After we'd cleaned up, rested, and eaten, it was time to make another phone call. Not surprisingly, Mr. Forsythe answered on the first ring. What did surprise me was that he said he was about to pull into our driveway.

  Sure enough, there he was. I buzzed him in through the gate then rocked back and forth on my heels, wondering why he'd come. He'd only been here about three times in the past four years, and all of those visits were primarily to see Jane and talk about fishing, or so I'd been led to believe.

  We'd talked afterwards in my office a time or two about nothing in particular. At least that's what I'd thought at the time.

  Now I wasn't so sure.

  -------------

  Once he'd parked, I punched the button to unlock the front door, and he came in. The first thing I noticed was that his eyes narrowed. Then he turned around and sat down on the ledge at the entry so he could change his shoes.

  Oh, the shoe changing thing? It's just a guess, but the people who built the house were probably Japanese or liked Japanese customs. Inside the front and side doors there's an area where you change from shoes to slippers. It's easier to keep the floors clean, especially when it's raining and there's mud everywhere. Oregon isn't exactly dry, you know.

  I didn't get it. What would upset him? All he could see was the living room. There's lots of room, we could easily seat 20, and only five people were present at the moment. Uh oh...

  Five people. He didn't know anything about Kimiko and Kumiko. Somehow, without even thinking about it, neither Jane nor I had mentioned Kimiko after the incident in Portland. Explaining that was going to be a bit difficult. I tried to put my mind in high gear, but the wheels just spun without any traction. Same as usual, darn it. What do to?

  Naturally, it was Kumiko who solved that problem. She'd looked up when I let Mr. Forsythe in the door and had immediately started typing. By the time we got to the living room, she was in the process of standing. She walked over to Mr. Forsythe and bowed to him. He nodded back. She extended her tablet. He took it, perused it, and nodded.

  "Ah, I see. The girls here were left in your care by one of your cousins. I see...."

  What I could see was that his wheels were spinning just fine, and two and two were not adding up to four for him. He obviously knew that I didn't have any unaccounted for relatives with children.

  Whatever else I might think about government security types, they were awfully good at background checks. Ah...gears finally meshing, answer forthcoming. Not sure if it was a good one, but I ran with it. It was time to pull out the story I'd made up earlier and see if anyone would salute.

  I pointed my chin down the hall, and we repaired to the oversized closet that I used as an office on the rare occasions that I had to meet someone in the house.

  Got him seated and went to my chair. Now it was him who gave me the gimlet eye. He didn't say a word. He just stared at me.

  "OK. I'd prefer that this not go further than absolutely necessary. I think that their father is my cousin, somewhere along the line, two or three times removed. He used to visit my mother every couple of months before she was murdered. I've seen him every few years since then. He'll breeze into town and spend a day or two and then flit right back out. Had his wife and the girls with him the last couple of times." I shook my head. "Well anyway, here's what happened.

  "He came by the end of June and said something about having urgent business going on and needing to leave the girls with me for a few days. I haven't heard anything from him since. What's worse is that the girls have no idea what their last name is. Apparently he changed them at least four or five times a year. I'm afraid that he's either a very successful or very unsuccessful con man.

  "You've noticed that Kumiko is mute. So is Kimiko. They're smart as a whip, the both of them. Given that they're at least shirt-tail cousins, I decided to get them enrolled in school here and see if he shows up again, which I doubt. When a few days turns into seven weeks, you've got to suspect that they're here to stay.

  "Frankly they're such sweet kids that I've decided to adopt them if he hasn't come back within the next few months."

  "Kumiko, Kimiko? I hope that you're eavesdropping again--just this once."

  "What, me, eavesdrop? The very idea! Of course we are Mama. We could both tell right away that he wanted to talk to you about us. And, before you ask, no, he is not one of the people who can to hear us. His mind is very like a brick wall."

  Kimiko chimed in, "That story is so corny that he's bound ta believe it. Especially after Kumiko and I cook up some sort of idiotic backstory that will make him feel sorry for us poor, abandoned children.....Sob!"

  "My overly-enthusiastic sibling has the right of it Okaa-san. We shall have him believing whatever we come up with in short order.

  "Did you mean it when you said that you want to adopt us, or were you just making 'sob-story' noises?"

  "Of course I meant it you sillies. You're both insufferable, but you're also both totally adorable and I'll be damned if I ever let anyone else have you. You're part of my family now and NOBODY is going to interfere with my family!"

  Dead silence after that. I guess they were thinking it over or having a good cry together. Either way it gave me some peace of mind and some temporary privacy.

  The pause left a space for Mr. Forsythe to start up again: "Hmmm. We're going to have to sort him out somehow. Do you have footage of him and his car?"

  "Sorry. We always wipe our surveillance video after holding it for a week. We do have unusually good data storage capacity, but nothing near big enough to keep something that far back. Besides, he met us in town at Shari's. About all he talked about was this 'urgent matter', whatever it was, needing me to watch the girls for a while, and about how good Shari's pie is."

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  I hoped I wasn't drooling, but I'm sure I had a rather dreamy look on my face. "Their pies are out of this world you know? I can eat a whole one by myself after a heavy workout, and.....ah....sorry...."

  I was getting the gimlet eye again. If we put him in a bowler hat and one of those old-fashioned brown suits with a pocket watch on a big chain, I'm sure that he'd look perfectly at home.

  "Well, anyway, we've enrolled them at school -- 4th grade over at Schirle Elementary. So that's taken care of for now. Now, let's get to what's more urgent. What are we going to do about Ian."

  "Hmmm. About that. Well, we obviously didn't know about the girls at the time, but it's too late to do anything about it now. Here...."

  He shoved a rather fat envelope at me. Naturally not wanting to just sit there looking stupid with an envelope in my hands, I opened it and sorted the contents.

  Birth certificate, immunization records. Passport. Passport? Also a 1 page synopsis telling me about Ian and about the fact that my young nephew is now officially living with me as he is an orphan and I'm his only living relative.

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