7 april 2025, @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2699: the daily grind

“I have to say that the coffee here smells different, Big Cousin Thalia.”

“Well, your Big Cousin Robert does his own blend like he does his own soda.”

“I don't see a single coffee stain on the walls here either.”

“Glendella, we don't do that kind of foolishness over here.”

Ten-year-old Glendella Ludlow was happily snuggled up by Mrs. Thalia Ludlow as she had her afternoon cup of coffee, lovingly ground weekly by Capt. R.E. Ludlow – the Ludlow Blend preceded the Ludlow Bubbly by ten years, just because he liked a blend of coffees he could not find in the store, and so did his own for himself and his wife. Mrs. Ludlow made cocoa for Glendella, so they were just chilling and enjoying life for a little while.

Eight-year-old Edwina Ludlow saw this and remembered it later that night when she came out of her room going to the bathroom and saw her grandfather sitting by the phone. It rang for half a second before he picked it up.

“Good morning, Vanderbilt. Yes, Glendella had a very good day and has settled in a lot faster with my grandchildren and their friends than I even prayed for – apparently, this is a non-competitive, secure group of little people.”

“Yeah, because this is where Glendella belongs – hang up the phone with Cousin Vanderbilt because Glendella is ten and he shoulda done something nine years ago if he was serious! We're keeping Glendella over here, Papa – WE ARE KEEPING HER.”

Edwina's contralto was the little-girl analog to her grandfather's massive basso profondo, meaning everybody in the Lee and Trent/Stepforth houses woke up just like in the Ludlow house – but in the Ludlow house, on came Lil' Robert (5), Grayson (6), Amanda (7), George (9), Andrew (10), and Eleanor (11), all riled up and mobbing their grandfather about “Yeah – yeah – he had nine years and you came and got us in just two – we gotta keep Glendella because we know what to do!”

Lil' Robert actually took the phone out of his stunned grandfather's hand.

“Sorry, Big Cousin Vanderbilt, but, see, you ain't got no Robert Edward Ludlowness vested in you, so we got this!”

“Yeah,” Grayson said as he took the phone. “Nine years? No. We're just going to have to hit you with the gottagobye – gottagobye!”

And Grayson hung up the phone and put the number on block!

“We're just going to put our two cents in because we're up, and also, Pop-Pop has master keys to all these houses and we know where they are,” eleven-year-old Velma Trent said as she, nine-year-old brother Milton, eight-year-old sister Gracie, and nine-year-old cousin Vertran Stepforth came through the door. “Y'all need to keep Glendella, Uncle Captain and Aunt Thalia, because she ain't gonna be safe with none of them people she comes from.”

“Ain't it the truth,” Milton, Gracie, and Vertran said.

Glendella broke down crying.

“I've never really felt loved before by a real family!” she said, and all those kids hug-tackled her.

“We love you, Glendella!”

Mrs. Thalia Ludlow had to intervene so that she and Glendella both wouldn't get crushed, and in the meantime, Capt. Ludlow called his cousin back.

“Vanderbilt, I am so sorry about that.”

“Well, actually, Edwina is right.”

“What?”

“Susanna and I have been talking about this for five years, but she also had to beat cancer and she's still not fully recovered. The daily grind of raising another child really would be too much for her, even if I retired, because please believe I am going to be busy. Astor, Big Glendella, Glendale, and Sylvia will fight me tooth and nail because we all live in Shortport and they will be humiliated here – and if Glendale and Sylvia get Glendella back, they are going to take that out on her, because they never wanted her. To them, Glendella is a mistake – they were fooling around and found out no birth control is one hundred percent effective. They don't want to be parents. They hemmed and hawed long enough so Glendella ran on them then too and got out of there before a late-term –.

“Vanderbilt – no!”

“Yes, Robert. It is all true. All that will have to come out in a fight with me, and they will stop at nothing to keep that from getting out. But if you and Thalia take custody, Robert, they won't fight you, and Glendella will finally get to live in some peace because you are far enough away and her parents and grandparents won't have everyone in town talking about what horrible people they are.”

“But they are,” Capt. Ludlow said as he saw red. “They are monsters!”

“And Glendella is right: I'm too close to them for her to be safe. Edwina is right, and so is she.”

Capt. Ludlow prayed for a long moment, but he and Mrs. Ludlow had known the minute both of them had laid eyes on Glendella, just like they had when Eleanor was born.

“Tell me this: have Astor and Big Glendella even realized their granddaughter is gone?”

“No, because it's Glendale and Sylvia's job to tell them, and Astor got so mad at me he blocked me. Glendale and Sylvia have found a way to sneak out to the Italian Riviera, so that's what they are doing. I will go over there in the morning when Astor has no more bottles to throw.”

“You take care of that part. I will take care of what you, Glendella, and Edwina have said.”

“Robert, God bless you!”

“Oh, He does, Vanderbilt.”

Capt. Ludlow hung up the phone, and waded into the pile to embrace the little girl who would eventually be his eighth adopted daughter.

“Well, I like balance. We have four boys, and now we have four girls – we're keeping you, Glendella.”

Col. H.F. and Mrs. Maggie Lee were on their porch in tears of joy as all the cheering started – and then Col. Lee dismissed the adults of the Trent/Stepforth home with laughter, for everyone knew that Edwina was a littler version of the colonel's great-aunt, Hilda Lee, also known as “Grandee” Lee. He went on and pulled up “Also Sprach Zarathustra” on his phone …

“And so the great-great-granddaughter of Grandee Lee stepped into her ancestral power to save Princess Glendella from the horde of monsters in the land of Shortport, and the princess will remain in these safe realms henceforth.”

Mrs. Lee fell out laughing before anyone else, knowing what was coming next in her husband's hilarious proclamation voice.

“Thus Grandee Leedlow hath spoken! So let it be written, so let it be done!”