When You Hear His Footsteps

# “WHEN YOU HEAR HIS FOOTSTEPS”

**[Intro — The Church Mothers]**

*Warm piano chords, soft Hammond organ, gentle handclaps. Three women’s harmonies rise like sunlight through stained glass.*

**CHURCH MOTHER 1:**

Child, why you sitting in the shadows

With your heart out in the cold?

**CHURCH MOTHER 2:**

You been turning over yesterday

Like a story already told.

**CHURCH MOTHER 3:**

Now, hush that crying, fix your crown—

No, baby, let that crown fall down.

You don't need gold to call what's true.

You need that song that belonged to you.

**ALL CHURCH MOTHERS:**

Go on to the woods, child,

Go on and sing.

Sometimes the road to the heart

Ain't a road at all—

It's a melody.

**[Verse 1 — The Wisdom]**

**CHURCH MOTHER 1:**

Go where the branches touch the sky,

Where you first let your defenses lie.

Sing the way you sang before,

When love came walking through your door.

**CHURCH MOTHER 2:**

Don't sing to beg him, don't sing to bind,

Don't let your sorrow make you blind.

Sing what you sang when your heart was free,

Before fear told you what love couldn't be.

**CHURCH MOTHER 3:**

And if that love is living still,

If it's deeper than another's will,

You won't need to chase him down—

Let the truth come walking through the sound.

**[Chorus — The Instructions]**

**ALL CHURCH MOTHERS:**

Go on to the woods and sing, child, sing,

Let your voice rise up through everything.

If he loves you like you say he do,

Let his own two feet come carrying him to you.

First you'll remember his scent in the air,

That familiar feeling that he once was there.

Don't turn around just yet, my dear—

Let your heart know before your eyes make clear.

You'll hear those footsteps, soft and slow,

Through the leaves where the wild things grow.

And when you turn, if love has brought him through,

He'll be right there on one knee before you.

**[Instrumental Interlude]**

*The handclaps fall away. Piano and strings begin to float; a breathy saxophone echoes the princess's original love theme. The church mothers hum in rich, overlapping harmony.*

**[Verse 2 — A Word of Caution]**

**CHURCH MOTHER 1:**

But listen, child, and listen well—

Love ain't a trick, and truth ain't a spell.

**CHURCH MOTHER 2:**

You cannot make a heart come home,

And you don't have to walk alone.

**CHURCH MOTHER 3:**

The woods may answer, the night may sing,

But you are more than a wedding ring.

Go find the truth, go find your voice—

And let your heart be yours by choice.

**[Bridge — The Princess Begins to Believe]**

**PRINCESS:**

What if I hear the wind instead?

What if the woods give back the dead?

What if I sing the song we knew

And hear no footsteps coming through?

**CHURCH MOTHER 1:**

Then you'll have sung it honestly.

**CHURCH MOTHER 2:**

Then you'll have set your own heart free.

**CHURCH MOTHER 3:**

But child, if love still knows your name,

It may yet find its way again.

**[Final Chorus — Full Theatrical Lift]**

**CHURCH MOTHERS:**

Go on to the woods and sing, child, sing,

Let your voice rise up through everything.

No golden carriage, no royal decree—

Just the song you sang when you were free.

**PRINCESS:**

I'll sing the song before the tears,

The song that knew us before the years.

I'll let it travel where the wild winds blow—

And trust the truth to tell me what I need to know.

**ALL:**

First comes the scent upon the breeze,

Then the sound of footsteps through the leaves.

Don't turn around till your heart is clear—

Let love come close enough to hear.

And if he loves you like you say he do,

If there's a truth still waiting to come through,

When you turn around, beneath the trees,

He'll be right there on one knee.

**[Outro — A Whisper of the Woods]**

*The church mothers fade into a soft, humming chord. The princess takes a breath. A single piano note hangs in the air.*

**CHURCH MOTHER 3, softly sung:**

Now go on, child.

**PRINCESS:**

I'm going.

*The orchestra leaves one unresolved chord, leading directly into the next scene in the woods.*