The 2000s…

Keene Walker was twenty-one years old, and attended classes at university. Keene was pleased to have been offered a place as a teaching student.

One day his class was given an assignment that required the students to work in pairs.

"What a cumbersome nuisance. I've always been my own man, rushed in here, done the work and rushed home. It won't be so easy, having to fit in with somebody else's plans. I am a bit of a loner. All the people who know each other will pair up, and I'll have to see who is left over. They can be stuck with me, which won't enthuse them if I don't become more of a team-spirited person," he thought.

He was still thinking about improving his concept of teamwork as well as his attitude to it, when another thought invaded his mind.

"This is an excuse to do something with Louise Waters! I have always wanted to be with her."

He found her in the courtyard at lunchtime and asked her:

"Do you have anyone to work with on the assignment yet?"
"Our group is still deciding who is with whom. There'll be an odd one out."
"Would you like to work with me, and that will leave an even number amongst the others?"

"Alright Keene. You live around here, don't you? I've seen you riding your bike."

"I'm very close."
"I'm not that far myself. Shall we meet at my house? Tonight would be fine."

"I'd best get the train and walk to your house. If I use the bike I'd be riding it home in the dark."

What Keene did not know is that Louise Waters, since defeating the Sons of Molech (in an earlier chapter), had started a teaching course, so that she could put her scientific expertise to use as a science teacher, now that she had to support both herself and her shrunken boyfriend Phil Hermuth.
"I could take you. Why don't I pick you up at your house today, as soon as you've got the bike home. I'll cook dinner for us as well."

"Thanks."

He told her his address.

"I can drive you home too" she said.

So at the end of the day Keene cycled home and Louise collected him in her car, a maroon coloured station wagon. She led him into the kitchen.

"Since this assignment is about relating to young children, I thought we might talk a little about our own childhood lives while I prepare our dinner."

"Mine was very lonely. I tend to forget it all these days" he said "It's probably why I'm such a loner now. Many people plunge happily into nostalgic memories of their childhood, but I'd much rather leave mine far behind. What about you?"

"I see. I was an only child. Being an only child was a good thing for me. It did not make me spoiled like some only children. At least that's what everyone says. I grew up a little faster than most children. Maybe it was because I never had any brothers and sisters to play with."

"Fair enough."