Image by Adrian Malec from Pixabay
Thomas Stepforth Sr. went to find his daughter Melissa, who was working from home on a project from StepUp KnickKnacks.
“Here you go, sweetheart,” he said, and poured her a glass of beautiful pink soda.
“Thanks, Dad – that bottle type looks familiar.”
“Really?”
“Yeah – must be popular for local soda makers, because Vincent's neighbor Captain Ludlow uses those.”
“Oh, that's his name, huh? Vincent didn't mention that.”
“Captain Ludlow has a past you wouldn't like, Dad. Recovering racist, but recovering – from what I understand, he was raised by people who had him looking at how they murdered Black men in the streets, but you may have seen in the news how that came out.”
“Yep. He's been back in town two months, and turned them all in.”
“Yep. All those old men that thought they were going to slide into eternity untouched – their nephew messed them up. That's just from the little time Vincent and Melvin have spent talking with him. The other thing is, his seven little grandchildren adore your little grandchildren – they practically worship Velma, Milton, and Gracie. Captain Ludlow is a lot like you: a really tough old man, but you know how it is with grandbabies.”
“Yeah, that's the problem with being a grandfather. Gets a little hard to hate anyone your grandbabies love – those little ones will change you.”
“Captain Ludlow loves his grandchildren – he was doing the single grandfather thing for a little while because of all kinds of travel restrictions, but you know Mrs. Ludlow too. Remember Mrs. Thalia in one of the quarantine homes?”
“Oh, yes … such a lovely spirit. Left the place better than she found it, and you know my standards are high. She's good looking, too – not my type, of course, but Captain Ludlow has good taste in women.”
“Mrs. Ludlow is one of the best people I've ever met,” Melissa said. “I'm really looking forward to having her as a neighbor, and Captain Ludlow is all right too. Whenever I visit, he sends over a dozen bottles of soda for the family, and we have gotten to try all his flavors.”
“Try this one.”
“Oh, wow … mulberries, roses … his stuff always tastes like he picked it just a few minutes ago.”
“I know – he's living by Fruitland Memorial Park, so that's that, but, also, attention to detail.”
“Captain Ludlow is going to give Colonel Sanders a run for his money with this – this is another of what Melvin would call his 'banger' flavors.”
“Oh, he has more?”
“Dad, if Captain Ludlow were a baseball player, he'd be batting 1000 – lots of singles and doubles, plenty of triples, and here we have yet another home run.”
“Is he getting veteran support?”
“Oh, I've been out there when we can hear deaf but adorable old General Ira Hamilton calling with the next idea.”
Mr. Stepforth cracked up laughing.
“Ira Hamilton is among my favorite human beings,” he said. “The great thing about him is that you can easily have a socially distanced conversation with him at any time – you can stand 10 yards away, and you need to do that for your eardrums, but he is a fine old fellow!”
“That man is the living half of the two Hamilton brothers that made Tinyville do right by our people … and when Isaiah Hamilton paid for that with his life, Ira Hamilton got back here and raised Isaiah's children to perfection. Ironwood Hamilton is the result of both those men, and you see the wisdom with which he is handling this pandemic.”
“A good, fair police captain in the South who is really a peace officer – what a concept!” Melissa said. “It makes sense that those two are related.”
“It was an aha moment for me when I finally put it all together. I knew General Hamilton in New York because he taught at West Point, and he would put on his dress uniform and crash business gatherings on his days off because 'Yeah, I'm snooping because that's what army men do with whatever is interesting to them – it's called reconnaissance, and if you announce reconnaissance, you've ruined it!' ”
Melissa cracked up.
“Sounds just like him!”
“I love a bold man of goodwill, and even in my more prejudiced days, it was hard not to love Ira Hamilton, who was out snooping for new ideas in business and technology that the U.S. Army might need to know about. A lot of Black businessmen and even some women got military contracts because he went back and ranted and raved and basically roared people into submission. He messed up somebody on a call once – standing in the middle of Times Square, roaring, 'It's the best product of its type in the country! Stop being a racist and sexist and sign the darn contract before I come and have you mustered out THIS YEAR, not NEXT YEAR'!”
“That's probably not exactly what he said,” Melissa said as he giggled.
“That is exactly what he said – Ira Hamilton is so seasoned he doesn't need salty language. You would wish he would cuss you out and be done with it because he makes no idle threats. The general snoops just about as well as his nephew does – by the time he's told you what he is going to do with you, he's got you dead to rights. Procurement changed that next year; he had the bad apples cleaned out.”
“Wow!”
“Captain Ludlow has been latched onto by the Bellowing Archangel of angel investing – he'll get the veteran support across the county and probably across the land. He may just need some extra flash cash, though, and we've got that.”
“He may also need some better bottle cover designs, but, we've got that too.”
Mr. Stepforth took out $100 and put it on his daughter's desk.
“Come up with a design for this Mulberry Rose,” he said. “There's a big opportunity to employ Black artists like yourself in this. General Hamilton has probably not thought through the veteran stack that deep, so we're wedging our community in, right here.”