#paddy o'keefe (ttq)

[iviarellereads]

A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Chapter 10 The earth with its starkness

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index for the Time Quintet, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

In which we skip the last chapter's warnings for one about some really horrific ableism.

Charles has broken thoughts until he's pulled out of Chuck. Dandelions turning into a terrifying blizzard of white, their green stems oozing, a bad smell, Gedder with a gun, someone falling,(1) Gwen and Zillah, then a unicorn who heals him, two headstones in a cemetery, a fight on the edge of a cliff.

Finally, Charles wakes, still Within Chuck, but he can't see anything, even the darkness.

Meg sits up, weeping. It takes her a second to recognize why she's crying and why she's scared. She closes her eyes and sees Gaudior shed a tear as well, and say that was a victory for the Echthroi. Meg agrees, then thinks of Mrs. O'Keefe downstairs, and how there's more to her than it seems.

Someone contacts Charles, and says they didn't expect that to happen. An order's been given that Charles may be freed from Chuck now, ahead of schedule, because Chuck fractured his skull and will be damaged. Charles won't be able to take any action, to avoid any Might-Have-Been that he recognizes, if he recognizes it at all.(2)

Charles remarks that the unicorn isn't Gaudior, and they confirm it: they're the unicorn that hatched before him. Now, they suggest Charles give in and come out of Chuck, so he can get on with stopping Branzillo. Charles is reluctant, but the voice is insistent: Charles is the only one who can stop Branzillo, because he's so smart and so kind and so in charge.

This is the giveaway: Charles knows no one on Gaudior's side would say his smarts were the reason he's able to succeed at this, because his attempts to wrest control from the wind is how they ended up lost. He chooses to stay.

Meg hopes he made the right choice. Ananda licks her comfortingly. When she closes her eyes again, she thinks she hears an echo of a defeated howl from the Echthroi.

Chuck wakes slowly, confused, trapped within himself. When he can talk at all, he asks where grandma is, he can't smell her. Beezie says she died of the shock of Chuck's fall. He asks if Gedder pushed, but no, Beezie reminds him, it was Mortmain.

He heard her, but between the stark words came other sounds and the smell of a hot and alien wind. Time’s layers slipped and slid under him. “But Gwen shouldn’t marry Gedder. Gwydyr’s children shouldn’t marry Madoc’s.”

Beezie tells him to stop playing pretend at a time like this, but he insists it's real. He can almost see Gedder waiting at the top of the cliff.

Over time, Chuck does improve, at least enough to help stock the store shelves, though not enough to go back to school.(3) He's still stuck half in the past with Gedder, Gwen, and Bran, which frustrates Beezie no end.

The kythe came to Meg in distorting waves.

Meg can see that it's critical to the mission to identify whether Branzillo is of Madoc's line or Gwydyr's, like the two children in the visions that keep flip flopping. They don't know enough about Gwydyr's line, though, only that he must have gone to Vespugia after being disgraced by Madoc, and Gedder is probably his descendant, while Madoc's line all stayed around this town. There might be more information in Matthew's book, but that's not available to anyone involved right now.

Back through Charles, in Chuck. Beezie tells him their mother is pregnant. He keeps confusing Mortmain for Gedder. Beezie protests, but he says they smell the same, anyway. And the baby has to come from Madoc's line, it was in the prayer. He recites it, even, and when Beezie asks where he got that, he says, in the other letters he found, grandmother helped him read them.(4) Beezie demands them, and he hands them over.

Chuck goes for a walk on a spring evening. He's always in pain, and there's a veil of figurative darkness over his eyes. He makes mistakes with the pricing more lately, and Paddy O'Keefe quit school to help at the store when the mother(5) has to take care of the baby boy. More and more, there's talk of putting Chuck in an institution, lest he hurt the baby. Beezie notices that his vision's wrong from how he acts, but he begs her not to tell anyone, out of fear of being taken away.

Still, as his physical eyes fail, his "inner vision" clears. He tells Beezie about his visions of the scenes we've already seen,(6) though frames them as dreams to not upset her.

He sees himself standing next to Matthew Maddox's writing desk, saying he has to get Zillah to Vespugia, soon. A sense that unicorns can move in time, but space is more difficult. He knows both Paddy and Mortmain want him gone and out of their way. Another verse of poem about Madoc, this time "Blue will alter time and space." A flash of the fight on the cliff, in his past, in our future.

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(1) Possibly not just Chuck, given he thought he was someone else who was pushed. (2) Interesting that the powers that be don't expect the fall, and yet, there's no question that Charles might have intervened to save grandmother Maddox. (3) I should probably be more forgiving of the time in which L'Engle grew up, was shaped, was writing all this. I don't particularly want to leave this un-remarked-upon though. It churns my stomach. (4) Well, someone might have been helping, anyway. But, whom? (5) Still, no name, no identity beyond mother. (6) Is he seeing them through his own ability, or Charles's memory leaking through?

[iviarellereads]

A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Chapter 9 The rocks with their steepness

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index for the Time Quintet, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

In which events call for a mild CSA and pretty major domestic abuse warning on this story.

Meg is awakened by the telephone. She's panicked, but hears her father telling Mrs. O'Keefe that someone will pick her up presently. Sandy is aghast that she'd call this late, but Dennys points out she's never called them… ever. Sandy offers to go, so Mr. Murry doesn't have to leave the phone in case the president calls again. Mrs. Murry prepares a snack.

Meg is frustrated that she lost the gist of the kything, so startled by the phone ring.(1) She knows, however, that it's important she sees Mrs. O'Keefe about something. At least with some bread and tea, she can relax a bit.

Shortly, Mrs. O'Keefe arrives with Sandy, cobwebs in her hair and her face smudged. Meg cries out Beezie, and startles her violently. Mrs. O'Keefe asks how Meg knows that name, but Meg continues on that Chuck was her younger brother, and she loved him so much. Mrs. O'Keefe tells her to leave the past in the past. She's been digging in the attic, and finally found the letter, and that Mr. Murry should read it.

The letter is from a Bran Maddox in Vespugia, to a Matthew Maddox here. The twins are startled at the coincidence, having talked with Meg about Matthew. The date lines up, as well: 1865. Mr. Murry reads the letter.

In it, Bran is doing well with the Welsh group, and he met a native man with blue eyes who swore he was descended from, well, a story very like the one we've seen. He doesn't know how his ancestors got to South America, but his mother sang him songs about a Welsh prince. He goes by Gedder, and his sister is Zillie and reminds Bran of his love Zillah though she doesn't have the blue eyes. He asks if Matthew can convince Zillah to come be his wife, or to come and bring her with him.

Mr. Murry is at a loss as to how this can be relevant. Mrs. O'Keefe says he's supposed to be smart. Mrs. Murry says it's strange that they'd have a letter from Vespugia, like that. Meg brings up her maiden name, Maddox, so Bran and Matthew are her forebears. Yes, Mrs. O'Keefe says, Maddoxes and Llawcae's for a long way back in her family.

Dennys puts together that some of her ancestors must have joined that colony, then. Mrs. O'Keefe says that Branzillo being from there, she just knows it's connected: just look at the names, Bran and Zillie and Zillah, together they're almost Branzillo.(2)

Mr. Murry asks if there are other letters. She says there were, once: she and Chuck used to read them and make up more stories. But, she made herself forget when something happened to Chuck, and he couldn't play pretend anymore.

Speaking of Chuck, Mrs. O'Keefe asks where Charles is. Mr. Murry says he went for a walk, about an hour ago. Mrs. O'Keefe says it's rich that people accuse her of not taking care of her kids, when they'd let theirs do that, and him only twelve. Her Chuck needs special care. Dennys offers to go find Charles, but Mr. Murry suggests they have to trust him. Mrs. O'Keefe says she'll stay until she can see Chuck.(3)

Meg excuses herself to go back to bed. Charles is fifteen, but she said Chuck was twelve, when something happened. How old is Chuck in the kythe when Charles is Within him? She goes upstairs, asking them to call her when Charles gets in, and Ananda follows again. She wraps up tight in the covers, feeling cold.

—Those people in the letter must be important, she thought,—and the Bran who wrote the letter, and his sister Gwen. Certainly the name Zillie must have some connection with Madoc’s Zyll, and Ritchie Llawcae’s Zylle, who was nearly burned for witchcraft. —And then, the Matthew he wrote to must be the Matthew Maddox who wrote the books. There’s something in that second book that matters, and the Echthroi don’t want us to know about it. It’s all interconnected, and we still don’t know what the connections mean. —And what happened to Beezie, that she should end up as Mom O’Keefe?(4)

Back in the kythe, Beezie is wondering why her father had to die. Grandma says there's never an answer to that question.

In the aftermath, Mrs. Maddox goes over the accounting ledger, and says she didn't know it was this bad. Chuck crawls into every space he can find looking for hidden treasures, but finds only pennies, some china, and a strongbox. He brings it all downstairs, and breaks open the lock with everyone present. Inside is a sheaf of letters, a bound notebook, and a watercolour sketch of the star watching rock, labeled as by Zillah Llawcae in 1864, at Madrun.

Grandmother reads the first entry in the notebook. It's from a sixteen year old Zillah, yearning for Bran Maddox, who's suffering from what we might call PTSD. Throughout the notebook are more watercolour paintings, and more entries of yearning as Zillah turns seventeen. The letters are from Bran, the top one the one we've already seen.

The china and the old pennies, they sell to an antiques dealer. The notebook, he's not interested in. Mrs. Maddox wishes she could remember to whom her late husband sold his family copy of his ancestor's book.

In the meantime, they make a new cover for the notebook to protect its crumbling binding, and the children read the letters and the notebook to each other and their grandmother. Chuck borrows books from the library about Vespugia to add context. One of the paintings is of Zillah's guess at what Gedder looks like, the man "descended from Madoc's brother."

Beezie takes up babysitting jobs, and grandmother is doing ironing and sewing, leaving less and less time for tales. But, one night, when Chuck gets home to the apartment above the store, his mother is still down in the store, talking to Duthbert Mortmain. Grandmother says he wants to marry her and take over the store for them. The store's in trouble, they're not making enough money, and it may be the only choice she has. And, grandmother wants to be sure that the next generations are taken care of when she dies.

At this, Chuck smells dandelion spore again,(5) and Beezie says grandmother will never die. But, grandmother says it's soon time for her to "go home", to see her Patrick again. Beezie's protest turns to Duthbert himself, surely her mother couldn't love him, and Beezie hates him. Grandmother says hate hurts the hater more than the hated, at which Beezie asks about Branwen, didn't she hate? No, she loved and was betrayed, but she never hated. Beezie asks if she ever loved again, but grandmother has forgotten.

Beezie wonders if they could use the rune against Duthbert, but grandmother cautions that the rune isn't to be used lightly, and this might not be serious enough for it. She says that Beezie will use the rune, but when the time is right. Beezie asks how she'll know the time is right, but grandmother simply says it's not now, because now's the time for bed. On the way, Beezie and Chuck agree they'll never call Mortmain "pa".

Mortmain, being an adult, is fine with them calling him "Mr. Mortmain." He dotes on their mother, though she still doesn't smile. Chuck notes that she doesn't smell of fear, but she also doesn't smell of the early morning sky, more of a dusky evening one.

There's never a sign of Mortmain's temper in the store, but the next spring, he starts to hit his wife, and the children. Beezie has to wear sweaters all year to hide the bruises from his pinching her arms. One of the other kids, Paddy O'Keefe,(6) asks if Mortmain's been after her. Chuck tells him to buzz off, but Paddy says, if Beezie ever needs help, he'll take care of it.

That night, Mortmain really loses his temper. He pinches Beezie's bottom, at which even her mother protests. Grandmother, though, is what tips him over, telling him to take care. He raises a hand to hit her, but Chuck gets in the way and takes the blow, and falls all the way down the stairs.

Chuck lay in a distorted position at the foot of the stairs, looking up at her with eyes that did not see. “Gedder pushed me. He pushed me. Don’t let him marry Gwen. Zillah, don’t let Gedder, don’t let …”

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(1) It's bad enough when it's a dream you want to remember. So much worse when the fate of the world depends on you, I'm sure. (2) It feels a little condescending how big of a deal this is made out to be in the narration. I'm just saying. I didn't need to remember the book to see it and lay it out in the notes. (3) Poor thing has the past and present all mixed up. And she's still so young for that. (4) Well, we get that one here, at least. (5) I think we're supposed to make the leap that dandelion spore -> dandelion clocks -> the passing of time (derogatory). But, I also don't think that's made at all clear by the narrative, and unless you're really looking for it, it's easy to feel it comes out of nowhere. (6) Nice setup. Also, giving her a Paddy to her grandmother's Pat, since the one girl was named for the other.