17 April 2026, Freewriters Community Daily Writing Prompt Day 3076: a moment in time
Five days out from Hurricane Mneme and the 14 inches of rain and 50-mile-an-hour gusts it had brought in a glancing blow on Lofton County, VA, the county seat, Big Loft, VA, looked like maybe it had all been a summer thunderstorm … the cleanup looked good and only with a close eye and a good drive around might one have guessed that perhaps that was a bigger storm than usual.
Drive out of Big Loft, VA, and nothing looked nearly that good until Tinyville, VA. Drive again to Fruitland Memorial Park and the Veteran's Lodge next door and again things looked excellent – actually Fruitland looked almost like paradise, having been planted such that winds side-slipped and mature trees supported each other and people were glad to come get all the free fruit that had been blown down and help clean up.
Partially this was because the five tornadoes Hurricane Mneme had also brought along had missed these areas entirely. But largely, this was leadership all the way back to the 19th century. Joseph James Lofton was old enough to remember what meteorological science could not have warned him about then: tornadoes and also straight-line winds when hurricanes got close enough to the Carolinas to brush southern Virginia. He had planted Fruitland as his personal residence with the worst-case scenario an twelve-mile orchard could survive in mind.
Generalized, those who accepted the reality of the weather had things in their area look like nothing of such severity had happened as being brushed by a hurricane after five days; they just cleaned up after their preparations. The folks in Tinyville got more excitement from seeing their chief safety officer, Major Ironwood Hamilton serving as the town's police captain, driving heavy equipment through different flooded fields and working the drainage plans so that the water found paths to creeks that he likewise had dredged with the help of town volunteers and so harmlessly drained off.
In Big Loft, the city was humming at 90 percent capacity again in five days – only one day behind its recovery from Hurricane Justicia earlier in the summer. However, unlike Major Hamilton, the mayor of Big Loft had been known to have been embattled since he was appointed in the fall from corruption of the mayor and vice mayor in 2019. One year later, here he had emerged in the triumph no one expected.
Donald Lee Garner Jr. was not a seeker of attention, and actually hated the media, but understood its importance and accepted that since he was going to be mayor at least until 2025, he might as well uphold this level of responsibility as well. The local media had been surprised when he warmed up to them, but he told them plainly: “I can't stand y'all, but you are still important as the fourth estate. Since you represent the public's right to knowledge and I represent the public's right to good governance, we have common ground we can work. When we don't have common ground I will not talk with you, but as long as we have common ground, I will.”
Mayor Garner still did not talk often, and his answers were generally not quite what the media expected – “He does talk like the Lees-of-the-mountain he descends from in terms of civic matters, like he is parsing 19th century understanding of the Constitution for the modern age, but it is an endearing kind of awkwardness, because both accurate and genuine,” the Big Loft Bulletin had presented about him.
A reporter had been dispatched to the mayor's office to get a human interest angle on the recovery of Big Loft: “Mayor Garner, a lot of our readers would like to know how you have stayed so calm and competent while a lot of Lofton County's leadership has just fallen apart in this situation.”
The mayor had thought about the question, and then, was endearingly, 19th-century-Lee-esque awkward, and deep.
“You've just presented me a lot of opportunity to throw a lot of people who are frankly enraging me with their actions under the bus,” he said, “but I am a professional, and I am a Christian, and I do need to stay calm, and, enraging these people will mean they will have a reason to actively get into my way instead of just not rising to the level of competency they and I both need to be at. As for my personal competency, there is a reason a city makes an honest bean counter its designated survivor for the mayor's seat; he must be really good and honest at counting beans. I just count sandbags and dredged sewer gates now, and I do pretty well.”
“As for calm, a lot of that goes back to what I always heard my grandparents and parents saying – the Lees-of-the-mountain and the Garners-of-the-mountain were always close, and so there was a constant echo of wisdom there. I remember my grandmother, Hattie Lee Garner, sitting with her sister, Hilda Lee Slocum-Bolling, while my grandfather, Donald Garner, sat next to my great uncle Horace Fitzhugh Lee, just all talking about life and eternity. One of the things I learned from them was that every experience we have is just a moment in time or a series of moments, so if there is pain and there is difficulty, just keep going by faith, because there will be better moments coming.
“When I became older I asked my grandparents how they knew that, and they showed me Romans 8:28 and Acts 15:18 – so, all things work together for good for those that love God and are the called according to His purpose, and, known unto God are His works from the beginning of the world. 'Donnie, all the moments are in His hand – you just have to work on the 'love God' part, and it'll come out good,' Grandma said to me. Grandpa hen showed me Matthew 6:33, so I knew then that I would have to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all the things I needed would be added to me.”
“Well, it took me a couple of decades to catch up with my grandparents, and my parents – my dad still works here at City Hall and I'm glad I got it together before he retired – but now that I have, I just do as I was taught. Even a hurricane rolls through a series of moments in time. I am doing what I am supposed to be doing as a Christian, and as mayor. I'm not enjoying any of this, but my job is to love God by worshiping Him through the best service to the people that I can, and I know He will give me and us better moments in the future, because He said He would. I stay calm by faith, and as for competency, I have years in counting beans, so, I'm pretty good at that.”
The editor laughed when he saw all that.
“How are we supposed to get that all down into the space we have? Garner doesn't talk often but he still talks too much like any politician!”
“Yeah, but no real politician talks like that,” the reporter said. “Got me out here ready to go back to church – there's just reality to Garner, even though he talks like those old folks who had nothing better to do than sit around a fire and talk about life and eternity.”
The editor considered this, and then called J.B. Madison, editor-in-chief for the paper. When he got off the phone, he said, “Aw, heck, we'll just print it all. He's running away with the election the people dragged him into – the people might as well realize what they are getting in full!”
Mayor Garner was up 15 percentage points over his most serious opponent before Hurricane Justicia. He was up 18 points before Hurricane Mneme, and 35 points right after. The news article that revealed his whole mind about the job did change his numbers... but he was busy the next day, and didn't even see the polls.
“Well, Harry, you can relax now: the next mayor isn't going to officially make you chief of police,” Mrs. Maggie Lee said to the mayor's second cousin, Col. Henry Fitzhugh Lee, serving as police captain and unofficial chief of Big Loft's police after too many mishaps to count. “Donald is up 50 percent now, and his only serious opponent is preparing to drop out.”
“And I bet he is too busy this morning to have even seen the polls,” Col. Lee said to his wife with a chuckle. “I'll call the once and future mayor of Big Loft later and tell him.”
But that was not necessary. The mayor's only serious opponent called him.
“Sir, it wasn't you I was running against,” he said. “It was the continuation of corruption in the office and the neglect of the people, but I see that is not in your heart, and so do my supporters. I just had to get past my own pride. So, I'm dropping out, and we're getting behind the work we all need to do here without distraction through 2025.”
“I'm so glad to hear that because I need y'all!” Mayor Garner said. “I thought you would have made a great mayor too and was planning to vote for you before I got drafted into running, and I don't have a vice mayor yet, so, let's talk – you may need to come on up a little higher, friend!”