Homecoming Ch. 04

As if telepathically hearing her daughter's protests, Caroline set a grim smile and replied, "Oh...you're going to go to school and you're going to like it. You are going to learn things that we couldn't teach you. Mother and I have decided to send you to Howard University.

"Mamma, I haven't even told you if I want to go...I..."

"Hush now, child," Caroline talked over her daughter in a tone more firm and resolute than she'd displayed earlier.

"Mother Carven happens to be a good acquaintance of Mr. Johnson, the president of the school. She's told him a lot about you and he's eager to meet with you and discuss plans for your future...and you will have a future," Mamma finished, regaining some of her own back.

"Any colored girl would be pleased to even be considered; and for you, this meeting is just a formality. The school wants you and they think you'd be a valuable addition to their alumni."

Lu stared at her mother as if the woman had sudden sprouted three heads. This simply couldn't be happening. She was being sent off to school against her wishes — without being consulted! She was being sent off because she was out of hand, and she drank...maybe too much, and she got into trouble...maybe too often, and she...

Baby...look at me.

She'd let him touch her.

...I want you to watch me taste you...

She'd welcomed his embrace and would have given him more if given the chance.

...I want you to see how good you taste...

He'd sampled her with his mouth.

...how sweet...how much I...

Dear god, she wanted him.

"LU...are you listening to a word I just said?" Mamma interrupted Lu's thoughts.

Stunned, Lu blinked in an attempt to regain her composure. Could Mamma tell just by looking at her what she'd been thinking? Lu blushed at the thought.

"Uh...sorry, Mamma," Lu replied, eager to allow a sense of normalcy back into her voice even if her body had already begun to react involuntarily to recent memories created on the very bed on which the two women sat.

"It's late. I'm tired and I'm a little surprised at this announcement. When were you planning on telling me? When my bags were packed?" Lu countered, suddenly irritated that her life was taking shape without any consultation from her.

"Well, we were going to discuss it tonight at dinner and then you...well...things took a different turn." Caroline wanted to gloss over that unpleasantness as quickly as possible.

"Besides, I told you a week ago that we were going to Washington, D.C. after the Fourth of July party. This is the reason...to have this interview."

Christ! This was happening so fast. Lu hadn't suspected that her mothers had planned her entire life for the next four years for her, without one word to her.

"And what if I said I didn't want to go?" Lu baited, already knowing the answer.

"Like I said," Caroline chuckled and patted her daughter's leg, "You'll go. You'll behave. And you'll impress Mr. Johnson, because that's what you do. You shine under pressure and you jump at the opportunity to learn — it is your nature. It always was."

"Besides," Lu's mother continued as she reached to brush a damp lock of hair clinging to her daughter's forehead, "We both know that this place is too small for you."

So it was resolved; by the end of the summer, Lu would be sent away — that was if the university would have her.