George has been sitting too long in the same chair watching TV when he gets a cramp pain in his foot and a feeling that his foot is asleep. He tells his wife Marjorie that his whole foot is rigid and he can’t flex his toes. She thinks he is complaining about nothing and is such a hypochondriac but then his other foot goes to sleep too. In fact his whole body appears to be wasting away. This evening he was a perfectly well man and now he can’t even go for a walk even though he has never been for a walk in his life. He realises he can no longer do any of the things he never did when he could have.

Adapted by Richard Roland from a story by J. Anthony West