Distraction

New Day, New Luck

As the tides came and went and night turned into day, they slowly but surely felt a sudden urge to catch some sleep. And so they walked into the lighthouse and went to bed. As Manny woke up a few hours later, around four p.m. to be exact, his grandfather Fiete was already well dressed, reading the newspapers and smoking his pipe. Yet, it seemed as though the person he talked to last night and the one right in front of him weren't the same. 

It was still very confusing to him as to how this was possible.

Fiete seemed so put together and talked about nothing but his former workplace if he chose to speak throughout the day. Manny didn't approach last nights incident, as when he asked his grandfather about last night, he seemed to remember nothing. 

For his grandpas' dignity and pride, he wouldn't tell him about it; he just couldn't, not yet.

And so it would go on like that, day by day. By day Fiete would make sure that Manny would do his Business school homework and teach him all the essential knowledge. Then, as by night, he would lay under the stars with Manny, talking about life and its difficulties in a way, no one he knew ever approached it before.

Manny had researched more about dementia and what it does to you. 

Frontotemporal Dementia, in that case, means that it affects your frontal- and temporal lobe, affecting your mobility, personality and speech. People get Parkinson's similar symptoms, immense personality change, and reduced speech abilities in many advanced cases.

As for now, it seemed as it mainly affected Fietes personality.

Dogged as he used to be, his personality seemed to develop in the opposite direction.

A much more openly, broader thinking Fiete talked at night.  

When he had a phone call with his mother, he acted as if everything was just the usual.

He didn't want his parents to know, as they might choose to get him back home or even put his grandfather into a care home. They couldn't do this to such a freedom-loving human being as Fiete was. 

Things were taking their course until one morning, Fiete wasn't sitting by the table, reading his newspapers and smoking his pipe. Manny was surprised by this. However, he didn't think anything further. As Fiete still wasn't there an hour later, he decided to knock on his bedroom door. He found him sitting on the edge of his bed, clothes laying all around him, the whole room seeming to be in one big mess.

Not sure what to think, Manny, approached the room, trying to start a conversation with his grandfather. However, he didn't seem to react. Instead, his behaviour reminded him of the nights when his memories seemed to crumble. 

Fiete just sat there, staring into nothing, without any purpose, other than the one to exist.

Manny decided to approach him slowly, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Fiete just shrieked in fear, anger and confusion as to who the person laying their hand on his shoulder was. At first, he thought that his grandfather was playing a trick on him, then realized that he wasn't.  Grandpa Fiete just said in a loud tone: WHO ARE YOU? 

Even as He tried to explain himself, it didn't really bring back any reminding as to who he was.

Any approach of further explaining could confuse him more, so he just left things as they were.