12 October 2026, Freewriters Community Daily Writing Prompt Day 3254: underneath the almond tree
“Here y'all go – no, never mind,” eleven-year-old Velma Trent said as she re-covered the canvas she was working on. “I don't know how I missed this – give me until tomorrow.”
“OK,” six-year-old Grayson Ludlow said. “Your tree picture of us Ludlows will be a day better, then.”
Velma was well on our way to being one of the best-known artists in Lofton County, VA because of her way of relating nature to people and their situations. Her neighbors the Ludlows and Lees had almost as many portraits in their homes in honored places as the Trents and Stepforths her family did.
Grayson Ludlow was on his way to fill the 21st century room his great-grandfather and great uncle, Edwin Ludlow and Edwin Ludlow Jr. had held in architecture and engineering in the 20th century in Lofton County. So: Grayson and Velma already related as who they would be, recognizing the creative genius in each other.
“So I saw a picture of an almond tree in bloom,” she had said to Grayson the week before, “and I thought of your grandfather's white hair. I would have done Pop-Pop, but my grandfather refuses to leave the iron gray behind, so I gotta do him in silver afternoons where the clouds are thick right where the sun comes through and smiles.”
“Can I see the picture?” Grayson said, and Velma went and got it. “Oh yeah, because Papa has so much hair, mustache, and beard.”
“Male pattern baldness does not seem to know the Lees or Ludlows just like it doesn't know Pop-Pop,” Velma said. “You and your brothers have a ton of hair, too.”
“Yeah, but unless you are sick, men don't start going bald until at least 20,” Grayson said.
“At least,” Velma said. “But see, there are winter trees for those kinds of pictures, too.”
So Velma set to work, and then set to work another day – “Your grandmother's hair looks more like red-leaved plum tree leaves with almond white blooms woven in than does like cherry blossoms – I gotta darken up some some things.”
The next day, Grayson brought the portrait home, and his grandparents instantly recognized themselves and the eight little Ludlows … the almond and the plum tree had grown into each other, but the almond was taller, so underneath the almond tree, there the plum and eight little seedlings were all thriving in the sunshine also blessing the almond tree.
“Wow,” Mrs. Thalia Ludlow said. “Velma is truly blessed of God, because that is us Ludlows, indeed.”
Capt. R.E. Ludlow's reaction was quieter, but it was just as deep; he touched his white hair, and then looked again, and then a tear fell from his eyes.