Get someone with an education. Give yourself some credibility.

Get taken seriously.

Because everybody wants to feel like they are a part of something. Something bigger than themselves. Give them something they can belong to. They can be a lawyer, an actor, a philanthropist, an artist, a physician. They don’t have to be crazy. Let the other people call them that. They’re not the ones you want.

Get a doctor or a teacher or a police officer.

Then fill in the gaps with some nobodies.

7

230 – DOCTOR

She got into it to help people. She’d considered the police, of course. And being the daughter of a parish priest could have sent her in an entirely different direction, but the more she heard about God, the more ridiculous it sounded, the more idiotic her father appeared, the dumber her mother looked for going along with it, the more gullible the loyally stagnant congregation seemed for buying into it.

She didn’t like the way religion boasted contentment, loving thy neighbour, doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. Because she never saw that. Even the most God-loving were God-fearing. Love and fear can feel similar but they are not the same.

She could think of more direct ways to help those who were afraid.

And the police force seemed more reactive than preventative. How many people would she really help? Locating and prosecuting the person who stabbed and killed somebody’s kid may be justice, but saving that child’s life seemed more beneficial. For her soul, at least. The soul her father believed was damned if she didn’t hold God in her heart.

Her heart was too busy pumping oxygen and nutrients around her body and removing metabolic waste; there was no space for anything else in there.

Becoming a doctor would be her devotion. And the medical degree had the added bonus of taking her away from her backward Buckinghamshire hamlet for seven years.

But, recently, it has been hard to keep up.

And it’s getting worse.

The world is getting worse.

Obesity is very real. She sees it every day. People are fatter. They’re unhealthy. They get everything they want at the simplest convenience. Music, films and books downloaded straight to an electronic device. There’s nothing physical to hold on to.

People used to have the occasional lazy night and get a take-away meal. They’d walk or drive and pick up a dinner that they didn’t have to prepare themselves. Now, the same device that they listen to music on, read their books on, watch their films on, will order their food, and arrange for it to be delivered with one click. They can even get a taxi to bring them their food if the restaurant doesn’t deliver.