“This man is an American hero – 33 years of army service, award after award, even the reason for him not progressing beyond captain is heroic – and then he came back here and not only rescued his grandchildren but in upending the abusive foster parents who had some of them, he's rescued hundreds more! This man is a hero in the concrete and marble jungles of America and its courts too! And you mean to tell me we've – I mean, Aldridge Swanson – has held up his latest hero's effort since February 19 of this year?”
“Just listen, Mr. Custis. All I'm asking you to do is just listen.”
Ms. Valerianas went to the door of Mr. Swanson's office with her arm full of files for Mr. Swanson and opened the door left ajar, and the first thing Mr. Custis heard clearly was Mr. Swanson lying to Captain Robert Edward Ludlow Sr., all-around American hero.
“Well, the matter is in process, Captain, but you know, the pandemic.”
Ms. Valerianas sailed in, and she was one of those women who was so beautiful that in an office with two men and even two little boys such as the captain's small grandsons, she was always a welcome interruption. She used it to the hilt this day, for good.
“Good morning, Mr. Swanson, and excuse me, gentlemen big and small,” she said as she sweetly went up to the desk and began handing Mr. Swanson the files he had assigned to him that day. “Here you are, sir – oh, by the way, the Ludlow file? Mr. Stillwell came and picked it up – he and Judge Porter will both have it signed off this morning.”
“Who gave him permission to get in here and get it off my desk today? I mean, he outranks me, but not that much!”
“All I know is that Mr. Stillwell took care of it.”
She sailed toward the door, her ample and lovely form mesmerizing to the point that Mr. Swanson did not realize what he had just admitted until Capt. Ludlow pointed it out.
“Ma'am,” the hero with the colossal basso profundo purred in his sweetest voice, “thank you for helping me, because I did not realize I am wasting Mr. Swanson's valuable time. Can you show me and my grandsons to Mr. Stillwell's office so we may thank him, at his convenience?”
“You're Capt. Ludlow?”
“Yes, ma'am, with my grandsons George and Robert, present.”
“Good morning, ma'am,” the nine-year-old and five-year-old said, imitating the sweetness of their grandfather's voice in their boy's treble.
“Wow – talk about timing – well, yes, come on, Mr. Stillwell is probably still waiting on Judge Porter to scan him the paperwork back, but he'll see you after that.”
“Thank you – good day, Mr. Swanson.”
Lil' Robert and George echoed perfectly again.
“Good day, Mr. Swanson.”
While Ms. Valerianas and the Ludlows were headed toward the door into the hallway, Mrs. Harriet Jones, the custodian who passed Mr. Stillwell the key to Mr. Swanson's office, walked up to Mr. Custis with a box.
“Yes, Ms. Jones, I know what I have to do with it,” he said with a sigh. “It's going to take me the rest of the week to figure out what else that man has held up for months, but it stops here.”
And Mr. Custis went into the office, and handed Mr. Swanson the box, and told him to pack his things and be out of the building in thirty minutes. The resulting exchange of words reached Capt. Ludlow's ears in the hallway, and although he was glad his grandsons were perfectly dazzled by Mrs. Valerianas and she was willing to distract them, Capt. Ludlow heard all that he had wanted to say and do to Mr. Swanson said and done – and tears burst from his eyes, his heart was so moved.
“Lord, You have fought this battle for us Ludlows, and avenged us against our enemies,” he whispered to spare his breaking voice. “Now I know You never half do a job – You have given us the victory! I know it! I thank You!”
Down the hallway from vindication to complete victory – long enough for the captain to compose himself for the moment Mr. Stillwell presented him the paperwork at last signed off, and the adoption for all seven grandchildren all finished except for being recorded in the state's capital, Richmond.
The Ludlows – for now, the state of Virginia officially could call George and his actual siblings Amanda, Grayson, and Andrew that just like it did his cousins and now adopted siblings Lil' Robert, Edwina, and Eleanor – watched as Mr. Stillwell scanned the paperwork to Richmond, and then handed Capt. Ludlow his card.
“Richmond has a backlog, of course, but not that many people are doing what you are doing and seeing this all through in the pandemic, Captain – so, expect me, no later than Friday, to call and email you with either a copy of the recordation or an estimated time for how many days longer it will be.”
George and Lil' Robert did not entirely understand all that had happened, but they understood enough.
“I like Mr. Stillwell,” George said as they were leaving the building. “I think he likes us and will finish whatever he is doing for us!”
“I do too!” Lil' Robert said. “That other guy looked like I look when Papa has told me to clean up my room and I don't really do it until I hear him coming.”
“Oh, really, Robert?” Capt. Ludlow said, with a smile.
Lil' Robert jumped.
“Uh … uh … well, I've said it now and it is what it is!”
George put his head in his hand, but Capt. Ludlow was already laughing, and so they all started laughing in the morning sunshine.
Just one more step and we can bake a cake for the celebration.