Midnight Sunday morning: after her six-hour conversation with her (ex-) husband, Mrs. Velma Stepforth took a few moments before getting into bed to consider her own feelings.
Obviously, she still loved Thomas Stepforth … ten years, and they were talking and dating and enjoying each other's company again.
Just as obviously, she was not obliged to go back to him.
She could live a single chaste life to the end of her days, and enjoy it.
There was much about Washington, and her life there, that she would have to give up to live in his orbit again, especially now that he was back down in Lofton County, where they were from.
Still, there was plenty to write about there … she had read the Lofton County Free Voice, and there was definitely room for another human interest author, especially since more stories of what Black people were going to be doing with the largess her (ex-) husband and many others were working to bring to the table. It was necessary for people to see themselves doing what they needed to do in order to keep progress going … and she did have a mighty pen.
She would lose her present audience, of course … and also all the affiliate monies that went with that.
But, on the other hand, she had a huge nest egg between the alimony and all of that ten years of work, and of course, she was going home.
As Mrs. Stepforth once again, officially, she had access to billionaire money.
There had never been a question about her security … not in 50 years had she wanted for anything, and he had always been generous with everything but himself in 20 of the last 30.
If he was able to handle that part … and here was the thing: now that he had both eyes open, and knew what he had to do …
“Thy will, Lord,” Mrs. Stepforth said. “Tell me what I should do. I know Tom loves me, and maybe now he has remembered how.”
She thought back to them at 15 … they hadn't known anything then either, but they had learned, and for 20 years, they had been able to do the work. What they had not anticipated was what to do when there was really nothing else they were obliged to do … when no longer obliged to work for any kind of a living, and when they had no small children left, things had fallen apart. Life past the struggle … for Black couples born and met while poor, this was uncharted territory.
More uncharted territory was up ahead … senators were behaving strangely in Washington, selling off massive amounts of investments after some kind of meeting about a mysterious and deadly illness in China. Mr. Stepforth knew about it, which is why he and the Morton Consortium had made the moves they had to get control of Lofton National Bank, and were getting large amounts of funding in it quickly.
Perhaps that, too, was driving Thomas Stepforth … he had always been a grand protector, and instinctively wanted her home with him for that reason instead of her being a Black woman alone, now 65, facing uncertain and possibly quite dangerous times.
But for COVID-19 and her age, Mrs. Stepforth could have delayed her decision much longer.
Yet that was not the situation.
She knew this.
He would be in Washington again on the 14th.
That would be just about long enough to make that decision.
The graphic was created by the author, Deeann D. Mathews