12 february 2025, @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2645: a familiar feeling

Image by Sophia from Pixabay

“OK … this is not a familiar feeling for our adults although it is for us, and so we're going to mind our business and let everyone bond across the color line and not ask … we'll catch up through quality eavesdropping later!”

“Ain't it the truth,” eight-year-old Gracie Trent said as the Ludlow grandparents, the Stepforth grandparents, and all the adult Trents – Vincent and Melissa Trent her parents had come home that day, her biggest siblings Melvin and Vanna had joined the hug, and Gladys Jubilee Trent, Sgt. Trent's mother, had also showed up.

An article from the Big Loft Bulletin and a corresponding one in the Lofton County Free Voice
confirmed the same news: Marvin Lucas, who had run cocaine in every form the people had wanted it in Lofton County, had gone down, taking his enterprise and the people in power who had protected him with him. Although the investigation had started in the Vice division, it had gotten shunted into Cold Case and forgotten until, in 2019, Cold Case finally got a concerned captain: semi-retired Army colonel Henry Fitzhugh Lee. And so justice, though delayed, was not denied.

Every family huddling on the yard understood that their future neighbor had them and the losses he knew their families had suffered – the Ludlow generation between the grandparents and the grandchildren, and countless members of the Stepforth and Trent families – when he gave his one quotable quote to both papers.

“Every person who has ever taken drugs is responsible for his or her decision and the consequences that follow from that. We must remember that the people who provide illicit drugs and the people who protect them in power are equally responsible. Lofton County does not grow coca, nor does it manufacture guns – other forces are responsible for the prevalence of this drug here, and today we begin to hold those forces accountable.”

Also in the huddle was Mrs. Maggie Lee, who was moving into the Lee's new home that day – her husband, realizing the enemies he was going to make, had sent her to the Veteran's Lodge for her protection. He had an extra reason to do that … something that particularly excited the Ludlow grandparents.

The Ludlow grandchildren and Trent little ones did not learn who Marvin Lucas was that day, but they did find out something much more to their interest through quality eavesdropping.

“We're going to have a little Lee cousin next year – Cousin Maggie is pregnant!” Eleanor came and told Velma, Milton, and Gracie Trent.

Col. Lee had kept his promise to his wife about reversing his vasectomy, and the Lord, now knowing the Lees were ready, had wasted no time in doing His part, too.

So then the Ludlow grandchildren and the Trent little ones and their little Stepforth cousin Vertran had their dance on the yard, leaving the adults to have to wonder what was going on.

“But they are like that all the time,” Capt. Ludlow said. “It's us adults – especially hardened soldiers healing like me – who need a big reason to do that. I thank God for a big reason … I thank God … the people who entrapped my children have met justice, my Lee cousin Henry led the charge, and his tribe is going to increase!”