him for another lesson. Isn't that right, Carl?"
Carl looked up from the table, his mind obviously somewhere else. "What was that, Dear?" he asked.
"Never mind, Darling, we're just teasing you," laughed Dotty, pressing a kiss on his temple. "Dinner's almost ready, Amanda, so go wash up, please and then you can set the table."
As her daughter bounced back out of the room, Carl looked at his wife, shaking his head. "She doesn't even realize how close it was."
"How close what was?" she asked, suddenly taking in his ashen pallor.
"That car…" he shuddered. He paused and looked over his shoulder to make sure Amanda was out of earshot, then looked back at Dotty. "We came up to the traffic light at Elm Street, and…"
"Didn't she stop?" asked Dotty, a thousand horrifying images flashing through her mind.
"No, she came to a perfect stop," he responded.
"Well, then what's wrong?" asked Dotty.
"The light turned green… and she didn't move."
Dotty raised an eyebrow and waited.
"So I said 'You can go now, Amanda' and she kind of shook herself and put the car in gear – and just then this lunatic just blew through the red light going like a bat out of hell."
"Oh my God!" exclaimed Dotty with real horror.
"We would have been right in his path. If she hadn't been so slow to move, I'm not sure either of us would still be here."
"Oh Carl! That's awful!"
He stared down at his hands that were still shaking slightly before looking back to meet Dotty's wide eyes.
"And she just laughed and said her guardian angel must have put that couple in the crosswalk to keep her out of his way."
"Is that why she hadn't moved? Because she was waiting for pedestrians? Thank goodness for that!"
"Well, that's just the thing, Dot – there was nobody there – there was nobody for blocks! And when I pointed it out, she looked again and laughed and said it must have been a trick of the light that kept me from seeing them because they were definitely there."
"Is Daddy telling you about my supposedly imaginary friends?" Amanda grinned and flopped down at the table beside her father. "I don't know how he didn't see them – the lady waved at us when she got across the street." She stopped for a moment, lost in thought. "I'm sure I've seen them before and I just can't place where."
Dotty looked back and forth between her husband and daughter, trying to decide which was worse: either Carl was going blind or Amanda was going crazy. Doesn't matter, she decided, nodding firmly. Either way, they were both still here at her kitchen table – that's what was important.
Amanda walked out of Joe's parents' house and sighed with exhaustion. She'd forgotten how tiring it was to do anything when you're eight months pregnant. Big as a house and just about as agile, her mother said. Everything on her body felt round– and her mirror confirmed it looked that way too. Her face had lost all its angularity and she seemed to be retaining water because her arms and legs had puffed up like balloons. She winced as she walked from the discomfort of all the extra weight on thick ankles – she hadn't really seen them in a while but Joe assured her they were long gone. She longed to get home and put her feet up and let Joe massage away the pain just for a little while. But first, she had to get to her car and today, in the heat of a surprise October heatwave, it seemed a step too far.
She'd come to visit Joe's father as he recovered from a minor heart attack – he and Joe's mom wanted to see Phillip in his Halloween costume since they wouldn't be able to drop by that evening to see him head out trick-or-treating. They had ooh-ed and aah-ed over his dragon costume – homemade with help from Dotty since Amanda could barely get close enough to a sewing machine these days – and loaded him up with a bag of his favorite candy to take home.
Phillip ran ahead to the car which she'd had to park a few doors down because of the limited parking that day. At two and a half and hampered by his costume, he wasn't running fast, but he was certainly more spry than she was and she took in a breath to call to him to slow down and let her catch up. In the instant before she could, Phillip's eye was caught by something further down the street and he picked up speed, racing past the station wagon and heading with determination towards the busy main road at the end of the block.
"Phillip! Stop! Come back here!" Amada began to jog, trying to catch up but he had too much of a head start and she began to panic as she realized that Phillip had every intention of simply bolting out into traffic to get to whatever had grabbed his attention.
Even as her brain processed that there was no way she was going to catch him before he reached Wisconsin Avenue - which he was now mere feet away from - a door slid open on a delivery van parked along the curb and a tall man stepped out, looking around in confusion.
"Grab him!" she managed to pant out, breathless now between the running and the baby pressing up onto her lungs. It didn't seem possible that the man had heard her over the distance Phillip had managed to put between them, but it appeared he had, because a long arm shot out and grabbed Phillip around the waist, picking him up and swinging him up against his chest.
There was a moment of peace and then Phillip began to wail in terror, struggling to get away from the stranger who had grabbed him, but his rescuer seemed unfazed, simply continuing to hold the wriggling toddler tight against his body and only wincing slightly at the blows of small feet drumming against his upper thighs.
As Amanda caught up, gasping for breath, another head popped out from inside the van.
"What you got, partner?" asked the second man. "Outlaw on the lam?"
"Well," said the first man, peering down at the felt scales on the costume. "It looks like I've got some kind of a dragon."
"Interesting. Is it wearing a collar?"
"Why no, it's not," said Phillip's rescuer. "Excuse me, ma'am, but is this dragon licensed? I don't think you're allowed to have fire-breathing animals loose on the street."
Amanda managed a laugh, although her heart rate was still pounding in terror at the close call. She looked up at the man – tall and lanky with a drooping mustache and hair just a little too far past the collar of the dress shirt he was wearing.
Mod Squad meets McCloud she thought idly.
"No, I'm afraid I don't," she answered. "It's on my to-do list though."
"Well, we might just have to hold onto him then," said the second man seriously. "I'm sure there's a bounty on dragons in this county."
At this pronouncement, Phillip began to wriggle in earnest, calling for his mother, and the sandy-haired rescuer let him drop gently, depositing him in front of Amanda.
"You're alright, Chief," he grinned down at the toddler who was now clinging to his mother's leg. "Eric's just teasing you."
"Thank you so much," Amanda blurted out. "He got away and I just couldn't catch him in time. I can't believe you came out just at the right moment."
The rescuer looked around again, and then turned back to her. "That's the weird part – I could have sworn someone banged on the door. But you weren't close enough and I didn't see anybody else, did you?"
Amanda shook her head. "Not a soul."
"Maybe it was your guardian angel," joked the man who was still leaning in the van doorway. "I'm always telling my scarecrow friend here he's got one of those."
"Maybe," agreed Amanda, smiling softly.
The first man crouched down in front of Phillip. "Now you don't do that again, okay? You scared your mom and you should be looking after her, not scaring her, right?" Phillip nodded dumbly and the man reached out to tap him gently on the nose with a smile.
"Well, we'll let you get back to uhhh…. delivering diapers," said Amanda with a wry grin as she looked at the two men in suits in front of her and then past them at the array of equipment behind them in the van.
"Ahhh, yeah," said the man, rueful gleam in what she now noticed were very nice eyes. "Maybe you could just forget you saw anything here?"
"Who am I going to tell?" deadpanned Amanda. "After all, I'm the one with the unlicensed dragon on the loose."
"That's true." Those very nice eyes crinkled with laughter. "Guess you got a trick and a treat today."
"Well, thank you again," Amanda bobbed her head in gratitude at both men. "Happy Halloween." She took Phillip by the hand and turned to walk toward her car before stopping dead and turning back. "Oh! Would you…?" She pried Phillip's bag of candy from his hand and dug out two of the chocolate bars. "Would you like some candy to keep you going while you're on… diaper duty?" She couldn't help laughing at the theatrical wince this provoked.
"I don't know," said Eric from the doorway. "I'm not sure we should take candy from strangers," he joked.
"We're not strangers," replied Amanda. "You two are knights in shining armor and this is a dragon. It goes without saying you must all know each other." As the men laughed, she held out the bars. "Please – it's the least I can do. They're Chewy Chubby Bars – his favorite. And we're really grateful." She glanced at the busy road a few feet away and paled again at the thought of how close it had been.
"Well, those are my favorite too," said Nice Eyes, distracting her. "Thank you."
"No really, thank you," repeated Amanda. "Come on, Phillip, let's go home. Your little brother or sister is really kicking up a storm after all that running." She turned again, looking back to give the two men a little wave.
"Nice lady," said Eric, stepping back to let Lee swing back up into the van. "She must be about to drop that second kid any minute – she was enormous. Glad we could help her."
"We?" snorted Lee. "I didn't see you leaping in between the kid and certain death, partner. In fact, I'm keeping both of these candy bars as my reward."
"Suit yourself," shrugged Eric with a laugh. "I'll go home with a clear conscience that I didn't take candy from a baby."
"Ouch," Lee acknowledged, laughing as well. He paused and stared out the small window where he could see the lady waddling – there was really no other word for it – back toward her car. "That was weird though – you heard the knock too, right?"
"Not really," said Eric. "But I had the headphones on. But whether you did or not, it was a good thing you opened that door when you did. You did good, partner."
"Yeah, I did, didn't I?" answered Lee, unwrapping a candy bar and taking a large bite.
Eric waited until he'd swallowed to say, "Sure hope she wasn't a Russian agent disguised as a housewife though. She might have poisoned that."
Lee stared at him with dismay for a moment, then shrugged and took another big bite. "Nice try – you're still not getting any."
All his life it seemed, Lee had had a little voice inside his head that occasionally, very occasionally, gave him little pushes in the right direction. He couldn't tell you what it was, a kind of instinct, perhaps, although that didn't quite fit the bill, but he'd learned to heed that whisper.
It hadn't kept him out of all trouble- the long list of mischief and misdemeanors in his school records was testament to that – but when it mattered, really mattered, the voice had never steered him wrong.
"Walk home" said the voice that night Kevin had offered to drive them home from the school dance, only to wrap his car around a light post just a few blocks away. It had been a miracle that no one had been killed, but Louie with his infectious laugh and fiery freckles wouldn't walk again after that night.
"Duck" said the voice in the darkness of a foxhole in Vietnam. "Duck!" he'd repeated and they all had, just before the VC had strafed them with machine gun fire, the bullets whizzing harmlessly over their heads. "How did you know?" they'd asked him later and he'd shrugged. "Guess I just heard something," he'd answered and really, wasn't that the truth?
"Left" said the voice as he'd stood in the corridor, trying to decide which direction Kirnov had gone and he'd turned without question only to find himself at a dead end with an emergency exit in front of him. He pushed it open carefully, but found nothing except a deserted lot. With a muttered expletive, he'd turned to go back and try the other way when the far side of the building exploded, sending him flying backward across the empty space, almost completely uninjured except for a broken rib and some cuts from debris. Kirnov, they speculated later, had left the bomb down the other corridor, hoping Lee would be there when it went off.
"Wait" the voice had said that night almost a year ago now and he'd paused automatically, only to have his partner push past him with an exasperated grunt. "You're not going to catch them just standing here," Eric had said and then a few seconds later, the light had left his eyes as Lee held him, bleeding out from wound that should have been his as the lead agent.
No more partners, he'd sworn after that. No one to take the shot or the blame or anything else. He'd work solo, thank you very much, and rely only on himself and his instincts and maybe occasionally that little voice.
Except that now here he was in a busy train station, looking around desperately for anyone who might be able to help him and meeting nothing but the dead gaze of commuters who didn't care about anything except getting on their train to their job on time and God help anyone who interfered with that.
Come on, come on, he urged the universe. Give me something I can work with here. The voice remained stubbornly silent as he raced down the platform, every attempt at getting on the train foiled by a wall of bodies.
He could sense his pursuers getting closer and wondered if there was anywhere on the platform he could stash this damn box and come back for it later, then discarded the idea, knowing they'd probably see him do it.
"Left" said the voice suddenly and he veered left around a crowd.
"No," said the voice as he eyed the businessman walking towards him. "Wait," it said. Then finally, "There."
A few yards in front of him was a woman, tall, slim, angular face, striding down the platform at a no-nonsense pace but with an expression of awareness that said she was not one of the mindless commuter mob. He had a vague sense of familiarity, but no idea why. Without a break in his step, he swung her around, pulling her close and urging her to move down the platform with him.
"Just walk with me," he'd begged. "Please. I'm in trouble." She'd tried to escape his grasp, not unreasonably assuming he was crazy and he'd gripped her arm again. "I'm in trouble. Please… please!" he'd repeated. She looked away and it seemed like she'd seen something because an instant later, to his intense relief, she'd capitulated and disappeared onto the train with the package tucked under her coat.
There was no voice telling him to run, but he did. Not that it did the slightest bit of good. The universe must have owed him a few bruises because the voice had no helpful suggestions now.
"What on earth made you even take that package from me that day?" Lee asked, lazing back against the sofa cushions with a glass of wine in his hand. It was a question he still asked from time to time, and Amanda usually indulged him with ridiculous answers.
"Oh you know me, I can't resist a big handsome man," quipped Amanda, swinging her legs up onto the sofa and laying her feet on his lap. Well-trained by now, Lee immediately put down his glass and began to massage her feet and ankles – he had never met a woman who appreciated a foot massage as much as Amanda.
"No, really," he persisted. "You are much too sensible to have done it, but you did."
"Well, why did you pick me to ask?" she replied. "That platform had a million people on it."
"I don't really know," he admitted. "Instinct, I guess. You seemed familiar somehow and the voice inside my head told me to."
"You have one of those too?" she asked, almost a little too seriously. "Do you ever see it?"
"Do I ever see the voice in my head?" he repeated, grinning now. "No, and if I did, I'd be the first in line to check myself in with Dr. Pfaff." He studied her and the way the little frown line had appeared between her brows. "Do you?" he asked suddenly.
Amanda nodded slowly. "I think I do. I mean we all have one right? That voice? And most of the time, I just go along with it, but sometimes, when I'm not sure, I'll look around and think I can see this woman in a crowd… and she'll smile… and I'll know I should do it." She took a sip from her glass and stared down into it. "She was there that day."
"Wait," said Lee, starting to laugh. "You're haunted by the voice in your head?"
Amanda looked up and met his eyes. "Not haunted, no, but encouraged maybe? I can't explain it, but it's like she's been with me for years. There's something familiar about her, but I can't place it. Anyway, she was there that day so I took the package. And because you said please so nicely." She dimpled at him. "Of course if I'd known how rude you were going to be for the next few years, I might have discounted that part."
Lee winced. "I was rude, wasn't I?"
"You were," agreed Amanda. "But you had such nice eyes. I've always been a sucker for a man with nice eyes."
"And his own hair?" quipped Lee.
"And his own hair," she agreed, leaning over to run her hand through his, letting her nails scrape against his scalp as he leaned into it with pleasure. "So what else does the voice in your head tell you?"
"That we should go to bed?" suggested Lee with a hopeful look.
"It's only 9 o'clock and the boys aren't even home from Andy's Halloween party yet."
"Andy Kaskill? Isn't that the kid that swallowed a live toad last year? Should we be letting them hang out with him?"
Amanda gave a low chuckle at his protective tone. "They'll be fine. He turned over a new leaf after getting his stomach pumped."
"Ah, that is an experience one tries not to repeat," Lee grimaced with sympathy.
"Anyway, Phillip wanted to show off his Dread Pirate Roberts costume," she went on. "He's sure he's got it all figured out as a way to get girls."
"Pirates and spies – we always get the girls," Lee pulled her across his lap, careful not to spill her wine, and nuzzled her neck.
"He's almost as cute as you were in your Moby's Dock uniform," Amanda teased him. She sighed as Lee reached behind her and began working out a knot in her shoulder. "Anyway, they've both really been looking forward to it – getting to go to a real party now that they're too old for trick or treating," she went on. "It wasn't that long ago they were holding my hand because they weren't brave enough to go up to doors by themselves and now it's boy-girl parties."
Lee lifted his head at the note in her voice. "They're not so old," he said, pinpointing the source of it without difficulty. "They're only growing up a little bit."
"I know you're right," replied Amanda, "but I still miss the days when I could dress them up in little homemade costumes and go with them."
"Homemade costumes?" said Lee. "Why am I not surprised?"
"What did you used to dress up as?" asked Amanda, smiling as she took a sip of her wine.
"Cowboys mostly," said Lee.
"Why am I not surprised?" Amanda repeated back to him with a gurgle of laughter.
"It wasn't like my uncle was going to help out much," he grinned. "So what kind of stuff did you make the boys?"
"Oh, the usual. Anything I could make from stuff around the house. I once made Phillip a suit of armor from cardboard boxes."
"Sounds amazing," laughed Lee. "What did Jamie go as? His squire?"
"Oh no, I had a dragon costume for him. Mother helped make it for Phillip just before Jamie was born."
"Didn't you get in trouble for having an unlicenced dragon?" Lee teased her. "I don't think you're allowed to have fire-breathing animals loose on the street."
"I never did," Amanda shook her head, smile lighting up her face. "It's still on my to-do list though."
There was a beat of silence before they both straightened up and stared at each other, jaws dropping.
"That was you?" said Lee in disbelief.
"That was you?" said Amanda at the same time.
"And that was Phillip?" Lee went on. His eyes dropped to her stomach. "And that was Jamie?"
Amanda shook her head. "That's amazing. How did we never figure it out before? How could we not have recognized each other?"
Lee thought for a moment, then quickly stifled a grin.
"What?" said Amanda, suspiciously.
"Well,"" he drawled out the single syllable. "It was 12 years ago and I had a mustache then and my hair was longer and so was yours right? He brought his hand up to a few inches below her shoulders and she nodded. "And you…" He started to grin again.
"What?" she repeated. "Why are you laughing?"
"You were… enormous," he gasped out, starting to laugh. "You looked like a Halloween pumpkin! But with feet!" He spread his hands out in front of him, sketching the shape of a pregnant belly in the air. "I mean… I don't even know how you got behind the wheel of your car that day!" He began to laugh helplessly at her indignant expression.
"I managed just fine!" she spluttered.
"I just…" Lee looked her up and down and started laughing again. "Even knowing it was you, I can't believe that was you."
"Oh stop," Amanda protested. "It wasn't that bad!"
Lee said nothing, just grinned at her.
"Okay," she relented. "It was that bad. I never really lost the baby weight after Phillip and so much of that pregnancy was during the summer and it was so hot and I just couldn't stop eating ice cream…" She trailed off with a grimace. "I think I was as broad as I was tall by the time you saw me."
"I wouldn't go that far…" Lee began but when she arched an eye brow at him, he had to grin, pulling her in for a kiss. "Okay, I would go that far." He ran his gaze over her slim frame. "Would that happen again if you…? I mean, if we…" Unconsciously, he reached out and trailed his fingers over her stomach, pausing to splay them gently over her abdomen.
Amanda laid her hand over his and shook her head. "Oh I wouldn't think so. I never got that big with Phillip and I'm much fitter now than when I was when I had him." She reached out to hook Lee's chin and bring his eyes up to meet hers, smiling at the expression she saw there. "You'll see."
"I will?" he asked hoarsely, searching her face.
"Of course," she nodded. "We need another Stetson with those beautiful eyes."
Lee's face split with the smile she loved. "When?"
"Well, that depends," she said.
"On what?" he asked, his smile fading a little bit as he began to think through the ramifications on their jobs.
"On how soon we start trying," Amanda dimpled at him.
"How do you feel about immediately?"
She made a show of looking at her watch. "Well, the boys should be out a while longer yet. We could probably get in a practice run at least."
Lee beamed and leaned in to press his lips against hers. "Well, let's start with a kiss for luck."
The couple passing by on the sidewalk outside glanced at the house, then at each other with a smile.
"I think that's all going very well, don't you?" said the woman, slipping her hand around his arm and cuddling in close.
"Of course it is," he smiled down at her and lifted his other hand to rest on top of hers. "With you around, Amanda was always going to end up doing very well."
"She was the right one, wasn't she?" asked the woman. "There were times… well, I'm the first to admit, there were times I didn't think they'd ever see what was right in front of them."
"She is exactly the right one," her companion confirmed. "And you had the easy job! The number of times I had to interfere just to keep that boy from getting killed doing something dangerous…" he shook his head in mock despair.
"Sounds like someone else I know," teased his lady. She was silent for a moment. "They'll be wonderful parents, won't they?"
"They're already wonderful parents, my love," he chided her. "You know he loves those boys like his own. But yes, of course they will." He glanced up the road, and a familiar dimpled grin lit up his face. "But if you want a grandchild sooner rather than later, Jennie darling, you're going to need to intercept Dotty in the next few seconds." He gestured up the street to the impending arrival of the familiar Jeep.
"Oh Matt! She's not supposed to be home yet!" Jennie pushed him off her arm. "I'll go slow her down and you go give that Edna Gilstrap a poke."
"Yes, Dear," he answered meekly but with twinkling eyes. He pulled her back briefly to drop a kiss on her lips and give her a wink. "There's a kiss for luck."
Dotty never did see what it was she stumbled on that sent her tumbling to the sidewalk, but she'd barely touched the ground before Edna was racing from her house across the way.
"Oh my goodness, are you alright? I just happened to glance out my window just as you fell! Someone really needs to write to City Hall about the uneven sidewalks!" Edna clucked at Dotty as she helped her to her feet. "You come over and we'll have a nice cup of tea and a gossip while you catch your breath."
Dotty began to decline. "Oh Edna, I'm fine! I'll just head home." She began to brush herself off, stopping to hiss with pain. She held out her hands and for the first time, saw the scrape down the side of her palm where she'd landed.
"Oh look, at that scrape!" exclaimed Edna. "Now come on, you come get that washed off before it gets infected!" She steered an unresisting Dotty towards her house. "You know, it's odd – I'm almost never out of the kitchen at this time of night, but something made me go look out the window just now, and just in time. You must have a guardian angel!"
Dotty glanced down the street at the couple walking away arm in arm, cuddled close together. She didn't recall having seen anyone on the street as she pulled up, but they couldn't have just appeared from nowhere, now could they? There was something familiar about them, but she just couldn't place it.
"Dotty?" Edna called her back to attention. "Are you coming in?"
Dotty glanced across the street, just in time to see the light in Amanda's bedroom come on and two silhouettes behind the curtain merge into one.
"Oh yes," she grinned. "I don't think I'm needed at home for a while."