"If I had half the scientific mind you did- I did my best to replicate your results, but I know where my strengths lie. The business is flourishing, but letting them speak will certainly be a nice extra. I'll have it brought to you in a moment."

She nods, but does not say anything.

He lapses into silence, twiddling his thumbs.

And in a moment, in comes the design. The woman holding it places it on the table. 

"Annabelle? I hope our Edgar introduced me. He can be so forgetful sometimes."

"(yes) Hello. Are you his fiance Fay(happy)?"

Edgar translates this for her. What a helpful young man.

"I am his fiancée, and we're very happy. Can I do anything for you?"

She leans to look at the plans, stopping just before she would overbalance and fall.

"(happy)(pride). (science) will study plans and think about how to let dolls speak. Later may need help with experiments or books, now nothing."

"Faye and I will return later, then. Enjoy, mother."

"(yes) (love)"

The plans for the inner components of the dolls are almost exactly as she remembers them, but the bodies have changed, and the connections to it may have as well.

There have been a few changes.

Here, there are somewhat fewer components concentrated, to adjust the weight of that area, and here, they are distributed differently to promote flexibility...

That explains why she can move more easily than Jasper seemed to.

She thinks of experiments to try for different designs to allow a doll to press letters onto a page instead of controlling a radio until she is interrupted.

He doesn't interrupt her. She'll come up with something brilliant, and their business will be more successful than ever.

Instead, he talks to his wife.

"Thank you for comporting yourself so well, Faye. I'm glad you're learning to be comfortable here." 

"It's a very beautiful prison, Edgar. I'm glad I met your mother. May I go?"

"I had hoped we were past this. You've always been such an old soul. Wise beyond your years."

"You always were fond of pedestals. For your mother, for me, for yourself...I think I'm going to retire to my room."

And she does.

He lets her go.

She needs a chance to cool down, so she can have one.

He decides to give his mother some more time alone.

She continues to plan. From what she remembers of the cadavers she dissected, installing a tongue, lips, and lungs to speak would be prohibitively complex, especially given the clumsiness and slowness of the dead. The best of her ideas so far is a set of embossed letter-stamps for a strip of carbon paper and paper to press against, rolled into position by a wheel, using mostly the same components and connections that extend the muscle-like responsiveness to will to the radio's controls.

(And perhaps when it's done and all the dolls who want to return have been destroyed, and she's made up for designing them in the first place and everyone knows it, she can get to really know Edgar and his fiancé, and they can go out and see everything that's changed about the town. He's made so many dolls, nobody would even stare. And maybe Jasper would have had a change of heart, and waited for her, and they could both go back together.)

Edgar returns (to see his mother!) after giving her some time to think. He knows she does her best thinking undisturbed; his father never interrupted her work.

"Mother? Have you thought of something?"

"(yes) speech muscles, complex fast not good for dolls. raised letter, carbon paper, positioning wheel, lever for pressure, small change from radio control design."

"I'm sure we can do that at low cost. I think I'll leave providing the carbon to the buyers, but we can invest in this."

"Good. We should do a test to make sure it works without unexpected problems. Once they are developed, they should cost less than a radio, without a receiver, recorder, and player. Will need to install other wiring, I made some connections through it."

She turns to look at him. She's improved at moving the doll. "All the dolls will be able to say if they wish to go back."

"...go back?"

"To the afterlife. If they have not created codes. Many might want to return."

"I see. There is an afterlife, then. I had my doubts."

"(yes). I did too. I was there and still do."