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Chapter 4 – Philadelphia – Day 3
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Bette: Isn’t that where Barbara teaches – Thomas Star King Middle School?
Tina: Now that you mention it, yes. She teaches English and literature there for 7th and 8th grades.
Bette: The world keeps getting smaller, doesn’t it? Well, I’m still going to offer to have a driver take Daniel and John David to and from school so that she has a little more freedom in her schedule. That is provided they go to the same school. But if King Middle School is a math and science school, well then, the likelihood that John David will go somewhere else is not very high.
Tina: You do realize that Daniel is now on a path to graduate from high school three months after he turns 16, right? He will still be 16 when he starts college. And if he does like Angie and gets advanced placement classes, he will barely be 20 years old when he gets his undergraduate degree. He may be only 19 when he finishes is undergraduate degree. If he just goes for one major, he could finish in December rather than in May as the usual student does and that would mean he would be 19 years old.
Bette: Wow, do we have a Doggy Houser for a child?
Tina: It’s possible. Not quite that young. But if he did go into medicine, he would be a good two years younger than most in his class. That’s not a big deal when your 30 or 32 years old. But it’s a big deal at 20 and 21. He would literally be finishing his undergraduate education before he could legally buy alcohol.
Bette: And that worries you?
Tina: Not really. At least not at the moment. He is physically the same size as his classmates. He intellectually is on the same level if not ahead of them. Emotionally? Well, looks like he will be going through puberty a little early but that will put him right on par with his class mates. But I think this is just something we are going to have to watch. Boys are so much different than girls. They are far more likely to repress their feelings and that is what generally causes problems.
Bette: Well, we have to make sure we teach Daniel to communicate his feelings and what is appropriate and what is not appropriate expression of feelings. I don’t want my son dragging some kid behind the school to beat his ass because he was insulted. He can be angry and hurt and even embarrassed but physical violence is not an appropriate expression of those feelings. But I do not want him to stew with anger inside of him either so that he becomes obsessed with it. I want him to be able to express his anger in an appropriate manner which gets it out but does no harm to anyone including himself. And that is yours and my job. That is the most important role I think we have. It’s how to deal with other people in the full gamut of how humans come; the good, the bad and the ugly.
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Hi Martha, what an amazing trip to Philadelphia. There was so much information regarding Melvin and what they learnt if him and his life. Poor Bette, I think it’s going to be pretty difficult to explain this all to Mary and her sister as it has obviously hit her hearing all this. Tina is such a tower of strength to her, I love how they are so besotted with each other and hold each other up! I love hearing about their plans for Angie and Daniel, they are so attentive to their children and want only the best for them. The way they talk through everything with them making sure they understand .
Finally the love they have for each other, is incredibly. They way they do everything for each other, they just want to be together, all the time. Enjoying being out shopping, visiting museums, enjoying meals or just cuddling up on the sofa. They are, as you said, the other half of each other !
Loving this so much, will continue on….o hope you are also continuing on, with this story….
Take care and Thankyou, for this amazing piece of writing!
Thanks… I have always thought that the relationship between Bette and her father was the most important relationship of her life prior to Tina. I could see that she struggled to love and admire the man who always seemed to believe she never quite measured up to his standards. But in my mind, I always knew that Melvin loved his children with all of his heart. He just didn’t have the ability to show this to them. His thought was to just leave them all his worldly possessions and they would know. But the truth is that until Bette talked to Gabriel Scott and to Harriett Myers, she would never know how much Melvin loved Bette, Kit, Mary, Paris and even Tina.
When Tina points out that if Melvin had told Bette on his death bed that Mary was alive and that she had another sister, Bette would be in shock. But if he told her that he had known for 15 years or more, Bette might have taken a pillow and smothered him on the spot. The truth was there was never going to be an ideal time to tell Bette or Kit about Mary Southerland. And Bette knows this deep in her heart. She also knows that all of this is a part of the past. A past which is done and dusted. And all the what ifs and if onlys are a waste of energy. Melvin and his relationship with Bette, Kit and Tina is what it was and had its impact on their lives. For Bette and for Tina, it explains so much. It explains why Tina is a part of his will. It explains why the final distribution was 18 years after his death. It explains how he found out about Mary Southerland and her daughter Paris. It explains how Paris was educated in England during her teen years and college years. And it gives another dimension to the personality of Melvin William Porter.
Bette is going to explain most of this to Kit, Paris and Mary in a future chapter. And in their own way, they will reconcile the Melvin they knew to the Melvin to the man they found in Philadelphia.
This for me is the most emotional chapter I have ever written… deep in my soul, I feel the loss Bette feels for the relationship she never had with her father and that is more painful than the fact that she had all those years of loss in not knowing her mother and sister. The reason is because Mary and Paris are still around and there is opportunity to have a good relationship with them. But Melvin is gone and there is no opportunity to mend that relationship with him. Such as life. But as Bette Porter and Tina Kennard always do – they learn from the mistakes including the mistakes of others around them. They have learned a lot from Melvin and much of it is what not to do in life.
Thank you for reading this and commenting…. it is rather gratifying to see that someone sees this story as a gratifying piece of entertainment. There are several more chapters to this Volume and it will continue.