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“So, what is it like, having Rob as your baby brother, like, for real?”

That was baby daughter Gracie Trent from next door, eight years old, asking 11-year-old Eleanor Ludlow about five-year-old Lil' Robert Ludlow.

“Well,” Eleanor said as she sat down next to Gracie on her stairs, “Robert is a whole situation by himself. For a good while, it was just me and him without any of the other five, and Robert is a whole situation just like Papa is. It's hard to explain – hey, Grayson, what is that word you were just spelling with the B for the bee?”

Six-year-old Grayson Ludlow, the brother just above Lil' Robert, looked up from his study guide for the Lofton County Spelling Bee.

“Bewildering – B-E-W-I-L-D-E-R-I-N-G. Confusing in a way that makes you feel lost.”

“That's it,” Eleanor said. “Thank you, Grayson.”

“Any time, big sis,” he said, and returned to his study.

“So that's it, Gracie,” Eleanor said. “Robert is a bit bewildering sometimes, because it is like taking Papa and making him five again, but then, on the other hand … ever had November apples that are a dark, deep red, deeper than the regular Red Delicious?”

“Yep,” Gracie said. “Mom used to go out of her way to get those because they were from around here.”

“Fruitland Ruby is the local variation,” Eleanor said. “Everybody in Lofton County eats them, but because General Lofton lived a lot of his life in New York teaching at West Point, there are still farmers from here who run them up there because a lot of people still want them, almost 200 years later.”

“Those are good apples,” Gracie said. “You can't get apples like that at the supermarkets.”

“No, you can't,” Eleanor said. “But here's the thing, Gracie – there's no fruit in the world that is more like Robert.”

Gracie thought about that, and then smiled.

“They're small, but bigger than you think,” she said. “They're kinda thick and solid and surprising.”

“You can't overlook them, and when you bite into one, they are really, really loud,” Eleanor said, “but, they are also super-sweet.”

“And that's Robert,” Gracie said as the little boy in question went running across the yard, beaming with happiness and yelling his head off, just overjoyed to catch up with Mrs. Ludlow his grandma and forever mom as she came from the garden.

“Exactly,” Eleanor said. “You can't eat more than one Fruitland Ruby at a time, and you surely cannot afford more than one Robert Edward Ludlow III in your life at one time, but, he's a real treat, with there being just one of him.”

There was a sound inside the Trent house, and Gracie looked and then stood up.

“Thank you,” she said, “because I just wanted to know what that was like from an older sibling. I of course am a baby sibling like Robert, so I do the bewildering over here.”

The sound became more distinct all of the sudden.

“GRACIE!”

“I also do a lot of running,” Gracie said. “Bye!”

Gracie took off and Eleanor quickly dove for it as eldest sibling 21-year-old Melvin Trent literally hurtled her and the stairs in pursuit, on his way to forget, again, that Gracie could fit into a lot of spaces he couldn't, and that Gracie knew that he would forget.

Lil' Robert Ludlow came running to his big sister Eleanor as she crossed back into the Ludlow yard, heedless of “Big Robert,” their grandpa and forever dad Capt. R.E. Ludlow, in pursuit of him. 

“Ellie!” Lil' Robert said in his last smiling two seconds before being snatched up, “did you know that blackberries make great hair dye? Here, let me show y--.”


The snatch-up occurred – “Get over here!” growled Capt. Ludlow – but then the Ludlows' attention was arrested as Gracie outran and outwitted her brother again and left him stuck hanging half inside out and half outside the window of her mother's art shed – and even closed the window on him, right there.

“Well, Papa,” Eleanor said as she looked back at Lil' Robert, “whatever he did, it could be worse.”

“Yeah!” Lil' Robert said, and forgot his hands were full of blackberries and so dyed his grandfather's white beard and white T-shirt.

Capt. Ludlow just gave a heavy sigh.

“It actually looks kinda good, though, Papa,” Grayson said. “Purple looks good on you.”

“Have y'all even thought about if I look good on purple?” Capt. Ludlow said.

Eleanor frowned.

“You know … .” she said. “That question is just a bit bewildering, because you know … .”

“Bewildering – B-E-W-I-L-D-E-R-I-N-G,” Grayson said. “Confusing in a way that makes you feel lost.”

“I suppose that is about right,” Capt. Ludlow said as the Trent parents came to contemplate why their eldest son was rear end to the sky hanging out of the shed screaming bloody murder while his 17-year-old sister Vanna was rolling laughing and siblings nine-year-old Milton and eleven-year-old Velma were just as confused as they were. “I think that is where we are right now.”

“Well, as long as we can be here together, it's all OK,” Lil' Robert said, and kissed his grandfather's cheek through his grandfather's now-purple hair.

“You don't even remember that you are in trouble, do you?” Capt. Ludlow said gently to his baby grandson.

“Am I?” Lil' Robert said, just as Gracie was being questioned by her parents and came out with, “Who, me?”

“I'm not sure I understand what just happened,” Eleanor said to her ten-year-old brother Andrew a little later, “but the good thing at our age is, no one expects us to.”

“I don't think anyone really understands Robert or Gracie,” Andrew said, “but you know, God just keeps some things to understand for Himself.”