Day 877: 5 Minute Freewrite: Sunday - Prompt: loathing

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One thing Mayor D.L. Garner had learned, fast – in Lofton County, there were Loftons and there were Loftons.

The Loftons were a colossal family, so much so that it was easy for them to lobby for an entire county to be named after them.

However, the county had been named after the two richest and most prominent Lofton brothers – General Joseph James Lofton and his younger brother Major Jonathan Lofton. They had become the richest and most prominent because of their open hand to all humanity and their mastering international business – the combination had made them universally beloved, and all their descendants and nieces and nephews that they directly influenced and left large monies and lands to had followed in their ways.

However, it was a great mistake to think that all the Loftons were like the best of the bunch. The “J Loftons” were only one-fifth of the family. The rest had taken after the elder brothers of the Lofton family that the general and his brothers had come out of … they were ravening racists still angry that somehow, General Lofton had died in combat (or, actually, just after, having won at Cold Harbor on his 74th birthday) and not been available to help General R.E. Lee to victory.

The Loftons of that type were particularly virulent … General Lofton's grandfather had been an unrepentant common criminal, and those who modeled his behavior had always been ruthless in their social climb. They had made it to being big-time slave owners just before the beginning of the 19th century, only to see the means by which they had climbed disappear in 1865. They had always been insecure of their position, jealous of Lees and Carters and Bollings and Madisons and others of greater name (including their richer “J Lofton” cousins), and after the Civil War they had returned to every kind of socially acceptable crime against Black humanity to maintain their position.

The Loftons of that type also had no problem taking out White officials who stood in their way … which is why Robert E.L. Lofton stood sizing up the mayor of Big Loft as the mayor came out of City Hall. To Mr. R.E.L. Lofton, the mayor was giving away the store to Black and Latino humanity and therefore had to be stopped … but he took a moment just to express his loathing for the mayor when the mayor noticed him.

“I want you to know, on behalf of the Lofton family, that we consider you an utter disgrace,” he hissed, “and that was before you permitted this week's travesty.”

“The feeling is mutual,” the mayor hissed back as his car arrived, “but be of good cheer: the travesty will be over in three hours, and then you can go back to doing whatever men such as yourself do when you realize: it ain't 1819 and you ain't running nothing around here, Mr. Lofton.”

Mr. R.E.L. Lofton's mouth fell open as Mayor Garner stepped into the car, waved, and was driven off to his last appointment for that Friday: the travesty, itself . . . .

Photo by Max Muselmann on Unsplash