Delivered

Jacov Michaich Keehl and Marika Miskaovna Petrovich met during a Victory Day Parade in Moscow in 1979. Jacov was studying in at the Frunze Military Academy-the only member of his family since his grandfather to be allowed the chance at higher education- and Marika was studying to be a teacher. The pair dated for two years before they were married, profoundly against the wishes of Jacov's parents who saw him marring a non-Jewish women as the final nail in the coffin in of his already dying Jewish faith. His utter lack of interest in observing Judaism-even under the oppression of Soviets- and his assimilation into Soviet society at large- which helped to achieve his military aspirations- is what started to kill it. When Jacov  and Marika's first child- Ilya Jacovlevich Keehl - was born on September seventh, 1983, the choice to get him secretly baptized caused a riff to grow between Jacov and his father Micha- a Holocaust survivor- from which the pair never reconciled.

When Ilya was a few months old, the Soviet War in Afghanistan began and the newly instated NCO Keehl was called off to fight. The war in Afghanistan progressed for three years, fought between the Soviet Union, its European allies, and various democratic states (the war later became known as World War III) ending in 1987 with a ceasefire. Despite the lack of victory, the war reinforced the Soviet infrastructure, which allowed the party to become stronger. In early 1989, Jacov returned home from his tour of duty and in March of that year, Marika became pregnant with their second child. Mihael Jacovlevich Keehl was born in a military hospital's maternity ward on December thirteenth.  He was named Mihael by his mother- unlike his brother who was named by his father- after the Archangel Michael and as a nod to her Croatian ancestry- though most of the time the child would be called by the Russian name Misha. Like his brother before him, Mihael was secretly baptized. Though living under the oppressive atheistic regime of the USSR- Marika tried to instill within her children a zeal for her much beloved Catholic faith. Something that- as they grew older-she found was easier done with Mihael then Ilya.

From the very beginning, it was clear that Mihael was different from his older brother. Marika's pregnancy with Ilya came to term with little trouble. Mihael- on the other hand-arrived three weeks early. Mihael's small size and slightly under developed lungs caused him to be prone to bouts of Bronchitis during the cold Russian winters and twice the child caught Pneumonia. Despite his tendency to get sick, Mihael was much more active then his brother. Mihael would often run around the family's small apartment causing mischief and when Ilya wasn't in school, Mihael would pester him constantly to play with him. Ilya was considerably more reserved then his young brother. He was perfectly content to just sit and read or play with his Tetris hand-held gaming system. But if he refused Mihael's invitation, he'd have to listen to the young child complain or- at its worse- actually throw a tantrum. One of the few things the brothers did have in common was a high intelligence. By the age of nine, Ilya had read The Brothers Karamazov and was solving calculus problems not only well, but also with great speed and precision. Likewise, by the time he was five, Mihael was reading Alice in Wonderland. However, Mihael still progressed at a slower rate then his older brother. A fact that disappointed his parents and upset Mihael.

Trouble for the Keehl family began two months after Mihael's fourth birthday. Jacov had been deployed to Czechoslovakia to help the Soviet-backed Communist regime fight off a Anti-communist protest occurring in Prague- events that were starting to become common all throughout the Eastern Block. Marika and the children returned home from attending Mass (at the only church in town allowed to operate by the Soviets) to find their front door unlocked. Marika apprehensively opened the door and Mihael- being as small and curious as he was- peered inside. Mihael ran into the apartment and for a slip second, Marika's heart stopped until she heard his small voice shout, "Papa!" and witnessed her husband hugging the child. Jacov had returned home from his deployment early. He cradled the small boy in his arms as he mentioned how much he had worried about him after learning that Mihael had caught Pneumonia and that -unlike the last time- he needed to be hospitalized. He played a small game with the boy and asked him if he knew of anyone who had a birthday recently at which Mihael gestured proudly to himself.  The young man then pointed to the couch and said that in that case there was something waiting for him there. Mihael ran over and much to his shock he found a gray dog plush. Filled with glee, he hugged his Papa and thanked him for the gift. His father then told him that he had one more surprise for him and from inside his Army coat removed a chocolate bar. Mihael starred curiously at the thing- having never seen one before- while his father explained its purpose and broke off a piece and handed it to the boy. The look of pure and utter joy on the child's face as he consumed the sweet confection caused a smile to appear on Jacov's face. A smile that Marika could tell was forced and she soon learned was for good reason. Jacov father had died a few days before and Jacov was hence given bereavement leave. That night, Jacov sat on his bed with his old prayer shawl draped over his head- the first time he had done so in fifteen years- and recited The Mourner's Kaddish.

As the weeks went by, Jacov found himself filled with a sudden interest in his faith.  He showed his children various aspects of Judaism, teaching them bits of Yiddish and various Hebrew prayers. He did so knowing full well that it was a fruitless venture since both were already fully entrenched in Catholicism. He also knew well that doing so was illegal. Though teaching religion to children in general was a punishable offense, as a general rule the Soviets were always much harder Jews. They saw any expression of Judaism as betrayal to the party.

In November of 1994, Jacov was deployed to the Georgian SSR to help combat a growing anticommunist insurgency. Two months later, while his platoon was conducting a raid of a small town, one of Jacov's subordinates thought it would be fun to shoot the stained glass out of the windows from a Synagogue. Instinctively, Jacov harshly berated him for doing so. The suburbanite- knowing full well that Jacov was Jewish- called him a Zionist pig. Jacov was killed a few days later from- as the letter sent to Marika said- 'friendly fire.' But Marika knew all to well her husband's death was likely no accident at all. The government was, once again, becoming more Stalinist: severely restricting travel out of the Soviet Union, spying on and arresting people, sending them to dreaded Gulags for little or nothing at all and whispered words of purges and ethnic cleansing. So Markia's choice to sign her children over to The People's Wammy's House -an orphanage that had diplomatic immunity because it was a British sponsored organization- in late January was not without justified motivation.     

Marika brought her children to Moscow a few days before she officially turned them over to the orphanage, staying in a small, three room apartment a few blocks away. The night before Marika handed the children over was somber one. Before she sent the children bed, Marika bequeathed her red glass rosary- a family heirloom- to Ilya. Telling both that she loved them dearly. This display upset Mihael to point that child started to cry. But after some coddling from his mother, the child calmed down and went to sleep. His sleep-however would not last long.  Early the next morning, loud banging and shouting was heard at the front door, waking the family. The now awake Ilya woke his brother and the two young children hid in the closet. Mihael started to cry until his brother grabbed him and covered his mouth, hissing at him to stay quite. Three men entered the apartment and interrogated Marika. Asking why a good Soviet woman such as herself would not renounce her husband for being a Zionist. She claimed that she was unaware that her husband was even Jewish. The men laughed it off and threatened her and her children with deportation to The Gulags, saying, "Mihael has problems with his lungs doesn't he? The little Jew won't last long in Siberia." Marika flew into hysterics while one of the men grabbed her abet a struggle. The second man started to go after the children until the third noted that both Ilya and Mihael were under the protection the People's Wammy's House and hence could not be touched. At that, the other man turned back and they left the apartment, taking Marika with them. Ilya promptly left the closet and instructed his brother to start packing. The two children walked through the cold and ice night to the orphanage. When they arrived, Ilya explained to the orphanage's director what had happened and the two brothers were promptly brought in.

The weeks and months fallowing the arrest of their mother and arrival at the orphanage was hard on the brothers. Three days after they arrived, Mihael threw a massive temper tantrum- kicking and screaming to the point where he actually managed to hurt one of the workers. It got the point were Ilya had to be called down to stop him. Ilya berated and scolded Mihael viciously, saying that Mihael needed to stop throwing tantrums like a baby and grow up. Mihael then berated Ilya, calling him cold because he hadn't cried when Papa died or when Mama was taken. Mihael then tackled Ilya, punching him and screaming that he hated him. But Ilya quickly over powered Mihael and the young boy started to cry, begging Ilya repeatedly not to leave him. More tantrums would come and Mihael became excessively clingy to Ilya. This was something that the directors of the institution did not like because- as it turned out- The Winchester establishment was looking into taking Ilya. When the director of the house in late July informed Ilya of this, the young boy asked if Mihael would be joining him. When they told him no, Ilya refused the offer, citing that he could and would not leave his brother.

In early August, a group of Communist party moderates attempted to overthrow the hardliner government. After a week, coup was aborted and the perpetrators were arrested and scheduled to be quickly executed. In the early hours of August fifth- the day the perpetrators were to be executed- The Soviet people, who by the time had grown tired of communist rule, took to the streets of Moscow, commencing what would later be known as the Moscow Riots. Soviet troops were called into the capital to fight off the rioters and full scale urban warfare began. With violence and chaos increasing, at the advice of the Wammy's House headquarters in Winchester, the Moscow institution was to be quickly evacuated and children sent to the nearest institution located in Helsinki, Finland. Mihael and Ilya were to be sent out on the first transport, but because of exist visa restrictions; the children could only be taken out ten at a time and hence only one of the brothers would be allowed to go. But since there was another policy of siblings not being allowed to split up, both Ilya and Mihael would have to wait. As the first transport was leaving Ilya, understanding how dangerous the situation was becoming, demanded that Mihael being taken anyway, despite the berating from the institution's director who said it could not be done. Ilya kept insisting and it was quickly decided that Mihael would go. The five year old fell into hysterics at the thought of being separated from his brother- the only family the boy had left- and clung to the eleven-year-old for dear life. He begged his older brother not to let him be taken. Ilya looked Mihael straight in the eye and told him, "Sometimes you must do things your heart doesn't like." At that, Ilya hugged the boy and placed their mother's rosary around Mihael's neck. The five-year-old was then grabbed and taken to the transport kicking and crying his brother's name while his brother watched from the steps saying, "Good bye Misha."

Early the next day, Mihael, arrived at the Helsinki institution. While the director of Helsinki institution was interviewing him with the help of the Moscow director- or attempting to since the young boy refused to speak- a young man with scruffy black hair entered the office introducing himself as Elias Richter in fluent Finnish. The young man turned to Mihael and introduced himself in fluent Russian, which took the young boy surprise. The young man proceeded to ask Mihael various questions to which he received inflamed emotional responses from the child. At the end of the conversation, the teen turned to the director and in a stoic voice said again in Finnish, "This boy is to be sent to Winchester and given the name Mello." With that, the young man left. It was clear to the director who the man was: L. He was in Helsinki because he and Watari had heard of the evacuation of the Moscow establishment and wanted to check on the evacuated children. During that brief conversation, L had chosen Mihael as a successor. After the interview, the Moscow director told Mihael that from now on he was to be called by and answer to the name of Mello and was never to refer to himself as Mihael Keehl. He was also told that- after a few months so he could learn English- he would be sent to England. Right away Mihael's thoughts went to his brother and he asked about Ilya. Reluctantly, the director told Mihael that shortly after their departure, the Moscow establishment was caught in the line fire and was bombed. Though survivors were likely, they were unable to be identified and located. If Ilya did manage to survive, finding him would be impossible. That night, Mihael sat on his bed with his mother's rosary clutched tightly in his small hands and mournfully recited a rhythmic pattern of Hail Marys and Our Fathers in Russian. The last time he would do so for ten years.