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Dear Reader,
There are secret agents living in my neighborhood. Well, don't quote me on that, it could just be my imagination. But I have had experience with these things. Secret Agent was one of my favorite television shows when I was a kid. I knew every word of the theme song by heart and when I was zooming through the grocery store's parking lot in my own Secret Agent car I'd sing it out loud. (Okay, so my Secret Agent car was really a blue bicycle with two side baskets, but I'd blown my cover as a Double Agent, the bad guys were after me and I was peddling for my life.)
Sing it out Suzanne!
There's a man who leads a life of danger
To everyone he meets he stays a stranger
With every move he makes another chance he takes
Odds are he won't live to see tomorrow.
Secret agent man, secret agent man
They've given you a number and taken away your name
Of course I had to make a few slight changes..."There's a (wo)man who leads a life of danger, to everyone (s)he meets (s)he stays a stranger." (I was an early woman's libber.)
Every week something new and exciting happened in the Secret Agent show. If they needed to create a diversion--pull the top off of a pen and there was an explosion. Pins were cameras and electric razors were really transmitters. And the neighborhood Laundromat was really the heart of a counter-espionage operation. (And we lived right next door to a Laundromat. Coincidence? I think not!)
Yes, even today there are secret agents, maybe even double or triple agents living in a huge house in my neighborhood. A tall security gate, that's always locked up tight, surrounds the house and most of the time it's a pretty lonely place because no one is ever around. (Secret Agents are on the road a lot.) I've been working this case for a few months now and this Secret Agent Girl thinks the undercover house belongs to the government and the spies who stay there when they're in town, all drive black SUVs with tinted windows so you can't see who's behind them. (Spies need their privacy, even on their day off.) Everything about the house suggests hush-hush, there's a secret in there--I'm sure of it! And if I needed more proof, what happened this past New Year's Eve confirmed my suspicions.
My husband and I were out for a late night walk around our neighborhood on New Year's Eve and behind those tall security gates, complete with cameras, were parked 10 black SUVs all identical to each other--same model, same tinted windows, same plain license plates. Strange, rarely any action at this mysterious house, but on New Year's Eve (spies get New Year's Eve off and one other holiday of their choice, I read it in a book somewhere so you know it has to be true) there's a caterer's truck parked on the side, the curtains are drawn in the house, but the lights are on low. And after I ran home and got my binoculars (no, I'm just kidding about the binoculars) but when I set up temporary surveillance from across the street, I could see shadows of people moving around the room. Spy shadows--Secret Agent shadows.
Surveillance is hard work. I went home to bed around 2 a.m., and when I returned to the Secret Agent house early the next morning it was kind of eerie. The house was locked up tight, no SUVs, no trash, no party hats or paper plates, no sign of life--except I did notice a new "mail box" at the curb--and I'm sure it was watching me.
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
http://www.DearReader.com
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Hello Suzanne, Thank you so much for hosting the reader's club! One of my goals for the summer was to join a reading club. Working so hard all the time reminded me that I needed to spend some time working on what feeds my soul. I love to read and I am enjoying the selections. Thank you again! Anne
Posted by: Anne | June 24, 2008 at 07:58 AM