5 March 2026, Freewriters Community Daily Writing Prompt Day 3033: domination of a very tiny world
Usually, Capt. R.E. Ludlow slept well and quickly – adopting seven grandchildren and a little cousin in need along with having a good marriage to keep good helped a lot with that.
But not this particular night, and, he was not one to linger in bed if he could not sleep because disturbed nights sometimes led to nightmares and nightmares in veterans can be dangerous for their mates. So, he got up and went upstairs to the great window that was a feature of the rented house in Tinyville, VA that was an unexpected gift. His eight-year-old granddaughter Edwina liked to go up to it and just look out instead of being overstimulated during the day, and at night, because it faced across fallow fields, it had an incredible view of the stars.
Another Ludlow had already figured this out. Ten-year-old grandson Andrew was already up there, sipping tea and wrapped in a blanket. The captain knew that Andrew was tracking their Cousin Harry, whose insomnia had begun at about the same age … and Capt. Ludlow was handling it just as Cousin Harry's grandfather had handled it: recognizing the active questing mind, recognizing the potential for the expected family neurodivergence developments, and not adding shame or anxiety to it, or medications just yet. Usually, Andrew was just up doing what his grandfather was that night: thinking deep thoughts and probing the night for answers that the busyness of the day could not provide.
“Found out anything good yet?” Capt. Ludlow asked as he arrived.
“Lots of shooting stars,” Andrew said. “Just one big question.”
“Well, I'm up because I have questions too, so maybe we and the Lord can work some stuff out,” Capt. Ludlow said.
“I hope so,” Andrew said, “because it's kinda important, and I'm surprised you sleep as well as you do because adults do this foolishness all the time and you have seen way more.”
“What foolishness?” Capt. Ludlow said.
“I was thinking about my parents,” Andrew said, “and what they threw me, my siblings, and their lives away on, and it's really sad when you figure how big the universe is.”
“Hadn't thought about it that way, but our thoughts are kind of tracking each other,” Capt. Ludlow said.
“I mean, think about it,” Andrew said. “So, there's this house, and there's Tinyville, and there's Lofton County – kinda big if we had to walk it, but then, there's Virginia, the United States, and North America. Kinda big if we had to drive it, but then there's Earth. But then, there's Jupiter, and then the Sun, and then the galaxy, and then the Great Attractor, and then, there's the universe. We're really not running much of anything – and even here, if Edwina and Rob and George and Grayson all have a bad day at the same time, even you and Grandma are going to need God's help to run things here.”
“Yep,” Capt. Ludlow said. “That is the whole concept behind 'Jesus, take the wheel,' because if that ever happens, we are going to need to give Him the whole wheel, the car, the ship of state – all of it.”
“So, then, it's like you can do the right thing,” Andrew said, “or, you can mess your life up on your domination of a very tiny world, because that's all anyone ever gets to run, when you think of the universe.”
“But see, Andrew, most people don't think of the universe,” Capt. Ludlow said. “When you look at it that way, sure, it's easy to figure out doing the wrong thing is not worth it, but you're not old enough yet to fully understand how a person will value their own desires at any given moment as big enough to throw away the universe.”
Andrew jumped.
“Think about it, grandson,” Capt. Ludlow said. “Some decisions are so bad people throw themselves right out of sharing this part of the universe with us, on what they want.”
“This is true,” Andrew said. “Your daughter, my mother – yep.”
“But again, Andrew,” Capt. Ludlow said as he gathered his grandson to him, “people don't think of the universe like that.”
The captain sighed and then continued.
“I was thinking of your biological grandmother, Alexandra, today. She had a difficult childhood too, not too different from what Glendella was going through. Sometimes, Andrew, people just want relief, and sometimes relief comes from feeling in control. I had my career as an Army officer, so that need for me was filled. Not everyone gets that need filled so easily.”
“So then … people choose to dominate so they can feel safe,” Andrew said.
“Sometimes,” Capt. Ludlow said, “and sometimes, if all you believe you have and will ever have is a very tiny world, you will choose to have your way in it over anything else. Level that right on up through the things that have happened in our family to all that is going on in Lofton County to all he history of bad government big and small on earth, and right up to why the gate to Heaven is open and a ton of people won't go in because they can't run anything there.”
Andrew considered this.
“I've read that one of the reasons people commit suicide is to get out of pain, and I can see that. But I've also read that people do it to have one final act of control over their own lives in the face of whatever.”
“And, if you think about the last part – that for many people the loss of control is the worst kind of pain – both reasons make sense.”
Andrew considered this.
“Eleanor and I talk sometimes about if our parents came back, could we forgive them,” he said. “But, lately we have been dealing with the idea that what happened really wasn't aimed at us. They just wanted out – they didn't believe there was anything but running back and forth to rehab and relapsing. It makes no sense because you and Grandma were right there showing them a better way, but what Ellie and I are really getting into is understanding that we can't change what people do because we can't change what they believe.”
“You are learning this 29 years ahead of me, Andrew – good job,” Capt.Ludlow said. “I read it before I was your age: 'As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.' Until someone in the dominion of the very tiny world that is his or her heart changes their thoughts and beliefs, nothing is going to change for that individual, and there is nothing we can do about it.”
“So then, when did you start believing you could actually raise me and the rest of us?” Andrew said.
“I made up my mind while Eleanor was in the womb,” Capt. Ludlow said, “so it was a done deal before you were even conceived.”
“And here we all are,” Andrew said.
“This is the secret, Andrew,” Capt. Ludlow said. “It took me until age 39 to get it, so enjoy getting this 29-year headstart. You're right. We're not running much of anything at all, but there is Someone Who does those things perfectly well. We just have to decide to handle the business He puts us in, and leave the rest to Him. I believe I can do anything God will have me do because I believe He will give me the strength and wisdom to do it as I need it. The universe is too big for me. I just need to do the right thing.”
“I wish Mom and Bio Grandmom had learned that,” Andrew said.
“So do I,” Capt. Ludlow said. “We are just going to have to hang on to the knowledge and each other, though.”
Andrew started crying in his grandfather's arms, and was comforted by his grandfather's presence and also – though he could not have articulated it even in all his precociousness at ten years old – by the sensation of a few of his grandfather's tears dropping to his hair. That gave Andrew the safety to just get it all out, and then go on to sleep.
Capt. Ludlow knew full well what his father would have told him about crying at ten years old … and also why his Lee grandmother had snatched him up and taken him to the mountains so he could be fully human as a child after the trauma he had experienced, and cry. Andrew was only ten. The burdens of being a man were not for him yet, and the budding insomniac pattern meant that he, like his brother George with the panic attacks, needed to be handled very carefully as he approached adolescence.
So, Capt. Ludlow did not move from the spot until morning, holding his grandson until reveille. When the captain woke up, he took his grandson back to be and tucked him back in, only to come out of that room and be plowed into by another grandson.
“Good morning, Papa!” said five-year-old Robert Edward Ludlow III, right on time for his usual coffee time with his grandfather.
“Good morning, Robert,” the captain said as he bent down and picked up his baby grandson. “Let's go put the coffee on and get the kitchen set up for Grandma.”
“Yeah!” Lil' Robert said.