With a busy job as a veterinarian, a four-year-old daughter, a husband in the accounting business and of course numerous dilemmas of my own, you would never think a woman like me had time to deal with the problems of others.

But it’s something I have always had a talent for, ever since college in which I took more credit hours than anyone I knew... finding time.

“Josaine, final exams are in two weeks, you’re making straight perfect marks, working on your dissertation, and planning your wedding... how on earth do you find time to work at the shelter?” my best friend would often ask me questions such as this. “How are you still sane?”

I always would retaliate that he’d left out a task-- taking care of him. A task, which, to perform well, I must be ever vigilant for. Because whenever I turn my back Jean-Jacques manages to get himself hurt or somehow in trouble... with the law, with God, or on many an occasion his assistant’s roommate. In many ways, I feel grateful to him, because by the time I had my own child I’d had enough disciplinary practice to know a little more about what I was doing than most first-time mothers.

We met in college and he’s been nothing but trouble for me. Well, I exaggerate... not always, but all too often for my liking, as a very orderly sort. I suppose I would like to think that if I leave him to his own devices, he can take care of himself just fine, yet, when I sent him to Antwerp after medical school to recruit employees for our new clinic...

Less than a week. Less than a week! And he was already in trouble.

He called me up one evening, as I had just gotten back to my Paris apartment, talking like a heartsick poet and spilling such lines that could have only come from reading too much Lord Byron and Shakespeare.

My twenty-four-year-old friend had fallen in love with a fourteen-year-old boy.

When he decides on something absurd or rash like this, there’s really no stopping him. There’s really no shutting him up either, but I attempted, trying to make it as clear as possible that if he did anything unsuitable, not only I would be after him, but all of heaven and earth as well. Now it was on my priority list to find time to look after Jean-Jacques and this poor boy he was staring at and make sure nothing happened.

My opinion, however, changed the day I met this boy.

He was a loner... to say the least. Watched the floor as he stood among the other potential recruits and I gave my speech. He sat in the back, distant, quiet. Scared. But when Jean-Jacques talked to him, it seemed like the curtains had been drawn aside. He suddenly became cheerful and friendly, and when I was introduced to him by my friend he was far less timid than I expect he would have been if Jean-Jacques were not there.

It was then I recalled the words from the phone conversation that night...

“I know fate when I see it, my friend.”

---

Nine years have passed since then and I have to really give Jean-Jacques some credit. He has managed, this entire time, to completely hold himself off from his youthful now-assistant, even though for the past five years I have silently wondered why. As soon as Alden turned eighteen I gave my friend the simple words: “now is your chance”. And now, this boy had grown up before my eyes, twenty-three now and still alone, save a foreigner roommate he kept around for charitable causes as well as his own loneliness.

When I realized neither Jean-Jacques nor Alden were going to change things on their own, I had a little meet with the other three assistants and our receptionist at an outdoor café, and there, our plot formed. It would seem to me that God didn’t exactly like our plot, so He came up with one of His own design and put it into play long before we mortals had even set up our traps. Effective indeed, but...

Something was terribly amiss.

“Josaine, my old friend...”

Don’t talk to me like that. Don’t use those terms that mean something is wrong. How could something be wrong... you have everything you ever wanted...

“May I confide in you?”

Don’t you?

---

“He left? Just like that?” My coffee had gotten cold, neglected during his story. It couldn’t be.

Jean-Jacques slowly nodded, rubbing at his eyes to clear the moisture that gathered though he fought it so. “And now I don’t know if I did something wrong, or said something, or if he’s alright... or anything. He won’t even talk to me, Josaine... not for long anyway, he’s been intentionally hiding from me, not returning calls...”

I shook my head in disbelief. “This doesn’t sound like Alden. Not at all...” Pitying my emotional friend, I reached out to touch my hand lightly to his in a reassuring gesture. “I’m sure it wasn’t something you did. Maybe he just got scared, that’s all... perhaps he was just a little overwhelmed by what went on. Socially phobic people can only handle a certain amount of human contact at a time, it may have just overloaded him.”

“Then it is my fault.” The brunette let his head sink down to rest against his arms on the table. “I didn’t think I could be so cruel! Alas... I am merely a careless runner trampling on the delicate flowers...”

Having tried all methods of sympathy, it was time to buckle down a little bit.

“Cut that out, Jean-Jacques. It’s embarrassing. Come now. Sit up, be a man.”

Oh no. Don’t give me that look. Curses, he knows I always fall for that ‘lost-puppy’ look he gives me when I get harsh. I try to turn away, but he persists, piteous sapphire eyes full of injury staring right into my own.

“Alright, alright,” I conceded. “I’m sorry. But here... just lay low for now, don’t let Alden know you’re upset or he’ll feel guilty and whatever’s wrong with him will go unnoticed and untreated. I’ll talk to him next time I get a chance and see what he might tell me.”

---

A couple of days later, Alden had returned to his usual jubilant state, much to Jean-Jacques’ obvious relief, but not my own. It had been an almost violent switch of moods that had occurred over the two-hour lunch break, in the morning he had been unnervingly quiet, troubled and reclusive, but he came back with an entire box of Tibetan candies in tow, the normal bright smile and getting along with everyone wonderfully. He even apologized to Jean-Jacques and invited him over for the evening.

I couldn’t have been the only person this bothered somehow! But yet, I was. But all I could do at the moment was watch, wonder, and make a note to have a serious talk with Alden the next day.