But if The Two Weeks became a Stitch in Time, is it possible to still save nine? Perhaps four? Remember that Vermillion claimed that she had been in Gertie Wright’s house on two different occasions. She dates the second visit the week of October 15th. Actually, October 15th was a Friday, so it’s an odd way to put this. Why wouldn’t she say…the week of October 11th? Or even the week of October 10th? What she is doing is placing her visit to Gertie’s house at the same time as Barbara Sander’s visit. But is that all? Does she really care about the Nurse’s visit? And did Mrs. David Sanders tell us the truth about why she was in Gertrude’s house on October 15th? Maybe Phyllis is dating her own visit to the house based on a different person’s visit to Gertrude’s house. Vermillion will give it away:

Q. Did Mrs. Baniszewski say anything else to Sylvia at this time?

A. Yes, she told her - if you are pregnant, I am going to kill you - and so then she went - this was in the conversation we were having at the table drinking coffee, and she said she had not had a period for three months and she thought she was pregnant.

This sounds familiar. No, not just the “Sylvia is pregnant” element. In fact, Vermillion is telling us something very important. And it’s easy to miss it. If I’m right about what Vermillion is doing, then she is telling us that Lester and Betty Likens lied about one of the most important dates in the chronology. And! If this is the case, then she has actually taken The Two Weeks and turned it into The Eleven Days. Vermillion used the date October 15th, and then combined it with Gertrude saying that Sylvia had missed several periods. And now let’s hear from Gertie herself:

Q. To refresh your recollection, Mrs. Baniszewski, you remarked something about October 15, that was the second last question. Your answer was, "I remember Jenny and Sylvia's father was there". Go on from there.

A. They were there that evening.
Q. Who was there that evening?
A. Jenny and Sylvia's father and mother.

So Lester and Betty Likens said that the last time the saw Sylvia alive was October 5th. Gertrude said it was October 15th. So who is lying? I’m inclined to believe Gertrude on this point. Why?

Q. Was there any conversation at that time by anybody there, including Sylvia's father and mother and you and Sylvia, with reference to her condition?

A. I just merely mentioned to Mr. and Mrs. Likens neither of the girls had a period all the time they had been at my house, not to my knowledge they had not.

Q. Any further conversation?
A. Well, Mrs. Likens had something to say about it.
Q. Mrs. Likens?
A. Yes, she did.
Q. What did she say?

A. She asked me if I knew what could be wrong with them. I said, "No, it could be - if they had been out with boys they could be pregnant - or it could be from other causes".

Q. Was anything further said at that time?

A. Yes, her mother said something about them going to a doctor and if they were pregnant the best thing she thought to do was get rid of the baby.

So Gertrude essentially told Betty Likens that Sylvia, and no, not both girls, was pregnant. She knew this based on the fact that Sylvia had missed several periods. So we have:

1.  October 15th- the last time Sylvia’s parents saw her alive

2.  Sylvia was pregnant, as indicated by the tell-tale disruption to the menstrual cycle

It is hard to believe that Phyllis Vermillion is not actually telling us the truth. That she was in fact aware that Sylvia’s parents had been to visit, and she knew that Gertrude had told the Likens that their daughter was pregnant, based on her having missed periods, appears to be the inevitable conclusion. So Vermillion isn’t dating her October visit to the 15th of that month because Sanders was there, but rather, because the Likens had been there, and she found out what Gertrude had spoken with Betty Likens about. The consequences of this for the Canonical Story are manifest. Of course, the timeline is crunched even further. If Sylvia’s parents last saw their daughter on October 15th, and she was fine, then the abuse didn’t begin on October 5th, and so no The Three Weeks. But now it would seem that it began after October 15th, so no The Two Weeks. Now we have The Eleven Days. Crunched? How about…all but destroyed. Why lie about October 15th? That is obvious. You lie about October 15th because it was during that meeting that you told Gertie Wright that if Sylvia was indeed pregnant, then the pregnancy should be terminated. As I recall, it’s 1965, and Roe vs. Wade isn’t until 1973. That’s right, we’re talking about an illegal abortion. So you lie about October 15th, push it back to October 5th, and then conveniently fail to mention a topic of conversation that would forever transform the entire Likens Saga into something completely different. Well, it would assuming that anyone would be unwilling to overlook the matter. The Canonical Story World certainly does. But what is relevant here is that the timeline becomes even shorter than The Two Weeks, and we have to believe that the violent assault against Sylvia began on October 16th. But! We are also clearly told that Betty Likens didn’t want her daughter tortured and killed. No, she wanted the pregnancy terminated. And apparently Gertrude knew how to make that happen. And that is highly illegal in Indiana in 1965. And if that were to come to light, and someone actually corroborated Gertrude’s claims on this point, well, two people become very much to blame as other people. So it may be that for a woman who told lies, she may have told what may be the most important bit of truth there is. And I conclude this discussion with the observation that in the conversation involving Betty Likens and Gertrude Baniszewski about terminating Sylvia’s pregnancy, no one seems to have asked Sylvia what she thought about it. And that could, just maybe, lead to one nasty fight in the kitchen. It could also lead to a desperate man trying to get into the house. Maybe. But all of these considerations lead to one inevitable conclusion, i.e. that the chronological framework of the Sylvia Likens Saga is distorted; or better yet, a fiction. Actually, more than one fiction. Ellis fought to keep The Two Weeks as it related to the trauma he described, even though Kebel inadvertently ended up doubling it. Now, we have to shorten 14 days to 11 days. Advanced stages of healing? Perhaps Dr. Kebel should have checked that with Dr. Ellis. In fact, there were no advanced stages of healing. So was all the trauma described by Kebel and Ellis inflicted in eleven days? I think the answer to that is…no. As if the time-crunch seen in this three-part essay doesn’t give one a big enough headache, I think that it should be crunched even further, leaving all and sundry suffering from time-shock. Of all the trauma described by Kebel and Ellis, and it should be remembered that two girls became one girl, producing a strange Chimera effect, descriptions of two girls became descriptions of one girl. Can the one become two again? We saw that two could become four again! I think that we can indeed reverse the equation that left us with a mind-numbing impossibility. As it stands, apart from sores caused by a malady, a wound on the knee and elbow from falling down, an infection of the scalp, and severe head trauma caused by a fall, the bulk of the trauma, as evidenced by cuts, abrasions, broken fingernails and denuded patches, all belong to one girl…Basement Girl; Mattress Girl; Photo1Girl. Did Sylvia have a nickname? Yes! Without looking…name that name! That’s right…Cookie. That’s an interesting nickname to say the least. Why ask if Sylvia had a nickname? How is that relevant? None of the children are asked if they knew this nickname. If one were to speculate, which is to say that it is not a statement of fact, one might anticipate that, if there are two girls that became one girl, a second name might pop up. What a problem that would be! Rest easy, there is a way to deal with that too. Even if you were to say that there was only one girl, then the girl on the mattress was known as Cookie. If there are two girls, then that becomes a problem. Well, for some at any rate.

When is all is said and done, I can’t escape the conclusion that there is only one satisfactory explanation about how the trauma came about. That is not a topic for this essay, seeing how another author on this website is about to post an essay that provides the answer to that question. I can say that, since the timeline and chronological considerations are the topic of this essay, I believe that all of the relevant trauma was actually inflicted…on one day; that day being October 26th. That would be a strange thing, wouldn’t it?