memory slips real and useful

6:00pm on Sunday evening. I call Mum to see how she’s doing.

“Fine. I’m just on my way out to the shops, actually. Can I call you back later?”
“Mum, it’s Sunday. The shops will have shut a couple of hours ago.”
She takes the news well, and I enquire as to what she has in the freezer that she can eat tonight. As I do every day, I ask if she’s been out for a walk with the dog.
“Oh, yes! I was out for about an hour and a half with her.”
“When was that?”
“Oh, I went out about 5:30 with her”
I let it pass. Talk switches to my Aunt and Uncle visiting in August.
“G’s adamant that he’s coming down on the train, which means I’ll have to drive to the station to pick them up, and it means I’ll have to drive them to the… to the…the…Brasserie”
I’m pleased that Mum has at last taken it on-board that they will not have their car with them. It’s only taken 4 reminders from me, and maybe a couple more from my Aunt and Uncle. I think about it for a while and start to suspect “G was adamant” means that this time she ‘conveniently forgot’ and was trying to persuade them. I ring my Uncle, to check, and it seems she rang them excited that she’d bought them a parking permit at the flats (guest permits are actually free). He tells me that she tried several other ways to manipulate them into changing their plans.
This is the first time I’ve noticed Mum using her memory problems in a mischievous way. I'll have to look out for this in future.

Incidentally, Mum had no memory of calling my Aunt on Friday about the 'change of plans' and unavailability of the guest accommodation.