Frank, do you want to schedule more counseling? Nicholas asked in a withering tone. He was just exhausted at this point. Nothing ever went their way in court. Whenever Mulva Fargo asked for attorney's fees she got them. When Nick asked for attorney's fees, he was denied. Several times they had gone to court only to find out that the date and time had changed with no notification to them; but somehow Kat and Fargo knew. Several times, Fargo had shown up alone and said that Kat had an emergency at work. This was all just to delay having to pay Frank and settle the divorce. Kat had no intention of giving Frank anything regardless of what a judge or court decided.
Frank once told us that Kat was so cheap that she refused to go on vacation unless they paid her something in return. She ran bus trips to New York in her spare time through the company she worked for. She would charter a bus, book a restaurant for breakfast and buy tickets for a show. She liked seeing plays in New York, and this way she could go and eat and see a show and earn extra money at the same time. Matt and I went a few times. We saw a few memorable plays and had a good time shopping in the city, but Kat's passive-aggressive personality became too much for us to bear spending that much time with her. If we walked fast, she would walk purposefully slow. If we wanted to go here, she wanted to go there. The final straw was when she told us that her next trip was to see Miss Saigon. We had heard it was a great play and were eager to see it. We paid her for our tickets and she said she would let us know the exact date, but it was either the first or second Saturday in September. The date was approaching and we hadn't heard from Kat or Frank. Matt called and left a message to let us know when the play was. No response. Matt called again, left another message. No response. Matt called every night for the week before we thought the play was. Frank answered the phone once. He said he didn't know when it was, but he would have Kat call us. She never did. Matt and I decided we should go to the bus pickup, just in case it was that day because we didn't want to waste our money. We pulled into the parking lot, and to our disappointment, no one was there. So, I guess it must be the next week. We called Kat again that morning and she finally returned the call that day to tell us, "Oh, I thought I told you it was next Saturday." I said to her, "why didn't you call, we've been calling you all week." She just replied, "Oh really, I didn't get the message." I was so angry at her, I just could not spend the day with her the next week. We gave our tickets to a good friend who had never been to New York. She took her sister and they had a wonderful day and couldn't stop thanking us.
Frank was in a bind. If he had to go to a counselor's office at $125 per session to be able to see Eric and Frances, that's what he would do. The problem was he did not have the money. Frank had been thinking about his brothers and his mother more and more. He missed them and missed having someone to talk to. He made up his mind to reach out to his mom. He had screwed up many times before and she was always there for him. He truly missed her and needed to hear her voice. Frank dialed the phone. He still had her number on his cell even though four years had passed since that day when he told her he didn't consider her his mother any longer.
Frank thought back to that day. "Frank, call your mother and tell her we want nothing to do with her." Kat nagged. Kat had been nagging and Frank, easily influenced by his loud, dominant wife, obliged. He called his mother and told her he no longer considered her his mother and wanted nothing to do with her. Terry was completely blindsided and was devastated by this call. There was no explanation or reason, just angry words that left Terry in tears. Of all the boys, it was always Frank that she was closest to. He needed the most attention and demanded more than his share. After all the boys were in college and their father had passed away, Terry moved to North Carolina. Frank visited there often. I found old pictures of Frank and Terry living it up with friends and neighbors at the little cottage Terry had bought. That's why this had Kat's hand all over it. Frank would never do this to Terry, never; but Kat would; and I think I know why.
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