Sunday shortly after 1 p.m.:
Cabe smiled as he walked with Walter over to the front door after they heard a car pull up outside of the O'Brien home. He saw a woman and a man with her. He pulled the door open before they reached the first step. The woman smiled seeing the pair stepping out to hold the screen door open.
"Good afternoon Walter. I'm Jillian Newport and this is my boss Edwin Gramble." Jillian introduced herself and the man as they stepped up onto the porch.
Walter nodded.
"Welcome to our home. This is agent Gallo, he's part of Paige Dineen's protection detail. Please come in." Walter said what his Mother had him practice several times since lunch was over. Walter stepped in first, leading the way as Cabe held the door.
"Let me introduce my Mother, Louise O'Brien, Mr. Dineen, my sister Megan, and this is Paige Dineen." Walter said the last with a smile and Paige grinned back at him.
"It is wonderful to meet you all." Jillian said. "This is my boss Edwin Gramble and I'm Jillian. He wanted to come with me to express our magazine's deepest apologies over what happened yesterday."
"Yes, Mr. Dineen, first it is an honor to meet you and I am so sorry this happened. I do want you all to know we're taking this very seriously. I finally got word back from the photographer just a short bit ago. He's extremely apologetic over the situation and he's assured me that he'll have all the film that included Ms. Dineen on its way to you in about ten days. He is one of our very best photographers and he prefers to develop all of his own work. He assured me that the time isn't a delay, just the sheer volume of photographs he took of your children together it will take that long to fully process it. Our art team confirmed the length of time for him to develop all those pictures. And they are actually very curious about the photographs and they are hoping after you review them that if any of them meet with your approval you might consider allowing them to be used with the story." Edwin explained even as he reached out to shake Ralph's hand.
Ralph nodded as he reached out and shook his hand.
"Thank you. After we've reviewed the film, if we find something that we think can fit with their age I believe we can agree to limited publication." Ralph replied.
"Well Mrs. O'Brien, what a lovely home you have. Is this a family home or is this a place you and your husband purchased from someone else?" Jillian asked.
"Thank you, it actually belonged to my husband Sean's parents. We purchased it a couple of years after Sean got out of the Army. His Father was ready to retire. He had several health conditions aggravated by all the farm work. Sean worked for his Dad for a few years while we built up our down payment out of the money he saved while in the army and the work I did cleaning homes and cooking meals for local construction crews." Louise told her.
"I think you made a wonderful choice with it Louise. Well Walter, where would you like to sit for the interview? If you'd like we can even change to different locations, sometimes a location can inspire other things and questions." Jillian explained.
"Mr. Dineen wants to be present for the interview after what happened with the photographer." Walter told her.
"That is absolutely no problem. Shall we just sit here and talk?" Jillian asked.
An hour later:
"Walter, I wanted to ask. You absolutely, stunned and dominated in the chess match. And you did it so quickly. Almost everyone playing took their time and studied and planned their attacks. But it was almost like you had a sixth sense in how they'd respond and you kept coming right back at them. Is chess that simple to you or are you just able to think that fast?" Jillian asked.
"I'm not sure how to answer that in a relatable way. I don't know how fast people think so I can't say if I'm thinking faster or not. I do seem to have a much faster recall of memory than most people. Also when people speak it's like I can see their words. The offshoot of that is I don't always see their emotions or how their thoughts apply to the emotions. I recognize the obvious ones, happy, sad, and anger. The softer ones are more intangible and troubling to me." Walter tried to explain.
"If I might interject something." Megan quietly spoke up.
"Of course, please." Jillian smiled at her.
Megan carefully got up and using braces walked over to a bookcase and pulled out three decks of cards.
"While all three decks are different backs, two of them have a different mark on the face so that if you look at the face you know which deck it is out of. One of my favorite tricks with Walter is to lay out the three decks of playing cards, randomly, and face up. I give Walter one minute to look at them and then he has to turn around. I'll flip the cards over but leave them in their place. After he turns back around I'll then ask him to name a card I point to. Sometimes I'll have him turn back around and then ask to give me the position of a card, say the king of hearts. He'll give me all three if they haven't been turned over yet And then he'll tell me which deck is in each position. He's never wrong either." Megan told her with a smile.
"My, three decks of playing cards, that is pretty impressive, I doubt I could do it with one suit from one deck. You must have what some call a photographic memory perhaps?" Jillian laughed.
Walter blushed but nodded.
"You were pretty dead-set about not speaking of your relationship with Ms. Dineen here at the start of that tournament. But as the tournament went on you opened up a little bit more and that culminated with the two of you, right or wrong, agreeing to some pictures of you together yesterday. Has your relationship grown so that you are more comfortable in sharing more about it?" Jillian asked.
Ralph had started to object but then relaxed.
"I'm still not sure why people seem vested in our relationship, outside of our family of course. But our classmates have really come around, about us as a couple since the tournament. In our age bracket we're almost the youngest couple, well with Paige's age, yes we are the youngest couple. So I guess in part that makes it easier to share a bit more about it. I don't want anything to have a negative impact on Paige. I'm very proud that Paige finds me acceptable as a boyfriend." Walter told her.
Jillian smiled and then winked at him.
"I think it is safe to say she more than finds you acceptable, Walter." Jillian told him even as Paige nodded.
"I can certainly tell the two of you are very smitten with each other with the eyes you have for each other. So is this the one for you? Some people spend years and years looking for their partner. I realize you both are still so young but it just seems too obvious to me. We've been talking for about an hour so far and I'm ready to ask you to put my name down on a wedding invite." Jillian smiled.
Paige blushed a little but Walter nodded.
"Ordinarily I think I would decline that question, but perhaps it is because of all the other questions I feel like responding. We'd discussed our relationship back in December, after the Christmas ball. After the paper printed those pictures of us kissing, our family wanted us to talk it over, to try and understand each other's position on our relationship. There just isn't anyone who can make me feel like how Paige does. And nothing would make me happier than to build a life together with her." Walter finished.
Paige smiled at Walter and kissed his cheek tenderly.
"You just brought up something I meant to ask you. You say that your classmates are now supportive of your relationship. But we understand that at the start of the year you actually came to Paige's defense because of some bullies. I don't want to cause any undue embarrassment, but what was the nature of the bullying?" Jillian asked.
"Paige's accent. Some of the students had a negative view on Americans." Walter told her.
"Thank you Walter. Mr. Dineen, Mrs. O'Brien, I think that sums up all my questions, is there anything you'd like to add as parents about your children and their relationship?" Jillian asked.
Louise gestured to Ralph and he just nodded.
"Well as parents we of course have our concerns because of their age but we've also come to see and respect what they obviously feel for each other. Of course, as this will be my last posting for a long while, I was expecting and prepared somewhat for Paige to develop some puppy love crushes over time on some good Irish boys. But she threw me a curve ball right out of the gate and skipped right over puppy love. And I believe she found the one for her. We're hopefully looking at being at least college graduation away from wedding bells but once they both are of age, and if that is what they both want I think all four of us parents will be happy about it. Just like Paige is accepted by Sean and Louise as their child, Veronica and I accept Megan and Walter both as ours." Ralph explained.
"Thank you Mr. Dineen. Mrs. O'Brien, was there anything you'd like to add?" Jillian asked.
"I believe Ralph articulated it very well, Sean and I have really come to love Paige as a daughter. Nothing would make us happier than for them to marry one day, in the distant future of course." Louise nodded.
Jillian smiled as she turned off her tape recorder and put her pencil and notepad away.
"Walter and Paige, thank you both for being so open, honest and candid about everything. It has been a real pleasure getting to know you." Jillian told them as she reached out and shook both of their hands.
"You'll have a working draft of the article for us to look over before going to print though, correct?" Ralph asked.
Edwin and Jillian both nodded.
"Absolutely Mr. Dineen. I hope none of the questions bothered you." Jillian asked as she reached her hand out.
Ralph shook her hand.
"There were a couple I was a little hesitant on but I think they were handled well and as long as the responses are kept in context I see no issues with them." Ralph told them even as he began to walk out with them.
Cabe smiled at Walter and winked.
Tuesday evening, 9 days later:
"Mr. Dineen?" Sylvia said as she stepped into his den.
"Yes Sylvia?" Mr. Dineen looked up from his paper.
"This just arrived by courier." Sylvia told him as she stepped over and handed him a cardboard postal box marked fragile, handle with care, photographs enclosed.
"Thank you Sylvia. Would you ask Veronica to join me please?" Ralph smiled as he pulled the box over and saw it had an inspection sticker on it. He slipped his letter opener through the reseal tape and slipped it along the edge.
He found a letter on top of the prints as he pulled them out along with more than three hundred negatives.
"Mr. Dineen,
Please find enclosed all the prints and negatives taken of Mr. O'Brien that included Ms. Dineen. I hope as you review them you will find they are all tasteful and I believe quite amazing images of the young couple. I apologize if I went too far by asking her to be in the photoshoot without clearing it with you and your wife first. I wasn't trying to offend or achieve a result that wasn't suitable for their age. But as a parent I am sure you are concerned about her safety and I don't blame you. And I am sorry if my actions have cast any bad light, in any sense, on my employer Tiger Beat Magazine.
Sincerely,
Brad Barris"
Ralph smiled at the polaroid image Brad had taken of the couple as a test. He'd glued it to the letter. Ralph sighed as he sat the letter aside and looked at the first photo. He smiled at the close up of Walter and Paige's faces. He'd framed them so only their faces were in the shot. So he wasn't sure if they were sitting quite close or leaning towards each other as they were looking into each other's eyes, just inches apart.
The next shot was zoomed out a little and he saw they were both lying on a teeter totter facing each other. Ralph grinned and kept flipping through the images.
Veronica joined him about halfway through the photos and she began looking through the ones he had already been through.
"These are actually quite good, Ralph." Veronica said as she went through them.
"I know, so much better than what I feared." Ralph agreed.
Ralph sat there sighing as he finished looking at all of the photos. Some had been a bit much, like one, he wasn't crazy about Paige kissing Walter's exposed chest, but with the lighting he'd used, it seemed more like art than exploitative. He reached over and pulled his phone receiver up and hit the fifth speed dial button.
"Hey Denise, sorry about the hour. Do you know, is this photographer for Tiger Beat magazine, Brad Barris, is he still here in Ireland?" Ralph paused. "Okay, yes, please find out for me. If he is, I'd like to see him as soon as possible tomorrow at the Embassy in Dublin." Ralph listened to her for a moment. "Yep, anytime after nine is fine, tomorrow is a fairly light day appointment wise so it shouldn't be hard to fit in. What? No, he isn't in trouble. I just got done looking at the photos and they are really well done. Yep, thank you, have a good night." Ralph hung up the phone.
"What are you going to do?" Veronica asked as she continued looking through the photos.
"I'm going to pay him for the photos. I'm sure Tiger Beat will subtract the time spent taking these photos from his wages. They are too good not to compensate him for his time, talent and dedication to his art. Some of these I want to get blown up and hung up in the house." Ralph told her.
"Oh I think that is a wonderful idea. I've seen several that would make wonderful before pictures when the time comes for their wedding." Veronica smiled and nodded.
Ralph grimaced.
"I know I love the kid Roni, and I know we sometimes speak about them getting married, but, just not right now." Ralph complained.
Veronica chuckled.
Greetings! Hope this finds you all well!
Railman - hehe Well, he's Sean, like Toby is Toby, so I'm sure we'll see some of that hot head at some point. lol Boy will we see it!
Margaret - Paige said she really loves her "power" over Walter. lol
Dean - While I don't have any plans for Tim to ever enter this storyline, I can't rule it out. As I always say, the story tells me what happens, I get to translate it, but if I don't stick true to what the story says, it quits talking to me and makes my life miserable. So, if it brings up Tim, well, I have no choice.
Carol - I'm so glad you are enjoying it and that it brought back some nostalgia for you! Nancy Drew books would be a cool reward for helping out!
To the Adventure! -Tim