Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
“Yes, that was a whole entire black widow spider doing leg day on my equipment – it is good to have 14 extra eyes and ears through my grandchildren, sometimes! I had a window cracked in there that I didn't know about, and there is a nice draft and spiders like that. Unfortunate for that spider, however!”
Captain Robert Edward Ludlow Sr. was talking with Mrs. Velma Stepforth about his fine steeplechase form, clearing an entire chair at a dead run after hearing that his nine-year-old grandson George had discovered said spider. Said grandson George was also commended for looking and not touching, and also advised to tell an adult first before his childhood friends about spiders in the house.
George was astonished, and went to talk to his grandmother, Mrs. Thalia Ludlow.
“Uh, Grandma, is Papa OK?” he said. “I mean, he is still definitely Papa, and definitely still intense, but he is more like Robert in temperament now!”
By Robert, George meant his baby brother, five-year-old Robert Edward Ludlow III, who was intense, loud, and definitely a force to be reckoned with, but generally sunny in temperament.
Mrs. Ludlow smiled at her grandson.
“Go ask your grandfather, since both of you are getting out of Crazy Town together.”
George and Capt. Ludlow, both having been damaged in childhood and thus in life, had promised each other: they were going to do their work and get out of Crazy Town, which is what George called his last foster care situation.
George got his courage together and did as he was told, and got wrapped up into his grandfather's loving embrace for the explanation.
“I made you a promise, George,” he said, “but I'm older than you, so it's my job to lead you out by example, so I need to get further out than you do from Crazy Town.”
“But I mean, you were just cool about it!” George said.
“Well, it's not like you were trying to launch a helicopter off the roof, or make a winter wonderland with baking soda, or get the reds redder and the blues bluer by letting the clothes pick from purple food coloring.”
“Yeah, but, it's not even that,” he said. “You're just more like Robert – I mean, I know all too well that he will beat me up at five years old if I really mess with him, but now that I'm not messing with him, he is all cool and stuff!”
“Robert is indeed quite easygoing, but remember: he doesn't remember the stuff that you do, or I do. He's just five.”
“Right,” George said. “I used to pick on him because I wish I was him. But … maybe if you are getting back there, I can, too.”
“And that was the point of my eight weeks away – to get back there for me, but also so you can see you can.”
Capt. Ludlow paused for a moment, and then put his hands on his grandson's shoulders.
“It's too much to be fighting all the people in our heads that we don't have to deal with any more while trying to live with the people we do know. I am 49 years older than you, and my Crazy Town is that much bigger, but my head is not much bigger than yours, so that was a problem for me, and it was a problem for you because you can sense that, and you kept having panic attacks because you can't fight with me in your head.”
“No, because first of all, I don't wanna die, and second of all, I need you,” George said.
“So here's the escape move we're on, George. If I can stop fighting the people in the Crazy Town in my head, then I don't have to become another person in the Crazy Town in your head, and if you can stop fighting the people in the Crazy Town in your head, then you don't have to fight Edwina and Robert and then be worried about them or me … so then all we have to do is actually live with the people around us and love them and do right by them, and decrease the stress on everybody.”
“I'm in – what happens in Crazy Town stays in Crazy Town!” George said.
“Right – we're getting out and leaving it all behind – shake!” Capt. Ludlow said, and they did, and then laughed, and George got lifted into the air and swirled around before being put down to run happily back into the joys of childhood.
Mrs. Ludlow embraced her husband from behind.
“That was a lot of work, but, already,” she said.
“Already,” Capt. Ludlow said, “but just in time. Our Lee cousins have actually calmed George and Edwina down a lot; they needed that break from the high-tension life they and I have been in for two years because of what happened with their parents. We all needed the time – and now, I have to be chief peacekeeper. We all need to continue working on ourselves, and it begins with me.”
Mrs. Ludlow kissed him on his neck, and felt his knees wobble.
“You know I'm with y'all,” she said.
“Woman, we do not need an eighth Ludlow child here just this second … I will see about that later, but not now, because … .”
Big Robert could hear Lil' Robert in his soul before the child even uttered a word …
“Hey, did y'all know that birds feed earthworms to their kids – alive – and they also might like spaghetti?”
Mrs. Maggie Lee was in hot pursuit of the baby grandson, his hands full of spaghetti, running through the yard, and having no idea.
“Papa, you're tall – help me out here!” Lil' Robert said as he came and got spaghetti sauce all over both his grandparents because he didn't think not to reach out both arms to embrace them.
“OK, Robert, now that you're here, let me explain how all this works … .”
“It's a good thing Capt. Ludlow has mellowed out,” eleven-year-old Velma Trent from next door said to her baby sister Gracie, “because he has a long way to go with that one. We love Rob, but sheesh!”
“Ain't it the truth,” Gracie said. “I mean, he has three years before he even is eight like me and has stuff figured out.”
