“Well, I guess they like y'all,” Capt. R.E. Ludlow purred while observing that his niece Garlene and nephew Edwin III had been surrounded by the captain's grand-brood of eight little Ludlows who had decided to go to sleep right there.
“I guess so!” Edwin III said as he carefully got up.
“Thanks for letting us all stay up past our bedtime, Uncle,” Garlene said as she gently leaned eleven-year-old Eleanor into ten-year-old Glendella on the sofa.
“Thalia and I have put our heads together – she's a master chef and I do solid soldier's cooking – on some hot chocolate with real chocolate,” the captain said. “Come on to the kitchen – they can snooze on there for a while.”
So, the adult Ludlows had a chance to catch up, and the captain took a moment to consider the matter... Edwin III, the son of his late brother Edwin Jr., and Garlene, the daughter of his late brother Edgar, had at last come home to Lofton County, and their last remaining uncle was delighted … but pragmatic.
“So, with everything you have seen and heard, are you sure you want to pick up the family torch in Lofton County in terms of rebuilding it for the 21st century?” he said, and watched with a certain amount of sadness as Edwin III and Garlene both shook their heads.
“They won't be ready until Grayson is of age – he really is called, because it's going to take that long,” Edwin III said.
“If you weren't living in Tinyville, Uncle, we'd be telling you that you and your family really need to come our way,” Garlene said. “Two hurricanes and five tornadoes have not done the damage to the infrastructure of Lofton County that the people running it have in 30 years.”
“I see why Grandfather and Dad worked almost to the days they died, holding this foolishness off as long as they could,” Edwin III said. “I mean, the hatred folks had for them and the desire to undo everything that reminded folks of the honor and glory of Edwin Ludlow has led them down a path to destruction that we really couldn't even imagine possible. I've never hated anyone that much.”
“Add into that hatred of the post-civil rights regime, and then forgetting that everyone has to live with whatever you leave sub-standard to spite someone else, and then add enough time so that people forget and start praising the sub-standard,” Capt. Ludlow said.
Mrs. Thalia Ludlow's eyes were slightly wide.
“You know, I'm from San Francisco,” she said, “so, when we mess up infrastructure it is basically about where the money went, but this here is complicated.”
“Yeah,” Edwin III said as Garlene laughed.
“It's not that hard to understand straight corruption,” Garlene said, “but you're in Lofton County, where an award someone received in 1952 is why someone in 1992 wanted to build a whole neighborhood in record time so it could be washed clear into Old Big Loft in 2020.”
“The thing is, there are still too many people in power mad about awards our ancestors got until at least the election sweeps them out,” Edwin III said, “and even after that, there clearly isn't a hunger to do things the best ways in Lofton County, so it would be a uphill battle on two fronts. Not until that entire generation dies out will this change.”
“So, we will train up our little cousins who want to learn,” Garlene said, “and they will be ready when the time finally comes for Ludlow Architecture and Design to come back home.”