But she will call her 'love'! Annie isn't complaining, just thinks that's weird.

She goes to sleep.

Evelyn would acknowledge if this were pointed out to her that this might seem weird to someone who didn't grow up on a local English dialect where cashiers at the supermarket and the owner of the local corner shop would call you 'love.' She is mostly not even consciously aware of this aspect of her vocabulary.

She doesn't have a huge amount to add to her log notes, though she updates to say that Annie's self-care skills are indeed good - very good for a child her age - and she didn't at this moment have any suspicious bruises that wouldn't be explained by being a child who trips frequently. She ate well at dinner and continues to be quite self-sufficient and a pleasure to look after. She likes classic children's literature.

(Evelyn doesn't put this in the official log notes, but she wonders if Annie knows how to write, and if so whether she would like the idea of writing stories of her own. She seems to have the imagination for it, and it might be a good way of - expanding her world a little bit, giving her more activities that aren't limited by being three and visually impaired. Maybe writing is harder with her blindness, but there's got to be an accommodation they can figure out.) 

She spends a while googling for more classic children's literature and makes a list of books she doesn't currently own but that the library might have. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, though she should ask the librarian if that's age-appropriate, she hasn't read it. Charlotte's Web. Evelyn loved that as a kid and isn't actually sure why she doesn't have it, maybe the copy from their childhood collection went to her sister instead. The Phantom Tollbooth. Peter Pan. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Google also pulls up Beverly Cleary and Judy Bloom and Roald Dahl and the Boxcar Children series, which Evelyn hadn't really thought of as "classic" children's lit per se, and she isn't sure if Annie would like them as much. 

She goes to bed at 11. And sets an alarm at 6 in case that's Annie's natural wakeup time, though unlike the George's she's not going to shake her out of bed if she isn't awake yet. 

Annie may or may not have been awake before the alarm started chirping but she is AWAKE AND SCREAMING NOW.

Aaaaah???!!!

Wait are you kidding is that music, wow - okay focus alarm OFF - and scramble up to grab her dressing gown and go check on Annie - this disability is SIGNIFICANTLY WORSE than Evelyn thought, she - okay she didn't in fact consider whether the alarm was a problem but she would super not have called it music, it's just one of those cheap digital alarm clocks that has a couple different alarm sounds and Evelyn likes the one that repeats a couple of different beeps in a pattern rather than just being "beep beep beep" on a single tone. Aaaaah. Do car alarms count as music because they have more than one 'note'? Maybe "beep beep beep" on a single tone ALSO counts as music because you could technically have a very boring song that was the same note over and over? Aaaaughhhh. 

Is Annie still screaming by the time she reaches her room? 

Nope, she's in the fetal position on the floor, catching her breath.

Well, if she's not screaming then Evelyn isn't going to barge into her room uninvited. She knocks.

"I'm really, really sorry. May I come in?" 

"Mm-hm."

Evelyn slips in and sits down on the floor, not that close to Annie. Waits a few seconds until Annie's breath seems more caught. 

"I wasn't thinking and I'm so sorry. Though if that counted as music - it was just my alarm, and it's the beepy kind not the kind that plays the radio - I think I might not be thinking of all the other things that would count. Let me know when you're feeling a bit better and maybe we should try to make a list?" 

"It's over when it's over." She sits up. "There's a lot of music in the world."

"...Yeah." Evelyn will grit her teeth and only ever listen to music on headphones, but - god, it's going to be awful if she ends up having a second child here. Things that play music: probably 100% of kids' TV shows, educational games, nearly all toys that make noise at all. "It must make it pretty hard to go places that aren't home?" Grocery stores play music. People drive around in their cars blasting the stereo. This particular part of Annie's disabilities seems like it's going to be way more restrictive on her life than the visual impairment. 

"I wouldn't put it that way because I am three and a half years old and can easily be taken places whenever convenient for others by physical force."

Wow.

"I realize that physically speaking I could pick you up and haul you to the grocery store and wheel you around in the shopping cart while the grocery store plays elevator music and you scream in agony the entire time, but I'm not going to. - I can't promise I would never, if there were an emergency, but not just as a matter of course, and I'm so sorry that your previous family thought it was - fine, to do that to you. If I have to go shopping I'll ask my grownup son Jeremy to babysit you here, he's police-checked so he can help me out with that. I just -" Sigh. "I want you to have the usual fun childhood experiences and activities, you know? And I might be able to find a playgroup or a swimming pool that doesn't play music - or get a doctor's note and convince them to switch it off while you're there - but I really can't guarantee getting you there without driving past someone playing their car stereo." 

"Yeah. I think that when I am a grownup I should probably live somewhere rural."

...Nod. 

"It doesn't necessarily have to wait until you're an adult. I mean, I obviously can't move, but - there are probably potential adoptive or foster families who live rurally. Not as many, and I would want there to be a lot of screening, to make sure it's a family who would treat you well and support your education, but - it's an option I could push for, if you decide that it's what you want." 

"They could also just ignore me. I think I would do very well being ignored as long as there was food in the fridge and I could get to the library."

This child has concerningly low standards, oof. 

"I think ideally children need more than that. And it's probably pretty inconvenient to get to a good library if you live out in the country, so I think your parents would need to be prioritizing it. I suppose you could do all right if you had an Amazon Kindle and internet connection, as long as they were willing to pay for books for you." 

"Yeah, that would work fine. I'm not sure I need the same things as normal children."

"Why do you think you don't need the same things as normal children? - I mean, I know you haven't really had the things that most children have, and you're - used to what you know - but I don't think that means it wouldn't be better for you to have a loving family and a happy childhood." 

"I am introverted, precociously mature, self-motivated, and inconvenient to have around."

"- I know it probably feels that way, but - Annie, I think you're lovely to have around. You're clever and curious and have interesting thoughts about books, and in a lot of ways you're very easy to take care of, because you're so mature and self-motivated and you can tell me what you need and what you enjoy." And she's tiny and cute but Evelyn isn't going to say that, it's not like Annie is doing it on purpose and if anything it's probably frustrating to her to look three. "Besides, even kids who are actually inconvenient to have around - and I look after a lot of kids more inconvenient than you, trust me - still deserve a home and a family, and - I'm in this job because I want them to have that." 

"I don't mean I'm effortful, if I were I wouldn't do so well if ignored. I just mean you can't have music on and can't take me practically anywhere."

"- The music is an adjustment, but mostly because I clearly keep missing things that count– speaking of that I should unplug the doorbell, it's about as music-y as the alarm was. It's not going to ruin my life to use headphones, and if anything it's good for me to read more instead of watching TV. And it's - not really inconvenient for me that I can't take you with me on errands, if Jeremy can't watch you then I'll ask one of my foster parent friends to come over. I mostly think it's inconvenient for you." 

"Isn't having to negotiate childcare logistics inconvenient for you? - I'm not being neurotic about how burdensome I am, I'm just observing that, objectively, I am not convenient."

"- Maybe a little, but - that's like saying that doing laundry for children is inconvenient, or cleaning up their messes, or driving them to school, or taking them to doctor's appointments. If I minded things like that I wouldn't have picked a job that involved looking after children. I like looking after children. It does mean I have to reorganize my life around it a bit, but - in exchange I get to have a kid around! And I think the least we can aim for is that whoever you end up living with until you're grown up, they think having a clever interesting little girl like you in their life is more than worth some inconvenience." 

"I think anyone who would be willing to take me and good at it unlike the Georges would probably also be a good home for somebody else in my place, and those are scarce. But probably there is not actually such good central allocation of foster parents that can find ones who are benignly neglectful and assign me those, I suppose."