Homecoming

Sorry for the delay in getting this out. Life got in the way. I suffered from writer's block; and, I wanted to wait until I had written a lot of chapters ahead of time before submitting chapter 4. As always, I want to thank Techsan for all of the invaluable editing assistance. For all of you looking for steamy carnal lovin', sorry this one isn't going to fit the bill. There is some additional character development (it'll pay off...I hope). I have been toying with the idea for categorizing this as a romance story rather than interracial. Enough with the jabbering, just please leave your comments. I really appreciate your input.

Chapter 4

"Lula...Daniel? What in God's name is all that racket? You two fighting again?" the irritation evident in the elder Corning's voice.

The floorboards beneath her bare feet creaked in protest with each step she took towards her daughter's bedroom. By the sound of it, she was only three doors away from Lu's bedroom and would be upon them in a matter of seconds.

Reality, with its icy sobriety, had returned.

The pair stared at each other dumbly, wasting a few precious seconds before Daniel was on the move. Their advantage was that they'd grown up together. They'd gotten in and out of sticky situations together. When trouble with the parents loomed on the horizon, Danny and Lu were as one — united against a common enemy.

Grateful that he'd not had the opportunity to shed his own clothing even as his aching manhood seemed to be screaming at him with throbbing tenacity, Daniel reached over and pulled Lu's nightshirt back down. Lu intuitively followed his lead and began smoothing the wrinkles out of her shirt and finger-combing the mussed gnarls in her hair. Adjusting themselves to look as normal as possible was going to be hard given the events that had just taken place between them only minutes before.

"Lula? Answer me, girl!" the annoyance rising in Mamma Corning's voice as she approached Lu's door.

"Lula? Daniel?..."

The door knob turned

"...child, don't make me come in there..."

Hinges squeaked, loudly protesting the arrival of the unwelcome visitor

"...I could hear you two fighting..."

The door cracked open a few more inches.

"...all the way downstairs in my room..."

The gap widened.

"...you woke me up out of a dead sleep..."

The door swung open, revealing a disheveled and weary black woman, her face a roadmap of anger.

"...and I swore if I had to come up here, heads were going to roll," Lu's mother finished as she stormed into her daughter's room pulling in angry thunderclouds behind her.

"Now just what in God's name has possessed you two to take to fighting and hollering at each other in the middle of the doggone night?" Caroline demanded as she crossed her arms across her ample chest and pinned the two culprits with the dourest of stares.

Daniel silently blessed whatever gods had been watching over them when he realized that, with all of Lu's prized possessions strewn about the room and the bed's unkempt appearance, it did indeed look like they had been fighting. As an added bonus, both Lu and Daniel's somewhat rumpled appearance played in their favor insofar as any unknowing stranger would have credited their looks to a jostling of a much more unfriendly nature.

Any vestiges of residual arousal on Daniel's part were quickly dissipating as he sat at the edge of Lu's bed with his back purposely to the door. Lu could see the mixture of fear and relief in his eyes. Her mother was none the wiser about the erotic play whose second act had been cancelled even before the curtain had dropped on the first act.

"I'm sorry, Mamma," Daniel started, his eyes pleading with Lu to simply keep her mouth shut and play along, "I came in here to resolve things with Lu, and I guess we kinda got outta hand."

"I said some things...then Lu said some things and it was war all over again," he continued.

"And just what in the hell is THIS?" Mamma bellowed, pointing her finger at the discarded food set carefully on the floor and long-since forgotten in lieu of satisfying a very different hunger.

"I thought I told you no dinner until you learned how to behave," the woman shot back at her daughter as her eyes burned holes into the back of Lu's skull like a laser beam.

Quick on his feet and anxious not to bring down anymore trouble on Lu, Daniel tempted fate by interrupting the volcanic eruption, "Uh...Mamma...I brought that food to her. I just thought that..."

"Yeah, the asshole just thought that if he bribed me with some food all would be right with the world and the snitching rat-bastard could sleep like a baby tonight. Isn't that right,

Danny boy

?" Lu walked right into the conversation dripping with false bravado and venomous sarcasm; verbal sparring was her forte.

Damn, the girl could turn on a dime.

Daniel marveled at Lu's talents; acting came naturally to her. So naturally in fact that he had an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of his stomach that not all of this was acting. Given Lu's familiarity with obscenities, he also had the distinct impression that all hadn't been well between the two women in quite sometime, necessitating Lu's practiced skills in art of deception and fast-talking.

When had this girl become such a hellion?

Mamma Corning eyed her daughter with exasperation. These fits of rebellion and vulgarity were becoming too familiar in this household. If Lu wasn't sneaking off to get drunk or find some other devilment, she was mouthing off or lying about sneaking off to get drunk or finding devilment. The fact that Lu was so cunning and intelligent exacerbated the problem and worried the woman even more. She'd hoped that Daniel's return would prove a calming influence. Instead, Lu had simply taken to acting out even more.

The mere thought of the abyss into which her daughter was hurling herself suddenly made Caroline feel old and sad. The abrupt change in mood was not lost on the two younger members of the house who were suddenly thrown into an uncomfortable silence woven thick with regret. Their actions had brought Mamma to this display of despair; and, if she'd known what they were really doing before she'd interrupted them, Daniel couldn't even imagine the magnitude of pain they would have visited upon the woman.

"Mamma, I'm sorry we woke you...honest." Lu was the first to break the silence, her tone now softer and more sympathetic at the sight of her mother's eyes glistening with tears that threatened to spill over and wash all three of them in waters of shame and embarrassment.

They'd, or more to the point,

she'd

made her mother cry.

Although he'd known how this night was going to end after Mamma's untimely interruption, Daniel's heart sank when Lu wordlessly motioned him to leave with her eyes. These two needed to talk and he had suddenly become a carbuncle on the ass of ahorseman.

"Mamma...really...I'm sorry for what I said this afternoon," Lu pleaded anew, desperate to do anything to take away the pain that had cast a pall over her mother's face.

"Ahem...I'll just be going back to my room then and leave you two alone...to talk," Daniel interrupted dryly as he stood and started towards the door. He was too ashamed to look either woman in the eyes.

Pitifully, he shuffled his tall frame out of the room, leaving the two women in a smothering, miserable silence. Even as he pulled the door shut behind him, he couldn't help damning himself a gutless coward for leaving both Lu and Mamma in such a state. His guilt only deepened when he realized that a part of him was actually relieved to be retreating to his own room and away from the awkward confrontation. He was certain that the conversation that was taking place between the younger and elder Corning was going to be monumentally unpleasant...

and he'd been the cause

.

It'd been his need to deny his feelings for Lu that had made him rat her out to her mother in the first place. His inability to control those feelings had led to his making the first move...and the second ...and the third move on Lula. He'd forced the earlier confrontation between them. He'd lied to himself and to her about the reason for his coming to her room. He'd lost control and seduced her. And now, she would be the one to pay the price for his weakness.

For the second time this evening, Daniel was banishing himself to his room with a guilt-ridden heart. An eerie sense of déjà vu overtook him as he entered his room.

"What the hell am I doing?" Daniel mentally admonished as he closed the door behind him and threw himself on his bed.

"I'm not home for more than a week and I'm chasing after my surrogate sister and pissing off Mamma...that is, when I'm not breaking her heart."

The young man turned over on his back and stared numbly at the ceiling, resting his arms behind his head. He sighed heavily as he contemplated the fate he'd have to endure in order to keep the peace.

"What happened tonight simply can't happen again. Not ever. Not in a million years," he swore to himself as if doing so somehow made it final and stayed the hand of fickle fate.

"I'll stay away from her. I'll tell her that what we did was wrong and we need to stay away from each other," he continued, thrashing his inner demon into submission.

"There are plenty of girls in this town...it's ridiculous to chase after this one like she's the last piece of ass on the planet," he chided as if crudely objectifying the unbridled act of insatiable passion that had taken place in Lu's bedroom would somehow serve to erase the incident entirely.

Unfortunately, his body was having none of this nonsense. As if in protest of the parochial self-deprecation, his manhood began its own campaign of convincing him otherwise even as he scolded himself about the dangers of giving into his temptations. Helpless against his own need, Daniel shifted uncomfortably in his bed in an effort to distract himself from the allure of giving in to his body's wants.

He pulled one hand from underneath his head and absent-mindedly ran his fingers down the length of the hard muscled flesh of his chest, finally coming to rest with his palm on his stomach. Feeling his stomach twitch beneath his fingers, he continued down the length of his abs until his hand came to rest on the hardening steel of his groin where he gently rubbed the fabric of his jeans in a vain attempt to ward off the inevitable.

"Christ, I can't even think her name without wanting to touch myself...no, without wanting

her

to touch me." The man groaned resolutely as he continued to fidget with himself, moving his free hand from his crotch, to the washboard of his stomach and then back to his crotch again.

It was obvious that this evening's events had left him wanting both physically and emotionally. All the rationalization and chastising in the world wasn't going to make his raging hard-on go away.

A tortured Daniel conjured up the vision of Lu in ecstasy's ravenous clutches as he reached to pull down the zipper of his trousers in order to relieve the pressure-cooker simmering beneath. Reluctantly, he heaved another despondent sigh and once again pulled out his cock to begin the ritual that he'd enjoyed earlier that day — pulling, urging and teasing the need from his body.

This

was a poor substitute for the real thing just three doors down from his room.

This

was becoming an irritating habit for him; and he grimaced at the mental count of how many times he'd done

this,

, or thought about doing

this

, since he'd first watched Lu's private performance by the pond.

He hissed through clenched teeth at the annoyance of his unhappy circumstance. Less than thirty minutes ago, he'd kneeled at the shores of paradise and tasted its ambrosia. Now, he was forced to take care of his own desires; ironically, he had banished himself from the very paradise that he now conjured up in his mind for the purpose of self-pleasure.

Like this afternoon, Lu was his muse. Unlike this afternoon, the images tormenting his psyche were not of him giving her pleasure but of her body tormenting his. Stroking the demanding velvet-sheathed steel member, Daniel thought of Lu's soft, full lips torturing his chest with feathery kisses, her teeth capturing each nipple as she worked; her long, slender fingers tangling themselves in the dark coils of hair at his groin before taking hold of him. He moaned as the fantasy took effect.

He remembered the heat of her body as he'd captured her in his mouth, feasting on her musky honey — his cock stiffened still. He pictured her lowering her lean, supple form on top of him, her weight comfortably resting on the length of his body; pictured her nails digging into the sweaty flesh of his chest as she raised herself up to straddle him; pictured her soft pussy, dripping with her juices, sliding along the ridge of his cock creating exquisite agonizing friction; he imagined the sensation of her impaling herself on his throbbing column, her feminine muscles twitching, grabbing purchase of him with every inch he gave her. All of this played in his mind as his hand worked in rhythm with the imagined silken strokes of his muse's body.

The cauldron in his gut boiled in anticipation of release. He moaned and welcomed the excruciating coils of pleasure that wrapped around his chest. His breathing quickened and his chest heaved as it fought to grab precious air for his aching lungs which were poised to liberate his stifled throat. Daniel pulled the pillow from beneath his head and buried his face in it to capture the primal growl escaping from his throat as his organ slavishly released its spendings with surprising enthusiasm.

He lay there for a moment, catching his breath and feeling the eagerness of his intentions recede. In the stillness of his afterglow, he cursed mightily under his breath at his failed self-control.

"Shit," he muttered in between thirsty gulps of air, "how in the fuck am I going to keep my hands off her when I can barely keep my hands to myself just thinking about her?"

Dejected, discouraged and still keenly unsatisfied, Daniel punched his pillow before falling back down on it again. He attempted to pull his cum-stained t-shirt off his body. The fabric, sticky and drenched from sweat, resisted his efforts and clung to his chiseled form. Finally, in a fit of anger fueled by sexual frustration, Daniel tore the protesting garment from his body and threw it on the floor. Satisfied with the punishment he'd doled out to the offending clothing, he flopped back down on the bed.

This...

was not...

going to work.

While Daniel laid there contemplating the cards that cruel Mistress Fate had dealt, a confrontation of a different sort was unfolding three doors down from him.

**************************************************

Lu sat at the edge of her bed, her feet dangling off the side; her body swallowed up in her white cotton night shirt. She was a little girl again facing her mother after getting caught breaking an heirloom vase. She felt small and miserable. Once again, she'd disappointed her mother.

In both her words and actions, Lu never seemed to live up to her mother's standards for her. Although the love for her child was evident in the affection she showered on her daughter, Caroline was as free with her criticisms as she was with her praise. But lately, Lula's fits of rage and acting out had become a never-ending source of sorrow to the elder Corning; Lu knew this but was helpless to change her attitude.

Watching Daniel go off to school and desert her; experiencing her white childhood friends grow up and realize that things were "different" between them; being the only colored girl who could recite Shakespeare and Langston Hughes, the later for whom she'd harbored a heart-breaking crush — all of these things made her an outsider. She bitterly resented her pariah status.

She was grateful for everything her mothers had taught her; and she devoured the knowledge they bestowed on her with gusto. Her mother, a natural with figures, was the family bookkeeper and taught Lula everything she knew about the Carven household and business, which was no small feat. Emma Carven, a philosopher, linguist and historian gave her the gift of imagination. However, with knowledge came the curse of knowing false limitations.

Colored girls weren't supposed to be able to recite poetry in Latin, French, German and English. What good could it possibly do to fill a black girl's head with flights of fancy?

To make matters worse, she'd inherited her father's legacy — one she was proud to bear; one that had led to his untimely death. A descendant of the Lumbee Tribe of Cheraw Indians, Lu's father's bloodline was that of Henry Berry Lowry, the legendary Robin Hood of Robeson County. With that legacy came a certain defiant disposition that was clearly evident in Lula. It was this disposition that worried Lu's mother. Caroline was petrified of losing Lu like she'd lost her husband.

So it had all come to a head this hot June evening in Lula's bedroom.

"It all ends here — tonight, Lula baby," Mamma started, startling Lu out of her thoughts. Lu had known this confrontation would come sooner than later. She'd pushed it towards its evitable reckoning if truth be told. She'd purposely acted out because she'd thought there was no other way to rebel against the injustice of her captive mind.

She wanted to fly, to sing, to love. Her wings were clipped. Her voice was hushed. The object of her desire was forbidden.

"Lula, sweetheart are you listening to me...baby?" Caroline waved a hand in front of her child's face, the girl seemed not to want to pay attention — lost in some other world.

"I'm sorry, Mamma...I..." Lu was interrupted by her mother's sorrowful voice, cracking with emotion.

"Lu, baby...I don't know what's gotten into you lately. You've always been a good girl, high spirited, but always a good heart. I'd just as soon lose my right arm or my eyes before I lost you...but I am losing you, aren't I?" Caroline finally broke down, the anxiety stretching the thinness in her tone.

"I'm losing you because I'm holding you too tight. I've lost your father and you're the only piece of him I have left." A tear slid down the older woman's smooth cocoa cheek, but she ignored it as she continued to trek through her rehearsed speech.

"Lu, baby...you've always been so special to me...so dear. You kept me going when I thought that God had given up on me. But no child should bear the burden of her parent's insecurities and fears. Lu, honey...its time for you to go."

Lu's jaw dropped in shock.

Her mother was actually kicking her out of the house for being unruly?

This couldn't possibly be what it sounded like.

Caroline sniffed back another tear before she continued, "Lu, I've been talking to Mother Carven, and she agrees. It's time we sent you off to school...to college. You have to get away from here and spread your wings, baby."

Shaking her head in disbelief, Lu tried to comprehend this new proposal. Her mother was actually sending her away to school after years of fighting with both women over her desire to stay close to the only family she'd ever known.

The girl was torn. Would spreading her wings mean that she'd suffer Icarus' fate? She'd always been afraid to fly too close to the sun lest she embrace the same watery fate as that way-ward son of Greek mythology.

How could she leave this house — her home? How could she leave her mother and Emma? How could she leave the last connection she had to

him

?

Quite simply, she couldn't, she wouldn't and they couldn't make her. She already knew everything she needed to know — much more than any college could teach her. Where would she go anyhow? What school in North Carolina would take a "mouthy" colored gal? And certainly Europe was out of the question in light of the troubles abroad.