19 December 2025, @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2956: red hot oven

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"See, I won't touch a hot oven, not even a red hot oven even though red is my favorite color, see, because, I eat the barbecue. I'm not going to be the barbecue."

Five-year-old Robert Edward Ludlow III, also known as Lil' Robert, was talking with his big brother ten-year-old Andrew Ludlow, and Andrew was casually interviewing him.

“OK, that's good because getting burned is not fun,” Andrew said as he wrote his brother's answer down. “But what if we put a plate of like five freshly barbecued sausages in front of you?”

“Oh, I'm getting all of those!” Lil' Robert said.

“OK, this is interesting,” Andrew said. “You're going to eat all five?”

“I'd eat ten if you put them out there!” Lil' Robert said, “see, because, sausage, and there's so many good kinds of sausage, see, because, there's patty sausages, and different kinds of patty sausages, and then there's link sausages, and different kinds, see, because there's hot links and not links, and then –.”

Andrew patiently heard his brother out, made notes, and when Lil' Robert got called by their grandmother Mrs. Thalia Ludlow, Andrew went to find his big sister eleven-year-old Eleanor, who also had been interviewing and making notes.

“Yeah, we're definitely finding out the same stuff,” she said when they had compared notes. “You know who we need to talk to?”

“Who, Ellie?”

“Tom Stepforth who works for the Lofton County Free Voice,” she said. “Let's see if grown folks have the same patterns.”

16-year-old Tom Stepforth was intrigued by the research of the eldest two Ludlow grandchildren – “Hey, that's actually pretty good, and y'all aren't even in middle school yet!”

“Well, it's like your grandmother says,” Eleanor said. “If you stay ready, you ain't never need to get ready.”

“Most grown folks are not not even on that yet, though,” Tom said, “and I'm just getting it this year. Having to apply for asylum from your own dad after nearly blowing up the entire house kind of changes your life.”

“Yeah, that must have been a rough way to learn,” Andrew said, “but we are hoping, with our research, to prevent more unfortunate cases like this.”

“Say what?” Tom said.

“The paper is called Theories of Groundation: Why Some Kids Get Grounded Way More Than Others and What We All Can Do To Help Them,” Eleanor said.

“Hey, Vertran!” Tom said, “get over here! This is going to be some hot content right here!”

Tom's nine-year-old brother Vertran Stepforth duly arrived with notebook and phone camera, with his aunt Mrs. Melissa Trent silently shadowing him to listen from just inside the door. Eleanor and Andrew explained their research, and then asked Tom if he saw similar patterns happening with adults.

“It's actually much worse,” Tom said, “because in order to get grounded as an adult, you either have to get sick, injured, or jailed. There's no one over you as an adult, so people really have problems going after what they want until it really hurts them.”

“Yeah, we also see that on Uppity Foolery Watch,” Vertran said.

“Oh yeah, that stuff is bad!” Eleanor said. “I'm just glad Glendella's biological family has finally found something better to do!”

“Yeah, that was all very hard on her, I'm sure,” Tom said. “Good thing she's now adopted safely as your sister!”

“Yeah – thanks a lot, Tom!” Andrew said.

Andrew and Eleanor then went to interview their cousin and new adopted sister, ten-year-old Glendella Ludlow, and took a bunch of notes from there.

“OK, I think we are getting the picture – it's not a kid problem,” Eleanor said. “This is a human problem – we want the things that we want a whole lot more than we think about what they are going to do to us in the long run, and everyone has triggers.”

“Like, Rob knows not to touch a hot stove,” Andrew said, “but would eat a plate of big sausages until he got sick and threw up, because sausage.”

“Sausage? Where?” Lil' Robert said as he ran over.

“You didn't hear anything but sausage, did you?” Andrew said as he put his arm out for his brother.

“Yeah, because, sausage!” Lil' Robert said.

“We don't have any,” Eleanor said. “We're just talking about them.”

“OK – if you find some, call me!”

Lil' Robert ran off, and Eleanor shook her head.

“We are all Robert Edward Ludlow III,” she said. “The only thing that keeps some of us is time to think about what is right and who we love enough or fear enough to just hold on and do the right thing.”

“And sometimes that thought can't keep up – I mean, I'm not into sausages that much, but I do love maple glazed donuts!” Andrew said.

“Maple glazed donuts are super good, though,” Eleanor said. “The thing is, though, we don't get grounded as much because we think it's not a good thing to eat a dozen of them, because we are afraid to get sick, and we love our siblings and don't want to set a bad example, we love Papa and Grandma and they are working hard enough already, and we love God Who tells us to honor Papa and Grandma because they are and always were our real parents.”

“George just doesn't think of all that, that fast – and neither does our friend Milton,” Andrew said. “They just get a good idea and go.”

“You mean, what they think is a good idea,” Eleanor said.

“Well, testing a new model helicopter is a good idea,” Andrew said. “Doing it from the roof: not so good. Making sure that the ground you are living on is solid is a good idea. Leaving the hoses from three houses on the middle yard to make sure the yard is not quicksand: not so good.”

“I see what you're saying, Andy,” Eleanor said. “We just need to show them good ideas to not get hurt, killed, or grounded for all eternity for their good ideas.”

“That's it,” Andrew said. “Wow, doing research really helps clear things up!”

“I'm surprised more people don't do it any more,” Eleanor said, “but the fact that they don't explains a lot of things.”