Poor little baby. I think her last weeks were just hell on earth and it breaks my heart. I do think she had a broken arm... or, at the very least... her arm was dislocated. Either could happen easily if an adult yanked on her arm in anger because she wasn't doing "what she was supposed to do... what she had been told to do" during a flare up of temper on her caregiver's part.
If she had an injury like that, her mother might decide the baby needed to be kept out of sight from everyone else... at least until she could "figure out what to do." But, of course, there's only one thing to do and that's take the baby to the ER but I think that's something MB wasn't willing to do. That would ruin everything. So, instead, she kept the baby confined somewhere out of sight. That would allow MB to continue her relationship with her new boyfriend and also keep her family in the dark.
Was Evelyn kept back at the trailer... confined to one room... and kept groggy or deeply asleep by her being medicated? Medication would be handy to have if the baby kept crying due to a severely injured arm and might keep her asleep during the entire "boyfriend time."
MB runs back to check on the baby as often as she can in he beginning. She tries to get the baby to eat something and changes her diaper... gives some more medication and leaves again as soon as the baby falls back to sleep. (or as soon as she agreed to return according to boyfriend's schedule) But, this can't go on... And that scenario wouldn't go on for very long before the baby would just pass away. She would be hardly eating anything at all, imo, due to the medication, pain, fear and she might have vomited and become dehydrated and weak fairly quickly. Even if she does sleep through the night, nobody comes right away when she cries in the morning. Sooner, more likely than later, MB comes home and the baby has died... what a shock. <sarc>
Time to change the scenery for Act Two. Gather up all the baby's toys, clothing... oh! ...and, of course the baby, too! Mustn't forget the baby. Stuff everything into a large plastic box and hide it in your (father's?) outbuilding storage area and just..... drive away. It's like a bad play. That's all I can compare this to. A Play of some sort... so far from the normal person's sense of reality that it's more like fiction.
Act Two begins when the curtain is raised on the new boyfriend's apartment with MB living there. The last place where mother and baby lived is gone... and MB goes on with life as though nothing has happened and nobody is really missing. Nobody's dead... the baby's just with her father now and she's a very good baby and isn't mean at all.
Shades of CA.
This is all speculation but this is what I think happened. I look forward to the day when Evelyn has her day in court. She won't be forgotten and she'll have justice but it's bittersweet because she's gone forever and I don't think she would be if the injury, which I believe she suffered (speculation) had been taken care of properly as a good person would do for any injured cat or dog.
