Sometimes, life can certainly surprise you. I have a story to tell you folks that revolves around some of life's surprises, both good and bad. My name is Stephen and I'm a big Black dude. Standing six feet two inches tall and weighing two hundred and fifty pounds. I'm not usually lucky. In fact, I tend to be one of the unluckiest people around. A while ago, my luck changed and I began to lead a life like no other. These days, I have power and purpose. I am also leading the kind of life that many people dream of and I make a difference in this world...as well as in other worlds.
It wasn't always that way, though. I was born into a bad family. My father Francis was a womanizer and he was almost never around. He left when I was around ten. I don't blame him for leaving. Our house was hell, thanks to the she-devil who ran it. I just wish he would have taken me with him. Unfortunately, he didn't. My mother Elise was an angry woman who drank and smoked too much. She would often take out her frustrations on me. She'd beat me with every damn thing she could put her hands on. As for my sister Larissa, she was a complete psycho too. Like my mother, she was a freak with violent tendencies. I left the house as soon as I turned eighteen. I had always been a decent student in high school, earning mostly B's and some A's. I won myself a scholarship to the University of Massachusetts.
I went to live in the dorms at Amherst. For the first time in my life, things were starting to look up. I was determined to succeed in life. I had left my mother and sister behind in Dorchester and I wasn't ever returning. I hated that place and everything in it. Amherst was a nice place. A lot nicer than the neighborhood where I grew up. I thought that my luck was finally turning around. I was going to graduate from college and get myself a wonderful job that I loved. I was going to get myself some money and do some traveling. I wasn't interested in any romantic relationship of any kind. The last thing I wanted was to wind up in a relationship with a wicked woman like my mother or my sister. No thank you. Two psychos were enough for any man. I didn't need any more drama. Flying solo sounded good to me.
At Amherst, I met this guy named Paul. He was a tall, good-looking Black guy. He was a senior, studying Business Administration. We had a lot in common. Paul told me that he came from a tough neighborhood and a tough place, like me. He was really popular with the ladies on campus. I envied him. He was handsome, smart and popular. He was also incredibly bright, having made Dean's List many times while attending Amherst. He wasn't just the kind of guy I wanted to be friends with. He was the kind of guy I wanted to be, period. We became fast friends.
Paul took me to the kind of places I never would have gotten into on my own. He knew all the important people on campus. He was good friends with the dean, a nice old white guy. He was also tight with some of the hottest girls at school. Paul always had good grades. He lived in a nice apartment off-campus and drove a fancy car. A Mercedes, if you can believe that. I didn't know many college kids who drove those kind of cars. I often marveled at Paul's luck. He simply smiled when I asked him. I asked him often. One day, he told me the truth.
Paul told me that he was Haitian. I wasn't very surprised by that. I knew many Haitian people growing up. So many of the kids I knew in Dorchester were Haitians. Paul told me the truth that day after I pestered him with questions about his extraordinary luck with everything that he tried. He told me that he was half human and half god. His father was Agwe Tawoyo, Haitian god of the Sea. I was very surprised by that. The dude looked serious when he told me that. Of course, I was still skeptical. I thought that my good friend maybe had a little too much to drink.
That's when he decided to show me his powers. And he did have powers. He simply stood up and looked at me. The next thing I knew, I was floating in the air, five feet above the floor. I couldn't believe it. Paul gently put me down. I was amazed by my friend's telekinetic powers. I was not freaked out, though I knew I should be. In my life, most people, both men and women, treated me like shit. Paul didn't. He treated me like a decent human being. I knew there had to be something special about him. He wasn't the average human being. After he put me down, I smiled and shook his hand. I asked him what else he could do. He showed me.
Paul had inherited his powers from his father, the Haitian Sea god. He could do many things. He could dive to the bottom of the ocean and lie there, without drowning. He could breathe under water. He told me that he had won a scholarship to Amherst for swimming. He was one of the best swimmers in the world. Along with being amphibious, Paul also had telekinetic powers and he healed rapidly from any injury that he sustained. He was after all, more than human. He was a demigod. I asked him if there were others like him out there. He told me that the gods and goddesses of his native island of Haiti were a promiscuous bunch and that they often had children with mortals. I wasn't surprised.
Paul told me much about the gods of Haiti. He told me that his father had introduced him to most of them. Although the official religion of the island of Haiti was Catholicism, Paul told me that many still worshiped the gods of Voodoo. First among the Haitian gods was Papa Legba Atibon, the Master of them all. He was the Speaker of the Languages of Man and also the Speaker of the Language of Spirits. He was also the Keeper of the Gate to the other worlds. Next came Marasa Dosu and Dosa, the twin gods. Danbala Wedo was the gigantic Snake god and the oldest of all living things. He was feared by many.
Next in power came Ezili Freda, who was the Mother of the Haitian Gods. She was said to own all people, and also to be very jealous. Agwe Tawoyo, god of the Sea was Paul's father. He was a very promiscuous guy who had affairs with mortal women and goddesses. Children sometimes resulted from these affairs. In the case of his affairs with mortal women, the children issuing from those unions were demigods like Paul. Beings that were half human and half divine. Gran Bwa Ile was the god of the Wilderness and the Beast Master. Ezili Dantor, a Haitian goddess represented as a strong Black single mother. She was supposedly bisexual, having affairs with both women and men. Known to be nurturing and protective but also very dangerous, even to her own children. Ti Jan Petwo is a handsome young fledgling god who was also one of Ezili Dantor's lovers. The Gedeh were the Haitian gods of Death. The Bawons were the Divine Guardians and Protectors of the Dead and the Grave. Ogou Feray was the Haitian god of War, particularly popular with the men and young boys.
I was amazed at what Paul was telling me. I felt like I had just been revealed the secret of Superman or something. I liked Paul and he was the only person I trusted but I was surprised that he was telling me all this. He laughed and told me the obvious. If I went around telling people that my buddy had magical powers, no one would believe me. I'd get locked up in a mental institution if I pressed the matter too far. It would be like talking about UFOs.
After these revelations, Paul and I got even closer together. I was discovering more and more things about him. Man, I really envied having those magical powers of his. The dude never got sick. He always had a pretty girl on his arm. He was simply irresistible to women, which was probably part of his magical power. He surprised me by telling me that his talent with the ladies wasn't magical but completely personal and natural. It wasn't something he did, it's simply who he was. His charm and magnetic personality simply worked great for him no matter what he was doing.
One day, I pointed out a young woman to Paul. This was the girl of my dreams. Monica. A very beautiful African American girl. She was around five-foot-eight, slender, with dark brown skin and long black hair. Her eyes were a pale brown. She had a perfect bubble butt. She was simply beautiful. The girl simply looked perfect. Man, it's like she had a glow or something. I'm not even going to lie. Usually, females who looked like that didn't even look at me twice. I wasn't bad-looking or anything. I was cute, or so I'd been told. I dressed nicely, kept myself clean and shaved. I was also very polite and friendly with just about any girl I talked to. Unfortunately, I always wound up in the Friend Zone. The Friend Zone is where you don't get any play. Man, I was envious of all those player-type guys I saw around campus. Always with a beautiful female on their arm. I asked my buddy Paul to hook me up.
When I went looking for Paul, he was busy with someone. That someone was Becky. Becky was a tall, brown-haired Irish girl from school. I had a Psychology class with her. She was rather good-looking. I'd seen Paul checking her out before and I knew that it was only a matter of time before they hooked up. Whatever Paul wanted, he got. That's just the way things were. Paul saw me, excused himself and came to me. He asked me if he could borrow my dorm for a couple of hours. I smiled. I knew what he had in mind. Naturally, I agreed. I'd help him out with Becky's pants and he'd help me out with Monica. It was simple. A favor for a favor. Or so I thought.
