Seconds can mean anything

I never realized what all could happen in just a second, but with Poppa... lots of things could. Sometimes he would be talking just fine and you could understand every word, then everything would turn to a mumble and nothing was understood. It was frustrating to him when people didn't understand what he was saying, or asking. Somewhere in the first few days I realized that if I said "I don't know", it seemed to be better then asking him to repeat it. If he was asking something he didn't know, and I said 'I don't know'... did it make him feel any better? That if I didn't know, why should he know? I'm not sure, but I know that answer usually satisfied him.

Sometimes he would just whisper, even if you got up real close to him you couldn't understand what he was saying. I think it was a form of the mumbling, but sometimes he could make me wonder. Critter and I used to always try to get him to tell us a "secret". "Tell us a GOOD secret, Poppa!" Just messing with him mostly, usually he was in pretty good spirits and I believe he liked the attention. Even tho he'd usually tell us "no". Not giving up any good secrets today.

One day he and I was sitting on the back porch (this was the standard place to be), and he had been holding my hand and whispering for at least a couple of hours. He stopped for a moment and looked at me with the clearest blue eyes (he did have some beautiful eyes), and I said "Pop, you know what I think?". He said "no" very plain. I said "I think your telling me all the really really good secrets, and since I can't hear you... your getting to keep them secret." He looked at me and smiled that little smile that made me feel like he understood and maybe even agreed with me.