10 September 2026, Freewriters Community Daily Writing Prompt Day 3222: tumble down cottage

“OK, so I've been doing some research and now I'm really tired, Papa. Cousins Edwin and Garlene and Glendella and me got a whole medieval town built from a picture in a day, but that town still doesn't have a single tumble-down cottage. But these people building in Lofton County now are building stuff that tumbles down in less time than I've been here – and I'm six, not 600! I'M TIRED, PAPA!”

Six-year-old Grayson Ludlow, great-grandchild and generational heir of Edwin Ludlow, the 20th century's premier architect and engineer in Lofton County, VA had stood in shock like everyone else in his family as, that morning, the new Fortier Apartments in Shortport, VA had been evacuated, and then the area around it was evacuated because...

“That thing is going down as fast as a sinking ship!” Mrs. Thalia Ludlow said.

“That's because nobody looked at the old riviera water map in Shortport,” Capt. R.E. Ludlow said. “That is, in essence, the Titanic set up on end, with two hurricanes brushing the state having put more water through the Roanoke River in a few weeks than would come through in fifty years. It would have fallen in fifty years under normal circumstances … but, it is going into the river today.”

Sure enough, the entire apartment building, almost completely intact, tipped right over into the water within five hours.

“They just built that thing five years ago,” Col. H.F. Lee, cousin to the Ludlows, said.

“Five years up, five hours down,” Mrs. Ludlow said.

Grayson started counting on his hands, and then called big cousin Garlene.

“Cousin Garlene,” he said, “are you watching this mess?”

“I see it, Grayson,” she said gently.

“The town our family helped build – is there any building that just fell over, Cousin Garlene?”

“No, the homes are still kept up,” Cousin Garlene said.

“Thanks, Cousin Garlene, thanks a lot,” Grayson said, and then went and told his grandfather, later on, how tired he was.

Eight-year-old Edwina Ludlow came over to Capt. Ludlow and Grayson.

“OK, so who do we need to roll up on, Papa?” she said. “I live wanting the smoke but Grayson just can't be like this because he has better things to do.”

“The roll up has already occurred,” Capt. Ludlow said. “Folks are in jail right now!”

Edwina and Grayson both sighed with relief.

“Y'all want some ice cream?” Capt. Ludlow said.

“Yeah,” Grayson and Edwina said, and off they went.

Later, the captain and his niece, Garlene, talked.

“I've got to do better in protecting Grayson,” he said. “Your grandfather and your uncle Edwin couldn't take bad built mess either.”

“Yeah,” Garlene said. “Cousin Edwin said he was going to get his blood pressure medicine refilled today, too.”