30 march 2025, @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2691: don’t pick that!

Source

“Hi, Cousin Astor, this is your little Cousin Amanda, and, I'm calling you to tell that if you want to live and you see belladonna berries, don't pick that, and also, don't pick fights with Papa, because that's the same thing.”

Seven-year-old Amanda Ludlow had written it all out, unwilling that anyone should perish, and remembering her grandfather teaching her how to forage like his Lee grandmother had taught him.

“That is belladonna, Amanda – don't pick that,” he said, pointing out the big, shiny black berry with the five-pointed leaves like a star behind it. “The flowers look a lot like those on these currant tomatoes that grow here, but the flowers and fruits of currant tomatoes always come in bunches like tomatoes, and they are much smaller. But the single shiny berries are poisonous – they will hurt and possibly kill you.”

Amanda remembered this and wanted to save Cousin Astor, but best friend eight-year-old Gracie Trent vetoed all of that.

“Mandie,” she said, “sometimes we gotta have what my big sister Vanna calls self-respect. We can't be protecting people who don't care about protecting us. Jesus can do all that because He's God. He can die and get back up. We can't do all that.”

“But God doesn't want anyone to perish, so I don't either,” Amanda said.

“But you're not Jesus, Amanda. That's what you gotta understand – and even Jesus doesn't save people Who don't want to be saved. He's not forcing people to believe on Him.”

“Well, yeah,” Amanda said.

“Look, your grandfather didn't call your Cousin Astor trying to steal stuff from him. Your Cousin Astor called here starting mess – and he didn't apologize, so he is still out there in sin, not saying he's sorry from trying to mess up the company we all own,” Gracie said. “Sometimes you gotta let people go through what they gotta go through so they learn not to act a fool. We just found out Cousin Darnell got saved in prison, but he had to go through almost killed by Dad for rolling up here, being chased by the police and almost being killed by them, and realizing that he was about to be in prison for about 30 years before he realized he needed to be saved. We gotta stop getting in the way of people learning what they need to learn.”

“But that's sounds like a lot of unsafe stuff,” Amanda said.

“Yeah, but Cousin Darnell made it because God keeps His own even when we don't know,” Gracie said. “He was always safe because God knew what was going to happen.”

Amanda considered this for a long time, and then smiled.

“I get it. God takes care of us until He is ready and we are ready.”

“That's it, Mandie. We don't need to mess up the plan. I mean, if any of our grandparents start going after anyone, that's a perfect time for anyone to realize they need to be saved.”

“I get it!” Amanda said. “Cousin Astor may get it too – this is good, I think!”

“Oh, he's going to get it, all right,” Gracie said, “and we can pray that before he goes to the great beyond, he gets time to be saved, although if I were him, I'd start praying really fast, just like I would if Grandma Jubilee started inventorying her long-gun bullets.”

“Yeah,” Amanda said, "that's exactly why the Bible says, 'now is the accepted time' because you never know what these grandparents are getting ready to do while you are acting up!"

"Ain't it the truth, Mandie, ain't it the truth."