Clock

Today, I stood on a chair and took down Dad's clock to change the time.
     "Don't fall down."
     "I won't, Dad.  I'll be careful."
     "If you fell down, who would take me to church?"
     "Kris and Karen would take you, but don't worry.  I won't fall down."
     "Kris and Karen?"
     "Your other daughters."
     "I have five daughters."
     "There are three of us.  You have three daughters."
     "I do?"
     "Yes."
     "Get down from there.  Don't do danger."
     "I won't do danger, Dad.  I'm just taking down the clock.  See?  Now I'm off the    chair and I'm fine."
     "Don't do that again."
     "Okay, Dad.  I won't."
     "Why did you change the clock?"
     "The time was a little bit off."  (I knew better than to bring up the baffling concept of Daylight Savings Time.)
     "What time is it now?"
     "It's ten to two, Dad."
     "What?"
     "It's ten minutes before two."
     "How can you tell?"
     "Because the big hand is on the 10 and the little hand is on the 2."
     "Hand?  Whose hand?"
     "The long black line is pointing to the 10 and the shorter line is pointing to the 2."
     "How do you know?"
     "Because I'm looking at it and I can see what it says."
     "It doesn't say anything."
     "No.  You're right; it doesn't.  You just have to look at the lines and figure out what time it is."

(I know what you're thinking; he should have a digital clock.  But he forgot how to read digital clocks long before he forgot how to read analog clocks.  I toyed with the idea of showing him the time on my cell phone - thinking that might help - but it would have said 1:50 and that would have really muddied the already murky waters.)

He asked, "How did you get so smart?"  (My god.  He thinks I'm a genius because I can tell time.)
     "Dad, you taught me everything I know."
     "I don't think so.  I never knew about clocks."

I want to scream, "YES YOU DID!  YOU USED TO KNOW ABOUT CLOCKS!   YOU KNEW HOW TO COUNT, YOU KNEW HOW TO USE SILVERWARE, YOU KNEW HOW TO PUT ON YOUR CLOTHES, YOU KNEW HOW TO WIPE YOUR BOTTOM, YOU KNEW HOW TO READ, YOU KNEW HOW TO WRITE.  YOU USED TO KNOW EVERYTHING.

When I was leaving for the day, one of the aides stopped by.  Dad pointed to me and said to her, "Do you know who this is?"  She replied, "Yes.  This is your daughter."
He laughed and said, "No, no.  This is .... "   His voice trailed off and he stopped.  He stared at me for a minute and asked, "Who are you?"

YOU USED TO KNOW WHO I WAS.