4 June 2025, @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2757: give him an inch

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“I don't normally talk with you, Uncle Captain, because we just don't run into each other like that, but how do you do that?”

Capt. R.E. Ludlow looked up from having had a conversation with his baby grandson five-year-old R.E. Ludlow III, also known as Lil' Robert, to try to understand what eleven-year-old Velma Trent was asking.

“No, we don't often encounter each other,” he said with a smile, “because Andrew and Eleanor occupy almost all your Ludlow time.”

“And also because I mind my business and you and my dad aren't trying to chase me, Andrew, or Eleanor down,” Velma said. “But Robert – how do you do that thing with him where he is just calm and sweet and a normal five-year-old not talking five hundred million miles a minute?”

“Oh, that,” Capt. Ludlow said, and started laughing. “I guess that does look like some kind of magic, doesn't it?”

“It really does, because he can even run my grandparents off the road sometimes, and that takes some doing,” Velma said.

“Well, young Miss Trent, there's something about me and my namesake that you and your grandmother Mrs. Velma Stepforth understand, and that your cousin Vertran and your grandfather Mr. Thomas Stepforth understand, and that even Robert knows, too: he and I are really twins, but you know, stuff happens at hospitals.”

“And you sound just like him, two octaves down!” Velma said as she laughed.

“That's the point, young lady; he is my grandchild-twin on the sunny side. I understand him, and I know how he needs to be communicated with so he knows that, so he doesn't usually need to hit me with that whole wall of words to get my attention and explain where he is coming from. Robert was neglected in foster care, and although he was too young to fully remember, this is the one way that it comes out: he has a big voice and a huge intellect and a precociously large vocabulary, and he intends that he will never be overlooked again. He means no harm; he just uses what he has.”

“I'm so glad you went and got them and Glendella too,” Velma said. “We have learned so much about what kids are going through and I have cried so much with Andrew and Eleanor as they work through it.”

“You are a good friend to them, and I appreciate you,” Capt. Ludlow said. “I appreciate your parents and grandparents for raising such a fine and mature young lady with such caring.”

“Thank you. I just figure we're doing what Christ would have us do,” Velma said.

“That's correct, for He loved the children,” Capt. Ludlow said. “I have had to remind myself to square up more with that reality in the past few years.”

“And we appreciate you, Uncle Captain, because we remember how it was at the very beginning,” Velma said. “But you have gotten it squared away, and we notice.”

“The thing is, we are all God's children in Christ – I'm just a somewhat older brother to you and my own grandchildren in that respect,” Capt. Ludlow said. “What you learn as you grow up in Christ is that He expects the same thing from everybody in the family, and the older you are, the better you are supposed to do. You at 11 years old are not going to be held to account to the extent I am at 58, and that is as it should be. I do fear God. I have paid enough to now mind His business and not have Him chasing me down – I'm getting smart, like you.”

Velma laughed.

“You have a whole sense of humor we never would have gotten to know about!” she said.

“Well, you wouldn't have missed much,” Capt. Ludlow said. “But you see, Lil' Robert is not a battle-hardened old man. He still has his exuberance of early youth, and some of that talking comes from that.”

“And he is hilarious!” Velma said.

“He is,” Capt. Ludlow said. “The thing about Lil' Robert is, he's an almost perfect reflection of me in my Baby Bob days. So I know, if you give him an inch, he is going to take a mile and be looking at that next mile too. If you notice, he is very well behaved for a five-year-old.”

“Yep, and he says why: 'Because Papa! And Grandma!'” Velma said.

“But he also knows we will pour into him and hear him out, and even among eight kids, he knows he is special and heard and loved. Over the course of the day I make time to connect with all eight, and Mrs. Ludlow does too, and once a week I do a walk for each – now with Glendella here I have to do a two-walk day, but that is all right. Lil' Robert runs his mouth to his heart's desire on his walks, but not always … what he needs to know is that there is another Robert Edward Ludlow across the gap for him, and I am he.”

Velma considered his next few words carefully, and then said, “Some grandparents are really the real parents – that's not my situation, but that's kinda the situation with Vertran, and I see that with your grandchildren and Andrew and Eleanor say it all the time.”

“And they are right,” Capt. Ludlow said. “It is, in the end, God's decision. When we consider that He is our Father by adoption, some things become clear.”

“I see why Andrew and Eleanor think deep,” Velma said. “I gotta make time to talk with you more often.”

“I'm here for you too, Velma,” Capt. Ludlow said.

“When you can be,” Velma said. “Behind you, sir.”

Capt. Ludlow looked, and –.

“George – put down the hose and the markers, RIGHT NOW!”

“But Papa, just hear me out – hear me out! There's a reason! If we put the markers down the hose, they can get further by the force of water, and then we can launch flaming arrows to defend the perimeter even better but we gotta test it with things that leave a mark that doesn't hurt! The target is right there and I know we can reach it!”

“George, I know you just read St. George and the Dragon, but there are no dragons in Tinyville!”

“Oh,” George said, and put the hose down. “Hey, Milton – put the matches back! There are no dragons in Tinyville!”

“Say what?” Sgt. Vincent Trent said as he came out on his porch.

“And see, this here is why I mind my business and read with y'all,” Velma said as she and Andrew and Eleanor Ludlow took refuge in the home of the big cousins to the Ludlows, Colonel and Mrs. Lee.