Day 807: 5 Minute Freewrite: Sunday - Prompt: Coffee mug

Source

Selene Slocum-Lofton wrapped her aged hands around her hot coffee mug at Cake-er-Doodle in order to drive off the chill of the day and also the chill of her fear.

She was 83. She had feared exactly two people in her entire life, and the second one, the one who frightened her far more, was five minutes behind her – perhaps.

The last time she had seen him, 27 years earlier, this young man had very nearly burned her and everyone she knew out of house and home – the Ridgeline Fire would eventually be set by someone else, but it had nearly happened in 1992 instead of 2019.

But what had really frightened Mrs. Slocum-Lofton was what she had seen in that young man's eyes.

She had seen his grandfather, Aaron Slocum-Lofton, in the rage he would have been in had someone disrespected his wife's grave.

She had seen herself – wicked beyond all measure, driven beyond all restraint, save for his paternal grandfather, Horace Fitzhugh Lee, physically knocking him down, putting all his incendiary devices in a bucket of water, and physically carrying him off while he ranted and raved out all that he intended to do, and why.

That was what was so frightening. The young man had Lee blood and that audacious ingenuity, of that same branch that had produced that deadly man, R.E. Lee. He had Aaron Slocum-Lofton's blood, in all his might, in his might that had won the heart of the impossible woman – and he also had her blood, and her impossible spirit that would never submit to anyone or anything except by choice.

Henry Fitzhugh Lee might do anything, with that combination – and now that he was back in Virginia with his spotless police record adding on to his stunning military record, he, like his ancestral uncle R.E. Lee, might do or say just about anything and be able to walk away and die in bed. From what she had observed in his police work, he had surely calmed down in his maturity – but still: he had only become more powerful in maturity, not less.

Mrs. Slocum-Lofton looked through the window – there he was, getting out of his car, right on time. She drained her coffee cup, had it refilled piping hot, and ordered some coffee for Captain H.F. Lee, her grandson. He had come from her, and her husband … yes, she was frightened, but if he had courage, so did she … .

Photo by Brian Suman on Unsplash