Miscommunication

My mother has a habit of saying things half way. Sometimes she stops talking mid-sentence, or talks vaguely and expects me to know exactly what she's talking about. When she says something like, "Meet me by the piano," I wonder whether she mean the piano in the hospital lobby, the piano in the hospital cafeteria or the piano studio three blocks away?

Just today when we were in the kitchen, preparing to have some guests over for dinner, she told me to "Go clean that up." I went ahead to organize a stack of papers on the counter, when she groaned in frustration and proclaimed that that I can't do anything right. "The dishes,"she said, motioning to the sink, "Dry the dishes. You need to have everything specific, don't you?"

Yes, yes I do need some details. "You always speak in pronouns," I replied, "Well, pronouns are supposed to have an antecedent but you never say the antecedent." I'm studying for the ACT test and my mother happens to be a professional English language-knower.

"But you can guess, can't you?"

"I can, and I get it right 80% of the time, but you emphasize all the times I get it wrong."

She seemed to find this humorous, "You know, it would be nice if you had telepathy. Then you would know everything that I want you to do."

"It doesn't work that way."