We made the plan under the willow the next night, voices low so even the frogs wouldn’t carry the words.
Papa had already decided I was to go to Montgomery. A big cotton broker from up North was comin’ through, lookin’ to lock in next season’s crop at a premium price. Papa said it was time I handled a real deal on my own. “Show me y’all can carry the Langston name.”
Two days by train, three nights in the city, then home. I waited till breakfast the mornin’ after to spring it.
“I’ll need someone to carry my bags and to tend to my needs,” I told them, keepin’ my voice even while I buttered a biscuit. “The hotels in Montgomery are fine, but a man still wants his own people lookin’ after him. Isaac knows the horses and he keeps things orderly. He’ll do.”
Mama frowned a little over her coffee. Papa studied me a long second, then nodded.
“All right. Have him cleaned up and put in proper clothes. I ain’t havin’ the Langston name lookin’ shabby in the capital.”
Two days later Isaac stood in the yard in a clean white shirt, dark trousers, and a simple black vest, boots polished. His hair was trimmed neat. He looked every inch the proper valet and hit damn did he look handsome. Especially the quiet fire in his eyes when they met mine.
We boarded the train in the afternoon. Papa had booked me a private sleeper compartment, two narrow berths, one above the other, a little washstand.
“It was the only sleep I could git, son.” Papa said. “Y’all OK sharing a room with that darkie?”
“His name is Isaac, Papa. And I’ll be fine.”
“Well then, keep an eye on him. Make sure he don’t steal nuthin.”
Once the porter had taken our bags and the train started rollin’, I slid that lock home.
Isaac didn’t wait. He pushed me gently against the wall of the rocking car and kissed me hard. Clothes came open fast. I dropped to my knees on the swaying floor and freed that thick black cock of his. It was already heavy and half-hard. I took him into my mouth, suckin’ deep, tongue workin’ along the underside while the train rattled over the rails. He groaned soft, one hand in my hair, hips rollin’ careful with the motion of the car. The taste of his skin and that rich man-smell flooded me again. I sucked him wet and eager until he pulled me up, turned me, and shoved my trousers down. Then it was his turn on his knees. That hot mouth closed around my pale cock, takin’ me to the root, hollerin’ his cheeks, the vibration of the rails makin’ everything feel sharper. We traded off like that for a long time. Me suckin’ his heavy black cock until my jaw ached, him swallowin’ mine until I was drippin’. The porter’s knock for supper forced us to stop, breathless and hard and smilin’.
I looked at Isaac, “Fuck, you can’t have supper with me in the dining car.”
“You go ahead, Beau. I’ll eat either the others like me.” His smile didn’t hide the sadness we both felt.
“Hang on.” I quick grabbed my robe and opened the door. “Porter!” I called out. “The motion is gettin’ to me. Could y’all have dinner brought to my room, please?”
“Yes sir,” he replied. “But I can only bring one dinner. Your boy will have to eat with the rest of ‘them’.”
A short time later, me laying in bed acting ill, Isaac, dressed in his valet clothing, opened the door and let the waiter set “my” dinner on the table. I thanked him weakly and he left. We dined on a fine meal together wearing only our underwear.
The Grand Hotel in Montgomery was all gaslight and velvet carpets and white columns. The clerk looked at Isaac, then at me, and raised an eyebrow when I said my valet would share the suite.
“I’ll need two beds, please,” I told him firmly. “I’ll need him close.”
They gave us a fine room on the second floor—tall windows, a washroom, and a wide double bed with clean linens. The second bed they’d wheeled in sat untouched against the wall. The moment the door shut and the latch turned, clothes hit the floor.
We fucked each other that night like men who finally had four walls and a lock and no willow branches to hide behind. First I was on my back, legs over Isaac’s strong shoulders, watchin’ that thick black cock sink into me slow and deep. A sight I ain’t never gettin’ tired of. He plowed me steady, the big bed creakin’, until he flooded my ass with another heavy load of hot cum. Then we rested only long enough to catch our breath before I pushed him down and climbed on. I slicked myself with oil from my bag, lined up my cock against his tight hole, and pushed in. The heat of him almost undid me. I fucked him slow at first, then harder, holdin’ those powerful thighs, watchin’ his dark cock bounce against his stomach with every thrust. When I came it was deep inside him, fillin’ him the way he’d filled me. We stayed tangled after, sticky and sated, the city noises driftin’ up from the street below.
The deal itself went smoother than Papa could’ve hoped. The Northern broker was impressed by the samples and by the firm prices I held. We shook hands on a contract that would put a handsome sum in the Langston accounts. I sent the telegram home that afternoon: Deal concluded successfully. Returning shortly.
That night in the hotel room, with the curtains drawn and the gaslight low, we sat on the edge of the one bed we’d actually used and spoke the rest of the plan out loud for the first time.
“We don’t go back,” I said quietly. “Not to stay. I’ll tell them I want to look at land further west—Texas, maybe, or even California. Somewhere the name Langston don’t mean nothin’ yet. I’ve got some money in the bank, it ain’t much. I’ll withdraw it all here in Montgomery. Our trail will end here. You travel as my man until we’re far enough that nobody asks questions. Then… we just keep goin’.”
Isaac’s hand found mine in the half-dark.
“You sure, Beau? Once we run, there ain’t no comin’ home.”
I squeezed his fingers, still feelin’ the pleasant ache of him inside me from the night before, still tastin’ him on my tongue.
“Home’s wherever you are,” I answered. “I’ve known that since the pond. We leave Friday. Two tickets west. And we don’t look back.”
Outside the open window the city kept movin’, carriages and voices and the distant whistle of another train. Inside the room it was just us, naked under the sheet, already halfway gone.
We never did go back East.
