Page 61 - Too Much and Never Enough - Mary L. Trump

“I don’t need you to tell me what Dad thinks,” said Freddy, who already knew his father’s opinions all too well.
“He says he’s embarrassed by you.”
“I don’t get why you care,” Freddy replied. “You want to work with Dad, go ahead. I’m not interested.”
“Freddy,” he said, “Dad’s right about you: you’re nothing but a glorified bus driver.” Donald may not have understood the origin of their father’s contempt for Freddy and his decision to become a professional pilot, but he had the bully’s unerring instinct for finding the most effective way to undermine an adversary.
Freddy understood that his brothers had been sent to deliver their father’s message in person—or at least Donald had. But hearing Fred’s belittling words come out of his little brother’s mouth broke his spirit.
Linda overheard the exchange and came into the living room from the kitchen in time to see Freddy’s face drained of all color. She slammed the plate she was holding onto the table and screamed at her brother-in-law, “You should just keep your mouth shut, Donald! Do you know how hard he’s had to work? You have no idea what you’re talking about!”
Freddy didn’t speak to either of his brothers for the remainder of that night, and they left for New York the next morning, a day earlier than planned.
Freddy’s drinking worsened.
In July, TWA offered him a promotion. The airline wanted to send him to
their facility in Kansas City to train him on the new 727s it was introducing to the fleet. He declined, even though Linda reminded him that he never would have disregarded an order from one of his superiors in the National Guard. He told management that having signed a yearlong lease for a furnished house in Marblehead only two months earlier, he couldn’t justify uprooting his young family again. In truth, Freddy had begun to suspect that his dream was coming to an end. He was losing hope that his father would accept him as a professional pilot, and without that acceptance he probably couldn’t continue. He had spent his entire life up until he had left Trump Management trying his best to become the person his father wanted him to be. When those attempts had repeatedly ended in failure, he had hoped that in the course of fulfilling his own dream that his father would come to