Day 824: 5 Minute Freewrite: Wednesday - Prompt: radish
“You are so like your grandfather Aaron and his strange ideas about food!”
“Well, life is about new experiences, Grandmother.”
“That's just what he would have said!”
And Selene Slocum-Lofton, at 83, sat laughing after her dinner of oatmeal as she was presented by her only grandson with radish salad for dessert.
She knew the alternative was on the other end of her phone, fiercely vibrating. Someone had been calling, and calling, and calling … she was aware that apparently she had missed some family crisis, and she was trying to miss it as long as possible.
But, Henry Fitzhugh Lee had the keen hearing of his late grandfather, Aaron Slocum-Lofton, and now that spoons were no longer hitting bowls, he heard the false note … .
“Your phone is going off, Grandmother.”
“Right,” she said, and he instantly knew she had known that for quite some time. “Hello? Donna? Wait a minute, calm down, calm down – I can't even understand you unless you slow down and calm down. What happened? What? WHAT?”
Captain Lee could hear his cousin Donna's frantic voice on the other end of the line, and being a police captain with a background in the Judge Advocate General wing of the Army as well as Special Forces, he was able to put the pieces together, including his grandmother's frustration when she had heard enough.
“Donna – Donna – do you even hear yourself? You've spent one minute talking about your husband having shot his son. You've spent one minute talking about your son in the hospital while you're not even there with him. You've spent ten minutes complaining about Rufus Foster and his family all abandoning you in your time of need after you have worked those folks down for decades – but they are the evil ones? Shut your mouth and get to the hospital to see about Willis Jr. – don't call me again until you have something of proper substance to say!”
Captain Lee had gone to pick up his grandmother's coat and his own, but she recalled him after hanging up.
“Please don't rush us off, Henry,” she said. “Willis Sr. is where he needs to be: in jail. Willis Jr. is where he needs to be – in the hospital, with a flesh wound. He'll recover. Rufus Foster and family escaped, and probably will be suing, so they will make out just fine. So: no one really needs me, and we have time to finish our salad.”
“An excellent situational analysis,” Captain Lee said. “Most people would be panicking.”
“Other people panic,” Mrs. Slocum-Lofton said. “Those who have the burden of command don't have that luxury, as you know, Colonel.”
“Indeed I do, Grandmother.”
“I'm too old to be running around for non-emergencies. I would like to finish my radish salad.”
Captain Lee returned to his kitchenette, washed up, sliced a fresh radish, and added the slices to his grandmother's plate.
“Would you like balsamic vinaigrette or zesty Italian?” he asked.
“Both. I'm going to need all the fortification I can get.”
Photo by philippe collard on Unsplash