Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay
“You know how Gracie was talking about building a boat out of Legos?” nine-year-old George Ludlow said to his little brother six-year-old Grayson.
“Yep,” Grayson said.
“The way this thunderstorm is acting,” George said, “we may need it.”
“Yep,” Grayson said.
“They've already fixed that water main three times – if it doesn't hold, that'll be a flood, like right here, again.”
“Yep.”
“But you probably still have the blueprints from last time.”
“Yep.”
“See, I think what happened was,” seven-year-old Amanda Ludlow said to eleven-year-old Eleanor her big sister, “when God was handing out stuff to us Ludlows, He handed almost all the getting upset to George and Edwina, handed almost all of the yakking to Robert, and then left Grayson quiet and calm because balance and stuff.”
“You're quiet and calm too,” Eleanor said, “but Grayson is the builder side, and you're the snuggly side, like Grandma.”
“Right, and I gotta start getting pillows and blankets together because we need to be warm on Grayson's boat,” Amanda said.
“That's all in the closet, Mandie,” Eleanor said, and showed her. As soon as Grayson gets the boat down, we just load it.”
“I feel like God handed out the best big sister stuff to you,” Amanda said as she came and hugged her sister.
“And I do my best every day to use it right,” Eleanor said as she hugged her sister back.
“OK, so, Andrew, Grayson is building the boat, and we need you to be the captain,” George said to his big brother ten-year-old Andrew.
“Wait, what?” Andrew said.
“Well, you know if that water main breaks again, we gotta go, again.”
“Like we had to go the last three times?”
“Yeah … oh, wait, no.”
“Look, George, if I'm the captain, I gotta get y'all on the ship, I gotta get y'all off the ship, and I gotta go down with the ship, so we gotta not do stuff like that just because of a little rain.”
“Well, bad things happen when you say your ship is unsinkable,” Grayson said, “but the sun's already out, so … .”
“Oh yeah,” his two older brothers said.
“That was just enough to get my veggies watered,” their eight-year-old sister Edwina said, “and not even enough to get Cousin Maggie to get me those cute boots with the real heels!”
Meanwhile, five-year-old Robert Edward Ludlow III was, as ever, living in his own world and inviting everyone else to come live with him.
“So, Cousin Maggie, I think you should make spaghetti because, see, when it rains we gotta be careful stepping and my hollow legs need to be filled up, and, see, I like spaghetti, and especially with the little meatballs although I like it with cheese too and peppers and, see, if y'all would let me use the hot sauce bottle by myself I could drink that on the side.”
“You and your Cousin Harry have that in common – y'all like those hot peppers,” Mrs. Maggie Lee said, and smiled as she went into the refrigerator and got a pepperoncini out for Lil' Robert. “You're the only other person in his family that I've met that thinks of these as candy.”
“Well, they are!” Lil' Robert said as his little face lit up. “They're just hot candy, and big, too – thank you!”
And that bold little boy happily chomped down on the pepper the color of his hair, while Mrs. Lee took her husband some pickled super-hot peppers for a snack.
“Look out,” she said. “Lil' Robert is already up to a whole pepperoncini, and he's just five!”
“He would be up higher than that if I let him guzzle the hot sauce like he wants to,” Col. Lee said. “I had to tell him we don't allow this for the sake of everyone having hot sauce and we don't have another bottle right now.”
“He mentioned that to me,” she said with a chuckle. “He wants me to make spaghetti and let him drink the hot sauce in his little cup on the side.”
“Next week, though!” Col. Lee said in an octave-lower imitation of Lil' Robert, and Mrs. Lee went laughing back to the little Ludlow chilihead-in-the-bud while Col. Lee finished the work he was doing and returned to gently observing the other six Ludlow grandchildren as they rejoiced that the sun was shining again.
