Christie never mentioned her mother, never asked about where Diane was or why she didn't come to visit. Christie still had great difficulty with speech, but she grew a little more verbal each week. She talked about Cheryl once she began to feel safer--but not in the context of the shooting. Instead, she remembered past times with her sister, good and bad. Cheryl had always been in trouble, Christie confided--for sucking her thumb, for wetting her bed. Although Christie was only eight when she came to the Slavens, Evelyn was amazed to see that she was used to doing the laundry for a family. "She told me she always had trouble folding her father's pants--because she was too short." Christie had been the mother in her family. Evelyn saw that Christie assumed that's the way it always was--that little girls cooked and did dishes and laundry and babysat. On June 27, Susan Staffel referred Christie Downs to Dr. Carl Peterson, a child psychologist. "Christie is currently living in a shelter home .
