“You know, I've really been thinking about what Gracie said about how smart we are and maybe stupid people just need to get hung up on so we stay cute,” eight-year-old Edwina Ludlow was saying to her big cousin Mrs. Maggie Lee.
“That makes for a nice rhyme, too,” Mrs. Lee said. “Keep it cute and put 'em on mute.”
“You know, I really like that – hang on, I have an idea!” Edwina said. “Be right back!”
It would take an hour, but …
“Come on, Cousin Maggie – Gracie's big brother has the hookup!”
And so the next great inspirational hip-hop song in Lofton County began with Mrs. Lee's beat loop that she didn't realize she was making until 21-year-old Melvin Trent set it up and looped it back.
“No – that's your money, Maggie,” Col. H.F. Lee said when she brought the contract to him. “That's the same deal that Robert gets on Hashtag: Side Hustle – that 20 percent cut – and you are welcome to all of it. You and Edwina get cuter with it.”
“See, I just need an eight-year-old like Cousin Harry for a husband and I'm good on life, especially with all these life hacks I'm getting from Gracie!” Edwina said. “The next thing I gotta do is get my grandparents to get us a dog to help with the dishes, and we're going to be all good!”
“Oh?” Mrs. Lee said, already knowing a phone call to Gracie's adults was about to be necessary in 5, 4, 3, 2, … .
“So what you do is let the dog and cat lick the dishes clean before you put them in the dishwasher because they have raspy tongues and and get the stuck stuff on every dirty dish,” Edwina said. “Now Gracie said that you can't do this in every household because there's no point if the humans are eating an unhealthy diet for the pets to be having heart disease and needing their diabeticals checked, but otherwise it's a win-win!”
“Well,” Col. Lee said to his wife later as they cleaned up the kitchen, “it's so nice that Gracie and Edwina think your food is approved for pre-rinsing by Goody and Goldie.”
“Yeah, that's gotta be the biggest compliment I've gotten aside from you this month about my cooking, not sending animals through diabetical checks,” Mrs. Lee said as she and hubby both cracked up.
Meanwhile, in the Trent home, the Stepforth grandparents on guardian duty there …
“Lord, we thank You,” Mr. Stepforth was solemnly intoning, “that the dishwasher in this home has been down since before my daughter and her husband moved in, and that the Gracie Trent Experience has not been pre-rinsing any plates since the family has moved to Virginia! Thank You that I also have another 10 days to figure out just how I am going to tell Vincent and Melissa about this!”
Elsewhere on the yard …
“Life is really not that hard,” eight-year-old Gracie Trent was saying to ten-year-old Andrew Ludlow. “You just gotta know how to work with everything God gives us. I had a bunch of time to think about stuff while grounded, so life is going to be getting even better around here.”
“Edwina has totally chilled out,” Andrew said as he gave Gracie a hug. “Thank you for all that you are doing, Gracie – you're such a friend!”