Feeling Clever

Friday night, I woke Ann in the middle of the night as I was rummaging through my drawer. The noise woke her up, and I told her I was looking for my tape. She said she'd help me.

Thinking that I was Alice in Wonderland and had shrunk to the size of a cat, I slid to the bottom of the bed and attempted to curl up in order to get out of her way. Because I am really a somewhat long human, curling up was hard, but my imagination is stronger than my body, so I managed.

Ann slid to my side of the bed, kicked me only a little, and rummaged about in the drawer. Finally, she said to me, "You don't have tape. I have tape."

"Oh right," I said, and pointed my finger to the back of my lower teeth. "I want the thing that goes here."

Ann nodded and rummaged some more, emerging with my splint, a contraption that looks a lot like a retainer (meant to keep me from clinching my teeth in the night). She tossed the green case to me.

"No," I said to her, "that goes on my top teeth. I need the thing that goes here," and again I pointed at the back of my bottom teeth.

"What thing?"

I tried to think more clearly, and finally it dawned on me. I said, "I must be asleep."

"Oh God," Ann said, as she turned off the light and moved back to her side of the bed. I unwound like a slinky and slid back to my pillow, very cheerful and feeling clever that I had solved this conundrum.

Mary