Sunday, May 23, 2010

It came with a train

I haven't written in a while. Just been too much to even feel like capturing in words. But here's something that just happened five minutes ago. I'm sitting at my desk and she walks up and says, "I need help with something about like this (she makes a shape with her hands indicating about the size of a cereal box) and I think it came in with a train. I'm not sure, but, I'm just not sure what to do. I think there was a train..." And that's all I had to go on.

I asked if there was something I could see and she said yes. I followed her to the bathroom. Before I got there I could hear the exhaust fan running. It's not overhead, like most exhaust fans--it's in the wall, and you can see the world outside when it's running. It makes a lot of noise, so we never use it, but sometimes you hit the switch for it when you turn on the light.

I followed her into the bathroom and automatically turned off the fan switch. She said "Oh! Thank you." So the size she was making with her hands was the size of the fan. And the noise it made was sort of train-like. And it needed to be turned off. But she could not make any of that come out in words.

I went back to work and in a few minutes she was back. She tried to tell me something but couldn't get any words out. She finally said, "Never mind. I can't say it. I've done it before and I'll just do it again. I don't need to bother you."

She went off and was back in a few minutes. She said, "I'm sorry, I can't do it. I need help." I got up and followed her to the bathroom, where the fan was running again. I turned it off again and she thanked me again.