A Review Series of Anonymous Tip, by Michael Farris<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\nPp. 109-110, 111-114<\/em><\/p>\nIt\u2019s Friday morning, and that means it\u2019s time for Gwen and Casey to go see Dr. Schram, the psychologist Peter lined up to examine them. Let\u2019s 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\u2019s. Peter is along as an escort, to make sure Gwen doesn\u2019t take Casey and run, but I\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n
Gwen arrived at Peter\u2019s 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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This is to show how eager Gwen is to see Casey, I assume? Or perhaps how responsive Peter is to Gwen, that he\u2019s willing to call the MacArthurs to bump the pickup up, rather than asking Gwen to sit in his office waiting room until it\u2019s time to leave?<\/p>\n
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\u2019, had pools.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
We\u2019re told that Gwen was \u201cnervous and obviously excited\u201d as Peter drove her to the MacArthurs\u2019 house. She spent most of her time staring \u201cvacantly out the window, deep in thought about her \u2018Casey doll.'\u201d I wouldn\u2019t be bothered by Gwen\u2019s nickname for Casey\u2014I call my children \u201cchickpea,\u201d among other things\u2014if Casey had a few more lines. But as we shall see, she doesn\u2019t.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nAt long last Peter turned left into the MacArthur\u2019s (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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And apparently no dialogue, either.<\/p>\n
Peter was silent the entire drive to the psychologist\u2019s office. Casey giggled and talked silly. Gwen hugged and kissed her daughter time and again.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Talked silly? Talked silly?<\/em>\u00a0Is 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!<\/p>\nJean Schram\u2019s office was on the edge of the downtown core, in a conglomeration of medical buildings that surround Deaconess Hospital, one of Spokane\u2019s three major medical facilities.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Peter, Gwen, and Casey met Sally at Dr. Schram\u2019s 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\u2019m tempted to ask why Sally didn\u2019t just take them herself, but I\u2019m still wondering why Brenda MacArthur, Casey\u2019s foster mother, didn\u2019t take her. This whole game of \u201cwho\u2019s going to take Gwen and Casey to see Dr. Schram\u201d is starting to get to me!<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Oh LORD.<\/p>\n
I feel like there have got to be easier ways for Farris to communicate what he\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Farris alternates between calling Dr. Schram \u201cJean,\u201d \u201cDr. Schram,\u201d and just plan \u201cSchram.\u201d Because I\u2019ve been calling Dr. McGuire \u201cDr. McGuire,\u201d I\u2019m going to call Dr. Schram \u201cDr. Schram.\u201d I\u2019ve been trying to call every character by their first name to offset Farris\u2019 decision to call Donna \u201cCorliss\u201d and Gwen \u201cGwen,\u201d but I\u2019m finding myself making exceptions. Blackburn, the head of the local CPS office, is another exception.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t the court usually ask both psychologists to conduct the same basic examinations? I\u2019m 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?<\/p>\n
Anyway, Dr. Schram\u2019s graduate intern gives Casey some routine tests while Dr. Schram interviews Gwen, and vice versa. Gwen explains that she\u2019s already taken the test\u2014the MMPI\u2014at Dr. McGuire\u2019s office. \u201cHe was very nice,\u201d she tells them. The graduate intern decides to call Dr. McGuire to see if he can fax the results so that she doesn\u2019t have to retake it.<\/p>\n
McGuire\u2019s secretary stepped inside his office as he was typing a report\u2014a truthful report\u2014for another patient.<\/p>\n
\u201cDr. Schram\u2019s office is on the phone and asking you to fax a copy of Gwen Landis\u2019s MMPI results from yesterday. The report\u2019s right there in the file. Is it OK?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n
Without looking up, McGuire replied, \u201cTell them I\u2019m in a session and have to leave the office immediately afterwards for a couple horus and you don\u2019t think you\u2019ll have a chance to ask me about it until later this afternoon.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2014well, at least not until after Tuesday.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Schram\u2019s 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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I feel like we\u2019ve done this little song and dance before.<\/p>\n
Seriously though, what is Dr. McGuire\u2019s goal here? Does he not realize that if his secretary says she can\u2019t even ask him until later in the day, Dr. Schram\u2019s office will just have Gwen retake the assessment? And what does Dr. McGuire gain in preventing Dr. Schram\u2019s office from receiving a copy of Gwen\u2019s 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\u00a0the time to look them over and recognize them for a likely fake while Gwen was still in her office. And if he\u2019s planning to fake them and hasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
Anyway, Peter returns, finally, and steps into Dr. Schram\u2019s 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 \u201cthey are both delightful\u201d and that she \u201ccan\u2019t believe anyone would believe that Casey had been abused or that Gwen is even capable of such an action.\u201d Peter responds \u201cwith glee,\u201d telling Dr. Schram that \u201cthey don\u2019t have anything on them.\u201d Would a lawyer and the psychologist he chose to conduct his client\u2019s 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?<\/p>\n
Anyway, Dr. Schram notes that there is one<\/em> thing.<\/p>\n\u201cWell, 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\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n
Peter laughed at the crude monster-like faces on the heads of two women standing next to what appeared to be a bed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf she had drawn one woman, it could have been her mother. But notice the hair color. And critically, there are two women.\u201d<\/p>\n
Casey\u2019s 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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This really is to be expected given everything Farris has given us\u00a0so far. Casey is afraid of Donna and Rita, and Dr. McGuire is going to fake his report to\u00a0eliminate all evidence of this fear. Dr. Schram, predictably, is going to show up at the hearing on Tuesday and reveal the location of Casey\u2019s real<\/em> fear\u2014and assure everyone that Gwen and Casey have a \u201cwholesome, loving relationship.\u201d<\/p>\nOf course, all of this is ignoring the fact that Gwen\u2019s parenting is<\/em> 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\u00a0if 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<\/em>,\u00a0it is very likely that she also believes that hitting children with objects is an integral, and even biblically mandated,<\/em> part of child discipline.<\/p>\nAs soon as Peter had stepped inside Jean Schram\u2019s inner office, Gwen\u2019s mind began to race. She doubted Dr. Schram\u2019s 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\u2019t 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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
A few weeks ago, a reader noted that they\u00a0found Gwen\u2019s thoughts of running with Casey one of the more realistic parts of the book. After all, they pointed out, we all dream\u00a0up\u00a0crazy 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\u2019s fairly certain they\u2019ll win on Tuesday, and that Tuesday is just four short days away.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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