Image by 👀 Mabel Amber, who will one day from Pixabay
Eleven-year-old Velma Trent had something on her mind, and her eight-year-old baby sister Gracie came up and sat down beside her with loving concern.
“What's happening, Velma?” she said, and gave her sister a big hug.
“Oh, there's nothing wrong – but thanks, Gracie, hugs are always so nice! – but I was just wondering: are there really just a few types of people in the world, but just a lot of different variations, like snowflakes and daisies and roses and things?”
Gracie considered this.
“Probably,” she said. “I mean, it's like Grandma Velma says when she is putting together her outfits: God made us and He likes patterns and variety, so, I guess so.”
“That actually makes sense,” Velma said. “I was asking because Dad and Col. Lee next door seem a lot like the same type of man in different colors and ranks – one is a colonel, and the other is a master sergeant, and one is Black, and the other White, but still, very much alike.”
“I kinda picked that up the way Dad laughed at the news report about that suspect coming this way, and Col. Lee driving off talking about fruit,” Gracie said. “Dad said he just knew that poor man got too close to the Ludlow house for comfort, and got exactly what he was supposed to get!”
“Yeah, because we know Dad loves shooting out tires too when folks don't hear him when he says keep your distance from his family – you get too close, and suddenly you want to leave, but you can't.”
“Ain't it the truth – they are both quiet, and strong, and super nice, until you cross that line,” Gracie said. “But see, Velma, here is the thing – there are teachers, and there are learners. Dad and Col. Lee are teachers, but Capt. Ludlow, though, and Edwina of all his grandkids? Those are learners.”
“What do you mean, Gracie?”
“Dad and Col. Lee will tell you what you need to do, and then teach you through a situation. They want you to get the lesson and choose to learn. Capt. Ludlow and Edwina are what you get when you don't pick up the lessons that people like Col. Lee and Dad are putting down.”
Velma considered this, and then shook her head.
“Because they are going to learn you,” she said. “Yep. Edwina is eight, and already out here trying to break bad – yep, she is just like her grandfather, because he ain't shooting out the tires if you come up in here and he has to shoot.”
“You gon' learn in heaven or hell that you really shouldn't have come up here like that,” Gracie said, “and if you were really going to heaven, the Spirit would tell you not to mess with the people who can learn you for all eternity. This is why I tell Milton [her nine-year-old brother] don't get involved when George and Edwina are fighting – just come home and stay safe!”
“They say domestic disputes are super dangerous anyway,” Velma said. “I'm so glad our parents didn't put us through that before and after their divorce, and definitely not now.”
“So am I, because life is complicated enough. You know George gave Milton the tadpoles he didn't mix into Mrs. Lee's spaghetti, right?”
Velma got up with a look of panic.
“You know Dad and Col. Lee are the same man, right – we gotta find Milton, because we're having stir fry!”
“Oh, no – Milton!” Gracie said, and the two ran off to find Milton letting the tadpoles out in the local creek with big brother 21-year-old Melvin supervising.
“I just wasn't trying to die today,” Milton said, “because Dad was laughing way too hard about what Col. Lee did today for me to be worried about whether he likes tadpoles in his stir fry. George and I both would like to see ten years old, so we decided to get our lives together while we still have a chance and let the tadpoles do the same thing!”
“Ain't it the truth,” Gracie said.
“Basically,” Velma said.
