Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay
“OK, so if your arch enemy is your worst and most powerful enemy, would that make your arch friend your best and most powerful friend?”
Eleven-year-old Eleanor Ludlow, her ten-year-old brother Andrew, and their “arch friend” eleven-year-old Velma Trent from next door all looked at each other.
“Yep, that's all of us,” Velma said. “I get to have two of y'all, but you know buildings have more than one arch, so that's OK.”
“Yeah, because our sisters Edwina and Amanda have each other but also Gracie,” Andrew said.
“Oh, yeah, that's kind of our setup too, Andy,” Eleanor said.
“Yep, it is – you know who can probably explain this?” Andrew said.
“Who?” the two girls said.
“Grayson,” Andrew said, “or, at least, he would enjoy trying.”
Six-year-old budding civil engineer Grayson Ludlow, perennially with his Legos and his blue construction paper and white crayon for blueprints, did have an answer.
“Well, yeah, because, if you kinda watch buildings that have arches, they kinda have an arch over the doors, and then there arch hallways and there are garden arches – I think those are called pergolas or something, and then there's gates, and bridges with rivers under them, and countries that use arches instead of making straight buildings.”
“Yeah, that's right,” Andrew said. “Moorish architecture, in Morocco, Spain, and Turkey, and then India too, and then – really all over Africa and Asia. I'm tall enough to get some of these encyclopedias down, so … .”
An hour later …
“So, yeah, we can all be arch friends, because there's plenty of arches out there for everyone,” Grayson said. “I mean, we gotta go make some friends to cover all this.”
“Not really,” Eleanor said. “The rest of our friends are playing outside.”
“Right,” Andrew said. “The eleven of us, with your cousin Vertran – can we keep him, Velma?”
“Well, quiet as it is kept,” Velma said, “Vertran may be with us after Pop-Pop and Grandma head home, because Pop-Pop and Dad want to get Gracie into the same program Vertran is in, and it would work better for Gracie's first year if Vertran can help her a little. Plus, our family has super souped-up internet because my brother Melvin handles all that.”
“Yeah, y'all's Internet speed is amazing,” Eleanor said. “We're not bad over here, but sheesh?”
“Well, Melvin's business is big files, so, he needs the speed and pays for it – that what Robert calls that 'beatillionaire' money,” Velma said. “But that also helps Vertran out on his video uploads, so it makes sense because they can run their businesses better together.”
“Great!” Andrew said. “The more the merrier – let's just keep Vertran!”
“Yeah, he's really smart, too,” Grayson said. “He showed me a video on the Taj Mahal and how they built it and everything.”
“He's definitely business-minded, but he's still nine and a lot of fun,” Eleanor said.
“Definitely arch friend material,” Andrew said. “Definitely.”