“So, I'm guessing you are cooking biscotti again today, Maggie.”
“How did you know – the Church in the Midst of Life is putting together goodie bags and they asked!”
“Our porch is under occupation by the Ludlow force, and they know charity begins at home.”
Col. H.F. Lee was in his car, talking to his wife on the phone and not knowing whether to laugh or cry at his eight little Ludlow cousins having walked over and perched themselves in front of his door … like Mrs. Lee ever made cookies or any such thing and did not remember them. But the little Ludlows had been through too much before landing safely with Capt. R.E. and Mrs. Ludlow, grandparents to seven, big cousins to the eighth little Ludlow. They were healing and growing … and they knew the Lees their cousins loved them... but what they had been through had marked them all very deeply.
There were other signs too … the Ludlow children were tough, and several of them, put to it, had their grandfather's warrior spirit roused up, so if anybody bothered any one of them, the rest swarmed! When some little dog had gotten on the loose and after their grandfather, they had poured out of the house behind him, carrying everything they could think of as a weapon. When a relative of the eighth little Ludlow, Glendella had come and gotten out of pocket, Capt. Ludlow had grabbed her so she could do no harm, but five other Ludlows, led by eight-year-old Edwina, had come and literally run that adult out of the neighborhood!
The Ludlow force was not to be played with, and Col. Lee got out of his car with all the fruit he had bought for them anyway and got them off his porch so he could get to his own door … they followed him inside and were happy with fruit and asking about his day and hearing what he could tell them in an age-appropriate way about his life as a police captain in Big Loft, VA, and believed him when he told them he would be running their biscotti over in time for dinner.
“They just need to be settled into love,” he said to Mrs. Lee when he returned with all their little thank-you notes.
“But don't we all, Harry?” she said.
“Yes,” he said. “Good point, Maggie.”
