Fair Trade

Dair's nephew John and his wife Louise have lived across the street from her for many years. Although they are at least 15 years younger than Dair, their health is much worse and so John is now in a nursing home. Louise has a home health aide, Shirley, who comes in each weekday to assist in her care and Dair refers to her as the "nurse" or "maid."

When Dair moved back home this summer, her daily routine was to retrieve the newspaper from the mailbox and head to Louise's for a cup of coffee. One day Shirley mentioned that her young son would like the little red wagon that Dair kept on her front porch. Dair said she'd make a swap for it. In exchange for the wagon, she asked Shirley to cut her toenails. Shirley agreed and the swap was made.

A few weeks later, Dair arrived early one morning at Louise's and was eager to have her toenails clipped again. Shirley was busy with her chores and told Dair she'd have to wait a while. After several more attempts to get Shirley's assistance, a frustrated Dair started cussing, slammed down the newspaper and stormed out.

Shirley, ticked off by Dair's behavior, called her husband and told him to bring the wagon back to Dair immediately. I'm thinking about buying Shirley a replacement wagon so she'll keep clipping Dair's toenails...there's just some things I refuse to do.