Image by Thang Ha from Pixabay
“Grayson, I need a favor!”
Six-year-old Grayson Ludlow looked up from the Lego pile to see his seven-year-old sister Amanda very upset, and went to give her a big hug.
“I'm your brother and I'm here for you,” he said. “Anything I can build with Legos, you got it!”
“I need you to build me a tram!” she said, rubbing the tears out of her eyes.
“I will when I know what it is,” Grayson said.
Amanda whispered in his ear, “That's a street car in English, while we speak American – but we can't let anybody know we speak two languages!”
“OK,” Grayson said. “So, it's a secret.”
“Yeah, because Andrew and George took all of Cousin Harry's soap to kill some mosquitoes, so you gotta build the tram that's really a streetcar and really a Lego train and get them in it and drive them out of here, because I can't have any killing on my watch!”
“Oh, no,” Grayson said. “I'm surprised at Andy. He knows Cousin Harry is the Angel of Death.”
“Well, it was kinda an emergency, though, and I'd like to think Cousin Harry will understand,” Amanda said, “but we gotta have a backup plan!”
“Why don't we just use the rolling laundry basket?” Grayson said. “It's big enough and then we can put all our dirty clothes back on top so nobody will see them.”
“Because Cousin Harry already knows what that is!” Amanda said, “but, he'll never see a tram and me as a tram conductor instead of me driving a train!”
“What we really need is some of Milton's invisibility camouflage,” Grayson said. “If you just mismatch all your clothes in brown and green, nobody will see you in the wild.”
“We need that too!” Amanda said.
“OK, so, I'll start working on the blueprints in English for the tram, and then you go ask Milton in American how to get Andrew and George dressed right to be invisible,” Grayson said.
“OK. I love you, Grayson, because you're my brother and you understand.”
“I love you and I'm here for you, Mandie. No killing on your watch means no killing on mine either.”
“At ease,” Col. H.F. Lee at last said, his arms already around ten-year-old Andrew and nine-year-old George. “Because your elder brothers did not ask for permission to use my soap, and because they are not to be in adult matters, they will be grounded for a half-day on Monday, but because they had the right motive in the best traditions of your grandparents' veteran service, and were just trying to save the neighborhood from a big problem, no killing shall be done on anyone's watch – except, of course, mosquitoes.”
Amanda and Grayson ran to their big cousin and joined the big hug.
“Now, see here,” Col. Lee said to Andrew and George, “you see how doing the wrong thing even for the right reason adds pain and stress to other people's lives?”
“Yes, sir, we see,” Andrew and George said.
“Sorry, Amanda and Grayson!” George said.
“Yes, we most certainly are,” Andrew said, and the four siblings hugged.
“Now then, all of you wash up and get ready for dinner,” the colonel said, and smiled as they all went and Mrs. Lee came and put her arms around him.
“Well played, Colonel, well played,” she said.
“I'm not done yet,” he said. “I need to find out what gave Andrew and George the idea about the pools left by the water main and the soap, and how Amanda got the idea that English and American are two separate languages.”
“I've got you on at least the second part. Edwina has discovered Shakespeare and all things upper-class British, and has been living her best Buckingham Palace life all day.”
“Oh, no – like she needs to be any more like Grandee Lee!” Col. Lee said as he broke out laughing, “in addition to having poor Amanda out here trying to be double-oh-seven-years old!”
“Well, the queen's gotta have a secret service, and if James Bond's not available, somebody's gotta do it,” Mrs. Lee said.
“And Grayson with that Lego-built tram – like M in the pictures!”
“Naw, that was going to be more like Mission: Impossible,” Mrs. Lee said as she too dissolved in laughter.