I have a cold. That low grade misery that zaps your brain.

I realised that I was going to be too dangerous to drive a keyboard, so I phoned in sick.

So I was having a nap. In the day. With the dog snoozing on top of me.

Vaguely I hear the door.

To the dear doggy this was cannon fire.

WoofWoofWoofWoof

I opened the door and there was a short fellow with a patchy beard and a cheerful expression. A little goofy perhaps, but in a lovely way.

The dog took to them right away.

“Hello,” they said, “have you heard that there are these little elections going on at the moment?”

“Yep,” I said, “I’ve already voted.”

“Splendid!” They positively bounced up and down on my doorstep. “May I asked who you voted for?”

“Labour, although if the crazies got in, maybe people would see just how much they fuck things up before they got somewhere they could do real damage.” I said.

The canvasser replied “that probably wouldn’t make much difference; there just see it as somebody else’s fault.”

Too true. These right-whingers are all for blaming someone else.

“You didn’t look too happy about voting Labour though,” they added, while the dog circled them joyful at having somebody to pester.

“Nope. I am far from happy about their trans policies.”

At that the visitor looked both happy and sad, then told me that they were a non-binary trans man and didn’t really think of themselves as having a gender.

“I’m a eunuch!” I said, thrilled at this connection, “I don’t have a gender either!” That’s not strictly true, because I think of my gender as eunuch much of the time, but I was just so happy to meet this person.

“Don’t tell anybody, because I’m here supporting my brother … but I voted Liberal,” they said. Such larks!

After this little chat, I wished them luck and a good day, then returned to my desk to try and do a little more work (It comes to something when one is more productive on a sick day because one can legitimately go “appear away” and only answer messages selectively).

And I found myself liking this trans fellow and wishing the world was a kinder place – just for their benefit.