26 August 2025, @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2841: export the dragon
“So, first you gotta chase the dragon, and then you gotta send it somewhere else?”
Vanderbilt and Susanna Ludlow, watching their little Ludlow cousins, their great-niece Glendella, and their friends, were finding that they did not know whether to laugh or cry as the little ones tried to figure out things they heard among adults. They did know some explanations could wait a decade or so.
“Yeah, Amanda,” eight-year-old Gracie Trent from next door was saying in response to seven-year-old Amanda Ludlow's question. “That's why my dad was pretending to be your grandfather bawling out some of my cousins – you wouldn't think folks could be this dumb, but, all brown people are not smart just like all white people are not smart!”
“Oh, well, we know that because humans,” Amanda said. “I used to think people growing up got smarter, but, nope, that's not how any of this seems to work!”
“Listen,” Amanda's nine-year-old brother George chimed in, “I'm all up for adventures and such, but, first of all, I know St. George killed a dragon, but I'm not with that part although that story tells us that dragons like to barbecue people and eat them, but then, if it's not that kind of thing, why even bother?”
“That's not even the real problem,” Gracie's nine-year-old brother Milton said. “The thing is, before you export something, you gotta get it ready, and if dragons can be kept like cows and all that, you gotta feed them, and if you aren't going to be feeding it people, and you don't want to give it all your cows and chicken, then you gotta make it into a vegetarian.”
“OK, but, I'm a vegetarian,” Amanda said.
“Yeah,” Milton said, “but our people know you gotta soak and prepare beans right before anybody eats them. If you don't remember to do this for a dragon, you've just created a problem that is dangerous on both ends.”
“I don't get it,” George said.
“Gas, George. Gas, especially because you know dragons like hot sauce and all that.”
“Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!” Gracie and Amanda said.
“I see why your dad was just letting folks have it, Gracie and Milton!” Amanda said. “This is not safe at all!”
“Bonus points for not knowing how to do a Zoom at this point,” Milton said. “It was supposed to be a nice family get-together on Zoom, but folks were running late and so we were all on there when they forgot that not having the camera on doesn't mean we can't hear them. So there they were talking about chasing the dragon is not the business side, but when you learn how to export the dragon across state lines – there's a new breed called black tar, and it's supposed to get big in the United States.”
“I thought they were talking about off-brand Pokemon-type of stuff, but Dad got so mad – I mean, Dad can't even turn red as a Black man, but he got to copper-bronze – that I knew they had to be talking about real dragons.”
“Yeah, Uncle Sarge is real chill,” George said, “but, like your Uncle Captain over here, you don't talk foolishness around his kids.”
“Nope,” Gracie and Milton said.
“It's a lot, you know,” Milton said. “Our parents are good people, but a lot of Trents are messed up just like y'all Ludlows are, but in different ways.”
“Yeah, we have talked about this – Andrew and Eleanor talk a lot about it with your sister Velma, and it's just real sad,” George said.
“And then they're just trying to upgrade the foolishness!” Milton said. “Why would you be chasing something that sees you as a barbecued rib on delivery, no matter how much money you could make exporting it? It's just money! It won't save you from saving dragon moms from going to the store for rotisserie human!”
“Actually,” Amanda said, “money is green so you are even saving dragon moms from getting veggies for their kids, too.”
“Yeah, and that's the other thing – the more money you have, the more veggies they don't have to buy! You are becoming a perfect package deal!” George said.
“And that's why Dad had to get in there and tell them all about themselves, their daddy, their granddaddy, our shared great-granddaddy, and so forth,” Gracie said. “I mean we were supposed to get into the family history, but, he read them clear back to Prohibition in like 1919 and stuff.”
“But whatever it takes,” George said. “It's 2020, so … yeah. If people need 101 years of being told of to keep themselves from doing something dumber than anyone in their family has ever done before, yeah.”
“Yeah – leave the dragons alone!” Amanda said. “Don't chase them, definitely don't give them beans without soaking the beans first, and don't export them – just leave them alone!”
“Ain't it the truth,” Gracie said.
After the four children had gone off the Ludlow porch, Susanna looked at Vanderbilt.
“Is it like this every day?” she said.
“Yep – these kids are super-smart, and, like Glendella, they've got background. Robert's children and their partners overdosed on purpose, and the Trent family moonshined so hard that my grandfather wanted to kill them, because they were outselling the Ludlow Winery's illicit operations ten to one.”
“Oh, so they do know what they don't know,” Susanna said.
“Yes, they are very much aware, although they can't process it,” Vanderbilt said. “Chasing the dragon is smoking heroin, so, there must be a new type of heroin beginning to make the rounds, called black tar, and somebody's Zoom mistake let the secret out.”
“I saw Sgt. Vincent Trent just a little while ago – he was on the phone talking about 'Get me the sheriff's department.'”
“He's another one who will turn in family members with the quickness,” Vanderbilt said. “But sometimes we have no choice if we are going to provide for and protect the innocent family members.”
“None at all,” Susanna said as she put her arms around her husband. “Both Ludlows and Trents of today, staying with the shared foolishness of the past for too long, gotta go.”
“Yes,” Vanderbilt said. “The rest of us are moving forward. Gonna be getting some Ludlows to keep the Trents company in jail, soon!”
“It's nice to see the younger members of each family loving each other,” Susanna said.
“A happy new beginning,” Vanderbilt said, “and Glendella is right there in the middle of it, thriving.”
“I'm so glad Robert was willing – she needs to be with other children, and we could never have provided her all this,” Susanna said.
“But maybe,” Vanderbilt said, “maybe we can be another third space – that is what we were for Glendella, and we're really good at it. I mean, we intended to go back home to Smallwood, but, it's going to be hot down there for years.”
“Yeah, no,” Susanna said. “We're going to have folks screaming on us down there for the rest of our lives.”
“I am a U.S. veteran also,” Vanderbilt said. “I can apply to live at the Veteran's Lodge based on my Air Force service, or, we can just rent wherever. I mean, literally I have put our lives into Robert's long reputational shadow for our own protection, so, as long as we are here, we might as well be helpful!”
“Being family to family that actually understands how to live like family,” Susanna said. “Sounds like a plan!”