21 June 2026, Freewriters Community Daily Writing Prompt Day 3141: underline

“I feel like there are two types of people out here,” ten-year-old Glendella Ludlow said to her big sister, eleven-year-old Eleanor, “and since I’ve been adopted here I really do see it.”

“There’s probably more than two,” Eleanor said, “but it does kinda depend on what boxes we have to sort them into.”

“I mean, real and fake,” Glendella said. “I mean, there’s really four boxes there, but, fake good and real bad are really in the bad box, not the good box, but at least the real bad folks are not trying to hide. You just deal with it or you don’t and you fight or you run.”

“Yep, it helps when you know,” Eleanor said.

“Take Upgrade Papa and Good Grandma — they are your real grandparents, and they are my real big cousins,” Glendella said, “but they are also our real parents. Meanwhile, our biological folks just couldn’t step up to the realness.”

“Nope, but I don’t think they were fake,” Eleanor said. “Addiction is real, and running from bad is real — your parents ran just like you did from your Grumps and Bad Grandma. They just couldn’t figure out how to take you with them, but, you managed to get out on your own.”

“I see what you mean about needing more boxes,” Glendella said.

“It’s even more complicated than you think,” Eleanor said, “because Good Grandma is the grandma who stepped up — my bio grandmother is gone too, and the way Papa doesn’t talk bad about the situation but also has told me plainly: “You are not old enough to hear everything, Eleanor” tells me there’s a lot more. Good Grandma married Papa the year before I was born, and she’s been stepping up ever since. She is my real grandma and my real mom, but because she chose to be, not by birth.”

“I wonder if it is all really about choices,” Glendella said, “and if what really happens is, you become what you choose to be.”

“I’m starting to think that might be it,” Eleanor said, “because you, me, and Andrew each have another set of grandparents that just aren’t involved. It would have been a lot easier on Papa and Grandma if everybody was helping out, and it surely would be a lot easier on us if everybody would get involved.”

“You think so, but maybe not, because there is nothing worse than having people who don’t know how and don’t want to taking care of you — I just came out of all that,” Glendella said.

“Good point, Glennie,” Eleanor said. “You’ve seen a side of this thing that I haven’t: being orphaned while everybody in your bio line is actually still alive has got to be rough.”

“It is,” Glendella said. “Maybe not as rough as your parents and Andy’s parents being dead already, but it is rough — you get left behind either way.”

“Yeah,” Eleanor said, “and all this stuff is real, and I don’t feel like we need to be fake about it. I don’t think we need to like, highlight and underline it all the time, but it’s real, and it hurts, a lot.”

Glendella reached out her arms for Eleanor, and the two girls just cried a while. This caught the ears of Capt. R.E. Ludlow Sr., aka Papa, aka Upgrade Papa, aka Real Dad of both the two girls. He simply came and put his arms around them both, knowing what all these periodic crying sessions were about for Eleanor, Andrew, and now Glendella. So he just held on, letting them feel his presence, his patience, his strength, and his persistence, until they were finished crying and felt better.

“Anything y’all want to talk about?” he said gently.

“It’s just the usual stuff, Papa,” Eleanor said. “We’re getting through it.”

“Yeah,” Glendella said.

“OK — if you want to talk later, I’m here for you, and Grandma will be done cooking in a bit,” he said, and went back to his work.

“That’s some Real Dad smack right there,” Glendella said as they saw the captain go back into the house.

“Yep,” Eleanor said. “Nothing fake about him and his love and being here for us, at all.”