“See, Grayson, your Big Papa Edwin saw what was going on and knew that the same type of people scared of the number 13 and glad not to see it were also scared that my grandparents' skin color would rub off on them or something and were glad not to see us anywhere around them – so what he and Mr. Morgan did was play a trick on those folks so people like my grandparents could get help at Lofton Dynast Hospital. The 13th floor is right there. They just made it invisible to people that think I should be invisible, and visible to people who see the truth that God made all numbers and all types of colors of people and said it was all good.”
Eight-year-old Gracie Trent was looking at the blueprints six-year-old Grayson Ludlow was so disturbed by. He could not get his head around the building disasters in Lofton County and then finding out that it was standard practice to just ignore 13th floors … and therefore maybe ignore a lot of other stuff that was going wrong in 2020. This had spooked the builder heir of Edwin Ludlow, deeply, but peace came to him at last after Gracie explained it.
“It's really good to talk with the right person who understands the answer you really need when you need it,” he said, and embraced her. “Thank you. Now I don't have to rush through second grade to get out here and fix all this stuff. There's already fixes built in a lot of places.”
“Yep, and they have been for a long time,” Gracie said. “Let's go get my big sister Vanna's computer to show you some older blueprints online, and you'll see what I mean. It's all there, but, some fixes are invisible to the people they need to be invisible to.”
And so Grayson learned about all the different plantation houses and local institutions that had rooms built on or repurposed to form spaces on the Underground Railroad in Lofton County.
“Now, General and Major Lofton did all this on purpose,” Gracie said, “but Col. Alexander Slocum at Bucephala? Not so much. He needed some back rooms behind his library, but he didn't ask for the sliding outside door that got tacked on.”
“Wow,” Grayson said. “But see, I coulda told him that would happen. When the people you have build stuff don't want to work for you, they're gonna find a way to make you pay extra. It doesn't matter who you think you are and who you think they are. When I was five, if I couldn't throw a Lego at you, you were going to step on it – but then I turned six and realized I had to do better because people love us here, and because Jesus.”
“Ain't it the truth,” Gracie said. “And there's more, so, your Big Papa was doing the Lofton County thing of building invisible things that worked for people who were supposed to be and sometimes even needed to be invisible.”
“OK,” Grayson said. “I get it. I hope the world doesn't get that bad again, but now that I know, I'm going to be ready. I gotta go get my Legos and come back and start working on some of these.”
“We can send the blueprint pictures to your sister Eleanor's phone, though, so you ain't gotta do all that,” Gracie said.
“OK, but still, be right back.”
While Gracie was sending things to Eleanor's phone, Grayson built her a whole Lego vase with Legos he had brought over on his little red wagon, and then built a red and pink Lego rose on top.
“Thank you,” he said.
“Any time, Grayson,” she said. “You ain't gotta do all this, but I appreciate you.”
“I know, and that's why,” he said, and hugged her again before heading home at last.
Four hours later, Capt. R.E. Ludlow, son of Edwin, grandfather of Grayson, walked out into the living room of his home after Grayson and his siblings were at last in bed and asleep and then jumped, and then had to run to get into his car and close the door so his whole family and half his neighbors would not be disturbed by his sobbing.
“I hope you don't think I'm a nut, Thalia,” he said to his wife when he came back.
“No; I see what Grayson has done. That's the house of Tarquin Ludlow I that just burned down, and Grayson, just using the picture of the blueprints, has figured out where the room for the Underground Railroad went and has built those walls in yellow.”
“He is indeed the living heir of my father – three generations delayed, but not denied!” Capt. Ludlow said. “It was right there until it wasn't, and since the house has burned down, no one will ever see it again – but Grayson has seen it in his mind, like my father would have!”
“And to think Gracie opened his mind to that,” Mrs. Ludlow said.
“They are similar in thinking,” Capt. Ludlow said. “Gracie is always thinking in terms of systems and Grayson is always building in that direction. It makes sense!”