Some people mistakenly believe because English isn’t Jean Chalopin’s native tongue that he’s missed something during an interchange, that something has gotten past him, that he doesn’t understand something. Trust me when I say Jean misses nothing. Nothing gets past him. He understands everything. He’s razor sharp.

He just takes his time to process things.

After he surrenders on getting his computer working this evening, we move back to the living room and he abruptly says, “You’re not learning as fast as you would like?”

“About being an assistant story editor? No, I’m not.”

Jean asks, “What is the problem?”

I tell him, “I don’t think the position is real.”

He smiles, then asks, “You have the Care Bears series bible, scripts to read?”

“The series bible only because I asked for it.”

He’s silent for a moment, then says, “Something else. You want to be writing?”

I nod.

Jean says, “Write some story springboards and have Lori get them to me. We’ll assign you an episode.”

I catch my breath, not knowing I was allowed to write episodes if I was on staff.

Seeing my reaction, Jean asks “Sandy didn’t tell you that you could write episodes?”

I shook my head.

Jean was looking to the sliding doors to his balcony. All he said was “Mmmm…”

It struck me that he wanted me to deliver the story springboards to Lori rather than Sandy. I may not have heard the whisper of the ax, but I was pretty sure I heard the guillotine’s blade ratcheting as it was hoisted skyward.