Then one evening Ivy took a toy car out of Ann's hand and walked away with it. Ann immediately got out of her chair and followed her mother, trying to snatch the car from her. The following evening they did the same thing. But this time Jack held Ann and Ivy walked upstairs with the little care and put it on the toilet floor.
When Jack let her go she leapt from her chair, ran upstairs, went into the toilet and picked up the car. It was the first time in her life that Ann had entered that little room of her own free will. Ivy had killed two bird with one stone. In her intense eagerness to regain possession of the toy Ann had completely forgotten her fear of going into the toilet on her own.
Over the next few days they were to try the same little ploy over and over agaiin and finally, but slowly, they got her to come to them when they called. After that it was a ssimple matter to discard the car entirely and just call her name. Slowly she came to them.
But for all their success they realised that they were putting an appalling burden on the child and on themselves. Everything that a normal child learned in the process of growing up, Ann would have to be tought. Everything they thought natural and commonplace they would have to show her, lead her to it and try to make her understand.The weight of responsobility was tremendous. They still didn't know for sure that they were doing the right thing and as yet they were too afraid to tell anyone. It was still so frighteningly possible that everything they were doing was wrong and harmful to the child.
However, they perserved and day after gruelling day they would take her from her chair and drag her around the house pointing out objects and repeating their name over and over again.
At time they would kneel down in front of her, take her hand and put it on her nose and say "nose". First Jack then Ivy then Leonard and Leslie. Each one in turn would take that reluctant hand and put it on her face and say "nose". The would even repeat the actions in their troubled sleep, it had become so automatic.
The response appeared to be nil. Ann would snatch her hand away whenever she could and put it behind her back. But the breakthrough when it came was, in a way, unremarkable.
One day Leslie went up to her and said almost in parrot-fashion: "Where is your nose, Ann?" Just as he was about to take her hand and put it to her face, the little girl did it herself.
Their delight knew no bounds. They loved her and hugged her. Now they started on teaching her to point to her eyes, her mouth, and her ears. And somehow it all proved so simple. She responded within a week and would answer the command immediately.
They progressed from there to objects in the house until she knew the sink in the kitchen so well that she became obsessed with drinking water!
Then one day Leonard asked Jack if he could have a dog. He loved animals and would spend hours looking enviously at the other pets in their neighbourhood. Jack had told him that they would consider buying a dong, but since then he had put off the idea every time it was raised. They knew that Ann had come a long way. She had conquered many of her fears, but they were minor compared to the terror she appeared to have for dogs.
If they brought a dog into the house the consequesnces could prove disastrous. Or it could achieve n undreamed of leap forward in Ann's sgruggle for normality.
They decided to give it a try.
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