Good Cop, Bad Cop

“Mom, did you go down those stairs?” my sister demands one day, as she notices some object that Mom could only have found in the basement.

“I was very careful!” my mother protests. “I held the railing the whole way down and I took it one step at a time.”

“What if you had taken a fall, Mom? I suppose you did this after the caregiver left?” My sister is upset and exasperated.

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Neighbours

They live next door to one another.

They are both in diapers; the pull-on kind. Their families help them practice using the toilet: sometimes they get there on time; usually they don’t. Neither one makes it through the night without an accident: every morning, the family washer is filled with bedding and clothing that was soiled in the night.