The total is less than $300, which is not even bad for a monthly Costco run. Evelyn doesn't especially try to hide the electronic payment display from Iomedae but she has her credit card out of her purse in ten seconds and pays very quickly. "I bet you two can get the cart unloaded into the car so fast!" she says, aimed more at Lily than Iomedae. "You're both so strong. - Bye, Pete, have a lovely afternoon." 

Lily is fizzing with energy again. Once the groceries are packed in the trunk and the cart has been restored to its place, she bounces in her booster seat and wants to know if God likes Lego (which she pronounces more like "igguh"). They could build the BIGGEST Lego tower in the WORLD for God. 

Wow that was emotionally exhausting. Mostly the constant conversational subtext and unspoken judgement with Iomedae, though plausibly that was mostly in Evelyn's head and she should get over herself. She's glad Lily is happy, but...just 'but'. She doesn't have an end to that sentence, only vague discomfort. 

Also Iomedae has probably never heard of Lego. "Lego is a kind of children's toy for building. The blocks snap together and stay, so you can built things that hold together, but you can take it apart again later and build different things." 

"I not know if God think things about that. Except that all things we build for our reasons good, if not hurting people."

"Le'bild Igguh tar! Igguh GOOD. I so'you." 

It's not Lily's favorite toy - the barbies are her favorite, because "ba'tu'bee" or Bald Tattoo Barbie (the "tattoos" are because she arrived in Lily's possession pre-scribbled on with Sharpie, and also Lily knew kind of a lot of people with tattoos) is her only toy from before when she was very little and lived in Old Mummy's house with Grandpa.

She also used to have a "be'ky", a very old faded pilled baby blanket. Be'ky was a versatile toy. Rolled up he could be a baby to cuddle, folded he could be a bed for Bald Tattoo Barbie, or he could be a lake or a table to eat a picnic or a cloud to rain and thunder, or he could be a magic thing that Bald Tattoo Barbie would hide under in Lily's bed and go somewhere else so that she wasn't there when bad things happened. The magic wasn't big enough for Lily too but at least she could think about how Bald Tattoo Barbie was far away. But her new mummy though be'ky was yucky and the smell didn't even come out in the wash, and anyway Bald Tattoo Barbie doesn't need special magic at new Mummy's house. 

Well, they can drive home and put away groceries that need immediate put-away-ing, with Lily directing Iomedae on what to carry where. (The eggs and bread should stay out on the counter so Evelyn can slice and repack as needed. She also puts the bread in reused produce bags because the Costco bakery bags have the texture of cellophane and tiny holes in them and are not proof against freezer burn.) 

And meanwhile Lily can show Iomedae the duffel bag of Lego in the lounge!

At this point the collection, accumulated over many years including some that dates back to Evelyn's own childhood, does fill most of a carry-on-sized duffle bag. It lives in one because it's one of the toys Evelyn is most likely to want to take somewhere for a playdate or birthday party, and then inevitably slightly regret her life choices when she spends an hour finding wayward pieces. It's been added to over the years by birthday presents - Jeremy loved Lego sets as a preteen and Evelyn doesn't buy them new but her parents and her sister would - and of course Evelyn compulsively buys any Lego that shows up at Goodwill.

There's a LOT. 

This is the kind of thing that is according to Iomedae's theological education clearly a worthy human endeavor but it's deeply unclear how it'd feature in any story in which they conquer the Evil afterlives and so Iomedae finds it intrinsically unappealing. She can sit with Lily and build a tower and try to pick up more English, though.

Evelyn joins them after the food is put away. (Lily has a much better time with Lego if her Mummy can find specific pieces for her on demand, and Iomedae isn't going to be familiar enough with Lego yet.) 

There's a lot of new vocabulary that comes up! Iomedae can learn about firemen - like police but they put out fires in buildings, and have special fireproof suits and drive around in a fire truck with sirens and a big hose to spray water) - and cowboys, and football players, and the difference between doctors and nurses, and Star Wars, which is pretty high context to explain but Evelyn hopefully manages to convey that it's a pretend story and not real. 

"God go the stars!" is what Iomedae has to say about Star Wars. "The people in the stars also should save."

Lily loves this. "Go'go s'ars! SOfah. SO'bg." 

Evelyn kind of wishes Iomedae would stop teaching Lily catchy phrases that will raise a lot of questions when she inevitably shouts them in the schoolyard, but Lily is happy and it's fine and she needs to get over herself. 

They can build a big tower, and by then it's 3:30 pm. How about they have a snack, and then make a quick Walmart trip so that Iomedae can pick up a few outfits that fit her and are in a style she likes? And then they'll make dinner together, and Jeremy is coming over to eat with them. He's excited to meet Iomedae and can maybe tell her about college, which is the school people can do after high school to get different jobs. Jeremy hasn't decided what job he wants to do yet but he's thought about lots of options and can tell Iomedae about them too. 

Iomedae is wary of the introduction to Evelyn's grown son. Evelyn has been nonspecific about the actual authority she is acknowledged to have over Iomedae here, but it's obviously a lot, and her grown son of course exercises the same, and it's deeply unclear to whom Iomedae'd appeal if she disliked any liberties he took with that, and if it got to the point where she'd appeal to her sword she does not have her sword.

She is not very good at concealing what she thinks of anything, but she'll nod politely about these plans for the rest of the day. "Yes, ma'am."

Iomedae is uncomfortable and Evelyn doesn't have the slightest idea what about, it could be the thought of spending money on clothes, or - that she's not supposed to be in private with unrelated men? Isn't that a religious-people thing sometimes? Ugh. There is absolutely no non-awkward way to bring it up with Lily right there - the fact that she can't circumlocute on age-inappropriate topics because of Iomedae's limited vocabulary is a surprisingly frustrating barrier - and if it's not that and it's just the clothes, she doesn't want to make it salient. 

They can have cheese and crackers and carrot sticks with ranch dip, and then get back in the car to head to Walmart. 

Lily loves Walmart! It's not as big as Costco but it has more toys and it has princess dresses. 

Walmart too is a great achievement of civilization (why have two markets? Wouldn't it be more profitable to have everyone in one place so people can wander between vendors?) but Iomedae finds clothes shopping stressful. She cannot identify the fabrics by touch and doesn't know which ones will be sufficiently long-lasting, and what she wants are loose, labor-friendly, modest overshirts and pants, in a grey that won't show dirt too quickly, and undershirts fitted to support her breasts, which is definitely going to require a tailor. 

"Where...is the tailor."

Evelyn laughs nervously. "We can't really afford a tailor, love. If you need your pants hemmed or something, I've got an old sewing machine." A very old sewing machine, it was her mother's, but if anything Evelyn prefers it to more recent models. It's probably going to last long enough to hand off to Jeremy's wife, when he gets married, assuming he does get married (he's either not into the dating scene or very secretive about it) and his wife even wants to sew. 

They can afford to buy her enough clothes she can wear fresh ones every day but not a tailor to make the clothes fit???

"I can sew, if sewing is the thing I think. Which of these fabrics last ten year in the sun?"

Wow, what a good question that Evelyn does not at all know the answer to. ...She does know which clothes could at least survive several sessions of Jeremy's football practice and still be in adequate condition to end up in the ottoman spares rather than as rags once he grew out of them, but she's pretty sure Walmart is not the place you go for really durable clothing, and the places you do go - sports stores? camping stores? - are a lot more expensive and not where she usually shops. 

"I don't know if it needs to last ten years, love, you're probably not done growing. But I'll show you the ones my son used for sports practice." They're in the boys' section, cargo pants and shorts made of heavy sturdy cloth - she's not sure what the kind is called, it's not literally canvas - in a cotton-polyester blend. "Do these look okay, if you can find a pair that more or less fits? We can take them up if they're too long in the legs." 

"I no done growing but I buy big clothes, then still fit when done growing." She will take the cargo pants, and a shirt in the same style if they have it, and she's not going to buy good clothes for church unless Evelyn orders her to because until she can have her knife she feels sick at the thought of looking like a young woman. Holy warriors go to church armored and no one questions it because they are holy warriors.

They don't have shirts in the exact same fabric and style but they have ones in a slightly softer and stretchier but still thick fabric that Evelyn says are durable. Iomedae can find clothes that fit her with room to spare. Evelyn would like her to take at least two pairs.  

"- Right, and we should probably look at sports bras, you're an active girl." Iomedae is the last kid she can picture wearing a push-up bra. Evelyn is dreading the face she's going to make about that section of Walmart. 

Honestly at first she is just confused about how you would wear those and what they are for!!

"...harness for metal clothes?" she asks Evelyn confusedly after examining a sports bra a while. "I sold my metal clothes."

Evelyn actually has no idea what Iomedae is talking about there! (She does not really have 'plate armor' as an available guess.) 

"No, it's - for wearing under normal clothes, it helps women be more comfortable when running or doing sports, by -" She cups her (rather larger and saggier-when-not-enbra'd) breasts and jumps up and down a bit to try to demonstrate the lack of bouncing. Her cheeks are flaming. 

"Huh. I can try it." She thinks it is utterly bizarre to dye underclothes which hopefully no one will ever see, and these are dyed some fairly outlandish colors. She picks out the least obtrusive one. 

Honestly it's really weird to, instead of being relieved and pleased that a teenage girl is choosing sensible clothing and not inappropriate lingerie, be vaguely uncomfortable about the implications. Evelyn hides this reaction, of course. She can point Iomedae at the right section for plain sensible sports bras in teen-girl sizes and white or beige coloring.