13 april 2025, @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2705: round

Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay

Capt. R.E. Ludlow blew out a large breath of air, late in the evening, and pulled out his color wheel, its large, round shape fitting well into his hand.

Sometimes it was worth putting the phone receiver between his large head and shoulder and having both hands free, running his fingers down from red down to the cool of blue, again and again.

However, this particular call was going to take not only that emotional regulation tool, but a half-day of prayer and fasting, and journaling.

“Lord, You know my temper, and why I am so, so angry … this situation just brings back the worst moments I had with my children as they chose their drugs over their own kids and me, so I'm not just angry over Glendella. Thank You for those weeks of intensive therapy, so I have not been seeing red and having high blood pressure and recurring heart problems … but I am still going to need You to take control of my tongue, because Glendale and Sylvia have been torn down enough by their own parents, and I understand why they are the way they are even though I am ready to destroy them over running in the opposite way from taking care of Glendella. I need Your help to do your will toward all three, and to behave worthy of being able to say in Jesus's name, Amen.”

Then, Capt. Ludlow picked up the phone and called his cousin Glendale Ludlow, son of the still-raving-at-the-mental-hospital-after-messing-with-Capt. Ludlow hapless cousin Astor.

“Glendale, this is your Cousin Robert. Don't worry about how I got the number – just know that I have it, and that your daughter is safe: I have Glendella, and she wasn't in the fire that burned down your childhood home.”

Glendale and Sylvia hadn't even heard about the fire, so Capt. Ludlow sent them the video from Uppity Foolery Watch and waited for them to call back. They were stunned.

“Glendella ran away two days earlier … and from what she's told me and what I saw there and what your Uncle Vanderbilt is still telling me, I understand why y'all are running too.”

Robert Edward Ludlow Sr. would never have guessed or picked it for himself, but to Glendale and Sylvia he became the voice of reason and understanding and fatherly love that they had never heard before. The conversation went on for hours before at last the details were worked out, and Capt. Ludlow hung up the phone only to find there was another conversation.

Ten-year-old Glendella Ludlow had come into the room.

“I heard you praying for my parents before you called them.”

“You have good ears, Glendella.”

“You have a really big voice, Cousin Robert, even when it is soft.”

“So, how did it go?”

Capt. Ludlow sighed, and then opened his arms to Glendella.

“Some things should not be explained without a hug,” he said, and she came to his embrace.

“There is no excuse for your parents being gone for just about eight of the last ten years,” he said, “because that's not what you are supposed to do when you have a child. However, they have been running from the same people you are: they just figured it out later in life.”

“It's not because I'm a mistake and they never wanted me?” she said.

“You cannot be a mistake, Glendella,” Capt. Ludlow said. “Although some parents are mistaken, you are here because God wanted you here and made you Himself.”

“That's what my Sunday School teacher always says,” she said. “She gave me a Psalm 139 bookmark and I brought it with me.”

“I'll read it to you with my huge voice,” Capt. Ludlow said, and Glendella grinned and went and got it and became radiant with joy as her big cousin read it in his huge bass voice.

After that, the big cousin felt the little cousin was ready for the next piece of news.

“Your parents are not running from you: they just can't deal with your grandparents and have had to go 'no contact' with them to get their mental health together. They have agreed to turn over their parental rights to me and Big Cousin Thalia because they just can't parent you if they don't know how to live themselves and are still trying to figure it out, and they also know I can and I will keep you safe. They both said they loved you.”

“I want them to tell me that,” she said, and Capt. Ludlow dialed up Glendale and Sylvia again and was quiet as Glendella and her parents talked about everything had happened.

Afterward, Glendella turned to Capt. Ludlow.

“I'd be mad at them, but basically they have run away too, and they never learned how to be good parents because they were never treated well, so … .”

“Glendella, they struggle with the concept of not posting on social media that you are traveling to six new countries while also telling your family you are being kept from coming home by Covid. Taking good care of a child takes far more having it together than that, and they are still getting there.”

“I'm ten and they are basically 15.”

“Just about,” he said, “trying to make up for everything they couldn't get when they should have.”

“Yeah, I'm good,” Glendella said as she embraced her adoptive father-to-be. “They gotta find their way like I already found mine.”

“That's pretty much it, and then after they do, maybe they will make better parents to you when you are an adult.”

“Yeah, I'm good on all that,” she said. “We'll get there when we get there.”