katrea | capsicum

Katie settles in pretty well into the house, and later, when a bed has been obtained, into Lizbeth's room. She wears Lizbeth's hand-me-downs to start, then gets her own clothes; she doesn't have strong opinions about what she should be wearing, but the sizing on Lizbeth's old things isn't really right, and there aren't all that many still lying around anyway.

She has inexplicably tidy handwriting - inexplicably has handwriting at all; inexplicably can spell fifteen words in twenty instead of zero - which she uses, rather a lot. She makes a list of things that are food and magnetizes it to the fridge for reference, adding to it when she locates more things that are food, and when she is trying to tackle complex books she takes notes on who all the characters are so she doesn't have to page backward to remind herself, and she discovers journaling, even though she doesn't have that many events to record.

One day, the event she has to record is: Chris says to morrow she wil go to the DMV and shud not have us ther becas it may take six ours. We wil be baybe sat. If I hav ben baybe sat be for I do not remembre it.

She is curious about the imminent babysitter, and is up bright and early on the day when same may be expected.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

katrea

"What does it do?"

From:

pythbox

Since Gina's lap is full of math, Lizbeth hops off the couch to demonstrate.

"You listen to things with it and it makes them louder," she explains. "Doctors use it to hear if something's wrong with somebody's heart."

From:

katrea

Katie watches. "Hearts make sounds?"

From:

pythbox

"Yeah," says Lizbeth, arranging the stethoscope in its proper configuration with her ears and then looking around for something to listen to. Virginia is still doing math and is therefore a stationary target!

"You can't hear them normally but you can hear them if you use this thing." She addresses Virginia. "Can I listen to your heart?"

From:

more_capable

"Oh, all right."

From:

pythbox

Up she goes.

From:

katrea

Katie follows her and watches.

From:

pythbox

She listens to Virginia's heartbeat thumping along for a while, then disentangles herself from the stethoscope and offers it to Katie. "Wanna try?"

From:

katrea

Katie takes it, imitates the way Lizbeth was wearing it, and attempts heart-listening.

From:

more_capable

Thump-thump. Thump-thump.

From:

katrea

Katie listens to Lizbeth too.

From:

pythbox

Thump-thump, thump-thump!

From:

katrea

Katie listens to herself.

"I think I broke it," she says.

From:

more_capable

"Oh? Let me see," says Virginia, holding out her hand for the stethoscope.

From:

katrea

Katie hands it over. "I didn't hear me thumping. Does it not work on yourself?"

From:

more_capable

"It works just fine on yourself," says Virginia. "As long as you're listening in the right place."

She listens to herself first, to check, and then tries Katie.

From:

katrea

From:

more_capable

"...I'm confused," says Virginia. She looks at Katie. Yes, this is definitely a child who appears to be alive. Moving around, talking, sitting up, not obviously sick or in pain in any way.

From:

katrea

"It's not broken?"

Edited Date: 2013-10-07 06:31 pm (UTC)

From:

more_capable

"It doesn't seem to be," she says. "It's also not picking up a heartbeat from you."

From:

katrea

"I don't go thump?"

From:

more_capable

"You do not go thump."

From:

katrea

"Is... that okay?" asks Katie, peering at Gina's face.

From:

more_capable

"Not usually," she says. "Until today, I thought that the only people who didn't go thump were," she simplifies a little to avoid alarming the three-year-old, "dead. But you're perfectly alive."

Edited Date: 2013-10-07 06:38 pm (UTC)