River’s Story
I was so excited and so nervous at the same time, I could not wait to spend the Holiday with my brother Chaske’s family, and my sister Aponi. Che and I were the redeye flight from Raleigh to Billings, our first flight ever! He was still new on the force and didn’t have a lot of seniority, so it was a struggle to get Thanksgiving off. He had to agree to work over Christmas, plus he worked a double shift the day before we left. It sucked, but I was happy as hell he was coming with me… I had no idea what to expect. Thanksgiving wasn’t the same for Native Americans as it was for the rest of America, each Tribe had their own way of commemorating it. For Chaske’s tribe it was a time for to reflect on their history, culture, and the impact of colonization. He told us there would be a ceremony at the mission, then a big dinner with his extended family. I was excited to meet his wife Shyann, and especially my nephew, Mineola (little River), but I was nervous about her family. Some tribes welcomed gays, also sometimes referred to as two-spirit, and some tribes didn’t. Chaske told me not to worry, we would be welcomed, but I always did. I always worried about being accepted in new places.
Anyway, we booked our flight from Raleigh to Billings late and there were only First Class Seats left. It wasn’t cheap, but Shadow Wolf had been paying rent steadily for the past couple of months (thanks to Zach’s firm scaring him… we discovered he wasn’t so tough outside of his tiny pond), and we had put all the money away in a savings account, every damn penny. Che convinced me it was worth the money… our one splurge. Aponi decided not to join us, she wouldn’t tell us why, but after some digging, we found out that she just didn’t have the money… for the first time in my life, I was in a position to help someone else financially. It felt good to be able to share the money from Uncle River with my siblings, I mean, other than having his name and being gay, I didn’t do a damn thing to deserve it more than my siblings. Che even talked me into booking her in First Class from Chicago… it was only fair, right?
There were just two seats on either side of the aisle, I had the window seat and Che had the aisle. It was the middle of the night, the lights in the cabin were low and most of the passengers were sleeping. “Ima’ go to the bathroom, um, maybe you should meet me there in a hot minute” he whispered as he got up. I shot him a look of confusion, then he flashed that smile and raised his eyebrows, “I’m thinkin’ we could do a little somethin’, somethin.’” I just stared at him, “The mile high club” he growled in a whisper before getting out of his seat and heading the few rows up the aisle to the First Class bathroom. He looked back at me over his shoulder as he walked down the narrow aisle, the smile never left his face… he gave his perfect black ass a squeeze just as the bathroom door shut, I got the hint.
I sat there for a moment trying to figure out if I should follow him or not. Yeah, sure I did. I almost sprinted down the damn aisle to get to him. I was looking around, guilty as hell, making sure no one was watching… no one gave a crap, most of ‘em were sleeping anyway. I lightly tapped on the bathroom door, Che opened it just wide enough for me to fit my body through the tight opening and yanked me in, he shut the door behind me, locking it with a loud click. His pants and underwear were already around his ankles, he leaned against the sink. “Suck it" he said in a commanding whisper.
I fell to my knees without even thinking and took his big, black joystick in my mouth. Oh my god! I was blowing Che in the bathroom of the very first airplane I had ever been on…. 30,000 above the world. That bathroom… it was so freaking small; I was doing aerobatics just to maneuver around and take him in my mouth. At one point I was kneeling on the toilet seat while Che pushed my head down onto his cock and fucked my face. I was choking and sputtering, “Shhhh they’ll hear us Che whispered.”
I pulled off and whispered, “Easy for you to say, you don’t have a giant cock choking you.”
Che just laughed, “you love it!” He was right, I did. I opened wide, took him in my mouth again, and he went back to face fucking me. My eyes were watering, my throat was sore, and my body was contorted in that tiny space. He swelled up to his full size until my mouth overflowed… I was working him hard with my mouth and hands. He was close to coming when he pulled me up by my long hair and spun me around (I usually had it in a pony tail, but we left home early so I just let it flow… it was better for sex anyway). He yanked my jeans down and I stepped out of them. I was over the toilet trying to steady myself against the flimsy wall while Che dropped to his knees and licked my hole. Oh, my god it felt so amazing! His wide tongue licked my crack, up and down it went before it lodged in my hole again. The room was so tiny and Che was struggling to fit behind me. He jostled, and maneuvered, then pulled my legs out from under me and put them on his shoulders. With my arms braced against the wall and my thighs on his shoulders I was basically airborne. My ass was against his face and his tongue continued to explore and loosen me up.
“Im’a fuck you now” Che growled quietly.
“No fucking way, not in here,” I quietly protested as I looked back at him. He stood up and maneuvered around some more until he had me in a wheelbarrow position with his gigantic tool knocking at my back door. He spit down into my hole, then, with my knees resting in the crook of his arms, he took a finger and entered my hole. He moved it around in circles, loosening me up. He added a second finger, then a third before spitting in my hole again. I was trying to push back on his fingers loving every fucking second of it, almost stealthily he replace his fingers with his large, darksome manhood. Holy fuck! The girth, the length, the texture, hanging in the air like that, just… just the whole invasion was incredible! I pushed out to welcome him in and he kept pushing forward. I swear if Che was even half an inch bigger in any direction, he’da ripped me in two. He did his best to push into me and I did my best not to scream in the most fucking pleasureful pain I had ever felt.
My arms were still braced against the flimsy walls holding my body in the air when Che started to pull out of me; I felt emptier with each inch that left me. If you’ve ever been fuck by a huge cock, you get it… it’s a struggle to get it in, it hurts like hell at first, but once it’s there… you never want it to leave! Anyway, that little room was shaking, my lower lip was on the verge of bleeding from me biting it to ease the pleasure induced pain and stifle my screams. The roar of the jet engines was (hopefully) keeping our mile-high initiation a secret. “I’m cummin’,” Che whispered, “I’m cummin,’” he said again, “I’m cummin’ he whisper-yelled several more times as he gave me one final slam and unloaded his jet fuel into my willing ass. He stayed there for a while with his huge member in my ass… I loved it.
I had a load building in my balls but my hands were busy holding myself up on the wall so I couldn’t relieve myself. “Don’t just stand there, reach around and give a brother a hand” I said. Che laughed. He spit in his hand then reached around and stroked me. His strokes were tight and fast. “Fuck yes” I said in a throaty, lust-controlled voice as I felt the release building in my balls and working its way up my shaft. I was about to shoot when Che stopped… he was edging me! He loved to do that! “Che, let me cum, we’ve been in here way too long” I said worried we would get caught. He sped up his efforts and I did my best to keep my screams of pleasure internal as I splooged all over the wall!!!!
“That’s m’boy” Che said before he planted a soft kiss on my ass cheek and lowered my feet to the ground (does it count as ground at 30,000 feet?). We cleaned my DNA off the wall with toilet paper and hand towels, the wall was clean, but the scent of hot man sex hung in the air… that tiny fan wasn’t strong enough to cover our tracks. “I’ll leave first, wait a coupla’ beats, then come out so nobody sees” he whispered in my ear as I fastened the belt on my jeans. He opened the door to the tiny room; there was a woman standing right there waiting. “Hey, thanks for getting that out of my eye” Che said as he looked back at me with a mischievous grin, and threw out his excuse for both of us being in the bathroom at the same time… yeah like anyone would buy that shit.
“Oh honey, are you okay?” the woman asked out of concern. She bought it… I tried not to laugh as I followed, Che out and filed past the gullible passenger.
The rest of the flight we held hands under a blanket and watched a movie in the luxury of our first class seats. It felt like a real vacation. When the plane landed, we got our luggage and found a little place on the other side of security where we could hang out and have a cup of coffee while we waited for Aponi to land. I texted her and Chaske to let them know we landed; I told Aponi where we were waiting.
I was sitting in a comfortable overstuffed chair across from Che, sipping my coffee, scrolling on my phone, and just enjoying life when something softly tapped the back of my head. I looked across at Che who was looking past me, grinning, then I felt again. “Hey Uncle River” Chaske said in a high, baby voice. I looked up to see my brother with the cutest freaking Baby in the whole world strapped to his chest. “Hi old Mineola, it’s my tiny Mineola” Chaske said in the same high baby voice. Then in his real, stoic voice he said, “Uncle River, Meet little River.”
I jumped out of the chair and stood face to face with my namesake. “Hi Mineola” I squealed at the baby as I shook his tiny hand. He pulled his hand back and just looked at me; that boy checked me out from top to bottom. He must’ve decided I was okay because finally, he reached out his tiny hand, I grabbed it and shook it again. He giggled, and I was in love. “I’m your Uncle River” I said as Chaske released him from his baby carrier so I could hold my nephew for the first time. Man, the feel of that little guy in my arms was everything! I know this is gonna sound weird, but I thought my brother and sister had completely forgotten about me, and Chaske naming this sweet little person after me was validation that they hadn’t forgotten me.
“You’re early. I thought you weren’t gonna be here until Aponi landed” Che said to my brother.
“I was excited to introduce these two… well, that and Shyann kicked me out of the kitchen for trying to taste everything” Chaske answered. The two of them talked while me and Mineola got to know each other. Time stood still and I have no idea how long we were there when Aponi showed up.
“You all started the party without me” she said. Then she saw the baby and snatched him out of my arms. “Hi little River, I’m Auntie Aponi.” It was so cute, but then Little River reached out for me again. My heart melted as I took him back from my sister. We gathered our bags and walked through the airport to the lot where Chaske’s truck was parked. Che sat up front with Chaske while Aponi and I got in the backseat and sat on either side of our nephew… that little guy had our full attention and he was hamming it up for us. Smiling, grabbing our noses, hiding his face… the ride to the reservation flew by.
When we got to the reservation, Chaske pointed things out as we drove towards his home. I had never been on a reservation before, yeah, I was Native American but we didn’t live on a reservation, and frankly, my father never gave a crap about anything Native American except for the income from the local casino and the power it gave him in our small community. We drove through a tourist area with a welcome center, an abandon church, and some wigwams. We made our way down the dirt road past a lot of homes, some looked like squaller, some looked like typical suburban homes. It was way different from the city, nothing seemed planned… you know what I mean? The homes were just dropped wherever, like someone just decided one day to put them there. There were big, newer homes next door to rickety old shacks, and nothing was really landscaped. It was so different from our world, Che sat in the front passenger seat, taking it all in. He asked Chaske a lot of questions, I should’ve listened, but little River was all I was interested in at that moment.
We passed a gathering of people in a field, “that is the harvest festival, we will join them later for the harvest ceremony before out meal” Chaske explained as we kept driving. A few minutes later, Chaske pulled off the dirt road and into the drive of a newer two story, blue home and parked in front of the attached garage. It was a nice house, well, the color was kinda ugly and there was no landscaping, but it was nice. I was used to downtown Wilmington where the houses were all so perfect and the lawns meticulously manicured, Chaske’s house t just looked, I dunno, like someone just left it there, in the middle of the lot without any thought to aesthetics. We all got out of the truck, I carried Mineola, and the others grabbed the luggage. Shyann, Chaske’s wife, came out to the porch to greet us, she was beautiful. The second Mineola saw her, I was toast… he reached out for his Momma and left me behind in the dust of the reservation. Chaske made the introductions as we entered the house, and we exchanged hugs.
Shyann had been cooking all morning, and their home smelled amazing! I recognized a lot of the scents, but there were some new spices in the air too. I had been a little bummed out about missing Thanksgiving at Colton’s because the food at their place was always incredible, but suddenly I was convinced that we were in for one of the best meals of our lives. “Welcome to our home” Shyann said as she led us up the stairs to our rooms. The house was so much more, I guess the word would be ‘finished’ inside than it was outside. They left us to unpack, and about fifteen minutes later we were all down in the kitchen… Mineola was back on my lap.
Me, my brother, and sister caught up on each other’s lives, then shared stories from our childhood. Despite having Shadow Wolf as a father, we had a lot of good memories. While we got reacquainted, Shyann cooked… she wouldn’t let us help, “cooking is my love language” she said as she stirred something awesome. “You are here to reunite, and I love listening to your stories.” She eventually gave in and let Che help her since he was kind of on the outside looking in on our family reunion. The two of them were talking and laughing when I heard Shyann cackle and say, “I was having a hard time believing you were gay. But you’re definitely gay” then she looked over at us and said, “Che just told me I looked like a tiny Cher” making us all laugh. But I loved that Che and Shyann were clicking so well… we all just gelled as a family.
It was just before noon when the front door burst open and loud voices filled the house, Shyann’s family had arrived. There were a lot of them (a ‘shitload’ according to Che), the elder family members were quiet and respectful, while the kids were obnoxiously loud. Shyann’s mother came to take Mineola off my lap… but he wasn’t having it. He turned and gripped onto my neck; there is something so life affirming about having a little human cling onto you like you are the only thing in the world that matters. I only knew that kid for a few hours, but I’d kill for him if I had to… he was my family. THIS was my family.
“Okay, Let us go to the fields” Chaske announced, and everyone got up and headed outside and jumped into the vehicles. Me, Che, and Aponi rode in the truck bed with some of Shyann’s family over to the harvest festival. There was food, games, some dancing, and the place was filled with people. There were Native Americans and a lot of white guests too (friends and tourists I assumed). Although we were welcomed and felt comfortable, Che and I both noticed that we stood out from the crowd. I’m sure we were the only gays there, and Che was definitely the only black guy… but we still felt comfortable. The vibe was strange to me, like somber but celebratory at the same time. People were having fun, especially the kids, but people left the festival and gathered out in a big open area.
The Chief of the tribe and several other tribal members were there dressed in ceremonial dress. The Chief addressed the crowd. “We welcome our tribe, our family, and our honored guests.” He spoke of how The "First Thanksgiving" is often portrayed as a friendly harvest celebration where Pilgrims and generic, nameless Indians came together to eat and give thanks, and how that was a myth sparked in the mid-1800s when English accounts of the 1621 harvest event resurfaced and romanticized "Pilgrims" and "Indians" celebrating the "First Thanksgiving." It became part of the national nostalgia. “But giving thanks is a longstanding, central tradition among our people. That is why we are here today” then he read the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving address. The crowd was silent as the Chief recited the beautiful words about the people, Mother Earth, The Sun, Grandmother Moon, The Thunderers, The Great Spirit, and so much more. The closing of the address was so powerful to me. “We have now arrived at the place where we end our words. Of all the things we have named, it was not our intention to leave anything out. If something was forgotten, we leave it to each individual to send such greetings and thanks in their own way. Now our minds are one.” After that there was a ceremonial dance then the festival continued. We hung out with the rest of the tribe and the visitors for a while before heading back to Chaske’s home for Thanksgiving dinner.
Back at the house it was loud, celebratory, and smelled like Thanksgiving and beyond. Shyann did most of the work, but the other women in the family helped her finish things up and serve the meal. The food was… oh my god amazing! There were some “normal” things like cornbread, pumpkin soup, and pumpkin pie. Then there were new things like Three Sisters Stew made with corn, beans, and squash: it symbolized harmony. There was cranberry sauce but it was different, homemade from wild cranberries. There was a small turkey, but it wasn’t the star of the show, the star was the bison. It was lean, delicious, and honored the traditional hunting practices of their tribe… Chaske and his father in-law hunted and butchered it themselves. It was one of the most delicious, meaningful, and powerful meals of my life.
I had a new understanding of Thanksgiving, a new respect for my people, and a stronger connection to my family. It was truly one of the most amazing experiences of my life, and Che was by my side for all of it.
To be continued…
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