6 June 2025, @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2759: theorist

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Days-from-18-year-old Vanna Trent was preparing popcorn in the kitchen, and this was her nine-year-old cousin Vertran Stepforth's clue that must-see-TV was happening somewhere in the vicinity they shared with their Trent cousins and their Lee and Ludlow neighbors.

Sure enough, Vertran got his camera and saw Capt. R.E. Ludlow and nine-year-old grandson George and then later adopted (grand)daughter ten-year-old Glendella having amazing conversations.

“But that's the thing, Papa – everybody wants little boys to be little theorists and sit in class and learn about stuff we can't do anything with, and nobody wants to do that – we gotta do stuff to learn! To be able to slay dragons and be the heroes, you gotta actually slay dragons and be the heroes -- you can't be a theorist out here!"

“But there are no dragons in Tinyville, and a little research would have helped you know that.”

“OK, you got me there, Papa.”

“Let me put this to you this way, George. Suppose you and Milton had sat down and thought through trying to shoot flaming arrows with a water hose.”

“Yeah, but they would have gotten so much air time!”

“Think about it, George. Fire and water.”

“Oh … oh no.”

“And both of you would have been grounded for nothing,” Capt. Ludlow said gently.

“OK, Papa, I'm starting to see where you are coming from.”

“It could have been so much worse, too – suppose you were just testing with markers and any of those markers had hit Edwina in her beautiful yellow sun dress that she is so proud of.”

“Oh, no – forget the dragons! We all would have died!” George said.

“You sure would have – markers on my sun dress?” eight-year-old Edwina Ludlow said as she came over. “I don't even know what you were trying to do, but it sounds du-.”

“Edwina,” Capt. Ludlow said.

“Yes, Papa.”

“At ease. I got this. Go stay beautiful.”

“OK.”

George ran his hand across his brow when Edwina went away.

“Whew,” he said.

“What I need you to do is go voluntarily co-ground with Milton and y'all get this into your heads, OK?”

“Yeah – hey, Milton, we gotta voluntarily co-ground and figure out our next plan real good because, see, we almost died on this one in the worst way, and, like, no!”

Ten-year-old Glendella walked up and flopped into George's spot as soon as he left.

“You've got some really different ideas about discipline, Big Cousin – I mean, Papa.”

Capt. Ludlow smiled.

“Well, you and I up to ten years old were raised the same way – we learned what not to do by fear, and that keeps us from learning so much of what to do and why. But the other thing is, George gets really sick when he gets really scared, and so I have to work with him the way he needs to be worked with. My attitude about all of you is that there is a lot you have to learn, and there is a lot I have to learn about helping you learn.

"Now there will be times that I will tell you what to do without explanation and doing it will be expected and absolutely necessary. I may not explain for years because there are things that I know that you cannot safely know for years. I expect obedience, and I insist on discipline … but most of the time, not without you understanding why, and having the opportunity to gain the confidence and joy of living a life choosing to do all the good you know. I also will hear you out; my orders are generally well-considered, but I don't know everything about your situation and why something may be hard for you unless we can talk about it.”

“This is actually weird,” Glendella said, “and it's weird because … well, you actually care a lot, and so does … uh, Good Grandma. Abandonment and neglect unless they want something is all those people I ran away from know.”

“We don't do that here,” Capt. Ludlow said. “We adopted all eight of you to love you.”

“And we love you for that,” she said, and hugged him before running away to go play.

Vertran stopped videoing as his big cousin Vanna brought him some popcorn.

“Capt. Ludlow is doing his best to catch up with Pop-Pop in grandfathering,” he said to her.

“He is trying really hard,” Vanna said. “Not launching George into next week and sending Milton with him counts for a lot.”

“But Milton is your actual brother, though!” Vertran said.

“And that's how I know how hard it is,” Vanna said.