It didn't surprise Albert when the person on the other side of the door looked like he was the last person that she expected to show up there. "Albert?" she said with confusion.
"Uh, yeah, hi Louise," he stammered. "Listen, I have a question for you..."
"Is this about the little girl from the stagecoach fire?" She asked, always matter of fact.
"Yeah," he said. "Anna and I...we're not exactly..."
"Good with kids?" She gave a small smile. He remembered when that little smile would have had him walking on air for days – it wasn't like that now, but even as a no longer biased observer, she did have nice smile. "Shocker."
"Would you be able to help us?"
She thought it over a moment. "Bring her down to the school tomorrow, I'll see what she knows, and back when I was in Aubrey Landing, I knew some of the local laws that they used to determine custody cases in a case like this. Usually both of the would be parents write an appeal letter to the local law enforcement and there's some sort of hearing. It shouldn't be a problem unless one of prospective parents doesn't fulfill their obligations or if there's a challenge. But I mean, no one else wants that girl, right?"
"Just some sleazy old men."
Louise wrinkled her nose. "Bring her by the school tomorrow after noon. And Foy left town before Hillenbrand could pay him the money he owed...so now he kinda owes me, you know? I'll get some information for you."
"Thanks, Louise," Albert said. "Really, thank you."
Albert entered the cabin to see Anna and Kace sitting on the floor, broken pieces of glass sheep laying around them. Albert recognized the remnants as a little statuette he'd broken and tossed into a box when he was upset about Louise a year ago. "What's going on?"
"Thought it'd be a little mind stimulation," Anna said. "Putting it back together. Like a puzzle but not flat."
"Oh yeah, three dimensional."
Kace looked up. "It's hard but we're almost done."
"Good," Albert said. "Hey, Anna and I are going to go into our room and talk for a second, you can finish the sheep by yourself?"
The girl nodded. Anna rose, following Albert into the bedroom. "What did Louise say?"
"Shouldn't be a problem," Albert said. "We just each have to write letters stating we want to adopt her and the town's government will vote on whether or not we can take her, since, I don't know, she's in the custody of the town right now techincally..."
"Hold up hold up," Anna said, blinking rapidly. "We have to write letters?"
"Yeah, I mean, nothing long, just that we want to adopt her and why we think we'll be taking good care of her...I'm sure it works differently in other states or in more urbanized areas but the law isn't super enforced out here so..."
"We both have to?"
Albert stopped, cocking his head slightly. "Anna...Anna do..."
She folded her arms. "No, Albert, I don't know how to write."
His jaw unhinged. "You...how?"
"When was I going to learn?" she said. "My parents taught me my name so I could sign my wedding certificate, and that's the same childish signature I scrawled on ours. I can't write a letter! I write letters like you used to shoot guns!"
"Shit," Albert said.
"Is there any way only you can write one?"
"I...I'd have to ask Louise but I don't think so," he said. "Oh gosh. This could actually be a problem."
"No," Anna said firmly. "No, I won't let this be why she ends up with one of those disgusting men." She put a hand firmly on Albert's chest. "You're going to teach me."
Since the movie focused on Albert being taught something he was useless at to Anna, I wanted to reverse that concept for this fic. Let me know what you think!
