With the library lady’s help, Raine had located the books on child development. Some of them were thick enough to knock a person out and had some pretty big words. It was somewhat alarming how much there seemed to be to know about babies growing up, when she’d always assumed that they just kind of got on with it. Still, the library lady had found a book that was thinner and friendlier than the others, and it had useful lists. She was allowed to use a copying charm on the pages so long as she didn’t copy more than ten percent of a book – this was usually about the same amount as one chapter, the library lady had said, and anyway not to worry, because the book would stop her when she reached that point. It had been nice, the way she’d said it, like it was just a normal thing that she said to everyone and not because she’d seen Raine look panic-stricken at the thought of trying to calculate something.
Raine hadn’t had much time to read to Summer because looking at the development books had taken a long time and made her head hurt, and she felt bad about that, but given that the library really hadn’t been that scary, she thought they might come back another day. She had gone home feeling like she was helping, armed with a series of checklists and a new found sense of optimism. It hadn’t lasted long. She looked at the lists. She looked at Summer. And they didn’t match. It was one thing for her to be behind Dora cos Dora was older, but the list said ‘six months’ and Summer was now eight months and she wasn’t ticking all the boxes. Raine hadn’t bothered copying the ones any lower, but she wondered if Summer was even doing those. It didn’t help that Raine sometimes didn’t know what the things meant or, even if she did, she had no idea how to help Summer do the ones she wasn’t able to do.
Sometimes, everything seemed fine. Sometimes Summer was happy and smiling and would laugh, especially when they sang to her, which made Raine feel bad for thinking anything was wrong, because she seemed to be a happy enough little thing, and she was just a baby. And equally, she would sometimes she would be cheeky little pain in the butt and grab at Raine’s hair or her jewellery. But a lot of the time, she just seemed not to care. She didn’t want the toys people brought her. She didn’t seem particularly fussed about going anywhere – not by herself, anyway, she loved being carried about, or taken for broom rides, but she still wasn’t crawling and didn’t seem bothered by her lack of access to the world around her. She would just happily chew her fingers, or whatever else was given to her, and smile and laugh.
The lists were divided up into pretty small intervals. And at nine months, Summer still wasn’t ticking all of her six month list… Raine didn’t think three months sounded like long, but she remembered what Professor Xavier had said about how much time it was to Summer. She began to start seriously talking to her mom. She wasn’t sure how to raise it. Summer’s mom was pretty chill, and they got on okay, but Raine didn’t think there was a nice way to tell someone they ought to take their baby to the doctor because their baby wasn’t behaving right. Her reaction was more passive than angry. She seemed surprised that there was anything to keep track of, or that Raine was indeed keeping track. She shrugged off the news that Summer ought to be doing these things, figuring she’d get there eventually. But she liked Raine. And she didn’t have as much against Authorities as the rest of the family. She could also see that maybe a nice person who specialised in baby stuff wasn’t the same as the people who spot searched travelling families or decided that their kids had to go to ‘proper school.’ The last one had made Raine a bit nervous. If Summer wasn’t doing well, would they take her away and give her to someone better? She honestly had no idea, and she couldn’t promise that They wouldn’t because she’d never really known who They were or how They operated, only that They could not be trusted. The thing was, if they didn’t take Summer to see anyone, she might never get better. If there was anything wrong. Which maybe there wasn’t. Maybe it was just Raine worrying… But if there was, then it might not get better by itself. And, she reasoned (eventually, with head hurting from going around in circles), then surely it would be better if they knew?