2 October 2026, Freewriters Community Daily Writing Prompt Day 3244: swearing isn't big or clever…
“Swearing isn't big or clever
Papa does it no more, ever
You will surely wish he had
He will tell you off so bad,
And he'll keep it rated G,
So I can learn good stuff for me!”
Eight-year-old Edwina Ludlow shut down an entire road rage incident and had no idea why her grandfather and the driver who had nearly caused the Ludlow van to get into an accident both broke out laughing and went on down the road in peace.
“I wasn't going to answer that man the way he answered me in almost getting me and mine killed,” Capt. R.E. Ludlow said to his cousin, Col. H.F. Lee. “As a 33-year veteran, and a Christian, I can't even let myself go there. But also I know Edwina meant what she said; the warrior in that child is learning the limits of how to make war from me, and we don't use harsh force when it is not necessary, even verbally.”
“R.E.,” the colonel said, “you are a changed and healed man indeed.”
“Also it is hard to stay mad when you are laughing,” Capt. Ludlow said. “Edwina is a composer for certain and improvised that song straight out and it was great!”
“Did I share with you what she did to 'Old MacDonald'?” Col. Lee said with a laugh. “She and Amanda rolled up on me one fine morning and Amanda just innocently sang along because she loves music and had not thought through 'Give those bad guys all the smoke: we are here for it!'”
Capt. Ludlow put his head in his hands and laughed.
“That child is going to be the most dangerous woman not a Jubilee-of-the-mountain in all of Lofton County,” he said. “My job is to make sure she can govern the ability, as Grandee Lee could.”
“Yeah, Grandee Lee was governed; loved the Lord, loved the people, and had no patience for fools but only ratcheted up as high as necessary,” Col. Lee said. “A number of the Lees-of-the-Mountain still say the spirit of Robert E. Lee skipped a goodly number of nephews to get to her, but my grandfather said something else: 'God had Deborah, and Jael, and has Hilda.'”
“And has Edwina,” Capt. Ludlow said, “who is watching me to learn not to use the ability to make war wrongly. I'm not saying I didn't think about picking up that guy and wrapping him around a pole. I'm saying my being governed and self-controlled is more important than ever.”