Deskyl knows the word "watch", and Evelyn will try to convey this instruction by saying it, making an 'eyes here' gesture with two spread fingers pointing at her own eyes, using the eyes-here hand to pivot around as she follows the movement of a finger on her other hand, and then pointing at Deskyl and at the doctor. Does that get it across?  

Yup!

He moves his finger side to side, then up and down, then away from her and toward her, and then turns and picks up a large tuning fork from a tray on the counter. "I'm going to touch this to her fingertips and her wrist, and I need to know if she can feel it buzzing and when she stops being able to."

Hmm. How to communicate that... (Also that's a really weird test, she has no idea what it's supposed to be checking!) 

"Can I borrow that for a moment?" She takes the tuning fork from the doctor, raps it on the back of her chair and lifts it close to her ear. "Sound. Start," she says, very slowly and clearly; she thinks Deskyl knows both those words, but she's less sure 'sound' was covered enough times for her to have retained it, so she does it again and hums along to the note and then repeats "start." 

She presses the tuning fork to her wrist and makes a "bzzzzt" noise with her mouth that she hopes conveys the concept of 'vibrating' and then - tries to point with her chin at her wrist, since both hands are too occupied to point. "Bzzzzzzzt start. .....Bzzzzzt quiet." She waits. "- Bzzzzzzt stops." 

She takes the tuning fork off her wrist and lifts it. "Deskyl do it, Deskyl's turn. Feel," no wait have they covered that word, "- touch bzzzzzt. Tell doctor bzzzzt. Wait, tell doctor bzzzzzzzt stop. Okay?" 

"Okay."

She pulls her hand back reflexively the first time the doctor touches the tuning fork to her finger, with a startled but amused 'bzzt!' The rest of the test is straightforward, and she can feel the fork on all her fingers and at her wrists.

After that, he checks her reflexes by tapping her knees with a rubber mallet (after having Evelyn explain, of course), and has her walk heel-to-toe across the exam room and normally up the hall as far as the next exam room and back.

"And you said she's sleeping normally?"

"- I'm pretty sure she's sleeping the usual number of hours for a child her age. She's not waking in the night as far as I've noticed, or seeming tired when she gets up. She was pretty nocturnal when she first arrived - we thought jet lag, or just that she didn't have a regular bedtime at her home before - but I'm working on getting her back to a normal schedule." 

"All right. I'm not seeing any nerve damage but she does toe-walk in addition to the fine motor skill issues; I'm going to write you a referral for an autism assessment, but you should probably wait until you have a translator to set the appointment up. If she doesn't start sleeping at normal hours, you can try melatonin; I'll write you a prescription for that just in case or you can get it over the counter if you can find a brand that's 300 micrograms. You'll want to give it to her an hour before her bedtime to give it time to work - it's very gentle and mild. Was there anything else?"

Evelyn is - surprised at that - she wouldn't have flagged Deskyl as autistic? Though what does she know, she's not a specialist, and she does know that autism symptoms vary. She's probably disproportionately seen the kids with, well, serious disabilities or behavioral issues, whether because they ended up in care after their family couldn't cope with them anymore, or because they had so little support and treatment in their early years. 

She kind of wants to ask questions but it feels incredibly inappropriate to do it with Deskyl right there, even if she can't understand that much English yet. "No, I don't think so. Melatonin sounds good, I can try in a week if she's not on a normal sleep schedule by then. Are there, uh, any resources for parents you would recommend I go read?" 

"That's not really my area. The neuropsychiatric assessment office's phone number will be on the referral, they might be able to help you out."

"Okay. Thank you." And they can head out and return to the car. 

- the elderly wheelchair lady from before is - not currently in her wheelchair, she looks frail and not entirely steady but she's walking holding her probably-daughter's arm. She waves eagerly at Evelyn. "Your daughter is blessed by God!" 

Uh. What??? ...Evelyn hates this sort of interaction and will just smile politely and wave back and then try to usher Deskyl out before it can get even more awkward. 

Deskyl looks so pleased with herself, but lets Evelyn herd her.

Evelyn is not really going to process that interaction until they're safely in the car and backing out of the parking lot, but - what - that was really weird, actually. Not just the fact that it happened - old people will be old people - but in Deskyl's reaction to it. What happened back there? Does Deskyl have alien supertech medicine implanted in her hands that doesn't even feel like the right kind of theory, separate from how it's ridiculous.  

Evelyn doesn't exactly have the vocabulary to ask about it. She'll drive home in companionable silence. 

Deskyl watches the scenery as they go, still looking smug.

After a few minutes, though, she makes an unhappy noise - it looks like she might be a bit carsick.

Oh no. Evelyn is trying to drive smoothly but it's pretty peak rush hour traffic and there's a lot of start-and-stop. 

She'll pull over into a fast food parking lot as soon as she sees an opportunity, and they can sit for a couple of minutes before they drive the rest of the way? She has a bottle of water she keeps in the glove compartment and can offer it to Deskyl. 

Deskyl's stomach settles after a few sips of water and a few minutes of not being jostled around. "I okay. ...what?..."

"Sometimes when cars go - fast, slow," she makes a hand gesture to try to indicate the stop-and-start traffic, "or - turn lots," dramatic hand-turning gesture, "it makes your eyes confused," ugh Evelyn doesn't think Deskyl knows 'confused' unless she picked it up via a non-worksheet method, it's a pretty abstract word now that she thinks about it. She will try to do a sort of head-wobbling hand-wiggling eyes-popping mime routine that hopefully conveys it. "Then your tummy might feel sick." That at least she has a cached gesture for. 

"Mm. Bad."

"It's not nice! I can open your window," point, "fresh air helps. And deep breaths." She can mime that easily. "And look," eye-pointing gesture, "outside, at things moving, not at the car. So your eyes and tummy," point and point, "both know you're moving." 

She will give Deskyl another couple of minutes before asking-and-miming if she can keep going and drive "slow, gentle". (Conveniently, "gentle hands" is a phrase from one of the worksheets, it was about petting a rabbit but Deskyl should be old enough to generalize.) They're not in a particular hurry or anything, and Evelyn has never gotten carsick - she must have lucked out that way, her sister did when they were little - but she's had the stomach flu and nausea is BAD. 

"Thank you."

She's a bit more subdued for the rest of the ride home, but doesn't get carsick again.

It's lateish for dinner by the time they get home and Evelyn parks and unlocks the front door. "You don't have to eat right away if your stomach is still upset," she's telling Deskyl, "but I bet you'll be ravenous soon, it's nearly seven." 

There's a clatter from the direction of the kitchen, and a voice. "Mom? Where've you been?" 

...Was she expecting Jeremy today? Evelyn definitely didn't have it on the calendar or in the notebook planner she keeps in her handbag, but it's possible she missed a text. Jeremy doesn't exactly tend to wait for her confirmation before showing up. 

"Hey!" she calls out. "Sorry. Appointment went long. I suppose you should meet Deskyl."

Evelyn reaaaaally hopes Deskyl isn't going to be too startled or overwhelmed by having unexpected company after what must have been an exhausting afternoon. She turns to her. "My son Jeremy is here for dinner. Is that all right?" She thinks Deskyl should know enough of those words, if she's speaking slowly. 

"...huh. All right." She's not upset, but does seem just a bit wary, maybe, of Evelyn as much as of Jeremy. Not very wary, though; she heads into the kitchen as soon as she has her shoes put away. "Hi."

"I'm sorry. It would have been good of me to tell you but I didn't realize he was coming, which was probably my mistake." Deskyl knows fewer of those words but maybe enough to get the idea, she should at least know 'I'm sorry' and 'tell you' and 'mistake' from worksheets. 

Jeremy is by the kitchen table, scooping up his fallen bookbag from the floor. He smiles and waves at Deskyl. "I'm Jeremy. I used to live here but I moved out for college."