They were both giggling.

Bette:  Perhaps we need to make a conference call to Shane tomorrow and tell her about this. She would get a kick out of our menopause together syndrome!

Tina:  Yeah, we should. Now, tell me about your conversation with Paris, you talked for about 45 minutes. I was about to send Angie to rescue you.

Bette: Actually, it went better than I anticipated. Paris will be contacting Joyce Wischnia tomorrow and she planned to call Mary tonight.

Tina:  Really?

Bette: Yeah. I began by telling her she was included in the will and that Kit and I wanted her to make a claim and get her fair share of the estate. She then pointed out that Melvin knew about her and asked if Mary knew that he knew. I responded by saying we don’t know how or when Melvin found out nor do we know what Mary knew. I then pointed out that she had not claimed her trust, she still may not know that Melvin knew that she was alive or about Paris.

Tina:  That’s true.

Bette:  I then got her to tell her story of when and how she got to England. She said that she went to public schools in Arizona up until the age of 14.

Tina:  Fourteen? That’s high school age.

Bette:  She said that she entered some essay contest and won and received a full scholarship to a boarding school in England. Both she and her mother were thrilled and so she went to England only to return home for Christmas breaks and summer breaks. When she finished high school, she applied at Cambridge and was accepted and she received a full scholarship – tuition, books, housing, meals, clothing allowance and maybe even some spending money. While she got an excellent education, her relationship with her mother became more strained. The lack of proximity and the lack of time together had its effect on their closeness. Paris loves mother but she feels somewhat distant from her as a result. During college, she did have a problem with drugs and alcohol. I think that she and Shane share the same story with regards to sex, drugs and alcohol. Paris just grappled with her problems earlier than Shane did.