"Heart Spiraling Out of Control," fractal graphic by the author, Deeann D. Mathews
It is a strange feeling to look into the eyes of someone you have known all her life, and realize you no longer know her or have a real relationship with her. It is twice as hard if you are that person's mother.
This was the feeling that Mrs. Velma Stepforth had before and especially during confronting her daughter Melissa about her increasingly jealous and angry behavior as her mother and sisters reconciled with her father, Thomas Stepforth Sr.
The night before, Mrs. Stepforth and Mrs. Brunelle Brown Johnson had been talking about the difficulties of funerals, even in a Christian family.
“Or, what you think is a Christian family, living in a Christian nation,” Mrs. Johnson had said. “But none of that is reality, and a lot of what we bury on days like tomorrow is our illusions of what we have. Certain things just don't happen in the presence of certain people because of Christ in them and their spiritual stature, but when that person goes home to be with God, that's when you find out the real spiritual level of the survivors. It is a shock a lot of the time.”
This had informed Mrs. Stepforth about her own daughter, who had conformed to everything while at home because of the big, calm presence of her mother … she had gone along to get along and had imitated her mother to a T, which is why the disaster of everything that had happened to her life and relationships afterward had been a shock. Valerie, Teresa, and Melody had struggled too, but they had returned to the model when the chips were down … it was in them. Melissa? It wasn't.
This explained the slowly twisting face and eyes enraged to the point of madness when Melissa was confronted about the path she was on … like Cain, she had to that point played the role she was expected to play to externals with her mother, but her mother had found her out.
Mrs. Stepforth, the woman who defied the will of millionaires and billionaires (at least one each, anyhow), looked back calmly, although her heart was breaking as she heard her daughter let the truth out through gritting teeth:
“I hate you too! I hate all of you!”
“I know that, Melissa. You will always be my daughter after the flesh, but just know that I know: the devil's children always hate the children of God.”
"Heart Explosion," fractal graphic by the author, Deeann D. Mathews
