“Wait a minute: how in the blue hail did Lieutenant Jenson 'I Am Telling You that I'm Not Going' Hudson end up in rehab doing his therapy? I leave here for one week on a family emergency, and miracles break out!”
Major K.D. Mueller was shocked and awed, and was about to be more shocked and awed after the intake manager at the Veteran's Lodge Inpatient Mental Health Services building stopped laughing.
“Your patient, that's who – Capt R.E. Ludlow! That man is the Messed-Up Soldier Whisperer! Lieutenant G.H. Truss has got his outpatient appointments together, and Major H.S. Hofstadt is checking in this afternoon!”
“Wait, what? Hofstadt who threatened to shoot the last person who so much as did a wellness check?”
“His daughter called Capt. Ludlow. Capt. Ludlow went and got him and brought him here just as meek as a lamb.”
“Hofstadt outranks Ludlow, though!”
“Ludlow doesn't know that, and neither does anyone who gets that voice of his laid on them, apparently!”
Meanwhile, on another side of the Veteran's Lodge …
“That's him – that's the voice at Major Thibodeaux's funeral – Col. Wozniak, I gotta get him for the Hymns of Strong Comfort project! Veterans are flocking to this man's voice because it's the first time a lot of them have realized they can come to Christ and do church and not be emasculated – it's silly to us because we have known Christ as the Perfect Man for a long time, but a lot of men are so turned off by the way we do church and have never seen men they feel our like themselves able to love to love and be loved by God – but they hear that in R.E. Ludlow's singing!”
“He's a basso profundo,” Col. F.V. Wozniak said with a sigh. “He could be singing a song written for soprano, two or three octaves down, and it would still sound masculine because that's what that voice type does. There's nothing spiritual about it … except that maybe, at such a time … .”
“He sounds like God the Father's echo, with that voice, Colonel – that's what I need for this project! I've got surveys telling me a million men or more, just across the South, would welcome this – and combined with that one solo song from Maj. Thibodeaux's funeral at the reactions to that, it could easily be millions and millions of people from all walks of life who will respond to this!”
“Give me your number – if I let it happen, people would be hounding this man and I am not going to allow him and his family to be disturbed on my watch, but if he's interested, he'll call you back.”
“Please put in a good word for me, Colonel – you know I'm for real, sir!”
“I do, Captain, and I will.”
Some hours later, Mrs. Thalia Ludlow heard her husband's cell phone ring … twice.
“Hello – oh, good afternoon, Maj. Mueller! I trust all is well with the family and everyone is settled back in after the scare? Good. How can I help you? … well, I've been close to doing what Hudson was thinking of doing, the only difference being that by the grace of God I don't drink, so I never lost control of myself enough to actually get started doing it. But I understand how the mind can go there. G.H. Truss I sang with for that recording of Don Giovanni that Capt. Maynor is having partially redone because that soprano is so, so flat in some places … he took a liking to me because he was raised by his grandfather, and one thing led to another …
“Major Hofstadt? He and I served together, so when I rolled up he already knew what I told him: “You're getting this wellness check, and if you threaten to shoot me, you better go on and get ready to do that.” He was getting ready to commit suicide … he has been in deep, deep depression and feels like he is a burden to his daughter, but I told him he didn't have to be, that he could recover, and that I'll come through and sit with him every day so he can talk about the stuff we know about with somebody who was there … bad stuff happened on that tour of duty, and he blames himself although there was nothing he could have done differently. I backed him up then, and I'm backing him up now.”
“What? … the Veteran's Lodge wants to pay me to help veterans like them? What – well, yes. Yes! I mean, I'm sure there's details but, yes, I'm interested!”
An hour later …
“Col. Wozniak, I'm so glad you called because I went away for eight weeks and came back and there are seven well-trained little singers in my house – we have been having so much fun as a family doing harmony games this week! The only problem is that Robert and Edwina, their voices precociously developing into echoes of mine, are louder than ever, but, I'll take it! Thank you so much! What's on your mind? … Wait, what?They think I should be on a project like that? Really? They think hearing old 'Hell to Pay,' redeemed, is going to do all that? Well, if they think so, I can be convinced – it's a wonderful idea and it's also a legacy for my grandchildren to share with their children in case I don't meet them. Yes, I'll take the number – wait, what? Their budget is what? Look, they aren't calling Samuel Ramey or Jerome Hines – well, yes, they can't get the phone number to either one of those for different reasons, but seriously, Colonel, they want to pay me what to record hymns?”
Some time later, Mrs. Ludlow was getting ready to prepare dinner and her husband brought in a sack of onions, put them down, and wrapped his arms around her.
“My peace jobs are here,” he said.
“I noticed,” she said.
“I said yes to everything,” he said. “Melvin Trent next door is already blocking out studio time for me to come record 'Hymns of Strong Comfort,' and I'll be receiving a formal offer from the Veteran's Lodge about working in their mental health department as a specialized case manager. That's part time, but with the advance for the hymn project and my pension, we'll be set up so that when the Ludlow Bubbly sale comes through, we can just put that up for the inheritance of our grandchildren!”
“Which is what you wanted and we prayed for,” she said. “God is good indeed.”
“Indeed, because the other thing I've been asking for is getting permission to start spoiling you again, and a new arrangement like this is going to give me all the room I need!”
“I don't know why and what they are doing, exactly,” seven-year-old Amanda Ludlow said to her big sister eleven-year-old Eleanor as they listened to their grandparents laughing, “because all I saw was onions going in there, and I didn't know onions were funny, but I'm all for it, and I feel safe now!”
“Everything can be fun if people love each other,” Eleanor said, and then demonstrated by giving her sister a big hug.
