Keely Pt.3

We do some sort of fast forward through Keely’s college years, stopping for five minute intervals that she deems worthy of look-sees. There are boys in most of these, or rather young men and Keely rummages through them like my generation would sort through old snap shots. There is one boy in particular that Keely fancies enough to visit a half dozen times. “This is Theo” she said. “He and I were almost engaged.” We watched them kissing late one night in front of her dorm room until I clear my throat loudly and Keely brakes free of a small trance with “alrighty then” and moves us further up her life line. There really isn't much to see in the two years Keely spends at MIT. She studies, she goes to classes and she tests out early. There are the boys, I think I counted four besides Theo, but they don't seem to matter as Keely only stops to look at them briefly and there are a couple of professors she pauses us to admire as they lecture and demonstrate concepts far beyond my ken.

When next we touch down or whatever it was we do to slow and stop, my pleasant journey through Keely’s so far charmed life takes an abrupt turn and twists my ancient heart with fear. No one had ever even hinted to me of Keely’s role in this chapter of history, but of course now, I can see why. Few knew, and those who did were silent by necessity. If the world at large had been vetted, there would have been panic on an unprecedented scale.

We are somewhere in, I think, Europe. Keely is standing alone at bridge rail looking out over a body of turbulent water. She is quiet, very still and appears to be lost in her thoughts or perhaps just meditating. A tall, dark man in a long coat approaches and begins to speak to her. His voice is soft and my ears are old, so I can’t quite hear what he is saying. Keely, though, is getting visibly upset in both the Present and the Past. She turns to me in the former and says, “This is Rutgar Tesmit. You probably don’t recognize him, because he was so much younger then.” But as she speaks, Rutgar turns and stares directly at us as if he can see us there in the Future and I know him immediately. The curiously mismatched sides of his face are evident even in his youth. One side is placid, blue eyed and almost without expression while the other is somehow twisted into a fixed smile and a half closed brown eye that casts all as a gruesome leer. This facial disparity will worsen as he ages and become an icon of evil the equal of any in Time.

There is suddenly then a violent flurry of activity on the bridge and I feel my fragile old body coarse with adrenaline. Rutgar has grabbed Keely and is lifting her. She struggles, they are both shouting and I CAN'T MOVE! He is going to throw her from the bridge and I am helpless, ROOTED IN PLACE. I’m shouting no, please no! when I become aware that Keely is at my ear saying, “it’s okay Grandpa, it’s okay.” Still my eyes are fixed on the bridge and I hear Keely’s younger voice declare, “If I die, you Bastard, you will never know, you will NEVER know.” Rutger puts her down.