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or in a sailboat surrounded by beautiful young
women.
"Jean had all the charm. He didn't have to work
at making friends or gaining acquaintances. Women
and men alike just wanted to be around him, to walk
in his shadow, to be favored with his words and
smiles.
"The house was always full of young people
back then. I never knew who would be encamped in
our living room or eating in our dining room or
lounging at our pool."
"How much younger than you was he?" I asked. "Four years. When I graduated from college,
Jean had begun his first year and was a track star in
college already, already elected president of his
college class, and already a popular fraternity man. "It was easy to see why our father doted on him
so and had such big dreams for him," my father said,
and he made a series of turns that took us deeper and
deeper into the busier areas of New Orleans. But I
wasn't as interested in the traffic, the crowds, and the
dozens and dozens of stores as I was in my father's
story.
We paused for a traffic light.
"I wasn't married yet. Daphne and I had really
just begun to date. In the back of his mind, our father was already planning out Jean's marriage to the daughter of one of his business associates. It was to be a wedding made in Heaven. She was an attractive young lady; her father was rich, too. The wedding
ceremony and reception would rival those of royalty." "How did Jean feel about it?" I asked. "Jean? He idolized our father and would do
anything he wanted. Jean thought of it all as
inevitable. You would have liked him a great deal,
loved him, I should say. He was never despondent and
always saw the rainbow at the end of the storm, no
matter what the problem or trouble."
