Precious Memories - 1. Chapter 1 - Precious Memories

I was running some errands one afternoon when a young man in his early twenties came up to me and spoke.

“You got married today, didn’t you?”

I was slightly stunned by his comment, but I composed myself and responded. “I was married on this date, but the wedding took place in 2008.”

“Of course, I didn’t think you got married earlier today, but when I looked at you a series of images flashed in my mind, and I saw your gay wedding.”

“Does it bother you that I’m gay?”

“Heck no. Whatever floats your boat is fine with me.”

“So, what types of images did you see?”

He then recounted the details of the outdoor ceremony that was held in early September of that year. My husband and I were among the first gay couples to tie the knot after same-sex marriage became legal in California in June. The young man also described the minister that my husband and I cajoled into performing our nuptials, and he even knew that my husband and I had agreed to hyphenate our surnames. He didn’t know what our names were at the time or what they were now, because he could only see the images, not hear what was being said.

Just so you know, my last name had been Morgia while I was growing up, since my father’s family was of Italian descent. My husband’s family was of Irish heritage, and his surname had been Mulligan. We agreed to go with the Morgia-Mulligan surname after we married, rather than Mulligan-Morgia, because it seemed to flow easier off the tongue.

The young man continued on and informed me that he had also seen the catered, outdoor reception that we held following the ceremony, and he was able to name many of the items that were served. Yes, some of the dishes were typical for a wedding reception, like the baked ziti, but he also knew about the chicken Marsala, the corned beef and cabbage, and the potato pancakes. He was even able to describe our wedding cake in minute detail. Needless to say, I was totally blown away with his knowledge about our wedding.

“How could you possibly know all of this? You would have only been a child at the time this took place, and I don’t remember there being any children at the wedding.”

“It’s difficult to explain, but sometimes when I see a person a series of images flash through my mind that tell me something about that individual.”

“That’s amazing, but I wish there was a way I could pluck those images from your brain.”

“Why? Does it bother you that I saw all of these things?”

“No, it’s not that at all. I just wish I could find a way to get photos of everything you saw. You see, my husband and I lost our house and nearly everything we owned in the wildfires, and that included our wedding album.”

“You mean you didn’t take as much as you could out of the house before the fire reached it?”

“We were overseas at the time, but we came home as soon as we learned about the fire. The problem was that by the time we arrived there, the firemen wouldn’t let us go to the house because the fire was too close to it at that point. The firemen were afraid we’d be killed, along with our house and belongings being destroyed.”

“I see, so you might find it fortunate that I ran into you today. You see, I’ve been working on a special lens for my camera that I hope will be able to capture the images from my brain when the lens is pointed directly at my eye.”

“How will that work?”

“I’ve devised a way to force the images from my mind so I can actually see them with my eyes.”

“Really? Have you actually tried that process out yet?”

“Not while using the camera, because I just recently finished making the lens. It is more slender than a normal lens, and it has a special lens hood that is larger than normal. I will place the upper portion of the lens hood against my brow, while allowing the lower portion to rest against my cheek. The lens hood will permit the lens to be close to my eye without taking the risk of accidentally damaging my eyeball. I made it this way so it will be better suited to photograph the images sent to my eye from my brain.”

“I’m intrigued, and I’m willing to pay you to run a trial so you can see if it’s possible to capture those images. Do you have this device with you now?”

“No, it’s at my house.”

“Oh, I hope that doesn’t present a problem. Do you think you’ll be able to recall those images by the time you get home?”

“Yes, I’ll concentrate on them until I arrive there so I won’t forget anything.”

I quickly reached into my wallet and pulled out two one-hundred-dollar bills and handed them to him. “This should help to cover whatever it costs for you to attempt this.”

“I don’t want to take your money, because I’m not even sure this will work.”

“I hope it does, but even if it doesn’t, I feel it’s worth the risk. I look at this as an investment to see if you can actually do this.”

“How will I be able to let you know if it works?”

“My name is Anthony Morgia-Mulligan, and this has all the information you’ll need.” I then handed him one of my business cards with my work address and cell phone number on it.

“Thank you, Anthony, and I’ll do my best to make it happen.”

“I’d appreciate it if you’d call me Tony, and what is your name?”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you. I’m Jeremy Reinhart, and I promise that I’ll do my best to make this work.”

“Thank you. I appreciate that.”

When I arrived at the house, I told my husband, Sean, about my encounter with the young man. To say the least, he was even more skeptical about the guy’s claims than I was, even though he was unable to explain how the young man knew so much about our wedding.

“Maybe he’s acquainted with some of our friends, and they showed him the photos they took at our wedding.”

“I doubt that would explain it, because I’ve seen most of those photos, and they don’t come close to showing everything that he described. I know, because I asked our friends if I could see the photos they took so I could determine if I could have copies made of the best ones to replace the photos we’d lost in our wedding album. Unfortunately, the quality of those photos weren’t exactly the best, so I knew they wouldn’t do what I wanted.”

“That may be, but I doubt this guy has a snowball’s chance in hell of replacing the wedding album using this method either. I’m sorry we weren’t able to recover the wedding album from the fire, but when the firemen finally gave us permission to inspect the house, it was too late. I did everything I could to see if we could salvage as much of it as possible, but there was nothing left that was worth keeping.”

“I know, and that’s why I’m hoping this guy might be the answer to our prayers.”

“Don’t get your hopes up, because I think you’re going to end up with a fistful of fool’s gold, instead of the 24-karat gold that you desire.”

“Yeah, I know, but I’m desperate enough to take a chance on it, even if it’s a long shot.”

Although I was hoping for a quick miracle, I didn’t hear from Jeremy throughout the following week. In fact, we were halfway through the week after that when he unexpectedly walked into my place of business and asked to speak with me. When I came out to see what he wanted, he handed me a box about the same size as one that might contain a supply of new manila folders.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“Open it and you’ll see.”

When I did, I was astounded to discover that it contained a stack of 8x10 photos, and the top one was of our wedding party, including the minister.

“You were successful!” I gasped.

“Yes, I was,” he said while flashing me a broad grin.

“I can’t believe it,” I replied as I began flipping through the various photos.

There were also snapshots of the wedding ceremony and reception, as well as photos of my husband and I and our guests dancing on the patio to the songs the DJ was playing. The photos were very high quality, and I discovered there were possibly even more photos than what was in our original wedding album.

“This is amazing, and they all came out great!”

“I know. I was very pleased with how well they turned out.”

“Would you be able to come over to our house this evening, because I would like to introduce you to my husband and have you there when I show him these?”

“What time did you have in mind?”

“Around 8:00, if that’s possible?”

“Yes, I’ll be able to make it by then. It’s just that I have other plans for earlier.”

“Great! I’m glad this is working out so well.” I then jotted down my home address on the back of another business card and handed it to him.

“Ok, I’ll see you around 8:00 then,” he confirmed.

Before the end of the day, I did some research online to find a place where I could buy a new wedding album to put the photos in, and then I stopped there on the way home to pick it up. As soon as I carried it out to the parking lot and got into my car, I started inserting the various photos into the protective sleeves, because that’s the way I wanted to present them to Sean.

When I arrived at the house, Sean was in the kitchen preparing our dinner, so I hid the bag with the photo album in it before I went out to give him a kiss.

“How was your day?” he asked when our lips parted.

“It was interesting and we’re going to have a visitor later?”

“Really? Who’s coming and at what time?”

“He’ll be here around 8:00, but I’m going to keep his identity a secret because I want you to be surprised.”

“Oh, so you’re a man of mystery tonight. Ok, I’ll go along with your little plan, and you can go wash up and get ready to eat. I’m nearly ready to put everything on the table.”

We had a wonderful meal, and while we were eating, I asked Sean about his day. I did this because I knew he was dying to find out who was coming, and I thought this would be a good way to distract him.

When we finished eating, I helped Sean clear off the table and clean up the mess, and shortly after we finished, the doorbell rang. I went to open it and greeted our guest, and as soon as he came inside, I introduced him to my husband.

“Jeremy, this is my husband, Sean Morgia-Mulligan. And Sean, this is the young man I’ve been telling you about. This is Jeremy Reinhart.”

They shook hands and exchanged greetings, and then they sat down while I went to retrieve the other part of the surprise. I carried it over to Sean and handed it to him.

“These are the items that Jeremy gave me earlier today, and then I stopped at a store to purchase a wedding album before I presented everything to you.”

Sean immediately began thumbing through the various photos with a shocked expression on his face.

“How is this even possible?” he stammered, so Jeremy explained the process he’d used to produce the photos.

“You might even say your last name worked to our advantage this time,” I offered while smiling at Sean. “We were given a Mulligan, and now we have another record of our wedding that we can enjoy until the day we die.”

“A Mulligan?” Jeremy asked.

“Yes, it’s a golf term for a do-over.”

“Ah, I gotcha.”

I then went into the den and retrieved my checkbook from the desk drawer. I don’t use the checkbook very often any longer, but I took a couple of minutes to write out a check and carried it out to hand to Jeremy.

“A thousand dollars? I can’t accept this.”

“You can and you will. What you gave us today is probably worth even more than that, at least to us.”

“But you gave me two-hundred dollars earlier, and even that was more than enough to pay for what I did.”

“You might possibly consider the earlier payment as being sufficient, but what you did is worth much more than that to us.”

“Yes, you gave us something much more valuable than just a do-over,” Sean added. “You restored the visual record of the most important day in our lives, and to us it’s worth more than gold or any other monetary reward that anyone might suggest. You gave us back a set of precious memories that we can cherish from now on, so we’ll never forget our wedding day, no matter how old we get or even if our minds begin to fail. No one can ever give us anything worth more than that.”

THE END