Take the Long Way Home by Rochelle Alers

Author:Rochelle Alers [Alers, Rochelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2023-08-16T00:00:00+00:00

PART THREE

1968

ASHLEY BOOTH

Chapter 25

Question: What has four eyes and can’t see?

Answer: Mississippi

—children’s riddle

Claudia planned to do something she’d believed she would never do—leave Mississippi. It had been her home for twenty-seven years, a place where family roots run deep and a place where she’d buried too many of her loved ones within a short period of time. It hadn’t only been the loss of family members but Mississippi’s 1964 Freedom Summer. The police, the Ku Klux Klan and the White Citizens’ Council had used murder, arson, beatings, increased arrests, and intimidation to prevent Blacks from exercising the right to vote to achieve social equality.

Meanwhile, Claudia felt as if her life had become as predictable as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. She woke Monday through Friday to go to work, and her weekends were spent with her mother or her aunt. Sarah had sold her house in Freedom after she’d made the decision to live in Biloxi with Mavis, who’d gotten Sarah a position in her school as a cafeteria worker. And once Claudia informed her mother she was moving to New York, she’d offered to take Sarah with her. Sarah refused, stating she would never be able to survive the frigid winters.

Sitting with her mother and aunt in their parlor, Claudia stared at her single piece of luggage near the front door. She’d called a taxi company to pick her up and take her to the Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport for her late-afternoon flight to New York City.

Sarah, who’d recently cut her hair, combed her fingers through the auburn waves. “I can’t believe you’re moving to New York during one of the coldest months in the year.”

“It was either move now or lose my position,” Claudia said.

She’d sent out résumés to several New York City banks and when she’d received an offer from one in Harlem, she’d called to arrange an interview. She’d flown up mid-December for her first interview and returned in early January for the second. Both times she’d stayed with Yvonne, who’d graduated dental school two years before and had moved back to New York with her husband, who now was a resident at Harlem Hospital. Yvonne had invited Claudia to live with them until she was able to find an apartment. She’d taken her former college roommate up on her offer because the year before, Ivy Moore had married a fellow teacher and moved to Albany. When Claudia searched for the city on the map, she’d discovered it was approximately a three-hour drive from Manhattan.

“I hope you packed enough winter clothes,” Mavis said.

“I did.”

She’d ordered sweaters, jackets, and several wool coats and had them shipped to Yvonne’s address. And now that minidresses were in vogue, she’d purchased tights and pantyhose in various colors and patterns, while keeping in mind that banking was a conservative institution that fostered a businesslike image for their customers.

Once she’d decided to relocate, Claudia had listed her house with a Realtor and sold the house with all

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