When you know your brother, you know – so, Jean-Paul Philippe Dubois got up from what he was doing and ran to his brother Jules, who was near to passing out on the phone call he was having.
One couldn't tell why from the other end of the conversation, though.
“You're my hero, man – I'm in therapy now and back in church at least online, and everyone is safe, including me. I just needed to call and let you know – thank you for everything, Mr. Dubois!”
Jules Dubois was a strong man of 45, but he knew that he never classed as hero stuff. He was a registered financial advisor, but on one hand he was from Black French Louisiana and had passed as Black French to even get along in the world of high finance in New York, and on the other hand, big finance men were generally thought of as narcissistic jerks who would sell out their mother for a piece of money.
Add to that, Jules had fulfilled the stereotype, attempting to con his mom out of some resources for a scheme he was planning.
All of that had been forgiven, and if his family had not forgotten, it was daily acting like it … but, then, Jean-Luc had come home to help his family, and the eldest brother was the kind of warrior monk that movies and serial stories were made of – combined 30 brilliant years of JAG and then Interpol as a man of law – chaste into mature years, the gentleman bachelor who “tall, dark, and handsome” fantasies were made of, and who could easily get a woman from anywhere in the world that he wanted at any time.
Next to all that, no one was calling Jules Dubois to be a hero … and yet, “Whom God calls, is sent,” his father had always said, and as he pulled himself together to tell his elder brother the story, he understood what his father meant.
“So, it was back in December 2019, just a little before Covid took over our lives, when I met this Army guy – Capt. Flippens, as it happens, and he was flipping out in the middle of Times Square. I mean, he wasn't screaming or anything, but you could see he was about to go. I felt that I should help him, because we're an Army-supporting family because of you, Jean-Luc, so I went over to see if I could give him a hand.
“Capt. Flippens gave me that 'God, you couldn't find me anything but a n-----?' look, but then said, “Well, what the heck – maybe with all this wokeness when you tell the story people will listen!”
“It was quite a story, Jean-Luc – he had served faithfully for 26 years and needed to retire because his daughter had cancer, but he had just looked at the investments that were going to fill the gap and realized: with taxes coming up in April, it wasn't going to be anywhere near enough for her treatments.
“He started flipping out about how men like him were being left out of the gains of the country no matter what they did and that no one was paying attention and they weren't going to take it and things were going to be done – I actually was in danger, but I was thinking about his numbers and how to solve the problem, and it hit me with a beam of light coming around a skyscraper.
“So, what month did you buy those ten assets?”
“January!”
“Okay. Sell them on February 1, 2020 or later. The first thing is, taxes won't be due then until April 2021. The second thing is, short-term capital gains are taxed like regular income, so, yes, you're going to lose a lot of profit in taxes if you sell them this month. But, if you wait, even if you bought them on January 31, you just have to hold them one year and one day to make the short-term capital gains taxes into long-term capital gains taxes. Long-term capital gains are not taxed at all on the first $40,000 or so, and then the tax rates are much lower on the rest of the way up.”
“What?”
“So, we sat down and I showed him how it all worked, and he had another fit about how this country could let people get to 48 years of age and the schools don't ever teach it and so people stay poor – but then it hit him.”
“Wait – you mean I can do this?”
“Yes, sir, you can. Let's redo the math.”
“We did, and there it was: the money he needed for his daughter magically appeared – he would have a hard time paying until then, but he said that this way, his daughter would be out of treatment and he could find the money to pay what little extra taxes there would be by April 2021. I gave him all our pencil work and my card, and I could tell as he walked away that hope had come back into his mind.”
Jules Dubois took a deep breath, and leaned into his brother.
“Capt. Flippens just called me. He did what I advised and sold on February 1, and then paid for all his daughter's treatments. He has more than enough left over to pay his taxes next year, too!
“It's September. The captain's daughter is in remission, and recovering well. The family is doing well. He's in therapy for his PTSD, and walking with the Lord again. He told me … he told me that he was just about to lose it and shoot up Manhattan when the Lord sent me to him – even though both of us were backsliding then, he knew it was the Lord reaching out to him through me, and so saving him, his family, me, my family, and all the families in Manhattan who he would have destroyed that day.”
The younger Dubois brother was trembling hard, and the elder Dubois brother clung more fiercely to him as the tears came from both their eyes.
“La vérité est vraie – the truth is true, like our father always taught us,” Jean-Luc said. “ 'Whom God calls, is sent – que Dieu appelle, est envoyé. No matter how we wander of course, the Bible says the gift and calling of God are without repentance. We are His sons, and so is Capt. Flippens – the world may not see any of us as heroes, and we certainly will have days on which we are anything but heroic, but that does not make God give up on His own purpose and also us. Que Dieu appelle, est envoyé.”
“Now, Jean-Paul, I understand … I understand.”
Another big portion of the healing of Jules Dubois was now complete.