Immovable Object Meet Irresistible Force

As the days wore on, Walter quickly came to realize that Erin was constitutionally incapable of keeping her promise to leave him in peace. He was almost grateful for his slight hearing loss in one ear and made sure never to insert his hearing aid when she was in his vicinity. Erin talked almost constantly. It didn't matter if he was sleeping, eating, bathing, working, or anything else he might do to fill his days. If Erin was in the Garage and was conscious, she was talking. Unfortunately for him, there were no other conversational targets in the Garage, so she was talking to him.

Not to him so much as at him, Walter corrected himself. Erin talked so much that she didn't seem to mind or even realize that he wasn't answering her, in fact, he rarely even listened to her. Eventually, her voice morphed into something like background noise, barely registering in his conscious mind. At a certain point, he almost came to enjoy it… almost.

Walter was only a few days into this new and bizarre arrangement with Erin when the words coming out of her mouth pierced directly into his conscious brain. He pulled off his reading glasses that he had been using to look at the screen and turned his piercing gaze on her. "What-what did you say?"

Erin harrumphed in likely false irritation. She always seemed to be in a sunny mood. "I said, 'Cousin Walter, now what do you remember about the day the planes fell out of the sky?' And don't think for one minute that you are fooling me that you are paying the least bit of attention to what I'm sayin' ninety percent of the time. I know you're ignorin' me and sure I'm tired of it!" It was as if she wasn't even trying to lose her Irish accent, Walter thought. She may be even exaggerating it just to show him she could.

Walter had to gather his thoughts. He hadn't thought about that day in years. He wasn't surprised Erin knew about it. It had to be something that was taught in schools, even in Ireland. The political and economic fallout from that day had been enormous in the international community. New safeguards were put into place regarding automatic software updates, as well as better access to older versions of software was mandated by a host of governments, not only in the aviation industry but across banking, shipping, and public transportation as well.

Erin crossed from the kitchen area where she had been brewing her coffee to Walter at his desk. She stood directly in his line of sight and waved her hand as if flagging down a taxi. "Cousin Walter, hello, Cousin Walter… ah, here, Cousin Walter. Are you even listening?"

He knew she was laughing at him but in a kind way. This girl didn't have a mean bone in her body. He had absolutely no desire to engage with her on any subject, particularly this one. But he also knew that she was tenacious. As evidenced by the fact that she was currently living in the Garage instead of at home in Callan where she belonged.

"Sorry, I've always been fascinated by the story and wanted ask you what you remember about that day. You really lived it, and not just like my Granny. But you lived here in Los Angeles. Sure you were literally here that day. You have to have some kind of memory of it." Erin gave Walter her best puppy dog eyes. "Please tell me what you remember. I'd love to know."

Walter made a sound of irritation in his throat. She really wasn't going to let this go. "The day the planes were shot out of the sky was a tragedy that could not be stopped. That's what I remember about that day."

"There must be more…" Erin trailed off when she saw the rising sadness in Walter's eyes.

"There isn't," he told her, "even though I lived in L.A. at the time, I don't know anything worthwhile to tell you." Considering the matter closed, he turned back to the computer in front of him, peering at the small, out-of-focus characters on the screen in front of him.

Erin watched him closely for a few moments, as he studiously ignored her. She decided not to press him further, at least not right now. But she did not believe for a second that he didn't have any worthwhile memories of that day. She didn't have time to spend pondering Walter's bizarre reaction to her question. She had a job interview to get ready for.

Erin bounced into the Garage three hours later. Walter surprised himself by feeling glad to see her again, he had missed her irritating presence.

"It was a grand bit of luck, Cousin Walter, congratulate me, I got the job!" Erin's brown eyes shone with excitement as she twirled around the spacious open area of the Garage.

"What job is that?" Walter asked.

Erin held up the garment bag she had draped over her arm and showed him what was inside: her uniform for working at the old-fashioned diner only a few blocks from the Garage.

"A d-diner?"

"Sure, it's close by, which will keep my transportation costs down. The tips are decent which will bump up what I'm getting paid for working there. And you never know who might come in for a late-night burger or stack of pancakes, so I'll get the chance meet all kinds of people."

If there was anything Erin loved more than talking to people, even Walter with his 197 IQ, wouldn't have been able to uncover it. The job sounded like the perfect fit for his young cousin. It also sounded perfect for him too, with a job she would be out of the Garage for hours at a time and he would finally have the peace and solitude he had been missing since she had descended on his doorstep a few days ago.

As the days turned into weeks, Walter came to realize that having Erin living in the Garage wasn't as bad as he had originally feared. She talked a lot, maybe more than any human he had ever met but didn't make small talk. When she had something to say, which was most of the time, she said it but didn't seem to mind extended silence when she didn't.

Erin Brennan was nothing if not a student of the human condition. She loved people, all people, and found them endlessly fascinating. She had never met anyone she had not been interested in and could not strike up a conversation with. The bane of her existence had been all those years in school getting in trouble for talking. How was she supposed to learn anything about her favorite subject, the person seated next to her, if she couldn't talk to them?

But Walter, he was something else entirely. Her Granny had warned her when she conceived this plan to move to L.A. that he wouldn't be easy. He wouldn't be like anyone she had ever met in the village or even Kilkenny. Erin hadn't entirely believed her Granny's assessment of Walter. The past few weeks had proved her warnings accurate. But that didn't stop Erin from being fascinated by him. In fact, he was more interesting to her than anyone she had met before, simply because he was so different. But at the same time, she could see his humanity too, the part of him that was just like everyone else.

With each shared interaction, no matter how reluctant he was to engage with her, Erin could see him crack open little by little. She knew that she was starting to see the real, human, vulnerable Walter O'Brien behind the walls he had built to keep his heart safe from ever being broken. That only made her more curious as she wondered what pain he was hiding, though she knew better than to ask at this point in their relationship. All in good time.

Walter had successfully compartmentalized the events of that awful day decades before. But when Erin had asked him about it, he had been dismayed to realize that his carefully built defenses against memories and feelings of that day were starting to disintegrate. So when she hurried into the Garage in that damn uniform after a busy shift that day, he surprised himself by stopping her to talk.

"On that day… on the day the planes fell out of the sky…" Walter started uncertainly. He hated how shaky and old his voice sounded. Erin stopped walking toward the Airstream at the sound of his voice. Immediately understanding the importance of this moment, of him choosing to open up to her, she pulled out a chair from a long-ago abandoned desk and sat only a few feet away from him. Erin leaned forward and absentmindedly tucked a stray curl behind her ear, a sure sign of her undivided attention. Her brown eyes studied him intently as she listened. "I had-had a job upgrading the wireless internet at a diner with uniforms much like the one you wear."

Walter stopped talking, feeling like a fool. Erin moved her chair a few inches closer to his, encouraging him to continue. "I had planned to be efficient and break up with the woman I had been dating, at the same time that I was scheduled to upgrade the diner's wifi."

Walter felt drained. He couldn't remember the last time he had spoken so many words to another person all at once. It felt as if Erin understood his panic, his reluctance, and yet his need to get the words out, so they would no longer be racing through his mind.

Erin smiled encouragingly and moved closer. "And how did it work out for you now?"

He knew it wasn't the way a normal person, a human would terminate a relationship. He'd known it then and planned to do it that way anyway. He knew that Erin knew it now and wondered what she thought of him for it. "But when I went to the diner that day, they'd had a power outage and it was shut down. I met her at the hospital where she was a doctor. Instead of the diner, we met in the cafeteria for lunch and I broke up with her." he paused, unsure if he wanted to say his next thought. "It didn't matter that it was very efficient. It was painful."

Walter saw the empathy in her eyes. "I'm certain that it was, ending a relationship is never easy, even when is you doing the ending." She reached across the desk and placed her smooth hand comfortingly on his gnarled one. "So now do you want to tell me about it? Why it was painful?" Usually, Walter shied away from human contact, but this, this feeling of Erin's hand on his somehow felt comforting and it gave him the courage to continue.

Walter nodded and Erin squeezed his hand reassuringly. "After I-I broke up with her, she told me I was a million miles from normal." He felt a strange sense of relief at sharing that moment with someone else. It had always bothered him in a way he didn't quite understand. Walter had often wondered if Janice's assessment of him was correct, but he didn't know any humans to ask.

But now he did. His cousin Erin was of above-average intelligence. In fact, she might be considered quite bright, for a normal. She seemed to understand people more than most of the humans he had met in his considerable lifetime. So he took this opportunity and asked her, "Do you agree with her assessment? About me, I mean..."

"I don't think she meant a compliment, but I don't think she was completely wrong."

Walter started to pull his hand away from Erin. Had she just insulted him? He wasn't sure.

Erin grasped his hand more firmly, capturing his hand in both of hers. "Sorry, let me explain what I mean." Walter relaxed his hand. "What's so wrong with not being normal? I'm not normal according everyone at home who just wants stay in Callan. Sorry, I think you'd be insulted if someone called you normal." She winked playfully at him. "Appears neither of us are normal. Who knows, maybe it's something in our genes?"

He knew that it had nothing to do with their shared genetic material, but for some reason her words made Walter feel better. He gave her a tentative smile. Satisfied that Walter had his emotional equilibrium back, Erin asked, "Now did you ever fix the wireless connection?"

"No, I never went back there." Walter's face clouded again and he turned back to his monitor.

Erin sensed that she had hit a sore spot and decided to change the subject. "Hey, Cousin Walter, how about some grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch? Sure you haven't eaten anything today and I'm starving." Without waiting for a response, she hurried off to the kitchen in search of bread and cheese. Walter watched her disappear in a flurry of activity. He definitely hadn't asked for her, but he was beginning to be glad she was here.

Author's Note:

Erin is a waitress in an old-fashioned pen-and-paper diner. As the world goes to drones, AI, robots, etc, over the next few decades, I believe that people will still be drawn to the old-fashioned, human-connection way of doing things. Much as people today might raise their own animals for meat or wool or grow their own food in a garden instead of just going to the local store. Erin, the ultimate extroverted people-person would love and thrive in such an environment, as would the customers who come there just for the old-fashioned human touch, not the robot or the self-checkout lane.