Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2019 16:19:56 +0000
From: Simon Mohr
Subject: This One Might Be Different: Different-Chapter 12

This story is a work of complete fiction. Any resemblance of characters to
real persons and reality is a coincidence. This story eventually includes
descriptions of sex between adult males. If you are a minor, if this
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This One Might be Different: Different-Chapter 12

        John and Jayden, on their ascending arc toward their life and work
destinations, were each now close to achieving long sought ambitions. Being
together, being able to pay their bills, having some power and influence,
having security, possessing health and laughter at times... and now family.

        Jayden's brother, Malik, the one who struggled, had every chance of
losing some of the substance abuse problem he had struggled with.

        Malik knew that he would be unable to use again, not even once, or
his brain would resume the active portion of addiction. Malik knew it cold.

        He'd spent a good deal of time in prison working out his path in
AA, his mentor a lifesaver. Malik's one wish now was to mentor another one
day and had found a new group in Manhattan where he continued the struggle.

        André was slated to become a co-beneficiary as Joseph had
applied to the state of Pennsylvania for the Trust change.

        When security called Joseph one morning, he had listened to their
report and told his secretary to hold all appointments including the Mayor
for he had a personal emergency with which to deal. Joseph's secretary
correctly assumed that meant to hold all calls as well.

        Joseph was very accustomed to getting his own way on multiple
levels. For the first time in a long while he considered how it might feel
to be at the very bottom of a stack, to feel powerless. He wondered if his
present frame of mind was some kind of universal part of the
'powerlessness' that the very poor come to recognize as their 'normal'.

        He had been clothed, housed, jetted, fed, cossetted all his
life. He had never had to act 'spoiled' however since no one threatened to
take anything from him.  He didn't know 'want' as anything different from
'desire'. He now knew a little of the word as it related to 'loss' and
'need'. He knew a part of that now.

        What he wanted very much was that the security report to be
untrue. He wanted to go back to yesterday. He had just learned that
André's recent days of unrelenting severe fatigue, which he had
complained about for a couple of weeks to John and Jayden, had resulted in
a visit to Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan.

        The attending internist had examined André and ordered lab
tests. The results were abnormal: the internist had diagnosed acute
myelogenous leukemia.

        The prognosis for AML at the time was pretty dismal; the newer
drugs that cure the disease in many cases were not yet available. During
the next few days, André's typical fortitude, grace, and good humor did
not desert him.

        He had spoken to John and Jayden, informed them of the problem,
thanked them for being themselves, refused the co-beneficiary position,
left a note for Joseph and had flown first-class back to Paris. He would be
buried, he said, in his beloved France, his familiar and dear country.

        He had been duly informed of all available treatments and their
side effects, he said, and chose as a free son of France to have none of
them.

        He told John and Jayden that he wanted to die as he had lived... in
the moment, in a Benedictine hospice near Lyon.

        The grief and shock nearly derailed events for John and
Jayden. Joseph delayed the onset of their new duties for six months.

        They began their co-beneficiary status, prepared in most ways for
the work, knowing that they could consult Joseph any time. He became their
institutional memory from his decades of successful work at the Schuyler
Trust.

        John and Jayden kept their digs in the Place des Vosges. There were
cafes close where they could sit for a while and have a digestif, places to
sit nearby in sunshine, a wonderful antique musical instrument store just
off the Place toward the Seine and art galleries around under the covered
outer walks. They grieved for André in that iconic spot. They hoped
André would have approved.

        They worked primarily there for a year, then moved to New York to
fully take up the reigns as the richest men on the planet. They used the
time to become even more familiar with and at, the Louvre. They became
familiar figures around the curator's offices and at administration as
well.

        They did not find, or try to find, a replacement for André. They
were, however, young and their life wasn't over. As André had once told
them, "life has its ups and downs...all else equal, I like the ups better."

        It might have made a suitable epitaph for such a remarkable man.