Then she’s clean and dressed and the books are pushed into a plastic bag to take in to school. And she doesn’t deserve this, at all. And her skull can protect her brain from a slap in the face, even a bottle to the head, but when you turn your back, lift your arms to the side and drop backwards off a bridge, you naturally end up turning so that your head is at the bottom. It’s the first thing to hit the ground. It splits apart and spills. Your neck breaks. Your central nervous system holds its middle finger up to your face.

Before she does any of this, she has to get the kids to work on their seven times tables.

111

237–238 – BROKER AND SALESPERSON

Chasing the sale is the same as chasing the kill.

It escalates.

And you find you’re never satisfied.

You pull in your first ever million-pound deal. There’s a high. Of course. Your boss is praising you. Your colleagues say ‘well done’ even though they’re jealous. But you like that they’re jealous. Because you are beating them. You are winning. You are successful.

But, then, how do you beat that high? How do you replicate that euphoria? Another million-pound deal will help, but it’s not the same. You’ve done that. Been there.

Maybe you land a sale for two million and you wait eagerly by the printer for your purchase order so you can ring a bell in the office, so the whole team gets a drink and some pizza at lunch. Because of you. Successful you.

What’s next? Five million? Ten million? It becomes stale. It’s the same thing, only bigger. You find that you can’t recreate that moment. Your bank balance is off the chart for someone of your age and lack of education. So you buy yourself some things.

Things.

Like things ever made anybody happy.

Like things give you a sense of fulfilment.

That’s what you’re missing. A full bank account is no substitute for an empty soul.

Milton could have explained this, told them that the only way they are going to register some kind of fulfilment is to try giving something back. Do something for somebody else. Altruism doesn’t exist. We do things for others because it makes us feel good about ourselves. And that’s totally acceptable. Because the outcome is that you feel good and you have helped someone else feel good.

And he did try to explain this to both the Broker and the Salesperson. And they, in turn, had tried. In even the smallest of ways. Donating to charity. Volunteering. It had worked to a small degree but it didn’t match the sale. It helped but the gesture needed to be more.