The Scottish woman and her baby and I all end up out on the street because she runs past me in her bare feet when she hears the squawking and screaming overhead. One magpie is being mobbed by his fellows and feathers are swirling down at our feet. We stay out by her gate and, as she flicks through the booklet, she takes a text message that makes her shake her head and smile. It’s her friend saying we should cheer up because there are people in the world much worse off than us. And now here I am with photos of those very people. ‘It’s a sign!’ she announces, adding ‘I wouldn’t miss £10 a month’. I can hardly believe it. A fresh knock and she’s going to do a standing order. I offer to take her baby while she fills in the form. I hadn’t even had a chance to tell her anything about Karuna or that we are a Buddhist Charity. Meanwhile Colum, the baby, who is the most enormous one-year-old I’ve ever encountered is starting to squirm.
I can see she hasn’t noticed that you can tick a box if you wanted some of the money to go towards Buddhist projects specifically but how can I start explaining all that now? Anyway I know that if she doesn’t tick the default is that it all goes to social projects, so that’s OK. The main thing is she’s done it! I’ve done it! I’ve got my first standing order. Maybe even the first of the Appeal. My adrenalin is racing too much for another fresh knock so I go back to Lance. He answers the door with the leaflet in his hand and his face stony. ‘You spend all the money on nice leaflets!’ he accuses. ‘But they’re done by our friends and they don’t charge much’, I bleat before retreating down his path.
I need to go back to the Scottish woman’s street to knock more doors there. But I’m scared to go back. What if she’s read the leaflet and doesn’t like it that we’re a religious organization. In my imagination I see her running out of the house accusing me of tricking her and taking back the standing order. When I get home I don’t put the standing order form on the shrine. I can’t rejoice in it.
