Korê in New York

What happens when a kid refuses to leave the past behind? What happens when the past won't go away? Read on and don't worry about the emotional damage.

1. RoAnn’s Verdict and All of our Verdict

   Dad was getting supper readywhen I got home. “Come eat, Kore,” he greeted me. We had lentil stew and home made potato salad and red cabbage from a can.

   “RoAnn is taking Ivanna out for ice cream tonight!” Nervy told me. “All day long Ivanna sat at her daddy’s table in the courtromm, but then RoAnn walked over. The judge asked what she was doing. She told the judge she wanted to invite her daughter out for icecream. Isn’t that great?”

   It sounded one hundred percent like RoAnn. It also brought a lump to my throat, but then I recovered my reason. “How did you find out about all this?” I asked my little sister.

   “I read her the email,” answered Dad. “Here, I put it on the fridge door.”

   An email on the fridge door could not be all bad. I started reading.

   Dear family,

   Today has been tumultuous to say the least, but I am still going to take my daughter, Ivanna, out for Purity Ice Cream. Kore, I don’t know if you remember how we all went out to eat Purity the weekend Sammy and I got married. It is very wrong for Ivanna and me to miss this opportunity.

   After our legal side presented its evidence that was mostly papers, ECBAS put Anthony on the stand and questioned him. Then the Young Achiever’s attornies got to cross examine him. It was rather pleasant to watch.

   Then th judge insisted on taking Ivanna in chambers. I did not expect this, but it is usually part of these sorts of proceedings with an older child, and Ivanna is nearly eleven.

   Ivanna spent way too long in Judge Gershbein’s chambers. When he came out he asked to put ME on the stand. He showed me a transcript of what my daughter had said. Ivanna did not lie. She did not have to lie. The judge then said he was showing the transcript to Anthony’s legal team.

   I found myself on the stand. I admitted to locking Ivanna in the apartment for three weeks though I did say she was let out to go to school and to shop and had full computer access which she often refused to use. I said I regretted it but had no choice.

   Then my attornies got out the rest of the story. They switched effortlessly to a strategy we had jokingly called Plan B. No, it is  not a contraceptive. Instead, we presented the paper trail and depoisitions that provide evidence of Anthony’s failed and successful spousal kidnapping of Ivanna.

   The judge then asked our attornies if they wanted to put Anthony on the stand. Anthony refused to testify. The judge told him that this was NOT a criminal proceeding. Then my legal team said they preferred to examine Ivanna before they examined Anthony.

   Ivanna gasped. One of my lawyers told her that she would not be testifying against her father. “All we want is a few facts.”

   “I’ll stop the proceedings if they get to harsh,” the judge reassured my daughter who was none too reassured. She was brave though.

   The judge mainly went over the details of both the failed kidnap attempt which got as far as Republic Airport and the successful one in which Ivanna flew out of New Paltz.

   Then it was Anthony’s term. The legal team asked about picking up his daughter at Ashville airport and how he had arranged a private plane from Republic and again from New Paltz. He said that friends he preferred not to name had paid for the flights. The lawyers asked how he had arranged for the town cars that picked up Ivanna both times. He said he had paid for them.

   At this point, the judge called a recess which is why I am back in my motel room. I have to drive up to the Statler and get Ivanna. We are still going out for ice cream. Anthony is welcome to come with us if he doesn’t trust me. I could after all, just keep going back to New York with Ivanna as a passenger. I am not going to do that though.

   I hated seeing the whole mess aired in court. I felt embarassed describing how Dr. Angelus talked me into taking the locks off the doors. I felt embarassed speaking about my own desparation.

   I am also puzzled. My legal team’s original plan was not to discuss the spousal kidnappings, NOT because I had locked Ivanna in the apartment after the first failed attempt, but because I still felt that Anthony and I could better work out the best arrangements for Ivanna without a judge getting involved. Now that chance is gone. Mre puzzling, the head of my legal team, said that Anthony had far more to lose by attacking me for locking in Ivanna than I did due to the two spousal idnappings. Now of course the whole mess is out in court. Anthony’s, Ivanna’s, and my own fate are in the hands of judge Gershbein who will have a decision for us at 2pm.

   I hope I have a pleasant evening eating ice cream with my daughter. I wish all of you were here with us in Ithaca.

   Love
   RoAnn Testa

   I thought of the mural of the asshole on the sidewalk in front of Houghton. I wondered if Youth Voices would be covering “RoAnn’s Trial.” I wondered if any one had bribed judge Anthony.

   I don’t have to tell you I could not sleep Monday night. I read until my eyes ached. I did math problems. I even took a practice biology Regents and scored badly. When I gave up studying, I listened to hymns ripped from my practice CD so I could learn to sing the Hebrew songs at services. Around 4:30am, I got up and put on tea. I took a shower and got dressed and woke Nervy Worm. She is still my favorite Nervy Worm. She needed her made to order breakfast and her escort to Houghton.

   Oddly enough, I had no fears about dropping off my little sister. I was even surprised that there were news photographers, bloggers, Tumblrs, and the curious gathered in a crowd around the sidewalk mural. The crowd gasped and laughed. “That’s my sister,” Nervy Worm said aloud, but people don’t listen to little kids. Littlest siblings belong in their place.

   “What do you think the judge is going to do?” Nervy asked me as I took her in to before school day care.

   “I’ll find out when I get home from school,” I told her. Actually I would find out some time later because the Computer Club had an angel mission to the study center down near IS 179 in Queens. We were bringing some of our old computer parts to fix several old computers and try and get them working. We carried the big boxes of parts on the subway and staggered down the sidewalk with them.

   Big high school boys helped us haul them up the service elevator. We had a space behind the lab for computer surgery. I managed to nearly burn myself with a soldering iron. I was in a foul mood as I rode back on the subway to Manhattan. I decided to make the mood fouler. I dug out my blackberry and checked Twitter.

   @Sxxy_Pache: @Sxxy_Raven @Sxxy_Sistah @Alepha @Unity_grrl @Sxxy_Arrow @Silver_Feet @Inner_Beauty  It’s official. The judge gave Dr. Testa-Asshole her kid.

   @Sxxy_Raven: @(all of the above except her)  Can’t they appeal?

   @Sxxy_Pache: @(all of the above except her)  Not likely. Maybe…. Who knew they were getting ready for this thing. it was like a trap or something.

   @Unity_grrl: @(all of the above except her) We are going to have to take action. I think this needs to go direct message. You know who might be reading this.

   @Sxxy_Pache @(all of the above except her) She always hangs out on here and reads this. She’s been stalking us for almost a year.

   Direct Message from @Sxxy_Sistah: What’s going to happen to poor Ivanna? I feel so awful!

   Direct Messsage from me  to @Sxxy_Sistah: Ivanna will be home about eleven o’clock tonight.

   Somehow RoAnn managed to FAX a copy of the judge’s transcript to Dad at work before she and Ivanna got on the road back to New York. Here is an except….

   “By not communicating with his former spouse and by arranging for Ivanna’s transportation behind her mother’s back, Mr DiFranco has been found to have acted in egregious bad faith. It is not for this court to judge whether a crime was committed. Ms. Testa chose not to press charges, but when two spouses can not communicate about their child, joint custody is impossible and when one spouse shows consumate, poor judgement, it is the other spouse who needs sole temporary custody of his/her child.

   “I am therefore awarding RoAnn Testa sole temporary custody of her daughter, Ivanna DiFranco.

   “I am also ordering that the entire family undergo communications counseling. When Mr. DiFranco proves he can communicate with his exspouse and behave in a responsible manner, I will be willing to revisit the custody issue and return joint custody.

   “In the interim, this court awards Anthony DiFranco supervised visitation two weekends a month either in North Carolina, New York City, or at a third location.”

   “What a win!” I nearly gasped.

   “They’ll be here in less than two hours, and it’s your night to shower with your sister,” Dad answered.

   Ivanna had all ready eaten. I decided Nervy needed a shower more than I needed food. We stood under the hot water with Nervy kicking and splashing like an ecstatically happy little kid which she was. Two of her beloved “big girls” were returning. I did not have the heart to tell her that one of them would be wretchedly unhappy and overflowing with anger like the fizz on a shaken up Dr. Pepper.

   I helped Nervy get dry, put on my nightie, and padded into the kitchen for a late dinner. There was still some lentil soup and I also wanted some Japanese style frozen vegetables from two trips ago to Fairway. Everything gets eaten eventually.

   Then I saw them. RoAnn drank coffee and nibbled at an ice cream sandwich. Ivanna ate a power bar. I wondered if the power bar were stale. Do those thigns ever get stale? It was as if they had never left. For a moment, I pretended they were a tableau in a wax museum.

   Then Ivanna looked up. “It’s good to have you back,” I told her.

   “Fuck you,” she replied.

   “You know that curse words show a poverty of imagination.”

   “That stupid judge had a poverty of imagination,” Ivanna told her mother. “What am I supposed to do here?”

   “You answer the question,” RoAnn responded.

   “I’m going to school in the morning, aren’t I?”

   “Yes, and you’ll make contact with your tutors. You also need some fresh books from the library. By the way, you’re not on lockdown any more, so let’s see what we can do for your social life.”

   I wondered if noblesse oblige is back, but I thought about Nervy waiting for me to put her to bed. I had to read a story to her. “Excuse me,” I said to my stepmother and stepsister. Nobelesse oblige was never going to return. That much was certain.

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