Running from danger was the easy part. Getting to safety was a completely different operation.
For Teresa Stepforth, as she abandoned her sister and their long quarrels with their father, the danger was obvious … elder sister Melissa was so bitter and angry and out of pocket that she had begun snapping back at her mother for even bringing it to her attention.
If you were raised Stepforth, you already knew: not only was that a no-no, but it was a dead-end street. Mrs. Velma Stepforth was quiet and patient, but she had a way of quietly saying things when she was ready that could basically destroy your ego in one sentence.
Now Mr. Stepforth? You could get your entire future messed up, disrespecting him.
But, on his side of the family quarrel, he had chosen to forgive his daughters everything, and, one by one, they had began their journeys back to him.
But it was still so hard … like her father, Teresa was proud and this was hard … she began to think of the Negro Spiritual “Climbin' a High Mountain” …
“Climbin' a high mountain, tryna get home … .”
She wasn't sure she would make it … her pride, the memory of her father's rage, the resonance between them in terms of personality … since she was struggling to forgive, she knew it had to be a little harder for him … but then, she had an idea, and went to an upstairs hall window in the Brown home … if he was for real, then he would know what to do.
Thomas Stepforth Sr. was still outside when he heard his daughter's voice very softly drifting down … they would sing to each other around the house, and if she was doing this, she was telling him where she was, in more ways than one...
“Climbin' a high mountain, tryna get home,
Climbin' a high mountain, tryna get home,
Climbin' a high mountain, climbin' a high mountain,
Climbin' a high mountain, tryna get home!”
Mr. Stepforth turned to his son, Major Thomas Stepforth Jr.
“Hold my root beer,” he said.
“Go, Dad, go,” his son said in quiet encouragement, and was rewarded, five minutes later, by seeing his father and his sister embracing in that same upstairs window.