19 October 2025, @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2895: please me

Mrs. Thalia Ludlow looked with admiration on her tired husband … he had hung in there through evening games with his grandchildren and their friends at their Lee cousins' home just because he knew that to their eight, it would not be a complete night unless he did that … and so they said good night to the Lees and Trents and Stepforths and tucked some very happy little Ludlows in, including the two least likely to be happy on this day beside the captain himself.

“It is still really hard, remembering how we lost Dad, but, you've always been our real dad and this day is a perfect example of why,” eleven-year-old Eleanor said.

“Yeah!” eight-year-old Edwina said. “You're the best Papa ever!”

“Thank you!” they said, and kissed him a little extra before he tucked them in and gave way to Grandma so he could go tuck in a few others.

Finally, all eight little Ludlows were in bed, some smiling, some snoring, some both, and at last the big Ludlows were ready to go to bed.

“Melissa Trent told me about Uppity Foolery Watch's latest drop, and Cousin Harry said Cousin Hoppy called him and said you snagged that video,” Mrs. Ludlow said.

“The Lord literally parked me next to those two would-be oligarchs and made me invisible inside my windshield,” he said. “The least I could do is get good video and drop it where they could be famous!”

“You mean infamous and probably run out of town on a rail by tomorrow!” Mrs. Ludlow said.

“Well, they say all attention is good attention,” Capt. Ludlow purred. “Good for someone, anyhow.”

“Just another day of being a hero,” Mrs. Ludlow said.

“Just another day of being a tired old soldier who is glad to at last be off post for a shift,” he said.

“You must be exhausted in a way I can't even fathom, on this day,” Mrs. Ludlow said.

“I am,” Capt. Ludlow said, “but it is a good kind of tired. In the end, I regret for my son and daughter what I regret for their mother, but delight in for you and accept as grace upon me: they would have loved to be with these kids now. But it was not for them to do or interfere with.”

Mrs. Ludlow considered this.

“Do you think they would have interfered?” she said. “We notice Glendale and Sylvia are perfectly happy with Glendella here and not even calling every week now that officially we are her parents.”

Capt. Ludlow chuckled darkly.

“Glendale and Sylvia are a different kind of irresponsible: just running,” he said. “Not a need for control and attention and a need to be seen as right all the time – not a willingness to please, sometimes intensely, in order to deceive and control others but for no other motive – not a willingness to throw away everything when they can no longer have their way.”

“To think your first wife and your children broke themselves on you,” Mrs. Ludlow said, “when all you wanted to do -- all we wanted to do, with Robert Jr. and Anne -- was to love them.”

He sighed.

“I think about it often,” he said, “and then I look again at the ones the Lord saw fit to receive all that He has given me to share of love and life.”

He reached for his wife, and she came to share an embrace with him.

“Alexandra certainly knew how to please me, physically, and even how to play up my ego … but until you, I had never known the depth of the love of a woman,” he said. “As wife, as lover, as mother, as grandmother, you have blessed me in ways I did not even know were possible. I know we have to put in a lot of time with our eight, but just know that I love you forever, Thalia … ages hence, whenever I count my blessings around the throne of God and thank Him for them all, of all mortals, you shall forever be first!”

“Well, that's good because I'll be right there thanking the Lord for you, too,” she said, and enjoyed sharing a sweet, lingering kiss with him.

Eleanor and Edwina were peeking through the door, and smiling.

“We're gonna be OK, Eddie,” Eleanor said as she walked Edwina back to her room.. “Our real parents love us and each other. We're gonna be OK.”

“Yeah, I never saw our bio mom and dad thanking God for each other and just snugglecouraging, like Amanda says, like that,” Edwina said.

“They just didn't know,” Eleanor said, “and apparently, Papa didn't know either back then and maybe Mama Alexandra didn't either, but we all know now and we're gonna be OK.”

“Do you think our bio grandma really knew either?” Edwina said.

“I don't know,” Eleanor said. “Papa does not lie, so, if he is telling our real grandma that she's the first woman with deep love, that says both he and bio grandma didn't get it.”

“This is all sad and confusing, and I'm glad we don't have to live in the middle of all of it any more!” Edwina said. “All that was too hard, and then those foster parents – well, I mean, the ones that let me sit up and watch Breaking Bad with them were OK!”

“Actually, no,” Eleanor said, “definitely not because sweet little girls should never have to learn how to break bad.”

“Definitely, yes,” Edwina said, “because the real world isn't that nice to sweet little girls!”

“You know what, Eddie?” Eleanor said. “I can't even argue with that. Some of your foster parents are in prison themselves now. Your experience was rougher than mine.”

“I just need you to know that I can make a bomb if we really need one,” Edwina said. “There may have been some people I used to know who needed some flour in their hair like the song about San Francisco.”

“Uh, f-l-o-w-e-r-s like the kind you grow, not f-l-o-u-r like the kind we make paste and bread out of,” Eleanor said. “Gentle people with flowers in their hair, not bad caretakers who may have gotted blown up on a flour bomb for messing with little kids.”

“Oh,” Edwina said. “Well, I still like that song, although I have no idea what it's about now.”

“Grandma is from San Francisco, so, we'll ask her in the morning,” Eleanor said as she helped her sister back into bed. “Good night, Eddie. I love you, even while you and Papa are way too much alike sometimes with all this stuff that maybe happened.”

“Good night, Ellie. I love you too, and you just let me know if we maybe need some more stuff to maybe happen.”