suis ici pour obtenir Rochelle!” There was nothing. Not even the maid had shown up to work yet.
“Maman?” nothing. Maybe she was taking a nap. He sat down in the living room and turned on the television, watching some silly daytime game shows. Upstairs, the song restarted on the record player.
Wait... Maman never listens to her records while she takes her mid-day nap. And she would have changed records... Julian felt tension in his stomach and chest, and stood up to investigate. He walked slowly upstairs. The door to his mother’s bedroom was left cracked open, just open enough that he could barely see the side of his mother’s armoire. The only light he could see was from the window. Julian crept to the door and knocked slowly “Maman?”
There was no sound from the room, and the music restarted again. Julian opened the door carefully, and saw that the canopy bed drapes were drawn. Stepping slowly to the bed, he drew back the curtain and found her. The song continued playing on his mother’s old Victrola player:
One of sixteen vestal virgins
Who were leaving for the coast
And although my eyes were open
They might just as well've been closed...
The scene was horrific. Yvette Bazin lay sprawled on her bed. Someone tied her wrists to the bedposts with small bronze chains, deep red welts marked her once flawless porcelain wrists. Her hair, ordinarily coiffed to fine detail, was pulled, tangled and knotted resembling a wad of red pine needles. Yvette’s perfect, unblemished face was swollen, purple, and bloodied, a golden delicious apple shoved into her open mouth.
Around her throat was tied a single, black fishnet stocking.
After mom’s murder, all our family laundry was dragged out into the open: Larry’s systematic abuse of our mother, the multiple domestic disputes, her affairs, his affairs, how he snuck home at lunch to strangle her. He had no alibi, and the jury took almost no time to send him to jail for the rest of his life. The news media even attempted to dig up the real identities of Rochelle’s father (and my own). There were rumors that Rochelle was the daughter of mom’s longtime lover, but the football coach had not yet met Mom when she was born.
I was left to raise my sister while her ‘dad’ rotted in jail. After the court fury died down, and the inheritance was settled, I legally changed my last name, and my sister’s, to protect us. We became the Kings.
Julian King established his family therapy practice in New Orleans, Louisiana five years after his mother’s passing. He spent several years running his successful practice, helping his patients reconnect with their spouses, helping children of divorce, even helping patients learn to move on from the loss of loved ones. He was as good of a councilor as he had been a wingman. In fact, he’d come to feel more fulfilled when he helped people meet their ‘soul mates’ than when he found love for himself.
This morning he met with a patient. She was socially awkward, introverted, and lonely. Patient confidentiality prevented him from saying anything, but Julian knew, with that same sense that he had as a ‘wingman’ that she would be a perfect fit for another patient: they read the same books, liked the same movies, and their personalities were quite complimentary.
However, he knew that if he ‘set them up’ the two would run screaming away from one another. He could see it now, the two telling their children ‘we shared the same therapist.’ No, if these two were going to get together, he needed a way to get them to meet.
“So, I started chatting with people online,” the patient said, quietly.
“Online?” Julian asked. He had some limited use of the computers, but he was amazed his painfully shy patient was talking with anyone. A buzz of an idea began to form in his mind.
“Yes, online. It’s easier to talk to people when I can’t see their faces. The computer screen is like a shield between me and pain.”
The next day, Julian visited his library and picked up several books on computer coding, internet design, and then purchased a computer. Before the week was over, he’d had the beginnings of what became his cash cow: venusmatchmaker.com. It was one of the first internet dating sites, and he used it to help connect his highly introverted patients with one another.
Six months after designing the site, his two patients came to him, individually, quitting his practice. Because they’d found their one: each other, on the site he recommended.
It was the most soul-affirming motive of my life. I honestly feel like I was born to bring people together. I see mother in my dreams sometimes, when I’ve brought a couple together, smiling at me with pride. That first couple? They’ll be celebrating their tenth anniversary next year, have four beautiful children, and both husband and wife have really come out of their shells.
Julian looked at the woman on the screen as she had a tear running down her left cheek. Her fierce grey eyes melted, into a hint of sadness. She was rubbing the base of her skull, gently. “And, well... that’s it. I started as a family therapist because of what Mom went through with Larry, and the website because of my desire to help people. ”
“Did you ever find your perfect match?”
“Yes, I am married.” He looked at her oddly. Didn’t this reporter do her research about him first? “My wife Rebecca and I have two boys and a girl. Rochelle claims she will never get married because marriage is what ‘killed our mom.’ She’s an editor over at Teen Scene. She... she has different ideas about love and romance.”
The young woman nodded. “One more question, then I promise, this interview is done.” the young woman said to him, with half a smile, “Does your sister know that your mother was Aphrodite?”
I would like to note that I after I talked to Julian, I consulted with Hermes who claims that he is not the father of that particular demigod. Miles’ exact words were claims, “Oh, Alonzo, yes, I did date her for a while, but... Harry would’ve killed me permanent if I fooled around with Venus before he had the chance. I steal a lot of stuff, but I learned three lifetimes ago... don’t steal Ares’ woman.”
In her journal, Aphrodite feigns ignorance of her son’s father. This is something I believe to be a complete fabrication on her part. In Yvette’s lifetime, she had several lovers, but only two men special enough to have children with. And those men were not mentioned by names.
The choice of a child’s other parent, especially when one of the parents is divine, is a crucial thing, especially when your powers revolve around love and sex.
It is my belief that Aphrodite just wanted to keep some information to herself. Maybe her children’s fathers were important people, or maybe they were just regular Joes who crossed her path. That is a mystery known only to Aphrodite, who probably never even told the real fathers they’d sired her kids.
For what it’s worth, I did interview Rochelle as well. Sadly, she had very little memory of her mother, and did not want to talk about Lawrence Barnett, the man she believes is her father.
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