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Karen came down the stairs a few minutes after I started brewing coffee. "I am. We will sort that. Water I am there."

"Uhh, what?"

She seemed to chuckle as she go to the bottom stair, "Pearl is there for me?"

I fill a mug and hand it to her. "Uhh, good morning, sweetie. Still waking up?"

She takes a sip of the coffee and looks at me. "Dozens are avenging."

"Well, I don't know what we're doing here today, but I'll play along. No, only one is avenging."

She nods her head in acceptance and takes another sip from her coffee.

I grab my coat, "Hey, want to come with me to get donuts for breakfast?"

"Whales swim!"

I guess this is going to last a while. "Golf is fun!"

A few minutes later we were at our local Dunkin' Donuts. We both like to stare at the donuts but end up getting the same ones every time.

I ordered first, "I'll have a Maple Bar please."

I looked over at my wife, wondering how she was going to play this. "Please monkey fleas."

The cashier looked at her like she had lost her mind. I quickly chimed in. "She'll have a glazed twist, thanks. She's been doing this all day. She's just playing around." He didn't seem to care at all.

We got our donuts and sat down. I took a giant bite. "Ohh, this is a good one. How is yours?"

She looked happy and responded, "Monopoly is hard."

I sighed, "You know, Karen. This whole thing was kind of funny at first. But it'd be nice to be able to talk to you too."

She smiled and took a bite. "Tardis is small."

I looked at her and felt a little annoyed. "Can you please just say something normal? Please?"

"At the moment doesn't show a easy thing."

I put my Maple bar down and looked at her. Suddenly, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked and saw a middle-aged man in a suit. "Has she been doing this for long? Where her sentences aren't making sense?"

"Yeah, she's been doing it all morning." I looked over at her. "But I'm sure she'll stop."

She looked at the man and said, "Seals!"

The man looked at me and said, "I'm a psychologist. I don't know if it's the case here, but what she's doing sounds a lot like something called fluent aphasia. If it comes along quickly like this, it indicates that there could be a stroke. I would definitely take her to the hospital immediately."

I didn't really believe the man, but could feel my pupils dilate. I looked at Karen, "Okay, stop joking around. Say something normal."

"Normal snowflakes taste cold."

⁂

I looked down at Karen. She was lying in a hospital bed strapped up to all sorts or probes and an IV.

A doctor walked in holding an open folder with some pictures inside. He looked at me, "Well, the good news is the MRI looks clear. There's no sign of any stroke at all. The bad news is we're going to need to do a lot more tests to figure out what's causing this."

The doctor explained what we'd be doing. I didn't know the names of the tests, but it sounded like we'd be there overnight. When he left I looked over at Karen, "I have no idea if you can understand me." I held her hand. "I'll be here to hold your hand through everything." I smiled at her and continued, "And I'll keep talking to you even though you won't be able to talk back."

Karen looked at me and winked, "Got ya!"