Fractal art by the author, Deeann D. Mathews
“Hear me out, Cousin Harry, because, see, I got a reason for everything I do, and, see, just because you don't understand doesn't mean there isn't a reason for this!”
“Of course I will, Robert, because we have time and you especially have time, because you can't get down from there safely without me, and dinner is in five minutes.”
Five-year-old Mr. Robert Edward Ludlow III was known for two things: his bold spirit, and his sparkling intelligence, shown in his precocious vocabulary and elocution, and his equally precocious mastery of understanding likely outcomes.
“OK, so, I just wanted to get a bird's eye view, but, I didn't ask for permission, and I'm sorry, and I'm hungry,” he said from the tree branch he was sitting on.
Colonel Henry Fitzhugh Lee, Lil' Robert's cousin and guardian for another day to come, instantly reached up for his baby cousin.
“You told me the truth and apologized. Apology accepted and let's wash up and eat, and we'll talk about why it is important to ask for permission so we can find safe ways to get that bird's eye view.”
The colonel put his cousin up on his shoulders with a smile.
“You really did forgive me!” Lil' Robert said, and, being as sweet of spirit as he was bold, kissed his big cousin right on the top of his head in gratitude.
“I really did,” the colonel said, “because as soon as you are honest with God about what you do wrong, He does, and He always goes right back to blessing you, although not usually in the way you wanted, but better.”
“I get it, Cousin Harry. I get it!”
“You know, I think Dad is the best dad in Lofton County,” 21-year-old Melvin Trent said to his days-from-18-year-old sister Vanna, “but I think Col. Lee is going to try to catch him. That was some deep teaching he just did for Lil' Robert about God and confessing sin and how God loves us and forgives us and goes right back to blessing us.”
“I know!” Vanna said. “Lil' Robert is a handful but Col. Lee has no trouble with him at all because he does know how to discipline him in a way that makes sense to the huge mind and real tall soul that very little boy really does have.”
“That's actually the problem,” Melvin said. “Lil' Robert is way too small for all that he has going on – he's one of those kids who needs to be five or six inches over six feet tall to make room for all he has going on.”
“Well, he was trying to explain why he was up there – he knows!” Vanna said.
“And his big cousin is letting him stay up there – the main thing for kids like Lil' Robert is that we all know what is really going on,” Melvin said.
“This is why you're the dad who will eventually catch up with Dad for tie as the greatest, because you're already the greatest big brother,” Vanna said. “Now, try to remember it in 5, 4, 3, 2 … .”
“You know,” their eight-year-old baby sister Gracie was saying to their nine-year-old first cousin Vertran Stepforth, “if we could just get Melvin and Vanna to help us with this – hey, y'all, we need to borrow the popcorn popper and some jump cables because it's gonna be so much faster to pop whole cobs of corn, and then … .”
Meanwhile, as a deep undercurrent to Lil' Robert's happy chatter, Col. Lee remembered something he had once overheard that he considered a Godsend to his understanding.
“The man who considers life a game has made himself the official loser of said game, for life is a grace of loving and being loved, and he who knows that knows as much as he ever will of the privilege of being like God Himself.”
“See, I really wanna find a way to get into Cousin Harry's Bible Study for the grown ups,” Lil' Robert was saying to his big brother ten-year-old Andrew, “because, see, when he tells me about God it's like hearing it from you and Papa and I get it!”
“Next week, though,” Andrew said gently as he embraced his baby brother.
“Next week, though!” Lil' Robert said, in perfect, forgiven happiness.
