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Tom showed security his invitation and was waved on through the gates. Other patrons arrived by chauffeured limousine. Tom liked that he alone was on foot.
As he entered the White House an announcer said, “Mr Tom Stiles, honorary patriot and national hero!”
Cameras clicked, microphones appeared, and a fusillade of questions were shot at him until agents escorted Tom through the press to the South Lawn, where Paul sat amongst esteemed presidential guests at one of ten long tables, sipping a highball. The garden was set up with linen-fringed tables and bouquets of freesias, the favourite flower of the president’s wife, Tom remembered. Small, fluted candles lit the pathways and a quartet of violinists, all female, all wearing long, flowing black gowns, were playing Vivaldi. Paul greeted
