Anonymous Tip: Gwen and the Giggling Casey

A Review Series of Anonymous Tip, by Michael Farris

Pp. 109-110, 111-114

It’s Friday morning, and that means it’s time for Gwen and Casey to go see Dr. Schram, the psychologist Peter lined up to examine them. Let’s go along, shall we? If you remember, Gwen was to meet Peter at his office, and then they would drive to get Casey together, and drive from there to Dr. Schram’s. Peter is along as an escort, to make sure Gwen doesn’t take Casey and run, but I’m still not sure why Gwen is taking Casey to the appointment to begin with, especially given that her foster mother took her to her appointment with Dr. McGuire, the other psychologist, without a problem.

Gwen arrived at Peter’s office fifteen minutes early. She was anxious to get Casey as soon as possible. Peter called Brenda MacArthur, asking her to have Casey ready at 9:15 instead of 9:30.

This is to show how eager Gwen is to see Casey, I assume? Or perhaps how responsive Peter is to Gwen, that he’s willing to call the MacArthurs to bump the pickup up, rather than asking Gwen to sit in his office waiting room until it’s time to leave?

The MacArthurs lived up on the far north side of town, about six blocks from Whitworth College in a middle-class neighborhood with large yards and fences. A few, but not the MacArthurs’, had pools.

We’re told that Gwen was “nervous and obviously excited” as Peter drove her to the MacArthurs’ house. She spent most of her time staring “vacantly out the window, deep in thought about her ‘Casey doll.'” I wouldn’t be bothered by Gwen’s nickname for Casey—I call my children “chickpea,” among other things—if Casey had a few more lines. But as we shall see, she doesn’t. 

At long last Peter turned left into the MacArthur’s (sic) driveway; the door burst open and the auburn-haired little girl ran toward her mother. Gwen was out of the car in a flash and swooped up the prize of her heart and squeezed tightly.

Casey giggled the instant her mother picked her up and the mood was set. There would be no tears at this meeting. Just laughter and kisses and hugs.

And apparently no dialogue, either.

Peter was silent the entire drive to the psychologist’s office. Casey giggled and talked silly. Gwen hugged and kissed her daughter time and again.

Talked silly? Talked silly? Is this code for how four-year-olds usually talk, or is this something else? Does Farris mean that Casey was goofy? Can we hear it, please? Please!

Jean Schram’s office was on the edge of the downtown core, in a conglomeration of medical buildings that surround Deaconess Hospital, one of Spokane’s three major medical facilities.

Peter, Gwen, and Casey met Sally at Dr. Schram’s office. Sally was going to stay with Gwen and Casey while Peter went to do some lawyerly things. Peter would be back after the examination retrieve Gwen and Casey. I’m tempted to ask why Sally didn’t just take them herself, but I’m still wondering why Brenda MacArthur, Casey’s foster mother, didn’t take her. This whole game of “who’s going to take Gwen and Casey to see Dr. Schram” is starting to get to me!

Dr. Schram was in her mid-fifties, but had been a psychologist for only seven years. She earned her BA in psychology from Washington State University in 1965 and had married immediately upon graduation. She got pregnant only a year later with her first of three children.

She understood her Christian faith to require her to stay home with her children during their years of schooling. And when her third child, Marie, entered WSU as a freshman, Jean returned there as well to attend graduate school in a four-year stint of commuting to gain her Ph.D. They rented an apartment. Her daughter and a friend shared one bedroom. On Tuesday and Thursday night Jean stayed in the other bedroom. It was a very different college experience for all concerned and, while tense at time, it depend the special connection between Jean and Marie.

Oh LORD.

I feel like there have got to be easier ways for Farris to communicate what he’s trying to communicate here. He appears to want readers to know that Dr. Schram is a born-again Christian who was a wife and mother before becoming a psychologist, and who (presumably) knows a great deal about the special bond between mothers and daughters.

Farris alternates between calling Dr. Schram “Jean,” “Dr. Schram,” and just plan “Schram.” Because I’ve been calling Dr. McGuire “Dr. McGuire,” I’m going to call Dr. Schram “Dr. Schram.” I’ve been trying to call every character by their first name to offset Farris’ decision to call Donna “Corliss” and Gwen “Gwen,” but I’m finding myself making exceptions. Blackburn, the head of the local CPS office, is another exception.

Dr. Schram interviews and observes Casey and Gwen together, then Gwen alone, then Casey alone. This is interesting, because Dr. McGuire interviewed the two separately, at different times, and not together. Wouldn’t the court usually ask both psychologists to conduct the same basic examinations? I’m wondering if Peter cleared this with Judge Romer, or if what evaluations he might order are completely at his discretion. Maybe a lawyer could chime in?

Anyway, Dr. Schram’s graduate intern gives Casey some routine tests while Dr. Schram interviews Gwen, and vice versa. Gwen explains that she’s already taken the test—the MMPI—at Dr. McGuire’s office. “He was very nice,” she tells them. The graduate intern decides to call Dr. McGuire to see if he can fax the results so that she doesn’t have to retake it.

McGuire’s secretary stepped inside his office as he was typing a report—a truthful report—for another patient.

“Dr. Schram’s office is on the phone and asking you to fax a copy of Gwen Landis’s MMPI results from yesterday. The report’s right there in the file. Is it OK?” she asked.

Without looking up, McGuire replied, “Tell them I’m in a session and have to leave the office immediately afterwards for a couple horus and you don’t think you’ll have a chance to ask me about it until later this afternoon.”

McGuire hoped that his answer would string them out so that Schram would decide to wait for the results which he had no intention of ever sending over—well, at least not until after Tuesday.

His secretary was used to these occasional deceptions, although she never knew when or why he would blatantly ask her to lie. She was paid well, did what she was asked, and kept her mouth shut.

Schram’s intern interrupted the interview of Casey to ask her mentor for directions. In a few minutes Gwen was unhappily filling in little spaces with a number-two pencil.

I feel like we’ve done this little song and dance before.

Seriously though, what is Dr. McGuire’s goal here? Does he not realize that if his secretary says she can’t even ask him until later in the day, Dr. Schram’s office will just have Gwen retake the assessment? And what does Dr. McGuire gain in preventing Dr. Schram’s office from receiving a copy of Gwen’s MMPI results? Is he planning to fake said results? If so, why not just send the faked results? It is unlikely that Dr. Schram would get the time to look them over and recognize them for a likely fake while Gwen was still in her office. And if he’s planning to fake them and hasn’t yet, why not say he still has to run the results and will fax them later in the afternoon? Dr. McGuire is yet one more confusing villain.

Anyway, Peter returns, finally, and steps into Dr. Schram’s office to talk to her. Is this common for this sort of thing? Peter asks Dr. Schram what she thought, and Dr. Schram told her that “they are both delightful” and that she “can’t believe anyone would believe that Casey had been abused or that Gwen is even capable of such an action.” Peter responds “with glee,” telling Dr. Schram that “they don’t have anything on them.” Would a lawyer and the psychologist he chose to conduct his client’s examination be this open about both the case and the exam, especially before the psychologist even has time to write their report? Can a lawyer chime in in the comments, perhaps?

Anyway, Dr. Schram notes that there is one thing.

“Well, Casey is clearly afraid of something. But I have no doubt that it is this incident with the two CPS workers at her home and being separated from her mother. Look at these pictures she drew for me. I would be afraid of these two, wouldn’t you?”

Peter laughed at the crude monster-like faces on the heads of two women standing next to what appeared to be a bed.

“If she had drawn one woman, it could have been her mother. But notice the hair color. And critically, there are two women.”

Casey’s drawing was a little better than might have been expected. But she had some practice. She had drawn a virtually identical picture on the morning of the previous day, a drawing which was now sitting in a dumpster in back of the Fifth Avenue Medical Center.

This really is to be expected given everything Farris has given us so far. Casey is afraid of Donna and Rita, and Dr. McGuire is going to fake his report to eliminate all evidence of this fear. Dr. Schram, predictably, is going to show up at the hearing on Tuesday and reveal the location of Casey’s real fear—and assure everyone that Gwen and Casey have a “wholesome, loving relationship.”

Of course, all of this is ignoring the fact that Gwen’s parenting is subpar. When Casey directly disobeys her, she hits Casey with a wooden spoon. Now yes, this is legal. But you would expect a psychologist to perhaps note that there are some parenting practices that are overly punitive and leave something to be desired. But if Dr. Schram was so conservative in her Christian beliefs that she believed she was required by God to stay at home and raise her children all the way through high school, it is very likely that she also believes that hitting children with objects is an integral, and even biblically mandated, part of child discipline.

As soon as Peter had stepped inside Jean Schram’s inner office, Gwen’s mind began to race. She doubted Dr. Schram’s receptionist knew anything about the requirement that she be accompanied at all times. She knew the location of a rent-a-car facility just ten blocks away, and cabs were probably available across the street by the hospital. The back roads to Walla Walla looked large in her mind. From there, Oregon was just minutes away, and then Idaho, and Utah, and from there she thought she could get lost for years and years. It wasn’t a bad plan. But it was a plan that was not to be, for just as her mind took her to Utah, Peter opened the door and the reality of returning Casey to the MacArthurs took control of her thoughts.

A few weeks ago, a reader noted that they found Gwen’s thoughts of running with Casey one of the more realistic parts of the book. After all, they pointed out, we all dream up crazy hair-brained schemes we never really intend to follow through on. But here it looks as though Gwen was seriously thinking about following through, and perhaps would have had Peter not finished meeting with Dr. Schram so quickly. Remember, too, that Peter has told Gwen repeatedly that he’s fairly certain they’ll win on Tuesday, and that Tuesday is just four short days away.

Next week we will sit in on the return trip, as Peter and Gwen drive Casey back to the MacArthurs and Peter makes a startling (or not so startling) proposal. Does anyone want to start a poll on whether Casey actually says anything in the next section? I get the feeling said poll would be a bit lopsided.