| |
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
Hello Sylvia. You look tired, how are you?
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
Hello Doctor. And yes I'm tired. I'm also pissed, freaked, outraged, and I want to kill Tom.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
I see. I seem to remember you in a similar state of mind during our first session.
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
Don't make light of my situation Doctor.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
I'm sorry Sylvia. It wasn't my intention. But what happened? I saw you on Halloween and...
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
Yes, yes. I had a good time on Halloween too. That's not my problem now.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
Take it easy Sylvia. You're shaking and turning red. That's not good for you or the twins.
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
You and everybody else in this world seem to know exactly what's good for me and my babies. If you all just left me alone, I would probably have a perfectly normal pregnancy.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
Sylvia, I'm just inquiring about what happen. Please sit down, you are making me very uncomfortable watching you pace around my office. Didn't you say something about bed rest?
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
Doctor, you are not my obstetrician. You job is to keep me sane and not to worry about the twins.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
Sylvia, please sit down, take a deep breath, and perhaps drink a glass of water or something. Okay?
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
I'll sit down if that's what it takes to make you happy Doctor.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
That makes me happy. Thank you Sylvia. Now would you like a glass of water?
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
Is that for me or for the twins?
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
I was thinking it was for you. But the twins could have some too, I suppose.
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
The twins are parasites--they have everything I have.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
Is the pregnancy getting you down?
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
I love being pregnant! You know that Doctor.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
Okay. I was just asking.
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
Well stop asking ridiculous questions.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
I'll try. Now why do you want to kill Tom?
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
A much better question.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
Thank you. I'm doing my best.
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
Tom pulled another stupid legal trick.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
I see. Would you like to tell me about it?
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
Doctor stop talking like a therapist! I want you to be sympathetic--like a friend. I come to you for help.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
Sylvia I'm very sympathetic and I would very much like to know what has happened to make you so unhappy.
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
Tom left a bunch of papers for me on Wednesday. But with work and Halloween, well I just didn't get around to it. On Friday I just gave the whole envelope to Kelly and left her to deal. On Saturday I got my first message from Kelly. She sounded very amused and said that she would like to talk to me right away.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
Did you?
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
No. Rene, Robert, and I were going to have dinner with my parents and I just didn't want to spoil the mood listening to some legal acrobatics. Especially coming from Tom.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
Did you have a nice dinner?
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
It was very good. Thank you. And my mother is feeling much better. Until she hears about this.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
So you called Kelly and?
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
I didn't call Kelly. When I got home on Saturday night, I had ten voice mail messages from her each increasingly more agitated. Needless to say, after that the last thing I wanted to do was to call her.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
Of course.
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
Doctor you said yourself that I should keep my level of aggravation down to a necessary minimum. I figured that whatever it was, it could keep until the business week starts on Monday.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
Did Kelly try to get in touch with you before then?
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
I refused to answer the phone all day.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
Was Tom home?
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
Yes. He answered all the calls and meticulously took down messages. He gave me huge stack of them and mentioned that perhaps I should call Kelly back since she was so desperate to get in touch with me. If I've only known what that bastard had planned for me!
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
What was that?
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
It was a little something that he and his lawyers thought up for me. The envelope I gave to Kelly outlined their general plan.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
I guess it's safe to assume you disapprove of their plan?
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
Sometimes you are just too mild mannered Doctor. I not only disapprove of their plans, I would like to rip...
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
Keep your blood pressure down Sylvia. What does Tom want you to do?
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
Well let me see if I can remember it all. It starts by advising me that I will be on bed rest as of November 15th of this year.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
Did Doctor Malleson prescribe bed rest for you?
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
No. This has nothing to do with Doctor Malleson. They did mention another obstetrician that was advising them on my medical condition, but it was not Doctor Malleson. In fact, it's someone whose name I've never even heard of--Doctor Brezdon--Doctor Frezdon--Doctor something "don."
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
I'm not sure I understand.
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
I'm sure I don't understand how they got the nerve to get some charlatan to look at my records behind my back and, what is really unbelievable, how he gets the right to tell me what to do!
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
Calm down Sylvia. What else does this document advise you to do?
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
Well I can no longer leave my house without presenting Tom with a complete itinerary of all the locations I will be at during the day and a brief description of all physical actions I will be performing while there.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
What else?
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
I have to present him with the list of all the drugs I'm currently taking, legal and illegal, for an evaluation by his obstetrician.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
Hmm.
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
I have to create a diet plan for the entire pregnancy and have it approved as well. Oh and if I deviate from the proposed menu for a particular day, I have to notify Tom or his obstetrician by what and how much.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
What else?
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
I'm no longer allowed to drive a car.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
Why not?
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
I was deemed to be excitable and too irresponsible to be trusted with the operation of heavy equipment.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
How did you get to work today?
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
I drove.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
I see. What else?
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
Oh you'll love this. I'm no longer allowed to have any sexual relations. Can you believe this? Not that I've been having any lately but...oh, and this includes the use of a vibrator and of any other method.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
What do you mean?
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
I am no longer allowed to have orgasms Doctor.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
What?
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
That's right. No orgasms. I'm not allowed to have sex with men or women. I'm not allowed to masturbate manually or with any other object or person. And I'm not allowed to have an orgasm...to come...to reach climax.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
I got all that. They are worried about your cervix?
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
I don't think they had my cervix on their minds when they were preparing this document Doctor.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
Perhaps not. But I think the instructions in this document are designed to protect your cervix. Sexual intercourse could lead to a thinning of the cervix and in your condition...
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
I know what my condition is.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
Orgasms could also lead to cervical and uterine contractions.
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
I'm destined to explode from sexual tension.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
I know it sounds horrendous to you right now, but I think what Tom is trying to do is to prevent an onset of early labor. In fact, Doctor Malleson might have given you these same instructions in the not so unforeseeable future.
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
Doctor I...
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
As for the diet, bed rest, and all that other stuff...
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
Doctor, if Doctor Malleson talked to me and told me that it was time for me to be on bed rest, if he told me that I have to adhere to a particular diet, if he told me that I have to abstain from sex for the next six months, even if he told me that I have to avoid having orgasm, if Doctor Malleson told me all that I might...no I would listen to him. But all this is in a legal document drafted with the sole purpose of driving me so insane that I would walk away from Tom leaving him with everything we both worked so hard for most of our lives. This is not about me or my babies. No Doctor, this is all about Tom. I'm telling you that man is truly evil.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
So you believe that there is no chance that any of the instructions presented to you in that legal document were designed to protect the twins?
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
Oh I believe that these documents were carefully drafted to make everyone think that that is what they are intended for.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
What is your lawyer's recommendation?
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
Kelly advised me to make an appointment with Doctor Malleson. She wants to be present during the examination. She is also setting up his deposition. She wants to record Doctor Malleson's official position on the condition of my cervix.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
I see.
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
Can you think of any other divorce case which required an expert's testimony about the wife's cervical condition?
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
No, I cannot say I have.
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
When I was talking with Rene, she couldn't decide whether she should laugh hysterically or be intensely outraged.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
I could see how this could be a dilemma for her.
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
I have to say that when I step aside and think as a reporter, I cannot help but think that all of this would make a terrific story for the National Inquirer.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
So when is your appointment with Doctor Malleson?
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
Friday. He was out of town and couldn't make it any sooner than that.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
Would you be required to stay at home and...
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
No chance! In fact I called Richard and asked him if I could stay with him for the next couple of nights.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
What?
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
Now Doctor, you told me that I should spend some quality time with him, didn't you?
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
Why don't you stay with Rene if you can't be at home?
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
Why does Tom serve me with these papers?
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
Don't you think...
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
I think all the time Doctor. Here is Richard's home number. You can reach me there if you have to.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
Thank you.
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
I'll see you in your office next Tuesday at 4 pm Doctor.
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Balis:
|
|
November 12th at 4 pm. I'll see you then. Goodbye Sylvia and good luck.
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Bows:
|
|
Goodbye Doctor.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
###
|
|
Doctor Balis' Notes on this Session
Transcripts of Sylvia Bows' Therapy Sessions
