Image by Andrew Martin from Pixabay
Eleven-year-old Velma Trent rarely got upset and loud, but one piece of information was enough to cause her to burst into tears.
“What kind of world are we growing up into out here?”
Mrs. Melissa Trent came out of her arthouse, Sgt. Vincent Trent from working on the family vehicle, big brother Melvin came out of his studio, big sister Vanna came out her room from studying, and little siblings Milton and Gracie went to running and got there first.
“What is it, Velma?” the younger siblings said.
“People are out here in this world putting hit lists together! Just listing people that they want to go and just be hitting on!”
Milton smiled and saved the day … kind of.
“Velma, that's not about hitting people! That's about music – you put your favorite songs on lists, and if they are really good, they get charts and on a billboard!”
Velma's frown turned upside down, and she smiled through her tears.
“Oh, I am so relieved!”
Sgt. and Mrs. Trent and their adult children stopped short.
“Now what?” Sgt. Trent said.
“This is why you're the head of household, Vincent,” Mrs. Trent said, and she, Melvin, and Vanna walked off.
“Really, y'all – really?” Sgt. Trent said, but he was chuckling.
Meanwhile, nobody told Capt. R.E. Ludlow next door, so he, a 33-year army veteran and as hard-nosed as they come, nearly had a heart attack and died on the spot when his beloved eldest granddaughter Eleanor came sailing through the back door talking with his equally beloved eldest grandson Andrew.
“Oh, I'm going to put a lot of people on my hit list, Andrew. I mean, it is ridiculous how many people in the world need to go there.”
Ten-year-old Andrew inadvertently saved his grandfather's life.
“So much good music in the world, Eleanor, so little paper. It's going to at least take a whole notebook. So many people, all the way back to Bach, have so many good songs.”
“And here we have a hit maker himself – I'm putting you at the top of my list as Il Commendatore in Mozart, Papa!” eleven-year-old Eleanor said as she wrapped her arms around her grandfather in passing.
“No hit list would be complete without you on it, Papa – I'm putting you on top of mine too!” Andrew said.
They passed on and Grayson and Lil' Robert came in, holding the biggest bucket on the property.
“There are a lot of lists in the world, but we really need to start our bucket list,” six-year-old Grayson said.
“I know, because, we need to make sure that when we put our Legos in here, we have enough red ones,” five-year-old Lil' Robert said.
“I'm going to need a notebook, Andrew,” Grayson said, “and when we get it full, we're gonna need you to kick the bucket for us, Papa, because we barely can move it now and it's going to be really heavy.”
“Oh, I was just about to do that,” Capt. Ludlow said.
The two youngest grandsons came and gave their grandfather a hug that he returned.
“Always looking out for us – thank you!” Grayson said.
“We love you so much we're going to be you, someday!” Lil' Robert said. “I mean, I already am Robert Edward Ludlow, but even more!”
“Bigger! Stronger! Larger feet!” Grayson said.
After they left, Capt. Ludlow went out on his porch to get some air, and saw the equally bewildered Sgt. Trent.
“Do you know what happened, Sergeant?”
“Captain, I'm never sure how these things start. I just roll with the punches around here.”
