Demonic Family Values

My name is Roland LaRoche and I'm a demon of Haitian descent living in Massachusetts. The life of a demon isn't easy, folks. Forget what you read in the books or see in the movies. Not every demon out there is hungering for human souls. Personally, I don't deal or trade in anything having to do with that business. Tell that to those assholes and bitches who write cheap science fiction/horror and keep making my species look like a bunch of monsters. Pardon my French, folks. And they always think we're country people too. I mean, I'm a demon living in Boston. As far from country as you can get.

I work as a librarian in the big city. It's quiet, simple work. I work in the Archives Room and I catalog things. It's good work. Brings in sixty five grand a year after taxes, which isn't bad. I like my job. It's boring but excitement isn't what I'm looking for these days. When most people look at me, they see a six-foot-tall, slender black man in his early forties. I wear horn-rimmed glasses because I must. It's not a fashion statement. I don't care if they make me look like a librarian because that's a that's exactly what I am. A tall black man in a dark gray suit. This is what I look like. I don't have glowing red eyes, or horns, or wings or a tail. I'm just me, you see. My father Haguel was a fallen archangel. My mother Rita LaRoche was half human and half demon. I've never been to Heaven or Hell. I've lived on Earth my entire life.

I hold a Master's degree in Library Science from Boston College. Class of 1979. And I'm happily married to a wonderful lady named Janet Vaucresson. She's half Caucasian ( of French-Canadian and Greek descent) and half African. We met while I was visiting the city of Ottawa, Canada, back in 1978. We fell in love. This tall, vibrant, light-skinned black woman fell in love with me and I considered myself quite lucky. We had a lot in common, you see. Like me, she was a Half-Breed. An odd mix at that. Janet's mother Xyriel was a Mermaid and her father was a Satyr. One of those immortal goat-men from ancient Greek mythology. They're talented shape-shifters and can make themselves look like anyone. She inherited a strange batch of abilities from them. She can breathe under water and communicate with animals, and she's got superhuman strength and speed when she comes in contact with H20. That's what she got from her mother's side. From her father's side, she inherited the ability to shape-shift, and a talent for music as well as a love for nature. All that was wrapped in one hot little package. Is she something or what?

We spent that first summer together in Ottawa. Janet Vaucresson got her bachelor's degree in Criminology from the University of Ottawa that same year and moved to America. I convinced her to move to Boston with me and she began working as a police officer. Three decades, two sons and two daughters later, we're living happily in a townhouse on the Back Bay. We have a wonderful family. Our eldest son Joseph recently graduated from Massachusetts Maritime Academy and now works for the United States Coast Guard. His brother Jackson attends Northeastern University on an athletic scholarship for football. As for our darling twin daughters, Ashley and Athena, they're both at Boston College. My alma mater.

My wife and I are so proud of them. We raised them to be proud of who and what they are. Not just because they're our offspring but because of their unique heritage. We brought them in a wholesome, natural manner. No bodily modifications based on obscure human practices. Our sons aren't circumcised. Just like their father. And our daughters ears aren't pierced. I don't think people should change what Mother Nature has made. She's wise enough to never make mistakes. Fathers and mothers of black men and black women share a special task which is both burdensome and wondrous. Raising them right in a world where the odds are often stacked against them isn't easy. My wife and I tackled this head-on. We knew it wouldn't be easy. We were well aware of what our sons and daughters were going to be up against. And we wanted them to be ready.

Growing up in Haiti, I knew the benefits of single-sex education. Guys and girls are equal, sure, but they're not identical. Men and women learn differently. Young women have no problem sitting still for six hours in the classroom and listening to teachers droning on and on but young men aren't designed to do that. And it's not a character flaw on the part of these young men. Hands-on, interactive learning is what works best for young men. I learned that at College Notre Dame Du Perpetuel Secours, an all-male Roman Catholic school I attended in my hometown of Cap-Haitien, Haiti.

My wife and I decided to send our offspring to private school. We're both civil servants so it wasn't easy but we got it done. We sent our daughters to Notre Dame Academy, an elite all-female private Catholic school located in Boston. We sent our sons to Boston College High School, the legendary all-male Jesuit institution. I've seen the wonderful work they do teaching young men and I wanted this for my sons. No way I was sending my sons to coeducational public schools. Public schools that are coeducational, and that's most of them, fail young men. The politically correct, touchy-feely atmosphere of these schools absolutely kills the spirit of young men. Most of them feel out of place there. That's why so many of them fail. That's why young women outnumber young men at America's colleges and universities.

Well, putting our sons and daughters in the right environments was the first part. The easy part, actually. The hard part came with them being aware of the fact that they're genetically different from the rest of humanity. I'm not human. Neither is my wife. Yet we live in a human-dominated society. Humans are everywhere we look. There are many nonhumans around but we're only visible to each other. We're masquerading as something we're not to avoid being hounded and persecuted by a human populace which would definitely not welcome us with open arms if they knew we existed. In television shows like Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Supernatural, nonhumans are often shown to be mankind's enemies. As if. Most nonhumans just want to live in peace.

For this and many other reasons, my wife and I taught our sons and daughters to hide their emerging supernatural gifts. Do you know how hard it is to explain to your progeny that if he or she shows off their natural talent in front of the wrong people, it could mean the end of them? Do you know what it's like to constantly look over your shoulder? Yet Janet and I did it. As do our sons and daughters. Welcome to our world. Fortunately, our lives aren't all doom and gloom, folks. Sometimes, we take our brats to the Otherworld. We take them to visit those otherworldly dimensions that psychic humans can sometimes glimpse and human physicists can only theorize about. A place where they can be among their own kind. A realm where they can finally be themselves. Doesn't that beat any field trip their schools might take them on?

I think my wife and I did a good job. Our sons and daughters are educated, smart and capable. And we've done our best to make them happy. I sometimes wish we could have done more. Every parent worthy of the name would like to think that they've done everything in their power to assure the well-being of their son or daughter. I'm finding out that there are limits to what I can do as a parent, even a superhuman one. But that's okay. I'll try anyway. It's almost closing time at the library. I can't wait to go home to my wife. Seriously. We made plans for a soiree at a club owned by our kind. It's by invitation only. Hey, we've got to have our pleasures. The nest is empty. The brats are happy and we've got tons of free time on our hands. We take time to enjoy the simple things, like going marathon dancing. It's what life is all about.