“I’m disappointed with you, Taylor.  Mrs Twinkletoes tells me that you wouldn’t do your writing this morning,” says Mrs Karma.  Taylor looks at her blankly.  To be fair, looking blank is his specialism: he’s had seven years to perfect it.

“Now, Taylor, how many stickers have you got this week?”

“Two,” mumbles Taylor, sheepishly.

“That’s not many for a whole week, is it?  I’ve had to talk to you lots of times this week about not trying with your work, and now you have made Mrs Twinkletoes sad.  She’s here to help you and it’s wasting her time if you won’t do anything.”

“But I didn’t feel like working,” explains Taylor.

Mrs Karma is a patient woman but it’s been a long hard week and there are limits.  “Whether you feel like it or not is beside the point, Taylor.  We all have to do things that we don’t feel like doing.  What would happen if Mrs Twinkletoes woke up in the morning and decided she didn’t feel like coming in to help you?”

There’s a silence as Taylor is clearly trying to process this thought.  Then he smiles.  Something has fallen into place – is it too much to hope that he’s finally grasped what’s going on here?

“Then,” replies Taylor carefully, “she wouldn’t get any stickers.”

***

Just had an email to say that my recent purchases from Amazon have netted another 40p for the Cure Parkinson’s Trust, through the GiveAsYouLive scheme.  While Pa has made a pretty penny for Parkinson’s UK when he replaced his laptop.  In my head, that money has gone directly to my own lovely Parkinson’s nurse: I know it’s not that simple, but in some ways it is.