curious dawn

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

"What is a time share?" asked Dawn.  
"Dawn, a timeshare is a capsule people get into for a certain amount of time so that they're oblivious to time for their amount of sharing time; it's really relaxing." I said.
"Sounds neat," she said skeptically, "but something tells me it's not true."
From the driver's seat Daddy said "Y'all talkin' bout that time capsule?  the one where you get in there and twist the knob and it'll take you back to wherever you want to go?"
"Yessir.  Dawn doesn't think it's real, Daddy," I told him.
"Ah no?  Little Megreyer - Dinny???" (megreyer - dinny is a common name daddy uses for dawn)
"Nope, I don't. And see," she said, "That prove my point, 'cause  Gabe said you're 'oblivious to time' and you said they 'twist a knob to go to whatever time they want', but if they were oblivious to time, why would they do that? So it proves that's not real."
 "Time shares," came the soft voice of Milly who was squished between Dawn and me, "Timeshares are cards people buy for a certain price and they assure you of an amount of time to do what you want with it and then you hand the cards out to other people and then they pay you for them…" she trailed off in a laugh.  Daddy's eyes were squinched, I could see his smile wrinkles in the rearview mirror by the light of the street lamps.
"Timeshares," I attempted again, "are giant pie pans that people lie down in and for whatever amount you pay, you get to take up a certain amount of time-space in the pie pan.  You then share your slice of time with everyone else."  Dawn was exasperated and exclaimed earnestly,
 "I am persuaded y'all want me to be an oblivious child who knows NOTHING!  But then when I meet with a public-schooler who knows what a time share IS and they start talking about it one way, I'll say in my ignorance, "What??? NO! A time share is a giant capsule! or some other false thing and they'll say 'Oh look, a stupid homeschooler,' and then that will give homeschoolers a bad name.  See, this is where we get all that nonsense about our sitting around in pajamas all day long with nothing to do except stare out a window or at a tv!  
  We were quiet for a while until Daddy finally explained, "think of a giant hotel room that you get suckered into renting along wit other folks for weeks on end - " 
  But Dawn was done. True or not, she wouldn't trust anymore second - hand knowledge for the night. 

oh, my dawn.