That....is an incredibly Iomedae-shaped and moderately upsetting way to express - well - a feeling that Evelyn is, yeah, pretty sure she's felt almost every day for the last twenty years. She's halfway through thinking of a response–

- wait okay what????? 

"...I don't know. I - that doesn't feel like–

...I think I would have to Google whether there are countries that used to have a foster care system and stopped having one? I know there are - countries that just don't have a foster care system, though usually because they're very poor. I....think it's usually worse, probably?" 

"Worse for children Lily probably. Lots better for Alfirin and me, because no one bother us so long as we follow law."

"Maybe I sayed it wrong? What happen if America still have foster care system, but nobody be foster parent. Is government make people be foster parent even if they not want? Or is government kill foster childs? Or is government stop stealing foster childs?

These poor kids have such a concerning understanding of how anything works. It's...an understandable question to ask, though. She hasn't been asked specifically that before, but 'what if, instead, there wasn't a foster care system' is a sentiment she's heard from multiple kids, including a much younger Emily.

Also, something is going on with Iomedae and Evelyn has no idea what.

"...The government definitely wouldn't kill children, that - does the opposite of solving the problem we're trying to solve. They might pay us more? That's the usual way of getting people to do a job no one likes. There would probably be more institutions and group homes - uh, big buildings where a lot of children live, with staff who come in for work and go home at the end, like the people who work at the food bank. And - yeah, probably somewhat fewer children would end up in foster care. I - think a lot of them are like Lily, and it would be much worse." 

"So if nobody be foster parent, government still steal lots childs and put them in worse place." She doesn't really understand what's wrong with Lily or what the best way to help her is, but - she's met four foster children, now, and only Lily was like Lily.

Iomedae is tracing a careful line through several of her ill-articulated indignations and seeing God and has more or less dropped the thread of the conversation. It seems like Alfirin was slightly reassured, anyway.

Whaaaaaaaaat is up with Iomedae. Evelyn is so confused. 

"...Yeah. I - if there weren't social workers then I think a lot fewer children would go into foster care, because social workers are - the people who actually visit homes and see if children are being hurt by their parents or aren't being fed. I think a hundred years ago, that was - probably something the government didn't do or see as its problem? But - the thing is, social workers don't only take children away from their parents. I think they actually try pretty hard not to jump to that, when they're doing their jobs right. They can help families get money from the government, if the parents are too sick to work, and give the family support in other ways. I don't think it would be a better world if there were no social workers. ...It might be a better world for you and Iomedae if America had decided that people were adults at fourteen and not eighteen, but - I really think you and Iomedae are unusually...grown-up, for your age." 

"I think Americans our age are unusually childs." That might not have been wise to say and...maybe she should stop.

"I am unusually adult my age, God mostly pick older holy warriors because if a holy warrior not very careful it very bad. Alfirin is normal grown up my age, for Taldor. 

I think I see a bit of - honor and God - and why the behavioral health exam about parents hitting is not of God."

"I guess that's how it would look from your side of things! I think - people do have to grow up faster, probably, in places that are poorer than America. I think people in America had to grow up faster a hundred years ago, when the country wasn't as rich. ...I have to admit that I usually think of that as a bad thing, but - I think it's less bad, probably, if it's normal and what's expected of everyone? And it does actually seem like it wasn't bad for either of you." 

Okay what. 

"- Yes?" she says to Iomedae. 

"They sayed the behavioral health exam for seeing if we sick and how we feeling. But if we say a wrong thing, like that parents hit us, and parents live America not Sarkoris, behavioral health questions maybe use to steal childs. Right?" 

Wow she does not have the slightest idea what this is about. It seems really important to Iomedae, and it's making Evelyn feel incredibly off-balance that she doesn't understand why and doesn't know - what direction to steer in - 

"Sometimes, yeah. Being hit by their parents affects how children feel! It's - it wouldn't be enough by itself to take a kid's siblings into foster care, necessarily, just to send someone to talk to them and investigate - though the situation with you is pretty unusual, usually the investigation is first, and if the social worker thinks the kids are being hurt then all of them would go into foster care. ...I guess it would have been more fair of me to explain why they might ask about that? I'm sorry I didn't. There - keeps being kind of a lot I need to explain." 

"I think a holy warrior God would send away, if they do this. If a holy warrior say, the behavioral health exam for seeing if we sick, then they no can take answers and steal children. They can say 'this test we make you tell us things, we use answer any way we want', then ask questions to steal children, that is - well, maybe it is evil, but it is not dishonorable. I trying to say a thing about dishonor, no about evil. But if a holy warrior say the test is to see if you are sick then it is only for that. 

I feel the same about how I bring Martin to a church for healing and they make me a slave. I think even if I was no a holy warrior, and was a slave runned away, a church at home if I bring a man for healing would say to me 'we no will give you safety here, because we must follow law', would no pretend I safe get me to stay until the law come. I could be wrong because maybe the church at home only good to me because holy warrior and I guess wrong how they would act if I was a runned away slave. Maybe is silly think anyone have honor to a runned away slave. But - but I think I know what Scripture says and I think I know what holy warrior have to do. 

If a holy warrior say 'the test is good for you, for see if you sick, you should do it Alfirin', they mean - that the test no will use to find Alfirin sisters and brothers. Even if the holy warrior think Alfirin brothers and sisters being evilly treated, God will send the holy warrior away, if they say to Alfirin 'the test is good for you' and they mean 'the test we use to steal your sisters and brothers but that is good', that is lying because - because Alfirin does not think it is good to steal her sisters and brothers. Even if the holy warrior thinks it is really good to steal the brothers and sisters, the holy warrior is still lying, because Alfirin does not think so.

Is there a way to say 'you can do this test but only to see if I is sick, you can not use the test for any other things?' And have them do that?"

This is way too much weird complicated philosophy to handle while driving. 

"I– there are rules about what doctors are allowed to do with medical information, and they mostly aren't allowed to share it with other people. They're not allowed to - tell your colleagues at work that you're sick, for example. There are just a lot of specific exceptions where the law is that they're required to tell certain people, and - a lot of those are for kids, which in America means people under eighteen. The ones that apply for adults too are if you tell a doctor you're planning to try to kill yourself or someone else, and - some stuff about contagious diseases? I - think it's hard, right, deciding what the best laws are to have, and I do get that making it the law that a doctor needs to tell CPS if they think a child's parents hurt them, means that children who know that might avoid telling the doctor the truth because they don't want to go into foster care, and then they can't get any help, including help they would want to have. And I know for a fact that adults who are depressed and thinking about killing themselves sometimes lie to doctors about it. I...guess the people who made the laws in America decided it was worth it, but I get that it's complicated. 

- also the fact that it's complicated means you didn't know, and it's on me that I didn't explain more. I'm sorry." 

Evelyn thinks Iomedae is angry at her. Iomedae isn't. It's a complicated point; in a world without paladins, where educated people think the gods aren't real, how would you notice it? How would you see that there's something there which is - the foundation of all civilization, Scripture says, is the principles that allow people to find those agreements that benefit both of them when agreeing on nothing at all -

Does a blood test make it obvious that a person is from another world? Not a safe question to speak aloud. Probably a safe question to think; if they had mind reading here, Evelyn's explanation of how they know about rape wouldn't be that sometimes the rapists make portraits of themselves in the act. 

Iomedae's family like most families claim that they have some distant angelic or sun genie or gold dragon ancestry and what if it's true and shows up in a test of her relatives and has implications in America? 

How many things like that are there that she isn't smart enough to think about in time?

"I am not angry," she says. "There are lots of confusing things, and it - not easy see why this one different than if snakes are hoses. Most people not holy warriors and is silly mad they not holy warriors, and I did not knowed this myself. And if I had knowed sooner how doctors work I have done a thing that you think is very bad for me, and you care about me, and it is a very hard thing to ask, ask to tell someone something that will make them make bad choices.

I think I going do civil disobedience about all doctor things. The blood test and pee test and vaccinations and thing that make me not have babies. This is not because you did not tell me, it is because the doctors cannot promise they only checking if I am sick. I do not like disobeying you and I am sorry and I agree to punishment."

Evelyn is SO CONFUSED and - she's missing something, there's an implication lurking underneath Iomedae's baffling decision and she can't see it - also she should probably not be finding it incredibly endearing that Emily taught them the phrase 'civil disobedience' and Iomedae is now going around using it for literally any refusal to go along with the system's expectations. 

Iomedae is scared and Evelyn has no idea what she's scared of. It doesn't make sense for her to be scared that her siblings will be taken away, there aren't any concerns about her parents' parenting standards, aside from the extreme poverty of a third world country - actually, scratch that, this is obvious to Evelyn but it might not be obvious to Iomedae, who clearly keeps feeling blindsided by the way that things work in America. Maybe it's just that? That Iomedae's attempts to cooperate with the system have unpredictably led to consequences she considers terrible for her? 

...That doesn't feel like everything. Whaaaaaaat is Evelyn missing??? 

Focus. 

"It's okay," she says. "I'm not going to be angry or punish you for - not being comfortable with medical treatment you don't understand, when you've had a lot of bad experiences already where you went along with things you didn't understand. I think we should keep working on your English, and once you can read, you can go look things up about how vaccines and blood tests and stuff work, and decide for yourself rather than trusting me that nothing bad will happen. I - know I'm not perfect at understanding what things you would think are bad things to happen, and - it's understandable that that means you aren't willing to trust me on things like that." 

Refusing the vaccines might actually be a pretty big problem? She's not sure Iomedae will be allowed to go to school if she's unvaccinated. At least the food bank didn't ask for proof of vaccination. But - it's still not okay to force medical interventions on a child who doesn't want them, Evelyn thinks, and it's probably not that urgent, Iomedae has been unvaccinated in America for six months. 

Wow she was definitely expecting this to be a lot harder than that.

“….thank you, ma’am.”

Evelyn continues to be very confused about what on earth just happened there, but - it seems like it wasn't a disaster? It feels like she just made progress, somehow, even if she cannot at all put her finger on what kind of progress or in what direction. 

"I think Diel is going to be worried about you refusing the standard medical stuff," she says quietly. "I'll do my best to manage that and make it not a problem." Maybe she can pass it off as a religious objection? It seems kind of insane for Iomedae's conception of God to be against vaccines, but Diel doesn't know that. 

And they can drive home the rest of the way. 

Iomedae tries to conceal that she is praying for the rest of the car ride home.

It's a trafficky time of day; they don't pull into the driveway until nearly 5:45. 

Jeremy is in the kitchen with Lily, supervising a pot of chili on the stove and blasting Katy Perry on the stereo; they're both doing silly dances. 

He turns down the volume when Evelyn and the girls come in. "Fun time at the food bank?" 

"I think I like it more than picking fruits because it is so cold in the building, you can work very fast and not have the heat get too much. Of course, picking fruit gets pay so it is better."

"Huh! I hadn't pictured it being, like, a workout." Jeremy grins. "Maybe once Diel gets around to sorting out your paperwork, you can switch to a paid position there? Mom, how long does that take, will she do it faster if you nag her?" 

"I don't think the holdup is Diel, I think she has to submit forms and stuff and then it's just processing times? And Diel has a lot on her plate, I'd rather not nag her." 

"It is not illegal for them to hire me even once I have papers? The men on the truck sayed that I could not go on the truck because maybe if I got hurt I would sued them."

"I don't know if they could hire you for truck-related work, but you can definitely get some jobs, and more once you're sixteen. ...Do you actually know when your birthday is? I don't know what they put down in the system for you."