17 June 2025, @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2770: he’ll have to beg

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

With all the drama going on in Lofton County, VA, days-short-of-18-year-old Vanna Trent was quietly weathering a personal drama of her own, and quietly went and did all her social media blocks after talking to her mom and both her grandmothers, and after hearing some facts of the situation observed by her father, uncle, and living grandfather.

“Charles is a good young man, Vanna,” Sgt. Vincent Trent had said gently, “but he just isn't going to be able to keep up with you – he just doesn't want it bad enough, and, given that he has one of the same mentors, that's a real problem.”

“I already knew that,” Mr. Thomas Stepforth said, “but I did give Charles a chance because every young man deserves one. But, granddaughter, he has flipped out and gone home – you are making more in a month than he has skills to make in a year, and he doesn't have the patience to learn from me how to catch up inside his present skill sets and interests.”

“Listen, Vanna – your father and grandfather are of course respecting your feelings,” Major Thomas Stepforth Jr. said. “If that young man ever says to you in person what he is telegraphing online right now, I'mma claim PTSD and shoot him, so don't get weak and ask him to come back down here and work it out.”

“Uncle Major, I don't really need you doing all that,” Vanna said. “I've got Dad – sheesh!”

“He's a sergeant. I'm a major. I can get away with more. Don't have these little boys try me.”

“Sometimes, Vanna, young men just take a little longer to mature, and sometimes they never do – it's a choice, just like it is for everyone,” Mrs. Melissa Trent said. “Your father was not that many years older than Charles is now and already had his whole plan together, which is how your grandfather and then-Lieutenant Thomas Stepforth Jr. my brother didn't object. They gave him the business, and he was ready. Charles just wasn't ready, and wasn't ready to get ready. You just gotta let him go.”

“Look, Mom, I never picked him up – he was the one trying to talk big – why do they act like this?” Vanna said.

“Lot of people want a lot of things,” Mrs. Velma Stepforth said, “until they find out the cost. What happens in our community sometimes that young men look at all the things that America is saying they don't deserve, so they hope they can get a woman easy. Nope. Nothing good comes easy. Salvation is free because Jesus paid it all – but it still costs us our ego, our pride, and our sense that we are good enough to bluff up on God and heaven as we are. Some men try to bluff up on a wife the same way, but, no – not over here.”

“Oh, heck no!” Vanna said.

“I'm really glad you feel like that,” Mrs. Gladys Jubilee Trent said, “because I'm with your Uncle Major. You are a Jubilee grandchild, so Charles needed to drive all the way home to New York, and he needs to stay there, and he needs to not have you asking him to come back, because him getting with the bitter man crew online means Lofton County is not safe for him.”

Vanna put her head in her hands as Major Stepforth and Grandma Jubilee did a virtual hi-five across Zoom, and her eavesdropping little siblings Velma (11), Milton (9), and Gracie Trent (8) walked away shaking their heads.

“See, I was thinking he'll have to beg,” Velma said, “but they're plotting on killing Charles!”

“Ain't it the truth,” Gracie said.

“Listen, I'm staying single until like 55 because this is too much!” Milton said. “I not only gotta worry about some other girl's family trying to kill me, but these are my relatives – I gotta get my whole life together!”

“I see why Melvin has never really been out there dating at 21,” Velma said. “I mean, sheesh – this thing is serious! I see why Andrew Ludlow next door thinks that his grandfather sorta kinda bumped his parents off when his parents proved they weren't going to be good parents – these people will kill over their nieces and grandbabies!”

“Ain't it the truth,” Gracie said, “because you know Grandma Jubilee and Capt. R.E. Ludlow are basically the same type of person, but of course Grandma Jubilee is more beautiful and cooler.”

“Well, everybody can't be a Jubilee, a Trent, or a Stepforth – it's not his fault and we just can't be discriminating,” Velma said.

“Yeah, we can't just be judging people as less than because they are not us,” Milton said.

“All I'm saying is, when you get to the soul part, ain't no real difference,” Gracie said. “And then they've got Edwina over there like we have Uncle Major.”

“Backup – yeah,” Velma said. “We're trying to help Edwina, though – I mean, Capt. Ludlow has Col. Lee as backup – you figure if your nickname is Hell to Pay and your backup is Angel of Death, you kinda have it covered for all eternity and we can just let Edwina become the sweet little girl she really wants to be on the inside, wearing spiritual purple and blessing the whole world.”

“And that reminds me – let's just go pray over the rest of the bottled water because it ain't just Edwina that may need some more keeping power in their lives,” Gracie said. “I mean, y'all know Charles can't get within a country mile of here and live now, and everybody knows that a country mile is way bigger than a regular mile and no one knows how much bigger. We really don't need Uncle Major to start showing Grandma Jubilee how to use an intercontinental ballistic missile for long shooting.”

“Oh no – let us pray!” Velma said. “Charles will be coming out of his house to go to the store and walk south and KABOOM – naw, we can't let it go down like this!”

“Yeah, I'mma be single until 65,” Milton said. “We've gone from shotgun wedding to missile wedding? I'm good!”