Fainjin has been the first one awake for the past few mornings. He bounces out of bed and runs in to see us, banging doors as he goes. As it’s a long holiday weekend, we haven’t been quite as keen to get up as he is.
This morning he came in – already dressed – and, seeing us clearly still mostly-asleep, snuggled in next to me. But he could see my alarm clock.
“It’s seven fifty-six!” he announced.
“No it’s not,” I groaned (it might have come out more like “Nhhhnnnnn”.) (Yes, we are exceptionally lucky; our children do sleep past seven in the mornings).
“Now it’s seven fifty-seven!”
I wasn’t facing the clock. I still didn’t believe him. “Is it really a five? Does it look like an S for snake, or the other way ’round?”
“The other way round,” he confirmed. So it was 7:27, not 7:57. Not that I really cared all that much.
“Now it’s 7:28!” he said, and thirty seconds later “It’s still 7:28… now it’s 7:29!”
I dozed off and dreamed I was sleeping next to the Speaking Clock. Only it had icy-cold feet and wriggled and kept asking for breakfast in between telling me the time every minute…
© UpsideBackwards 2012.
UpsideBackwards 
Leave a Reply