20 June 2026, Freewriters Community Daily Writing Prompt Day 3140: pump it up
“Well, let's think about this, George. I mean, it is Rob, and Rob is just different, so, he can guard you at only five years old while we are nine, but maybe this is a technology problem.”
Eleven-year-old Velma Trent was listening to her nine-year-old brother Milton trying to find a technological solution to George not being able to get a shot up on his baby brother after telling said baby brother, “You can't guard me!” and just shaking her head.
Lil' Robert Ludlow did not take kindly to being challenged like that. He also did a modified version of leg day with his grandfather and namesake, Capt. Robert Edward Ludlow Sr., so he also had a stupidly high vertical leap to go with his lightning-fast reflexes and sufficient weight to get into his opponents and get them off their square. And –.
“How do you get a foul called on the shortest person on the court?” George said to his big brother, ten-year-old Andrew Ludlow.
“You don't and you can't because of the foul thing you said to Rob – this is a lesson, and Papa is letting you get it,” Andrew answered.
Milton's sister, eight-year-old Gracie Trent, had already put her two cents in also.
“George, you can't win unless you do right, because you gotta know where you live,” she said. “There's a Robert Edward Ludlow on one end of your family, and there's another one on the other end. It's Robert Edward Ludlow's world. You're just living in it.”
George was not accepting this, and so was glad when Milton got out of being grounded to get some ideas.
“So they both can get grounded,” Velma said about it to Lil' Robert's biggest big sister, eleven-year-old Eleanor.
Sure enough...
“So, what you need is for the ball to get into the air faster than Rob can leap up and get it, and so what you need to do is pump it up with helium,” Milton said. “We've got some extra here because we did Vanna's balloons ourselves, so come on and let's fix this.”
“But how do we get the real air out of the ball first?” George said.
“Oh, we just need to roll the car back on it.”
Thirty minutes later...
“You know, you just never know what is possible until it is,” ten-year-old Glendella Ludlow said to Andrew as she shook her head while George and Milton were marched off to their respective rooms. “How are you just gonna roll up unsportsmanlike conduct, an airspace violation, and a parking violation in one incident?”
“When you let other people live rent-free in your head the way Rob lives in their heads, anything can happen to you,” Andrew said. “Meanwhile, Rob is sound asleep, curled up in Grandma's lap.”