10 April 2024, @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2338: stop it!

Image by Oleksandr Pidvalnyi from Pixabay

“Cousin Harry has been out there an hour, Mandie. I feel real bad for whoever has that look on his face.”

“And you just know whatever stupid stuff those people were doing, you know they are gonna STOP IT! I love Cousin Harry for this, and I just need an eight-year-old version of him to settle down with and marry and I'm set for life!”

“Yeah, I can see that, Eddie, although I don't know if I would, but he at least keeps all the unsafeness out there, out there where it belongs.”

Seven-year-old Amanda and eight-year-old Edwina Ludlow were looking out of the window in their room toward the foothills of the Blue Ridge, watching what they could not hear: Col. H.F. Lee verbally tearing the stripes off some folks who had done some really dumb things.

Mrs. Maggie Lee, who was married to the colonel, was trying not to chuckle at her little Ludlow cousins by marriage, just like her little twin Hamilton cousins Orton and Edward cracked her up when they had said to her husband, “It's a good thing we like you, Cousin Harry, and that you're married to Cousin Maggie, because we would knock anyone else off but then have to fight each other to get her, so, it's all good.” Orton and Edward were each eleven years old.

Edwina and Amanda were just as interesting as they made the best sense they could of the world.

“Oh – he's done,” Amanda said as she saw her cousin pull his Bluetooth off his ears.

“And so is whoever he was talking to!” Edwina said, and burst out laughing.

“I guess that's why he eats all those hot peppers and stuff,” Amanda said. “Summer is already hot, so, you gotta have extra heat to get people to listen.”

“That must be what they mean when they say people go into situations packing heat!” Edwina said. “I need to get Cousin Harry to get me started on eating those and Cousin Maggie on cooking those!”

“I don't know,” Amanda said. “I'm a vegetarian and so I'm going to be eating all different kinds of veggies, but I don't know if I really want all the smoke.”

“Look, leave all that to me,” Edwina said. “I'm totally here for all the smoke!”

“He's getting really calmed down now,” Amanda said. “I'm so glad he does that!”

“I was kind of hoping we would at least get some instant replay!” Edwina said. “I really need to take notes, but he probably only tells Cousin Maggie what really happens after we go to bed, and I would just tiptoe to the door and listen, but I gotta get my beauty sleep.”

“Gotta stay fashionable, Eddie!” Amanda said.

“Always, Mandie. Always.”