16 September 2024, @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2497: Just one more moment

Image by Myriams-Fotos from Pixabay

“So, I decided I'm just going to ask you, because, see, I'm not afraid, well, maybe a little, but, see, I have a real tall soul, so I'm gonna ask, because, see, how do you sound like Papa without sounding like Papa?”

Five-year-old Lil' Robert Ludlow did not know that you weren't supposed to give away that you were eavesdropping by bouncing right in after the phone conversation you were listening to was over. So he came and bounced right up into Col. H.F. Lee's lap right after his big Lee cousin's Zoom call was over – bounced up like he owned it, because –.

“He kinda does,” the big Lee cousin said later to his wife, Mrs. Maggie Lee. “I do not think we have seen the lap he cannot get up in, smile that big smile, and not completely conquer.”

Both of them were gently laughing at their baby cousin, as in love with him as they were his six elder siblings … and just a few moments later found themselves weeping … for both had lost a child, and the Ludlow grandchildren, in just seven weeks, had healed the terrible pain of those losses in their hearts. The two had met on a child rescue situation in the neighborhood, both having gone out of their way to find a baby girl whose crying was not that loud, but to them was like a beacon – not one more lost child! Then they had realized they were working in different departments in the police department, and doing work against the corruption there … but for Col. Lee it had been her tenderness over that baby girl, and for her, she had seen him earlier coming back from a Reserve Weekend and meeting a little boy who needed to be walked home from school … for two miles, there and back … and came back exhausted but laughing, glad to have made sure.

The Lees were now in the process of getting ready for a family of their own, but their family had already found them … when the Ludlow grandparents returned, they and the Lees would take on the Ludlow grandchildren and build their own family right in … mountain style, since Col. Lee and Capt. R.E. Ludlow Sr. were grandchildren of two prominent Lee-of-the-Mountain family heads … they were reverting to what they knew, again nestled up against the Blue Ridge.

For Col. Lee, because he was raised on the mountain by his grandparents, this was almost overwhelming to consider … what he would not have given for just one more moment with his first wife and child, whom he held as they both went on from his love to the love above them … but then to be given a second wife who understood completely, and for them to be given to their Ludlow cousins to help raise the Ludlow grandchildren in the mountain way, and in that support, have their children.

From Mrs. Lee's perspective, her big Italian family had always been all around, and they had been pleasantly surprised that for the second time in a row, she somehow had met an “Anglo” who got it. It so happened that her grandfather, Nabucco Milano, loved him some Sgt. Horace Lee, the colonel's grandfather – so they would be in the loop again, and the Ludlow grandchildren would benefit from that as well.

No one, in this slightly extended mountain family, would never need to feel alone again – not a child, not an adult – and that was not even counting the Trents and Stepforths and their Jubilee-of-the-mountain relatives, next door – they knew both the Milanos and the Lees-of-the-mountain, too, and loved them, so …

“It's just stuff only God can do for two people who needed to heal after loss of a child,” Mrs. Lee said to her cousin Margie, who was happily married to Hopkins Lee, the colonel's cousin!

“Y'all better hurry up, or Hoppy and I will have an older child than y'all!” Margie kidded, and they laughed.

All things in good time … including Lil' Robert getting his question answered.

“Well, your grandfather and I are cousins, so that's part of it, but also, Rob, mature men – I don't mean grown up, because not all adults know, but mature, meaning their soul is real tall too – sound a little alike, if they care about the people they take care of. We have to make sure everyone knows what is going on and what needs to be going on, but there's no need to rush or yell … we make time to help our people understand.”

“I love you for that, like I love Papa – I mean, not exactly like Papa because there's only one Papa, but still, yes!” Lil' Robert said, and smooched his big cousin's cheek. “I'mma be like both of y'all, because my soul is already real tall, and I just need the rest of me to catch up!”

“Next week, though!” Col. Lee said.

“Next week, though!” said Lil' Robert.