Page 552 - WhyAsInY

Why (as in yaverbaum)
Sometime soon after the Rothman call, Peter arrived with his own surprise announcement: not only did he wish to sleep over on moving day, he had decided to leave 31 Farragut Road and move in with us— permanently! As flattering and wonderful as this might have seemed, it presented two major problems. First, Peter was very upset about the planned bedroom arrangement, one that had been made without our knowledge of his intentions. This, in turn, created some tension between Kathy and me. The tension was ultimately resolved that day, and the status quo was preserved with the argument (made by a pretty persua- sive advocate) that Daniel and David were being wrenched out of their comfortable environment in Great Neck and compelled to start their lives anew in unfamiliar territory. The unnamed advocate could have also argued that Peter was moving of his own accord and that he would in any event be off to college, all things being equal, in two years, but that person had already won the debate with somewhat more emotion than the other had seen in a very long time.
I too had a concern. And, believe it or not, it was for Phyllis. I just could not believe that having the older of her two resident children move out, and move to his father’s house at that, was anything but a traumatic and painful event for her. It seemed to me that no matter how it would be packaged, she’d be hurt. And telling her that Peter moved out because Tom had moved in—something that Peter says was the case—would be of little consolation. I tried and tried to get Peter to change his mind, but to no avail.
Peter relented about the rooms, moved in, and soon assumed a very important place in this new household. Here he was no longer the younger brother. He could be a big brother to Dan and Dave, and it was a role that he liked and performed well. And they enjoyed having him around as someone to look up to. He also performed a custodial role around the house, a role that he manages to perform to this day, no mat- ter where I’m living. His first job, taken on quite voluntarily, was to organize the phones. We had installed a two-line system to handle the incredible amount of traffic to be generated by three, sometimes four, teenagers, as well as an intercom system that fascinated the kids. Peter
• 534 •