After she'd finished eating, Happy stood up from the table.
"I'm going to my room to work." Happy told them and then left without another word or even looking at Toby.
"Did someone leave a window open?" Paige frowned.
"What? Why would we have a window open in January?" Veronica asked.
"Because the temperature just plunged into the subarctic in the room." Paige laughed as she pretended to shiver.
Ralph chuckled as Veronica shook her head.
"That's terrible." Veronica admonished her.
"Happy's still a bit miffed at me. She doesn't understand that I wasn't laughing at her yesterday when she tried talking to me about how she was feeling being a genius. About the lack of being able to do more normal teen type things, having a boyfriend, wanting more out of our friendship. It was all, so cute, I couldn't help myself from smiling and laughing once." Toby told her.
"Our talk on the way home didn't help. I stuck my foot in my mouth again. I was focused on the big picture so to speak, worrying about the proprieties and legal aspects and she was just trying to talk about how she was feeling. I overlooked the obvious, what she was trying to tell me she was thinking about." Toby sighed.
"So what are you going to do?" Paige asked.
"I've got to find a way to apologize." Toby smiled. "But I think I'm going to give her a couple of days before I offer it." Toby told them. "Thank you for dinner though. I probably should get going."
"Do you need a ride back to your car?" Walter asked.
"Naw, it isn't that far, to the bus stop." Toby laughed.
"You're welcome Toby. Have a good night and be safe." Veronica told him.
"I will do my best." Toby smiled as he waved and left the house.
"How's the self-driving car program coming?" Ralph asked Walter, trying to get his mind off the topic.
"Really good. My programming is almost finished, the final edits anyway. Well until the next batch of feedback comes in. Which reminds me, I'll be gone most of the day on Thursday and Friday." Walter told them.
"What's going on?" Paige asked.
"Richard has leased the entirety of the Danehy Park complex. We're going to give a few of the cars some more testing. We'll have a whole slew of different challenges for them." Walter explained the whole process.
"Sounds dangerous." Ralph frowned.
"Well the city has already put up barricades and warning signs at every possible entry point to warn citizens that on those two days the park is off limits. And Richard has contracted an outside security firm to provide guards at each location as well on the actual days. So it is as safe as we can make it. Each car will have a passenger with a brake system if something goes wrong. They can stop the car and turn it off." Walter told them as they nodded.
"Will you be in one of the cars?" Paige asked.
"No, I'll be in the control room onsite. I'll be monitoring all the data as it is reported. We've also installed three separate systems into each car. One will just record what the sensors pick up. The other two will receive the same data that the driving computer receives and will record how they would react to the same data. In theory, they should all react the same way, but it is conceivable that one of them won't. That's what this is about. Making sure the decision making is uniform. At different points we have groups of mannequins standing at a cross light, playing, all kinds of scenarios. We don't want any computer deciding it can cut across them." Walter explained.
"Seems like a reasonable precaution." Veronica smiled.
Thursday, Jan 6th, 2005, Dineen home, 6:38 p.m.:
"Where's Walter?" Happy asked as Paige came in by herself and sat down for dinner.
"Still at the park." Paige sighed.
"Gambling?" Happy asked, shocked.
Paige stared at her a moment and then laughed.
"Sorry, no. Today and tomorrow they are doing extensive testing on the self-driving cars at the park. Walter will probably be there until nine tonight. Didn't he say anything?" Paige told her before she began to fill her plate.
"Oh. Okay, no one said anything to me about it. Didn't Walter want me to be there?" Happy asked.
"He would have loved you being there but he didn't want to interfere with your class times." Paige explained.
"That was thoughtful but not necessary, I'm weeks ahead already. At least for today. " Happy told her. "Would have been nice getting out of the building for a while today."
"Maybe tomorrow?" Paige grinned.
"I can't tomorrow, we got a guest speaker in quantum mechanics class." Happy sighed.
"That sounds intriguing." Veronica told her.
"Not really. I've met him before and he's arrogant and thinks he knows it all. If you don't "exactly" agree with him, he'll hammer at you until he bores you into submission. Most of the students just sit there and let him blow hot air. Some have no clue about him and will argue. But attendance is mandatory, with how much they pay him to come talk to himself. If I could, I'd switch places with Walter for it." Happy laughed. "Walter would embarrass him by running circles around him just doing the math. The man is still nothing but theory, Walter has actually accomplished things in reality."
"Can't you do the math?" Ralph asked.
"Not as fast as Walter. Plus I haven't studied it like Walter has." Happy told them. "Walter could probably write his own dissertation on it." Happy laughed.
Friday, Jan 7th, 2005, MIT Robotics Lab, 2:15 p.m.:
Happy walked into the lab after checking in with her English professor's class. She'd been a bit moodier the last two days as Toby hadn't come around or even signed into his MSN account so they could talk online. She was the only one there at the moment and Happy sat down at her favorite computer. Just as she reached up to move the mouse a young woman stepped into the room.
"Excuse me, are you Happy Dineen?" The young woman asked.
Happy frowned as she looked over and saw the woman dressed up in a blue, bell style gown. Happy nodded.
The woman smiled real big and gestured outside the door. A moment later two men and another woman her age stepped into the room with her. The other woman was in a yellow, bell style gown while both men were in fancy long tail tuxedos with top hats.
They began singing in a barbershop quartet style.
"Dearest Happy.
I know I didn't articulate myself very well.
But that's nothing new.
You know how my head can swell.
You know I gave up drinking,
Gave up gambling.
All for you.
I'm sorry for speaking without thinking.
While going out isn't without issues.
I hope you might consider these tissues."
One of the men stepped up with an opened flower box as Happy grinned. She reached in and pulled the tissues back and exposed a full set of precision Craftsman's wrenches. Happy laughed as she pulled the box out of his hands.
"If these simple things touched your heart even a micro-fraction as you have touched mine I know you would agree to going to get some ice cream, just you and me, and your detail, after your last class. -Toby" The man read from a small card.
Happy giggled as she nodded.
"Thank you." Happy told them as they bowed and then left.
As Happy left her last class with her detail they found Toby waiting outside the building for them. Happy grinned seeing him with a dozen light pink roses. She sprinted the short distance and they hugged for a moment.
Happy frowned as she took the roses from him.
"Fake?" Happy asked.
Toby nodded.
"I know a young woman who does origami as a hobby so I paid her to make them. As long as they aren't damaged, they'll last a lot longer than some cut flowers." Toby told her.
Happy nodded as she took them and kissed Toby's cheek before they got into the SUV.
"Where did you want to go to get ice cream?" Happy asked as they settled in.
"I thought after you put things up we could walk over to Christina's Homemade Ice Cream." Toby smiled.
Happy nodded quickly.
Toby reached over and took Happy's hand in his.
Happy frowned for a moment.
"I know we can't hold hands out in public, but I thought at least here we could." Toby explained.
The door of the control room opened up around 6:30 p.m. as Walter was staring at the computer data. He was so intent on what was being reported he hadn't even noticed.
Slowly his nose nearly twitched and his head jerked before he turned in his chair and saw Paige standing there holding a basket.
"Hey lover." Paige grinned and winked at him.
Walter came out of his chair instantly and engulfed her in his arms as they kissed.
"What are you doing here?" Walter smiled as they broke their kiss. "Not that I'm complaining." Walter helped her remove her coat.
"I'm so glad you aren't complaining." Paige laughed. She noticed the other observers that were in the small trailer with Walter. They all had sacks from different fast food places on their desks.
"I missed you. And I thought maybe I should bring dinner to you tonight. Since you probably didn't eat lunch again today. Mom was kind enough to pack up dinner for the both of us when I told her." Paige told him.
Walter smiled sheepishly as he nodded. He took the basket from her and they stepped over to his desk. Walter held the back of the chair as Paige sat down and then sat in the chair that was next to the desk.
"So how are things going?" Paige asked as Walter began pulling containers out of the basket.
"Good overall." Walter smiled. "There have been a few very interesting events I can't wait to get the full data on. For the most part all the computers have come close enough to the same conclusions as to how to react, that I'm confident at the code. But about half a percent of the decisions have had one computer or another in a car have some significant deviation."
"Does that mean that it was more dangerous? Or possibly safer?" Paige frowned as she got a pork chop out of the container and placed it on her plate.
"Well, without seeing all the data, it is hard to know for sure." Walter smiled as he scooped out some mashed potatoes for her and him. "Right now the system only reports how closely the computers match in decisions. But we haven't had any mannequin fatalities yet." Walter grinned as Paige laughed.
"Well thank God for that." Paige shook her head. "And you can't hack your way into more of the data?" Paige grinned while placing a pork chop on his plate.
Walter chuckled.
"Actually I can't." Walter poured some gravy on his mashed potatoes. "As part of my endeavor to ensure safety, the systems won't allow access remotely. I can only request data. I'll have to have a hardwire connection to delve deeper into the system information."
"I thought programmers always put in backdoors and stuff in their code?" Paige asked before taking a bite.
"Backdoors are how systems are made unsafe in the first place. Sure it makes it easier on the programmers, but it makes it easier on hackers. A system that doesn't have backdoors is infinitely safer." Walter smiled.
"Huh, but don't you have to know the programmer's password for the backdoor?" Paige frowned.
"Not always, depends on how the backdoor is implemented. The system can just be left in a vulnerable state." Walter smiled as they ate.
"How did the appointment go?" Walter asked.
"Really well, I like her a lot." Paige smiled.
"Are you still meeting the other three next week?" Walter asked.
Paige shook her head.
"Originally I wanted to meet a few different doulas before selecting one, but we just meshed so well. I called the others and canceled the appointments. She'll be working with me over the next two and a half months to ensure we get pregnant." Paige grinned.
"While I know it was my prediction, I still can't believe we're actively talking about it. I didn't think you'd be this into trying to make it happen." Walter smiled. "Are you sure you don't want to get married first?"
"Why? Are you going to run out on me before the wedding?" Paige grinned.
"Never." Walter smiled.
"I just wanted to be sure you really wanted to marry me." Paige smiled.
"If that was the case, we could have gotten married the day we both were legally able to marry. You will forever be my heart." Walter said softly.
"As you will forever be my heart." Paige smiled. "I'm still nervous about completing the next semester while pregnant, but I trust you Walter. I trust in your promise and devotion to me. I know you will be there to ensure I can carry the load." Paige grinned at him as he nodded.
"I'm really excited at the prospect." Walter told her. "Ever since I met the twins of the other Paige. I know they weren't ours, but something about them…it just clicked inside of me. I still worry a little about connecting to our children. But I am confident with you beside me, I'll be just fine with our children."
Paige grinned at him.
"That's part of why I took so many psychology classes." Paige said as she reached up and caressed Walter's cheek. "While I am confident that you will be an amazing Father to our children, I'm committed to ensuring that you will be fine with them. I don't care what I have to do, you and our children will have a wonderful relationship from the start."
Walter pushed forward and kissed her tenderly.
Paige grinned and then looked about the small trailer at the other observers.
"I had also hoped you would be the only observer here. And then we could have asked my detail to step outside for a few." Paige grinned as she whispered to Walter.
Walter blushed as he coughed.
"Well, I-I didn't bring any condoms with me." Walter said softly.
"I did." Paige winked even as she pulled a small package up out of her shirt pocket.
"It would probably be a bad idea to chase the others out." Walter grinned.
Paige nodded.
"Hey, if we have a son, what do you think about naming him after your Dad?" Walter asked softly.
"Really? Paige looked surprised. I'd have figured you'd want him named after you."
Walter shook his head.
"If there is any truth to giving a child a name and them having something from that person, I'd want our son to be like you and your Dad. Able to understand people and make friends easily. The less like me he is, the better." Walter said softly.
"Hey." Paige said as she reached over and lifted Walter's chin. "There is nothing wrong with you. And I would be very happy if our son or daughter was identical to you." Paige said before she kissed Walter.
Greetings! I hope this finds you all well!
Pearliegirl - LOL I doubt very many parents would let their young daughter date a guy 7 years older. lol I'd imagine he didn't expect as much energy. At 32, people are slowing down, settling into the ruts they've been grinding for years and then to have a "fresh young thing" upset the cart and getting it out of the ruts is tiring...lol Yeah, not so sure you are that much like Walter. lol
- LOL Mother in Laws are good for somethings...my youngest brother is always complaining about his. lol Never got to know mine, she'd passed when the wife was 18. Good question, I don't know if she will or not. But if not, it might not be with Toby then...but then again...who knows? A very long and winding road for sure! Oh man, I sure hope Ralph isn't there for that kiss...*yikes*
LouBe - LOL We're definitely in the middle of the tightrope and then wind is picking up! lol I'm still not sure what "kind of dating" is! lol I think Toby made a good apology...at least Happy didn't throw the wrenches back at him! lol Definitely frustrated and let's hope that timing isn't right for them to come to dinner! What a nightmare that would be if Happy finds out! A little more to come out about it, but nothing real substantive about it yet. I'm sure there will be, when the Muse starts talking about "Callan" again!
To the Adventure! -Tim