TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO FILE:

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT:

THERAPIST: Okay. Before I let you tell me what’s going on for you, I am going to be taking – I’m mostly going to be taking the last week in August off, and what we could do is meet the 13th and the 20th, and then the following week, September the 3rd, if that would work with you.

CLIENT: So you’re going to be gone the end of August?

THERAPIST: Mm-hmm.

CLIENT: So you want to meet the 13th? [00:01:02]

THERAPIST: The 20th.

CLIENT: And the 20th?

THERAPIST: Yeah.

CLIENT: Okay.

THERAPIST: Okay.

CLIENT: Then what about September?

THERAPIST: September 3rd will be the first time we meet in September, yeah, and how do you feel about coming weekly again? Where do you sit with all that?

CLIENT: Well I don’t know. [00:02:01] I wind up getting other appointments.

THERAPIST: Well we can always—

CLIENT: Talk about it. I’m going to be having surgery in September for my hernia.

THERAPIST: Oh, that’s right.

CLIENT: I go see the surgeon – when do I go see the surgeon again? Well I know I see him sometime in August.

THERAPIST: Right. You had to hold off on the surgery until Darla left, that was the plan.

CLIENT: Well now that Darla’s still here—

THERAPIST: Right, well it’s also been now you can take care of it. It’s a short distance.

CLIENT: She’s up in Vermont until she turns 17, which sucks, because I don’t get to see her. [00:03:03]

THERAPIST: Yeah. So what is the plan? I mean, how does it—

CLIENT: Her and Deborah have been up there since last week, since last Wednesday. Deborah is coming home Friday night, and Darla’s staying there, and Deborah won’t be able to go up there the following week because we have court on August – what week is Deborah – yeah, she’ll be home that week because we have court on Wednesday.

THERAPIST: What’s the court for?

CLIENT: The restraining order I have against that lady.

THERAPIST: Oh, okay.

CLIENT: So unless somebody else decides to go up to Vermont, she’ll get a ride with them. [00:04:02]

THERAPIST: Who does she stay with when she’s up there?

CLIENT: Naomi, big house, big, big house, and she’s company for Naomi, you know, and there’s other people that come by and stuff. So, little (inaudible). Talked to me – was it Monday? It was Monday. “Can you give JD $125.00, and he’ll give you a bag of pot? That way Naomi can bring it up to Vermont? But make sure you wrap it up really good in case the patient gets pulled over by the police.” He said, oh yeah, right, right. I said, “Deborah, I don’t have $125.00 to give the kid.” [00:05:02] Then she called Annie, my next door neighbor, and asked her if she could borrow $75.00 from her mother. I don’t know how she was going to get that up to her. Annie said, “No, I don’t have it. I asked her about it, she doesn’t have it.” You know? So she’s a sneaky little devil.

THERAPIST: Yeah. She needs it for—

CLIENT: Well her and Naomi smoke it.

THERAPIST: How is Darla – are you worried about Darla getting by in terms of food?

CLIENT: No, there’s plenty of food up there. Naomi does all the cooking. [00:06:01] They’ve got washing machine and dryer. They’ve got the Internet now, if it goes on. They don’t get that good of reception.

THERAPIST: Yeah.

CLIENT: Even though they got the big satellite and all that stuff. I said, oh, you need a bigger one. (laughter) So they’ve been – they cleaned out Naomi’s mother’s house. Her and her two brothers own it, with all of the totes and stuff they had down there, and they brought their mom up to Vermont. Then they have storage up in Vermont, that they went there and brought a lot of furniture back, but there’s still a lot of furniture and stuff inside it. Naomi’s mother came by my house because Darla only went up there with two bras, so I had to send her up the other three that were in the house. [00:07:09] So she came by and picked up the bag I had for her. I said, if I had known you were only going to be there for two days, I would have arranged to go up with you, and my next door neighbor, Frank, would watch the two cats. That was that. Needless to say, but they got no weed, because that kid never came by. Sometimes, I guess he doesn’t mind covering it for Naomi.

THERAPIST: Covering it?

CLIENT: Yeah, and when she has the money, she’ll give it to him, you know. [00:08:00] I said, well, he never came by, Deborah, so I don’t know what to tell you.

THERAPIST: Then you were going to give it to somebody else?

CLIENT: And wrap it up really good and give it to Naomi’s mother, stick it in the bag with the bras in it. That didn’t happen. (laughter) She’s a nosy little bitch, my Deborah.

THERAPIST: Where do you stand right now with Deborah and what she’s up to/

CLIENT: I don’t know, you know?

THERAPIST: What do you – yeah.

CLIENT: I don’t know what to think with that one. I like when Darla came up. I had given her $200.00 to buy clothes. She wound up paying for her mother’s way to go to the movies. They went to the Providence and ate down at the Providence, so not only was it her plate. [00:09:04] She had to pay for her mother’s. So no matter what, she’s going to pay her mother’s way. That $200.00 went nowhere on clothes. So I had given her another $200.00, and when she went up to Vermont, Naomi took her to Wal-Mart to buy more underwear, and socks, and t-shirts. I don’t know what she’s got left for money. I want to call and tell her don’t – I keep telling her, don’t give it to your mother, you know? And yes, Darla is smoking pot with her mother and Naomi. She’s, “I can’t help it. I like pot. I’ve been smoking it for the last three years.” I says, oh, okay. [00:10:00] So I says, I don’t know what to tell you, Darla. Look at your mother.

THERAPIST: Well yeah. I was thinking, it’s her way of being with her mother.

CLIENT: Right. She says, “It calms me down. I don’t have any anxiety attacks when I’m on it.” I say, but yet you don’t want to go to the doctors because you don’t want to get a tranquilizer, because you don’t want to go on pills? Is that what I hear? “Yeah.” Oh, you don’t think marijuana’s a drug, Darla? I say, Darla, you’ve got a brain. Use it.

THERAPIST: It seems to me like some of this that Darla’s up to is related to her getting more in contact again with her mom, and you know, her mom’s life is about pot, is about marijuana. [00:11:01]

CLIENT: Yeah.

THERAPIST: It’s really – in some way that’s her way of relating, even maybe when she’s in Georgia, feeling somewhat connected with mom.

CLIENT: I says okay. I says, when I decide to give you more money, I understand you don’t like going into the store and buying things because you get anxious, and the anxiety all over you and everything, so what we’ll do, Darla, is we’ll (inaudible). That’s the only thing I can do for you. I don’t know what you like, so I can’t go to the store and pick up something, and go, oh, Darla will like this. It wasn’t like when she was a kid and she loved everything, Hannah Montana, so you could always get everything from Hannah Montana. [00:12:03]

THERAPIST: Yeah.

CLIENT: Now it’s all (inaudible).

THERAPIST: It’s all different.

CLIENT: She likes black shirts with a (inaudible) on it. She’s got a couple of biker ones from (inaudible). Yeah.

THERAPIST: Like the mother.

CLIENT: Mm-hmm. I said Darla, look. You’ve got a double chin now. Before you were a lot thinner, Darla, you had no double chin, but you know, you’re getting ahead there. You got the double chin like your mother because all you do is eat junk food a nighttime just like your mother. I said, the two of you make a pair. And boy, can that kid sleep too. [00:13:00] I thought she could take a nap in the afternoon, take a nap before bedtime, get up and eat something, go right back to bed.

THERAPIST: Yeah, like mom.

CLIENT: So as I said, she’s not getting cash anymore.

THERAPIST: She’s got to use it for pot too, like mom.

CLIENT: Yeah.

THERAPIST: How are you feeling about her being up there then, in Vermont? What are your thoughts on it?

CLIENT: I’m not liking it, but I know what the other two are like, Deborah and Naomi. They’re potheads from the moment they wake up, you know? So they’ll go crazy to sleep without any pot. I don’t know how they’re going to get it. [00:14:00]

THERAPIST: Does Naomi work?

CLIENT: No.

THERAPIST: So they’re just hanging out, and the three of them, just hanging out up there?

CLIENT: Yeah, and emptying out boxes, and putting furniture together. It’s three and a half acres of land and already the lawnmower that you sit on is broken. Yeah, a lot of work. Weed whacking, cutting down this, cutting down that.

THERAPIST: They’re working on the house?

CLIENT: Yeah, they’re working on the house. There’s a barn that has two (inaudible) in it, but up above it, it has an apartment, so they’ve been cleaning that out too, and what have you. [00:15:08] So God only knows who will live up in there.

THERAPIST: What are your thoughts? Who do you expect?

CLIENT: Deborah, maybe. I mean the house they’re in has four bedrooms, so you figure Ma Naomi, Naomi, Darla, Deborah, one in each bedroom.

THERAPIST: Whose house is it? Is it Ma Naomi’s?

CLIENT: Ma Naomi bought it. Not that she bought it – well, the lawyer that Naomi had for Ashley’s case that didn’t win, the lawyer, someone had – it was a lien on it because the guy didn’t pay the lawyer for whatever case he was working on. [00:16:01] So he got it, then Ma Naomi bought the other half, and you know, paid for it. The guy had given the place to Naomi, and Ma Naomi paid the rest of the money on it.

THERAPIST: He just gave it to her?

CLIENT: Yeah.

THERAPIST: Oh.

CLIENT: He’s got a beautiful house up there too.

THERAPIST: Yeah, I remember this was a couple years back, they were trying to sue the school?

CLIENT: No, the gym where—

THERAPIST: The gym where Amber worked out at.

THERAPIST: Oh, it was a gym, not a school, and they lost, they didn’t win that?

CLIENT: Right. They didn’t win the case.

THERAPIST: So it went to trial?

CLIENT: Yeah.

THERAPIST: And they lost.

CLIENT: So that was that. [00:17:03]

THERAPIST: But that’s where they’re living now? Does Ma Naomi have a place down here anymore?

CLIENT: Oh yeah. Ma Naomi still has a house here. She owns it with her two brothers. One brother lives there and the other one is married.

THERAPIST: How did they get by with money, you know, with food, gas, electric?

CLIENT: Naomi gets social security.

THERAPIST: She got disability?

CLIENT: Yeah, and she gets food stamps. Then Ma Naomi gets her everything. So Naomi had lost her license down there, so she went and took care of that and everything, and they said if she got her license here in Rhode Island, she would have to wear a breathalyzer or something, in her car. [00:18:04] But she said, “I’m moving to Vermont.” He said, “Then you don’t need a breathalyzer, but if you come into Rhode Island” – she said, she can’t come into Rhode Island unless she has that breathalyzer. She’s not allowed to drive.

THERAPIST: Okay. Naomi isn’t?

CLIENT: Yeah. So if she gets pulled over in Rhode Island and she doesn’t have the breathalyzer, then bye-bye Naomi. Ma Naomi said, “I was trying to see if we could get up to the registry in Vermont, for her to get her license.” I said, but yeah, you’ll have to buy her a car. She said, “That’s no problem. I’ll buy her a car.” [00:19:00] Ma Naomi doesn’t – she still works weekends, and she had to go to a class one day, Monday, Tuesday. She had off yesterday, and she went to a class today. She’s only going to be up there until tomorrow night. Is tomorrow Friday?

THERAPIST: No, Thursday.

CLIENT: I’m so whacked out on the days. So she’ll only be there until Friday night, then she comes back, has to work Saturday and Sunday, then she’ll go up whatever days of the week. She doesn’t plan on living there full-time, especially during the winter. It was so cold up there last night, they had to put the heat on. [00:20:02] She says, “It’s only July.” (laughter) I said, what are you going to do when it comes October?

THERAPIST: Are you sort of expressing the concern about what is this plan exactly they’re up to?

CLIENT: Yeah.

THERAPIST: It’s one thing if it’s only Deborah, who’s an adult, but Darla who’s 16, what’s her life going to look like for the next year?

CLIENT: I said, what are you planning on doing with her, Deborah? Are you planning on sending her to school? Is she going to go to school in Vermont? What’s going on? I don’t get an answer.

THERAPIST: Do you think she has a plan?

CLIENT: Yeah, she does. I think she plans to stay there with Darla.

THERAPIST: And what do you think she plans on having Darla do during the fall or during the year? [00:21:03]

CLIENT: That I don’t know.

THERAPIST: She needs to be in school. She’s 16, I imagine.

CLIENT: She’ll be 17 the next – the 12th.

THERAPIST: Oh, she’ll be 17. Does she still need to be in school at 17?

CLIENT: I don’t think so. I mean, you can quit school whenever you want to quit school, and I’m quite sure they’re not going to go looking for her to go back to school in Georgia.

THERAPIST: Well there are – you can’t – you have to get some sort of education up until a certain age, have some sort of – I don’t know if it’s 16 or 17, but you know, if they see her around, and people start asking questions, the police might get involved. They take that stuff seriously.

CLIENT: “We call the police every day. Deborah has my daughter, Darla, ran away, have you heard anything?” [00:22:01] “Oh no. If we do, we’ll call you, Ms. (inaudible).”

THERAPIST: That’s what she’s doing?

CLIENT: Yeah.

THERAPIST: Oh gosh.

CLIENT: The police aren’t doing anything after. They consider her a runaway. If she was 14, 13—

THERAPIST: They might do something.

CLIENT: They’d go looking for her.

THERAPIST: 16, they don’t really—

CLIENT: No.

THERAPIST: What about – where does Heath sit with all of this?

CLIENT: I haven’t heard one word from him.

THERAPIST: Do you know what he thinks? Does he think she’s run away, or does he know?

CLIENT: I think he knows. He called Naomi on Naomi’s phone and left a message, “Naomi, it’s time for Darla to come home now.” The answer was going to be to Naomi, Darla was going to call him and say, “Listen, dad. I’m not coming home.” Mm-hmm. [00:23:11] (pause)

THERAPIST: How are Darla and Deborah getting along?

CLIENT: Okay.

THERAPIST: How’s Darla feeling about being up there? How’s she doing?

CLIENT: She been doing good. Her friend Rose went up there with her. I guess Rose went home the other day. Rose will probably go up again this weekend. I don’t know.

THERAPIST: How does she know Rose?

CLIENT: She met her up at Naomi’s place. Rose went up there with her mother, Liz, and her sister, and they were – Rose is Darla’s age. [00:24:05] So they got along together good. In fact when she first took off – the night that she took off, she stayed at Bennett’s house.

THERAPIST: The night who took off?

CLIENT: Darla supposedly ran away. Bennett came. She took the train down to – Bennett lives in Mansfield, and he picked her up at the station. She stayed there one night, then when she came back here, she went to Rose’s house. In fact I asked my dear cousin Susan if she would take Darla and the answer was no. So the other day I got a phone call from her son, Lee. [00:25:03] Lee likes to text. “Do you think my mother and I can buy 10 Ambiens off of you?” I wrote back, nope. He wrote back, “Why?” I said, because I asked your mother for a favor. She said no. So here you are asking me for a favor, and I say no. of course I wasn’t going to give some to her anyway, but oh yeah. It’s like I have to hide my money because I know – what was it the other day? I went to the store and I knew I had more than what was in there the next day when I went to use it. I knew I had two 20s. [00:26:01] I think I had three 10s and some fives. It was only one 10, one 20, two $10.00 bills. I’m like, Deborah, did you take any money out of my wallet? “No.” I said, okay.

THERAPIST: Yeah, I mean, she’s – whatever she’s up to involves relying on you for money, whatever her plan is, is going to be – what do you think about this whole situation, Linda? I mean, what do you feel is the best thing for Darla? Tell me, where do you sit with all of this?

CLIENT: I don’t know.

THERAPIST: I don’t know how much is up to you at this point. [00:27:00]

CLIENT: I personally thought she should go back and finish the year, but she doesn’t want to do that.

THERAPIST: In Florida.

CLIENT: In Florida. She wants to stay at my house, and she wants to go to school at Medford High. So I don’t know what’s happening there, and of course I—

THERAPIST: She would like to start this fall in Medford High?

CLIENT: Yeah. Down in Florida, they probably start two days after her birthday, they generally start, where she has until like, September 7th or something, before they start here, but it’s getting the papers from Florida. I can’t go and ask for them. Who am I?

THERAPIST: Oh, you mean to go down in Florida?

CLIENT: I just have them sent to the school. [00:28:03]

THERAPIST: What papers are you talking about?

CLIENT: How she did in the school down there.

THERAPIST: Transcripts?

CLIENT: Transcripts, yeah.

THERAPIST: I see, yeah.

CLIENT: I don’t know if she can ask for them when she’s 17 or what. I don’t know.

THERAPIST: Oh, when she’s 17. The other thing is the school can get them. I’m sure Medford High can call. I think – well—

CLIENT: Deborah wants me to go to court and get custody of Darla.

THERAPIST: And do you think there’s any way Heath would be up for talking together with you and somebody else about what’s best for Darla? [00:29:02] How are the two of you – what kind of terms are the two of you on?

CLIENT: Darla and I?

THERAPIST: No.

CLIENT: Me and Heath?

THERAPIST: Yeah.

CLIENT: We haven’t talked at all since that night she talked to him on the phone.

THERAPIST: Anything happen between the two – what kind of standing are the two of you in?

CLIENT: I told her I wanted her here. He told me no. He wants her there.

THERAPIST: And that was when? How long ago was that?

CLIENT: Four weeks ago, the night before she was supposed to go back. That had to be July 15th.

THERAPIST: That was two weeks ago. I see. Okay. [00:30:00] (pause)

CLIENT: The only thing I can see is him coming up here on a plane. But I don’t know.

THERAPIST: Yeah, he hasn’t made any steps to call Rhode Island Police or anything.

CLIENT: Just that one night.

THERAPIST: What happened the one night?

CLIENT: He called the police when she didn’t get off the plane in Florida.

THERAPIST: Oh he did?

CLIENT: Oh yeah.

THERAPIST: Who did he call?

CLIENT: The police department.

THERAPIST: What happened?

CLIENT: They came to my house, three of them.

THERAPIST: They did?

CLIENT: Oh yeah. Two came in. I think it was 1:00 in the morning. Then the third one came. He was a little wise-ass bastard. What turned out was the policeman that was making out the report, I went back in my bedroom, and he asked Deborah her mother’s name, and she said the maiden name, Ashley. [00:31:01] He goes, “She used to live on (inaudible).” Deborah says yes. I went out and he said, “Did you work for Head Start Daycare?” I said yes. He said, “You worked with my ex-wife Denise.” He said, “I know all about you.” He said, “You used to have parties in your backyard for your kids, and your father paid for it all.” I said, yeah, they had no space at the Y. I had a big backyard. They played on the swing set, all that stuff. I said, yeah. So everything was golden after that. I don’t think he put in a report. Now he says, “We’ll drive around and look.”

THERAPIST: What did you guys tell the police?

CLIENT: I didn’t say anything. Deborah said she told Darla when they headed up for the airport, Darla said she would wait outside for her mother. [00:32:10] When her mother got outside, there was no Darla. So he says, “Does Darla know anybody?” She says, “Yes, she met some girl, Cherise, up at the ice cream place.” He goes, “Where does Cherise live?” She says, “I think Arrow Street.” It was Arrow or something like that. He says, “You sure about that? And the girl’s white?” She goes, “Yeah.” He says, “Well that’s all black people over there.” She says, “Well all I know is the girl was white, and Darla said such and such street. I didn’t think anything about it.”

THERAPIST: Deborah made it all up?

CLIENT: Mm-hmm. [00:33:01] I tell you, Darla could have been laying in the bathtub with a pillow and shower curtains covering her, and they wouldn’t have found her.

THERAPIST: And she was up where? She was at Naomi’s?

CLIENT: No, she was at Bennett’s that night.

THERAPIST: Oh, that was that night?

CLIENT: Yeah.

THERAPIST: Was the plan to take her to the airport, or no?

CLIENT: The night she was supposed to go home.

THERAPIST: I mean, but what was the—

CLIENT: Deborah told them she was to take Darla to the airport because she was supposed to go home to her family in Georgia, and she got in a fight with her father. I even told the cop, the one that realized I was the one that worked with his ex-wife, that I don’t think they were going to do anything. [00:34:03] He just said, “We’ll ride up and down the street and see if we can see her.” You know?

THERAPIST: Yeah.

CLIENT: No Amber Alert because she’s over 16.

THERAPIST: She’s 16, right?

CLIENT: She is now.

THERAPIST: So they didn’t do an Amber Alert because she is 16?

CLIENT: Yeah.

THERAPIST: Okay, 16 and over they don’t do that.

CLIENT: No, unless she had a younger brother with her or something.

THERAPIST: Right.

CLIENT: So Heath goes, “You’re going to leave. You’re going to abandon my family.” Darla says, “I have my family right where I am.” [00:35:00]

THERAPIST: Has she talked to her dad since—

CLIENT: No.

THERAPIST: Okay. Oh man. What do you think about Heath?

CLIENT: Well I don’t want her going back there in that environment, with her not being happy, her with the anxiety, all that stuff. We’ve got to go to Nana Margie’s for dinner on Sunday. You’ve got to do this. You’ve got to do that. No. I was out of my house when I was 15. [00:36:01] I didn’t give a shit if I went back there or not. Mind you, I was only two doors down from where I was living, until she moved to Falmouth, and I went with her.

THERAPIST: I think the thing is about Darla, is that it’s not like she’s in some sort of environment where she’s really thriving. She’s smoking pot every day, and no plans to go back to school unless – I mean, if she’s going to go back to school, you guys got to have some sort of custody.

CLIENT: Like I said, Darla’s not coming back until she turns 17.

THERAPIST: So she’s going to stay the year up there?

CLIENT: No, she’ll be back at my house.

THERAPIST: Oh, until she’s 17.

CLIENT: Yeah.

THERAPIST: What’s 17 mean? What happens when she turns 17? [00:37:00]

CLIENT: She has more rights.

THERAPIST: Oh. What are her rights at that point?

CLIENT: Don’t ask me. Ask her mother and Naomi.

THERAPIST: They know?

CLIENT: Yeah. They’re the ones digging up all this stuff online.

THERAPIST: They want you to file for custody?

CLIENT: Deborah does. She called that place you gave me, the referral, and she had been talking to a girl – a girl will call her and talk to her, and everything.

THERAPIST: To Darla?

CLIENT: No, to Deborah. I guess she’s a child advocate or something.

THERAPIST: Oh, she’s been doing that.

CLIENT: Yeah.

THERAPIST: Has she told the child advocate what’s going on?

CLIENT: Yeah.

THERAPIST: Okay.

CLIENT: So listen. That’s enough of that shit. I’ve got to have a restraining order. [00:38:03]

THERAPIST: (laughter) What else can we call it? Enough of that shit.

CLIENT: Restraining order. (pause) She (inaudible) Deborah. This is the whole thing. Deborah has been ignoring her, and this is it. (pause) Now this is how sneaky—

THERAPIST: So this is to prevent—

CLIENT: She cannot come by my apartment. If she sees me in the hallway, she’s got to turn around and go the other way.

THERAPIST: So when you do that, she has to appear in court and the judge determines whether or not to institute it? [00:39:01]

CLIENT: Yeah. I want to go another year.

THERAPIST: You what?

CLIENT: I want it for another year. I’m petrified of her. I have not been out of my apartment since this has happened.

THERAPIST: Are you serious?

CLIENT: Yeah. I sit in the living room with the shades drawn and watch TV. I bought myself one of those Chrome Notebooks. It’s like a laptop, and I’m on that all the time.

THERAPIST: But you’re really trapped in there, you feel?

CLIENT: Yeah. This woman is nuts, and I mean nuts. Last Saturday she walked by with two big black men, as they’re looking at my apartment. [00:40:00] I should have called the police that day, but I said, listen officer. I was just so petrified these two black men were going to come in and either shoot me. I tell you, no car can go on the back of where we live. I guess I’m going to get a walk-by shooting, you know? I said, but wait a minute. She’s good for stabbing people.

THERAPIST: Tell me again, why is she mad? What’s her beef with you?

CLIENT: It’s really not with me. It’s with Deborah. I think she’s upset Deborah’s not her friend anymore. Everything (inaudible). She’s got one of those phones like you, so she’s on it all the time, and taking pictures of Deborah, taking pictures of Darla, and she would say to me, “You’re out of here. They’re coming to evict you, because your daughter, Deborah, doesn’t belong living here.” [00:41:05] “So I’m taking these pictures for Cheshire Housing. They already know all about what’s going on.” I said, they do. I went and made an appointment with the woman who’s the – not the President, but the Vice President. I made an appointment with her, showed her my letters. I showed her the pictures of Alice steaming up in front of my face, pointing her finger at me, then the fist and everything.

So I showed those pictures to the judge, then I had another set made to show them to housing. It’s just like, forget it. Right now when I was waiting out front, the guy next door to me, Lewis, he comes out and says, “That bitch is up on that porch with that fucking stereo going.” [00:42:08] He says, “Here I am trying to take a nap and I can’t because she’s got the music going. You can feel the vibration all the way to my apartment.” But you can’t complain about the noise until after 8:00, I think. He says, “I called three times this week already, and they’re not doing anything about it.” I said, you know, Lewis, they can’t until after a certain hour. She’s wise to that. She knows she’s busting balls.

THERAPIST: She has it out for you because—

CLIENT: I’m letting Deborah live at my house.

THERAPIST: Is this a way for her to get back at Deborah or something?

CLIENT: Yeah. She’s going to get me evicted, and Deborah. [00:43:01]

THERAPIST: Oh, I see.

CLIENT: So I went down there, and talked with the lady, and I said, Janelle, she’s claiming I’m being evicted, my daughter doesn’t belong living there. I said, I have a letter from my doctor stating that she’s my home care provider. She doesn’t stay seven nights a week. She may stay four nights, and if she does stay the seven nights, I says, that’s when I come home from the hospital. I was just in the hospital in June. And I said the time before that was in May. But she’s like, “It’s no problem, Louise. Deborah can be there with you.” Generally they don’t say that. [00:44:00] If you’re having company, I’m supposed to say my company is staying over for 14 days.

Anything after that – but when Deborah’s my provider – I said my granddaughter even came up and visited me. She was supposed to stay a month, but after having another taking pictures of her and everything, she was scared as shit. (inaudible) one fucking friend in the whole building, not one she can go and say, “Can I come in and have a cup of coffee? How would you like to come in and have a cup of coffee?” No one. They’re all afraid of her. They all won’t open up their mouth because they’re afraid she’s going to stab them. This is the girl that stabbed her boyfriend a couple of years ago in the building. [00:45:02]

She also claimed and told me that I tried to – I assaulted her in the parking lot when she was coming home with groceries. Well that one I don’t believe. Oh, and she said that Cecil T, the maintenance guy, also molested her. So the next day they got – she wanted something fixed in her apartment, so they send two maintenance men from now on to go in her apartment. One can’t go, two, so that she can’t say – I said, well then Janelle, she’ll say she was gang raped, you know? [00:46:00]

THERAPIST: How did Janelle respond? Does she know about the – she’s notified of the restraining order? It was a temporary one or something?

CLIENT: Those are good up until the 14th – no, the 7th of August.

THERAPIST: What’s happened since then? Did you hear from her?

CLIENT: No, I haven’t heard from her, but she’s walked by my place, which I didn’t know she couldn’t do, you know? So then she – this is Alice’s handwriting, and she sent it to apartment 308, which is her apartment, and she slid it under my door.

THERAPIST: What’s that?

CLIENT: This here is another restraining order, but the police department knows nothing about it because they didn’t deliver it. It is not signed by the fag who wrote it out. [00:47:00] There’s no signature. There’s no stamp from the court of the house. He says this is nothing. Ignore it.

THERAPIST: I don’t understand. This is a restraining order—

CLIENT: Against Deborah.

THERAPIST: Oh, against Deborah, from Alice.

CLIENT: But nowhere is it signed. Mine is signed by the judge. Nowhere is it stamped by the court.

THERAPIST: Oh, and so it’s on the 7th?

CLIENT: Yeah.

THERAPIST: When’s yours?

CLIENT: The 7th.

THERAPIST: The same day. Are they both in Falmouth?

CLIENT: Both in Falmouth.

THERAPIST: I guess you’ll find out. Is Deborah going to appear?

CLIENT: Oh yeah, because she’s going with me.

THERAPIST: Well you know, that might be something that cools off the situation, actually, if these restraining orders are enforced. [00:48:04]

CLIENT: Actually I want this girl evicted. I fear for my life.

THERAPIST: You can certainly raise it with the court.

CLIENT: When I showed the pictures to the judge – well first I had to go to the court’s office and show them the pictures, and she goes to me, “Is that a guy?” I said, no, that’s a woman. She’s talking it and showing the girls. “You guys think it’s a girl or a guy?” They’re all saying “a guy.” She goes, “It’s a broad.” The judge, she had the pictures, and she says to me, “Mrs. Bordeaux, is that a male or a female?” I said, that’s a female, your honor, judge, your honor.

THERAPIST: Well good that you got the authorities involved. They’re the ones to call when things feel out of control. [00:49:02]

CLIENT: Right.

THERAPIST: If you could only get somebody to help out with the whole Darla, because that one is – well you know, Louise, if you get worried, you can call in the cavalry. You can call in some help for them. you might feel like that will – if you’re getting worried about her enough, sounds like that – one thing I was wondering about is how them cooped up there in that house, how long can they do that for without driving each other crazy?

CLIENT: Well they go down to the pond. Naomi’s got her own pond, so they go down to the pond. They show Darla how to light a bonfire. So now she’s a pyro freak. [00:50:00]

THERAPIST: It sounds like it can kind of go until she turns 17, maybe things turn around, but Deborah is trying to take ownership of this?

CLIENT: Yeah.

THERAPIST: She wants – does she want to take on taking care of Darla, you think?

CLIENT: She says she does, but I said, how are you going to do it, Deborah? I said, my living room is not even half as big as this room, and I’ve got the couch, and at nighttime there’s a queen sized mattress blown up, the TV set, the kitchen table set. I said, Deborah, I get up in the middle of the night because I’ve got to let the freaking cat out. I walk by. Your freaking feet are hanging off the bed. I said, there’s a dish on the floor. [00:51:04] I said, that’s getting impossible. You want to go to the bathroom, and she’s in there. You know how much (inaudible) needs to go into the bathroom because I have to pee all the time.

THERAPIST: You have one bathroom, yeah. Do you feel like you’d be up for that for a year?

CLIENT: Technically, yeah.

THERAPIST: If it was the three of you?

CLIENT: Yeah, even if Deborah stayed up in Vermont and Darla was here to go to school every day at Medford High, that would be fine by me. I mean all the old people in the building love Deborah. She’ll be sitting on the bench and one of them will come in with a bag of groceries. She’ll get up and take the groceries up to the third floor with them, and all this. [00:52:02] “You need anything at Rite Aid? I’m going up there for my mother.” They all love her.

THERAPIST: Yeah.

CLIENT: I mean, she’s – she really – I guess I’m the only person she shits on. Everybody else is fine.

THERAPIST: And how do you feel if you two are together with Darla? Does it make it more tense for the two of you?

CLIENT: Well no, because (inaudible) Darla. “Nana, my mother’s bothering me, Nana.” Deborah, leave the kid alone. This is like, Deborah can just be fooling around with her, and I hear, “Nana, mom’s picking on me.” [00:53:04]

THERAPIST: Yeah. How about you and Deborah? How do you get along when Darla’s around?

CLIENT: All right. I don’t hold anything back with Darla if her mother and I are getting into an argument.

THERAPIST: Well, yeah. It’s an option, right?

CLIENT: I had just texted Deborah before I came in here, and I said, you looking for money to buy pot? Why don’t you get the person who you gave my methadone to? Why don’t you get some money off that person? Did you already give it to the guy that’s selling you the pot? Is that how you got pot the last time, with my methadone? [00:54:03] No answer. She said, “Take the kid.” I had a mirror sitting on the bathroom vanity for three years. I go to look for it and it’s not there because Deborah has rearranged everything. I got to open up every cabinet drawer to look for something. I got to go to the linen closet, you know? She gives this person (inaudible). She gets the night cream, whatever. Is this the (inaudible)? No. Is there a big (inaudible) back there?

THERAPIST: Yes, there is.

CLIENT: I fell off the ladder, Tuesday. I was on the stepladder in the bathroom. [00:55:00] It dawned on me, I don’t have any floor-length mirrors. The only one I have is up above the vanity, above the bathroom sink. I wanted to see if the length of the dress I had on was the right length, or did I have to have it taken up? So I got the stepladder. It’s only two steps, you know, but I missed the last step, down, half in the bathroom and half in the other room. I thought for sure I was going to need stitches. That’s how bad.

THERAPIST: Gosh Louise, but none of that captures your life right now, huh?

CLIENT: Yeah. I’m a danger to myself, danger, danger. (laughter) [00:56:00]

THERAPIST: Overwhelmed, I would say. There’s a lot happening. Good luck with the court. That will be what, next week?

CLIENT: Yes, next Thursday. Take a ride over. (laughter)

THERAPIST: Take a ride over, see the fireworks.

CLIENT: See who gets handcuffed, Deborah or Alice.

THERAPIST: All three.

CLIENT: All I have to do is say one thing and they’ll be going (inaudible). Yeah. You can’t understand the fucking words she says.

THERAPIST: Oh no?

CLIENT: Yeah. She’s so in that hyped mood. I said to the lady, she’s even accusing me of selling my medications. She goes, “If anybody should talk, it’s her selling.” I said, we all know that.

THERAPIST: That’s a good thing to do to get her – you’ve got to feel safe in your own place. [00:57:02] You’ve got enough to worry about. Okay. I’ll see you in two weeks.

CLIENT: Yeah.

THERAPIST: Okay?

CLIENT: Yes, that’s fine.

THERAPIST: Good luck.

END TRANSCRIPT