a chance to get to know me. It took a great deal of
courage for you to come to me," he said. The look on
my face confirmed his suspicion. He cleared his throat
and continued.
"It will be hard for me to talk about your
mother when someone else is around, especially
Daphne. I think you understand why."
I nodded.
"I'm sure it's harder for you to understand right
now how it all happened. Sometimes," he said,
smiling to himself, "when I think about it, it does
seem like something I dreamt."
It was as though he were talking in a dream.
His eyes were glazed and far away, his voice smooth,
easy, relaxed.
"I must tell you about my younger brother,
Jean. He was always much different from me, far
more outgoing, energetic, a handsome Don Juan if
there ever was one," he added, breaking into a soft
smile. "I've always been quite shy when it came to
members of the genteel sex.
"Jean was athletic, a track star and a wonderful
sailor. He could make our sailboat slice through the
water on Lake Pontchartrain even if there wasn't
enough breeze to nudge the willows on the bank. "Needless to say, he was my father's favorite,
and my mother always thought of him as her baby.
But I wasn't jealous," he added quickly. "I've always
been more business minded, more comfortable in an
office crunching numbers, talking on the telephone,
and making deals than I have been on a playing field