Day 831: 5 Minute Freewrite: Wednesday - Prompt: brussel sprouts

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“So there I was, Mildred, eating brussel sprouts salad with grilled halloumi on the side of a mountain with the boy who had tried to kill me 27 years ago – and there he was, making sure I wasn't cold and looking after me, going to and fro from his solo church service up the hill to make sure I was all right – I still can't believe it!”

That was Selene Slocum-Lofton talking to her bosom friend Mildred York after getting to her apartment from spending Sunday morning with her all-grown-up grandson, Captain H.F. Lee.

“How was the salad – can he cook?”

Mrs. Slocum-Lofton suppressed a sigh … Mrs. York was the one more in touch with the sensual things of the world.

“Henry is an eccentric but fabulous chef – he marinated the brussel sprouts for two days in peppers and oil and lemon juice, and the halloumi in the same, and then added all these magnificent greens and bell peppers and hard-boiled eggs – a chopped salad of distinction.”

“Wow. Who would have thought he had all that in him?”

“Well, he does have the background … the mountain life, so everyone had to learn everything. But it was beautiful up there … I understand now why his Lee people fell in love with the Blue Ridge and stayed up there after the 1870s, and even why Horace [Fitzhugh Lee] insisted on reclaiming our grandson to the mountains.”

“Really, Selene?”

Mrs. Slocum-Lofton sighed.

“I don't know what is happening to me, Mildred, but, I am beginning to come to the Lee side, if you will, of the questions of the last 27 years.”

Mrs. York was by herself, but looked both ways before speaking.

“Your niece Donna is spreading rumors,” she said, “and Antoinette Tudor-Semmes is angry and passing them along … they are saying you have a new boy toy, Selene, and that you're carried away with lust.”

Mrs. Slocum-Lofton started laughing all over again, and then sighed.

“Half right. My grandson has carried me away because he has decided to love me, like he's his grandfather come again with some Lee-of-the-mountains accessories … and everyone knows how I worshiped my husband, who decided he was going to carry me off from all my suitors and just waded in among them and did it!”

“I remember,” Mrs. York said. “Bold man, that Aaron Slocum-Lofton. Nobody thought he had a chance.”

“Yet, he was the only one who ever did,” Mrs. Slocum-Lofton said, and Mrs. York could hear the growl now rising. “I have never, before or after, entertained another man as a love interest, and I never will. All these gossipers wish they could have had the man I had!”

“True, Selene. Aaron set you up as well as John [York] set me up … we never did and never have and never will want for anything, because they laid up for us and taught us how to keep and expand it.”

“And they loved us,” Mrs. Slocum-Lofton said, and her voice broke.

“Yes, they did, and it still hurts that they're gone,” Mrs. York said, dabbing at her eyes.

The two widows wept for a moment, but there was no softness left in Mrs. Slocum-Lofton's voice when she spoke again.

“Thank you for keeping up with the talk for me, Mildred. No one will ask you directly, but folks will start sniffing around you for clues … let the mystery linger. My own family is afraid I'll change my will or some such … may try to do a little something, but my new man ain't having any of that!”

Mrs. York cracked up laughing.

“Oh, Selene – wait until they meet the police captain you're going with!”

Photo by Nathan Lemon on Unsplash