A Simple Question Turned Tragic

Yesterday, I was online at a friend’s multiplayer Minecraft server when another player had asked if I could take him to the Dark Oak forest from spawn. I proceeded to ask my nephew Andy, whom I hesitated knowing he has some form of logic-problem coinciding many questions or comments people have said to him. It’s as if he has an issue putting simple things together. Regardless, this was the beginning of our conversation:

[2014/Nov/27 8:02:02 PM] Leeman: need you to help me help Mitch
[2014/Nov/27 8:02:12 PM] Andy: ?
[2014/Nov/27 8:02:52 PM] Leeman: take him to the dark oak forest
[2014/Nov/27 8:02:56 PM] Leeman: i can come along
[2014/Nov/27 8:03:00 PM] Andy: What’s that? o-o
[2014/Nov/27 8:03:37 PM] Leeman: there is a portal in the nether, but I don’t know what it’s called in MC terms

Now, for some reason, Andy could not understand what I asked or said here.

[2014/Nov/27 8:04:19 PM] Andy: There’s a dark oak forest in the nether?
[2014/Nov/27 8:04:29 PM] Andy: connected to the nther*?
[2014/Nov/27 8:04:34 PM] Leeman: [2014-November-27 8:03 PM] Leeman: <<< there is a portal in the nether
[2014/Nov/27 8:04:53 PM] Andy: Yes, there are lots of portals in the nether
[2014/Nov/27 8:05:08 PM] Andy: Are you saying one of those portals lead to a dark oak forest?

Seriously, what the hell? This isn’t the first time Andy has had an issue putting 1 and 1 together and answering basic questions. In his head, it seems like no matter the context and no matter the proximity of what has been said, he just can’t get it through to his skull what is being asked or said. I’ve observed this when he talks with other people in and outside of the game, many times and often times I worry that he starts irritating people with his questions for clarity. I mean, what needs to be clarified here?

So we had an argument typing on Skype for about 30 minutes. The kid just doesn’t seem to get it.

This morning, I woke up and went on Skype with my wife. In fact, she’s online right now waiting for me to type this up. Reason being, I told her I am going to post a few lines of exactly what I said to Andy last night and I want her to figure out what I was trying to say to Andy, knowing only that I was talking about Minecraft to Andy and not revealing anything else.

need you to help me help Mitch
take him to the dark oak forest
i can come along
there is a portal in the nether, but I don’t know what it’s called in MC terms

Amber said: “To me, it sounds really simple. That you want me to come to Minecraft and bring Mitch to the Dark Oak Forest. You can also tag along.”

Exactly.

The other day, the guys were talking about someone’s laptop overheating and someone used the term “lappy” to call their laptops. What did Andy say? “Lappy?”

– 19/11/2014 12:10: Person A: X mentioned he was thinking of selling has lappy for a few hundred if anyone is interested. im considering it. my lappy is losing keys
– 19/11/2014 12:13: Person B: Hopefully I’ll have a new computer in the new year and I’ll be able to return to spawn point to finish the library
– 19/11/2014 12:29: Andy: Lappy?
– 19/11/2014 13:15: Person A: lappy=laptop, compy=computer

Seriously? People were talking about their laptops and he couldn’t see that “lappy” obviously meant a laptop?

This morning, when I logged into Skype to talk to Amber, I saw a message from Andy:

[2014/Nov/27 8:20:30 PM] Andy: Look at what you typed
[2014/Nov/27 8:20:42 PM] Andy: The way it connects and describes things aren’t in the proper order

For fuck sakes. Ever since I started hanging around him more and observing how he speaks with others including myself, I have noticed a common pattern. It is as though people must say everything step by step in detail very specifically. Indeed, if this was an essay written for academic grading or journalism of sorts, then I see a need to follow a proper format, but this was a simple conversation within context of the situation.

I asked Andy if he has a mental problem and I was serious about the question. I told him that of the thousands of people I’ve spoken with over my lifetime, I have had very little problems communicating simple questions to people. Yet, for some reason, Andy has this really fucking annoying issue with needing step-by-step instructions for almost everything.

Anyway, prior to him saying that, I said this before I logged out last night:

[2014/Nov/27 8:18:58 PM] Leeman: you have a fucking problem Andy and you don’t even know it
[2014/Nov/27 8:19:27 PM] Leeman: I have a feeling one of the reasons why your mom is over protective is that she recognizes you have some weird mental issue

Indeed, I may have been a bit more ill tempered than I should have been, but again, I press that he can get on people’s nerves like none other I have known. In the past, I thought he did that to be ‘cute’. Now I know he does that because that’s really what he does and he isn’t aware of it.

I told Amber that Andy is a smart kid, but for some reason he can be dumb as fuck. She laughed and said that her aunts Frauke and Birgit would say that when it comes to teenage kids, it’s their brain. It still needs time to develop.