14 February 2026, Freewriters Community Daily Writing Prompt Day 3014: in her company

Six-year-old Grayson Ludlow was very much like his great-grandfather, Edwin: a person who lived out of his intellect and worked with his mind and hands and was not the most touchy-feely individual. However, Grayson was still in his tender years, and being raised quite differently than his great-grandfather had been, so, he would never be disconnected from his deeper and gentler emotions in order to perform supremacy relative to everyone else in the world. He was not under that pressure. So although he wasn't the most snuggly of Edwin Ludlow's little descendants, he did show a lot of mental snuggle intuition.

“You know what?” he said to his grandfather Capt. R.E. Ludlow, Edwin's youngest son. “I get why you like Grandma.”

“Oh, really?” Capt. Ludlow said as he bent down to pick up his second-youngest grandson.

“Yes, I do,” Grayson said. “I mean, she's Grandma, but on top of being Grandma, there's this other thing. I've been talking to Glendella about her Bad Grandma, and I know Gracie's grandmas, and they provide the same thing to their family that Grandma provides to us, but they do it different because their family is different.”

“Go on,” Capt. Ludlow said.

“Grandma is solid ground that smells real good after a rain,” Grayson said, “and it smells good to Ludlow souls.”

Capt. Ludlow considered this, and then smiled as he sat down in his big porch chair with Grayson.

“You know,” he said, “you may be on to something, Grayson, because I remembered meeting Grandma, and I knew immediately that she was a good, solid person who was very strong, and yet safe … she did smell really good to my soul, and I quickly decided I did not want to be anywhere in my life that would not let me be in her company, so I married her.”

“See, good ground looks right and smells right and feels right, and when you know, you know,” Grayson said. “Why would you build anything anywhere else?”

“You wouldn't if you were wise and cared about what you were building,” Capt. Ludlow said, “and of all things, you really have to be careful building a family.”

“You know who else is like that?” Grayson said. “You are, too – just in a different way. There's a lot of iron and so there's magnets and that's why we are all sticking to you and Glendella was pulled in, and, our Uncle Frank and Aunt Francesca were pulled back after being adopted by somebody else.”

“Oh, that's what's going on?” Capt. Ludlow said.

“You probably should get ready, though,” Grayson said, “because Cousin Vanderbilt and Cousin Susanna came through here and now Cousin Edwin III and Cousin Garlene are coming. They're all grown, so they might leave, but us kids never can un-stick, so, just be ready.”

Capt. Ludlow thought about this.

“That is all you really know about me – I was always picking you and your siblings and cousins up, and y'all stayed, and Glendella stayed, so you think –.”

He stopped, because Grayson wasn't wrong.

“You know who else is like that?” Grayson said. “Our new great-uncle Joe and great-aunt Melba Wainwright who raised Uncle Frank and Aunt Francesca. Uncle Frank told me the magnetism is real strong over there, because there are 20 Wainwright siblings. You just need two more kids to stay, and you and Grandma will be halfway there. Just stay ready, because, see, they're probably coming.”

“And it was at that point that the Twilight Zone theme started playing in my head,” the captain said that night lying in the arms of Mrs. Thalia Ludlow as she continued to laugh through that incredible tale. “All that time he spends in that Lego pile not talking, not getting in anybody's way, and just has us all figured out and is doing pattern recognition – he's as bad as his Cousin Harry Lee!”

“But where was the lie, though?” Mrs. Ludlow said as she kept on laughing. “I guess you will not be kidding me about siring the ninth and tenth child on me, will you?”

“Look, I was done with that when we ended up needing to keep Glendella!” he said. “You do not know how I have been praying for all adult Ludlows with children and grandchildren all day that they get their lives together because Grayson isn't wrong! He just named the situation!”

“The Lee clairvoyance, budding in a six year old!” Mrs. Ludlow said. “But he's been like this from the beginning – remember how he would never just be crying about stuff but always pointing exactly at whatever was bothering him?”

“And sometimes we would be sitting there trying to figure out what he was doing and realize three days later what he was on about and was right,” Capt. Ludlow said. “It was a relief when his vocabulary finally started catching up – but then we get days like this!”

“Forget D.H. Hutton – when Grayson speaks, people listen!” Mrs. Ludlow said, and cracked up all over again.

“Well, yes!” Capt. Ludlow said as he also cracked up.