15 December 2025, @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2952: the next depression

Photo by the author, Deeann D. Mathews

"Between Covid-19's effects, and Lofton County's own homegrown disasters, the next depression is here. Prepare yourself accordingly."

This is what Thomas Stepforth Sr., billionaire, was saying to a local circle of investors, and to them, this was not entirely bad news. To them it meant that there was great occasion to invest their money in goodwill projects for the county and increase their brand presence, and time to scoop up good local investments at bargain prices.

But to Velma, Milton, and Gracie Trent, the billionaire's little grandchildren through his daughter Melissa and son-in-law Sgt. Vincent Trent, this was not understood quite right … but they got there a different way.

“Well, at least they can call their therapists and anger management specialists early,” eleven-year-old Velma said.

“Yeah, that's basically a 9-2-2-Where-We-Call-You call before the emergency,” Milton said. “I'm not even supposed to be out of my room eavesdropping, but y'all make sure the Ludlows and the Lees get the word.”

“Ain't it the truth,” Gracie said as she and Velma headed first to the Lees' house, where Mrs. Maggie Lee always had the back door open. They repeated what their grandfather said word for word, and added context of their own.

“Our mom has really good mental health support,” Velma said, “and while everybody doesn't need as much, there's a lot of bad going on and we love y'all Lees too and we want you to take this opportunity to make sure you stay healthy.”

“This is great and I'm writing it all down,” Mrs. Lee said. “Col. Lee has a whole team of support already like your mom does, and I'm sure we can also use this info to invest.”

“OK, great and we'll see you later – gotta get to our friends the Ludlows,” Velma said.

“Yeah, because all I'm saying is, Capt. Ludlow kinda has his life together, but Edwina is definitely going to need more anger management appointments when she hears about all this,” Gracie said.

“I can't even argue with that,” Mrs. Lee said, with a knowing smile about Capt. Robert Edward “Hell to Pay” Ludlow and his middle grandchild, eight-year-old Edwina “I Don't Play About Mine” Ludlow, whose exploits were known across the county.

“Yeah, we definitely gotta get to them with the 9-2-2 on the 4-1-1,” Velma said.

“Ain't it the truth,” Gracie said as they headed off the Lee back porch across the yard to the Ludlow back porch.

“Hey, y'all, we got a 9-2-2 for y'all – the next depression is about to hit,” Velma said to ten-year-old Andrew Ludlow who was sweeping the porch, “so I'm telling you first so you can remind everybody in your house to make appointments with their specialists.”

“Yeah, we have a family therapist and Papa and Edwina have individual and anger management people – but where is this news coming from?” Andrew said.

Velma and Gracie quoted their grandfather, and Andrew frowned, went into the house, and then brought out a big book his grandmother was reading.

“I don't think we are talking about the same kind of depression,” he said. “I think your grandfather is telling his friends about a financial depression, which happens when people do dumb stuff in markets, get caught, and lose a lot of money, but folks who aren't doing dumb stuff can then go buy good stuff on the cheap.”

“Oh, so we don't have to be depressed because this is opportunities for us – oh,” Velma said.

“Yeah, that sounds like what Pop-Pop would be saying anyway,” Gracie said. “He stays buying up good stuff dumb folks keep dropping. It's like Pop-Pop can sit here and hear somebody fumbling a bag in London and go catch it.”

“Which is why he's so cheerful about this while other people are about to be depressed in the other depressed way!” Velma said. “Now it all makes sense.”

“Yep, because remember: your grandfather is about to help the workers at the Ludlow Bubbly buy the bubbly part while our Cousin Tarquin is buying the division that was the Ludlow Winery,” Andrew said. “Ain't nothing but opportunity between us right now.”

“Well, that's a relief – I hope other people who are fumbling all these bags have their therapists on speed dial, though,” Velma said.

“Yeah, they might want to do that,” Andrew said, “because jumping off buildings is a thing according to this book about the Great Depression, and most people aren't like my brother George who have Papa come get them safely caught when they are crashing their homemade helicopters off the roof. I mean, there's getting grounded, and then there's hitting the ground from a skyscraper, and nobody needs to do that over some money. For science, which is what George was doing, I can see it, but not over money when mental health support exists.”

“Ain't it the truth, Andy, ain't it the truth,” Gracie said.

“Tell George we said hi,” Velma said, “and that we'll see him after the homemade quicksand groundation incident is over.”

Andrew sighed.

“You're gonna live a long time, Velma and Gracie. Amanda tried to do an intervention and Papa said she did so well he's going to give George half an eternity off being grounded.”

Velma and Gracie considered this.

“Well, it's a good thing that the Lord Jesus gives us that everlasting life,” Velma said, “because I guess we will see George after while.”

“Yeah, I gotta work with Amanda on this, because she just got scammed,” Gracie said. “Life is hard when you are just seven and you don't know half an eternity is still eternity.”

“Eleanor and Glendella and I thought about telling her," Andrew said, "but then you gotta consider we live at ground zero for 'one, two, skip a few,' also known as the warp drive of math, and I don't think the world or the laws of mathematics are ready for Rob our baby brother to be putting eternity into his attempts at counting and equations at five years old. I mean, if we let that information out, what is he going to be doing at like our ages?”

Velma and Gracie considered this.

“Folks out here being depressed over losing some money, but they don't even know about the real problems that have to be prevented for the sake of humanity on a daily basis,” Velma said.

“Ain't it the truth,” Gracie and Andrew said together.