25 June 2026, Freewriters Community Daily Writing Prompt Day 3145: listen to her!
“OK, so who is this woman?”
Eight-year-old Edwina Ludlow was watching an elegant old woman in green and pearls talking with her Lee cousins Col. H.F. and Mrs. Maggie Lee on the Lees' back porch.
“That's Cousin Harry's maternal grandmother, Mrs. Selene Slocum-Lofton,” Mrs. Thalia Ludlow said.
“Wow,” Edwina said. “I wonder if she was ever a sweet little girl, or if she was the breaking bad type?”
“Definitely the breaking bad type for part of her life – she was a young widow, and everybody thought some man was going to love her or beat her out of her fortune her husband left her,” Mrs. Ludlow said.
“But no!” Edwina said, and started laughing. “I can just look at her and tell – wait a minute, didn't we see her on Zoom a few months ago?”
“Yes, she and your grandfather and Cousin Tarquin IV were talking about some stuff, Edwina.”
“I just knew she wasn't the type of woman to have some pajama pants and bunny slippers on with a nice top!” Edwina said. “I'm going to go over there and listen to her! I think I can get some fashion tips or something!”
“Go on,” Mrs. Ludlow said, with a smile.
Because the Lees kept an open door policy to the children living on either side of them, and because their cousin Edwina was a regular visitor, no one was surprised when the presence of “Queen Selene” drew her over to see what was going on.
“Grandmother, this is my cousin Edwina,” Col. Lee said as he opened his arms and Edwina jumped up into them. “Edwina, this is my maternal grandmother, Mrs. Selene Slocum-Lofton.”
“How do you do?” both said to each other, and Mrs. Slocum-Lofton laughed gently.
“Being raised right, aren't you, little woman?” she said.
“I'm trying, ma'am – but y'all don't mind me because I'm just here for the fashion tips! I mean, there's old people that look good, and then there's old people that look GOOD, so, ma'am, I'm just going to listen and learn and get it together for the next few decades and stuff.”
Mrs. Slocum-Lofton smiled and held out her arms.
“You're one of Robert Ludlow's grands, aren't you?” she said as the colonel put Edwina on her lap.
“Yes, ma'am, I'm his middle granddaughter,” Edwina said. “I hold the family up from the middle, and I gotta make sure I look right doing it!”
“That's a very pretty sundress you have on, too,” Mrs. Slocum-Lofton purred. “We like green, eh?”
“Absolutely!” Edwina said.
And although Edwina was interrupting, it was permitted because …
“Three entire hours of Eddie just being a sweet little girl,” her eleven-year-old big sister Eleanor said. “I was kinda sorry when Mr. Worley swung by to pick up his wife.”
“Yeah,” Edwina's ten-year-old big brother Andrew said. “But they'll be back because they are surveying the field across from us, and may go in on it with us, the Lees, and the Hamiltons buying it.”
“That's good,” Eleanor said. “What I'm getting from all this is, Edwina needs to be around powerful people to feel safe, because every person and situation can't hold her.”
“Yeah, I'm getting that too,” Andrew said. “I guess we gotta keep stepping it up as big siblings.”
“Yep,” Eleanor said. “We all gotta work together to make sure that Edwina can actually have a chance. She and George are calming down, but, there's still lots of work to do.”