Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay
All seven Ludlow grandchildren, hearing their grandfather Capt. R.E. Ludlow exclaiming so powerfully in his sleep – “NO. I WILL NOT GO BACK. I'M TIRED. I WANT THE LIFE GOD HAS FOR ME. NO” – got up, and were ready to fight by the time Mrs. Thalia Ludlow made it out of her bedroom in her robe and blocked the door.
“Well, all of you certainly are Ludlows,” she said, shaking her head as she saw the assemblage of household implements and toys that Eleanor (11), Andrew (10), George (9), Edwina (8), Amanda (7), Grayson (6), and Lil' Robert (5) had already picked up and were ready to use as they were heading for the door.
“They ain't taking Papa or you nowhere,” Eleanor growled as she tugged up the vacuum cleaner.
“Over our dead bodies,” Andrew said with his half-size baseball bat.
“Yeah,” George said with the butter knife.
“Yeah!” said the rest.
“Your grandfather was fighting our enemies in his nightmares, but has already gotten us the victory,” Mrs. Ludlow said, and then opened the door so they all could look in to where Capt. Ludlow lay peacefully asleep, having done subconsciously whatever he had needed to do that night.
“Put all your weapons down and tiptoe, and you can go look with me,” Mrs. Ludlow said gently, and so all eight went in and watched the captain sleep peacefully for a while before she led the children back out.
“This is why Papa and I have to go away next week for his next therapy sessions,” the grandmother said gently to the children. “You see he is always going to be fighting for us, but as you see, it's hard and so since he is going to try to do so many years of work in just eight weeks, none of us would be able to get much sleep.”
“Oh,” all seven said.
“Now I understand,” Eleanor said. “I can see how that could get really rough at night.”
“If he doesn't do his work,” Mrs. Ludlow said, “this will continue to happen off and on for years, but we hope that we can get it stopped, and settle his nightmare enemies into the past.”
Five-year-old Lil' Robert considered this, and then turned around and headed back for bed.
“Why are you leaving so soon, Rob?” nine-year-old George asked.
“I gotta get back to sleep because Papa's still here sleeping here at home and I gotta get to dreamland so I can go be backup!”
The other six Ludlow grandchildren looked at each other.
“Yeah!” they all said, and all ran back to their rooms.
“I gotta get to the dreamland Supreme Court,” George said to brother Andrew as he was going, “because by the time we get to where Papa is, we gotta get them to change the laws so we can do what we have to do to Papa's dream enemies without getting in any trouble.”
“I'm not sure it works like that,” Andrew said, “but, it's dreamland, so, it's worth a try, George.”
Mrs. Ludlow put everything away with a chuckle.
“Silly born Ludlows,” she said, “but you're all mine, and I love you all.”
Just as Mrs. Ludlow turned around and headed back to her bedroom, Capt. Ludlow came out in his robe, with a blanket.
“I thought I heard the children,” he said.
“You did,” Mrs. Ludlow said. “You had an episode, Robert, a good, loud one, but you fought off our enemies, as usual.”
“All the old Ludlows and Slocums and Bollings turned out with their money and their slaves and told me I can't be different from them … all the Lees-of-the-mountain led by my great-grandfather Horatio Lee came out to back me up, but Father Horatio said it was my decision to make. You might have heard what I said.”
“Everybody did from here to the gates of heaven and hell,” Mrs. Ludlow said. “Looks like you're not going back and the new Ludlows aren't going, period.”
“Never,” Capt. Ludlow said. “I refuse to extend that particular Ludlow legacy one inch further – we here are going to walk in the light of God, and love ALL OF OUR NEIGHBORS as ourselves. I'm so ready to do this EMDR therapy to give me more conscious capacity by breaking all these trauma patterns I have, but I have already made my decision. I know because of these water rights I'm going to be having these discussions with living family members and that's why I had that nightmare – but there could be two million, not just two thousand coming at me with the foolishness. I'm not going back and so WE are not going there. PERIOD.”
“I figured that was what you were working out,” Mrs. Ludlow said.
“I am going to move to the couch until reveille, though,” Capt. Ludlow said. “I have remade the bed, so you take that, and I will see you after reveille, because I still have that feeling I might have a toss or two left in me.”
“All right,” Mrs. Ludlow said, and then went and got one of her lavender pillows for her husband's sofa sessions. “I'll see you after reveille.”
Capt. Ludlow put the blanket down on the sofa, and he and his wife embraced and kissed before parting.
“We Ludlows couldn't make it without you,” he said. “Thank you … I love you, so much.”
“I love you and y'all,” she said, and received another warm kiss.
“After reveille,” he purred, “I will finish my thought on that.”
“See you later, then – get some rest, because you may need it,” she purred back. “That kiss was good and I might want a lot more of where that came from!”
“I will fill you to the brim, woman – after reveille!”