“Hello, Melody,” I said, when I answered the phone. “What’s up?”
“It’s Davin,” she said. “He needs some help with his English homework. I tried but Davin is one of those kids that needs a demonstration to understand something. I told him to ride his bike over to your house and get some help.”
“Hi, Grandpa.”
“Hey, sweet boy,” I called from the porch when Davin arrived. “I understand you need some help with your homework.”
“I’m really having trouble with one thing, Teacher told us to explain the difference between annoyance, exasperation and anger. My mom understands it but she can’t explain it to me.”
“This is easy,” I told him. “I’ll show you the difference.”
I turned up the volume on my telephone and laid it on the table. I chose a number at random and dialed it.
“Hello.”
“Hello,” I said, “Is Alex there?”
A man said, “You just woke me up from siesta. There is no Alex that lives here.”
“Oh, sorry.”
“That man is annoyed,” I told Davin. “That is annoyance.”
A minute later I dialed the same number and asked, “May I speak to Alex?”
“Hey, listen,” the man said. “You just called and I told you that there is no one named Alex that lives here. Don’t call here anymore!”
“Now, Davin,” I said, “That’s more than annoyance. That is exasperation.”
“Yes, but what’s the difference between exasperation and anger?
“O.K.” I said, as I dialed the number again. “Now this is going to be anger.”
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