BLYTHE'S CURIOSITY ABOUT BOB KEY

We returned from our walk, pleasantly tired.  As neither of us were hungry, we settled in a porch swing in the veranda.  This was my favorite spot in her whole house...you could hear the splash of the fountain and the many birds of beautiful colors that knew about the bird feeders.  Humming birds knew about the nectar filled feeders hanging from the beams above us.  I mentioned how visiting had become a lost art... She agreed and mentioned how Nora and Lemuel had many neighbors come and just sit on the porch and talk.  "When I visted there, I heard many interesting stories.  One farmer told about lightning hitting his house.  "It came in through some tin nailed over a mouse hole in the wall and ran up the wall..circled around the old clock hanging on the wall...where he kept several sticks of dynamite..and then went out through the opened window. It blinded me for awhile.  I could trace its path by the burned path it made.....makes a good conversation piece......You mentioned, Bob, a man who became very close to you and then passed away....tell me about him."  I wished to maintain a degree of sanity in Blythe's eyes, at least until the knot was tied, so there would be no mention of his space craft as no one would believe it anyway.  "He seemed to come out of nowhere...there was a house for sale just up the block and one day...blam..there he was.  I delivered his paper and we got acquainted.  He was interesting because he reminded me of me....almost like I will be when I am seventy years old.  My folks also said he looked like I would look as an old man.  He seemed to have no end of money, yet he became a crossing guard down at a school I went to as a boy.  I told him about my obsession with a girl I liked when I went to that school....Jeanette....He seemed more interested in her than he should have been and actually led me to write to her after two years of living in another part of town.  He coached me in wooing.  At that, Blythe burst into laughter...."Wooing?"   Yes, he made me get my hair cut and dress in better clothes....he actually set me up on a date with her...we all went on a street car ride...and she kissed me for the first time.  It was a great day.  I never saw her again....she died suddenly from unknown troubles and Mr. Key died the same day.  I hesitate to tell you this because it sounds so fabricated, but you wanted to know."  :"How very  strange...it gives me the chills"  she said.  "Think of this, their deaths all at once caused me to excell in my studies and I received a full scholarship to college because of him.  We never would have met had it not been for Mr. Key."   "And Jeanette"  she added.  I then said:  "looking back, I think Mr. Key steered me away from a developing mental illness....I crawled into myself ..my own imaginery world where I imagined Spirits had favorite haunts such as trees and rocks, I burned incense and candles in my room and played sad music.  My grades were barely above failing.  Jeanette was just another member of that strange, mystical world,  Because I survived my self, those dual tragedies shocked me into reality. Because of my hands on experience with all of that, I have been able to help a number of young to escape from their own tangle."  "How absolutely amazing" Blythe said.  I said that I hoped that my story did not paint a cloud on her perception of me and she assured me that my openess and willing to share actually boosted her belief  that I would hide no secrets from her.  We both agreed that today had been the most unusually magic day of our lives.  Then we hugged, kissed, and said good night.  Tomorrow...getting ready to turn another page of our book....What a day...today cannot be surpassed..(to be continued)