5 april 2025, @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2697: a new dawn

Photograph by the author, Deeann D. Mathews, January 26, 2025

“So, yeah, Robert, this has gone to another level – I've been thinking for a minute that we are the leaders of our branches of the Ludlow family, and we're going to have to step up anyhow. Baby Glendella is on the run and I live too close to Astor and Big Glendella, so she's headed for you.”

Capt. Robert Edward Ludlow Sr. ran out the house he and his family of nine were staying in, in Tinyville, VA, and drove without heed to the laws – too much in a panic – all the way to Shortport, VA, where Baby Glendella, all of ten years old, had started out to walk all the way to the Veteran's Lodge where she knew her big cousin Robert had been living. Baby Glendella had been with her grandparents Astor and Glendella Ludlow since March because her parents had been traveling the world and got caught out there because of Covid-19, unable to get home – but then Astor had lost it on multiple levels, and Baby Glendella, seeing her grandmother Glendella just making excuses for his behavior, had seen enough.

“I'm sorry, Uncle Vanderbilt, but you've let Gramps roll over you for years – Cousin Robert isn't having any nonsense and I'll be safe there,” she had said before taking her little bag and heading out the door at 5:00am.

Cousin Robert had gotten from Tinyville, VA to Shortport, VA in ten minutes, driving 120 miles an hour because the sun was barely up and Baby Glendella was just walking by the road lights. Turns out that Uncle Vanderbilt was quietly escorting her, having followed her up Road 24 and overtaken her with his longer legs.

“Duck, Glendella!” Capt. Ludlow cried in his unmistakable voice as he jumped out of the car, not knowing that was Vanderbilt behind her – he literally jumped over the child and fortunately saw his cousin's face in the streetlight before utterly laying waste.

“Oh, good morning, Robert!” Vanderbilt said, his calmness belying the fact that he now knew exactly what the Grim Reaper looked like.

“Vanderbilt,” Capt. Ludlow said as he calmed his deadly reflexes down, “you need to let me know what you are going to be doing in situations like this.”

“I forgot – you know civilians don't think like that,” Vanderbilt said.

“And this is why I can't stay with you, Uncle Vanderbilt,” Baby Glendella said. “You're not crazy enough to deal with crazy.”

“I'm not arguing with you, great-niece,” he said, “but I also couldn't let you be out here on the road by yourself.

“I love you too, Uncle,” she said, and went back and hugged and kissed him, “but I gotta go.”

“You can get in the car, Glendella,” Capt. Ludlow said. “I'm actually staying in Tinyville for the time being, so, we'll get you settled in there.”

“Good, because Gramps was talking about dive-bombing y'all at the Veteran's Lodge, but even his third mistress was talking about 'you're too old to be going to prison,' and that one has no sense at all, so you know it is bad,” Baby Glendella said.

“Say what?” the two adult Ludlows said.

“See, Gramps's mistresses have the run of the house when Grandma is at her clubs and social events, and she really doesn't care because she doesn't want to be bothered with certain things,” Baby Glendella was saying. “Mistress No. 1 tried to tell him: 'Astor, don't be trying to steal Robert Ludlow's stuff – my brother is a whole general who served with him and I'm telling you: that ain't what you want.' Mistress No. 2 has good sense too: she tried to tell him that he is above all that and should just not get angry over some soda pop. Mistress No. 3 actually thinks she's in love and is almost as bad as Grandma just buttering folks up – but even she couldn't deal with Gramps yesterday. There's four women at the house, and none of them can get Gramps calmed down, and I'm not going to be No. 5. He was still ranting and raving at 4:00am while I was packing up – and throwing stuff and breaking things. I just went out the window, because, no.”

Vanderbilt's phone rang.

“Hello?” he said after a moment. “Yes, nephew, this is your Uncle Vanderbilt – yes, I've called you five times in an hour because it's about your daughter – you had better figure out who you need to bribe and you and Sylvia get your butts home!”

“Like they care,” Baby Glendella said. “How are you going to not be able to get back to the United States because you are stuck, but forget that I have access to your social media and can see everything you're doing while stuck – you got to nine countries, but you can't get home? I'm just done with everything and everyone!”

“What – Glendale, let me put you on hold for a second – what, Glendella?”

The great-niece showed her great-uncle her phone, and the great uncle turned red as he saw what she was talking about.

“Hello, Glendale, I'm back,” he said, “and I'm just going to walk down this road your daughter is running away on – yeah, get Sylvia on the phone – put the thing on speaker real quick, because, see –.”

Vanderbilt Ludlow was a man of class and taste. He did not feel Baby Glendella should have to hear him cussing her parents clean out, and so got a long way down the road and kept his voice nice and low.

“At least Uncle Vanderbilt tries,” the child said. “He tries to really take care of everyone and everything, and he takes too much off Gramps but doesn't make excuses for him. But it's just not enough right now.”

“Well,” Capt. Ludlow said as he opened his long arms, “I will do my best to be enough until we can get all this sorted out.”

Baby Glendella came to her big Ludlow cousin's embrace.

“You came here to get me and I didn't have to walk all the way,” she said. “You also let Gramps know he isn't running everything and everyone. I don't think we should ruin things that help kids eat in anybody's family, but especially not our own.”

“Which is why I don't let things like that happen,” he said as he gently put Baby Glendella in the big car seat in the back of the car. “Not on my watch, Glendella, at no time.”

Capt. Ludlow drove at a much safer pace back to Tinyville, and arrived in tears … like his granddaughter Eleanor when she first came to live with him and her grandmother, Baby Glendella had gone right to sleep, not worried anymore about anything. He gently lifted her out of the car and carried her into the house and put her down on the sofa just as five-year-old Lil' Robert Ludlow stumbled out of his room, looking for his grandfather and coffee.

“Who's that?” he said.

“That is your Cousin Glendella,” Capt. Ludlow said. “Bad things are happening at her house, so she is going to be staying with us for a little while.”

“Oh, yeah, see, because, she's gonna be safe here with us, see, because, we're not gonna let bad things happen here see, because, the Robert Edward Ludlowness vested in us – I just need more coffee so I can fit in your vest, but, next week, though!”

“Exactly,” Capt. Ludlow said. “Get comfortable on the couch too – but don't wake your cousin – and I'll start the coffee.”

The two little Ludlows were both sound asleep and snuggling by the time the captain got back, just as the first gold of the dawn crept past the living room blinds. Capt. Ludlow raised the blinds and looked as the colors of the dawn rioted with joy over Fruitland Memorial Park to the east, and then looked back at those colors playing on the sleeping, smiling faces of his grandson and his cousin.

Mrs. Thalia Ludlow came out of the bedroom at that moment and looked over the situation.

“I was wondering how Baby Glendella was holding up, and I guess we know,” she said.

Capt. Ludlow explained the situation, and Mrs. Ludlow shook her head.

“It's just shameful, the way Astor, Big Glendella, Glendale, and Sylvia are behaving,” she said. “Just shameful!”

“There's no telling how long it is going to take Glendale and Sylvia to get back here,” Capt. Ludlow said. “There's also no telling how bad it is going to get between Astor, his wife, and his three mistresses. Baby Glendella came here to us because she knew she would be safe.”

“Yep,” Mrs. Ludlow said. “I don't have a problem with it. We've taken care of seven. Eight is no big deal. After what we've seen the foster care system is like – yeah, let's just keep Baby Glendella until things are straightened out.”

Lil' Robert of course took over introducing his cousin to his Ludlow siblings and their Trent and Stepforth friends, and Baby Glendella was running on the lawns just as carefree as they were by the time breakfast was over.

“A new dawn for her,” Vanderbilt Ludlow said when his cousin called and reported. “Thank you, Robert. If anyone in this family is equipped, you are – but, Susanna and I are wiring you some money to cover Baby Glendella's expenses until we get ourselves together. In the long run, we'll probably end up raising her because … well, situations.”

“Situations … but you see, Vanderbilt, that I buried mine.”

“Yeah, the way you stepped back and let bad behavior take its course so you could rescue your grandchildren is something I've been thinking about a lot,” Vanderbilt said. “I mean you are far more hardcore than I am, but I understand how you got that way now – my great-niece feeling safer walking up Road 24 before dawn than anywhere else has opened my eyes. This was a new dawn for me too, although I know that Baby Glendella is going to enjoy her new reality far more than I am!”