Goodwill was having a bad day. For a start he had overslept –again. No doubt the Great Spirit in the Sky would be adding, yet another, black mark against his name in the ledger.

Hurriedly throwing on a mismatch of clothes, he made the decision to skip breakfast. That way he would have more time to catch up on his quota for the day.

.“Out of order mate.” The grinning council worker was sweeping out rubbish from the interior of the graffiti coated lift.” “Not out of odour though, the pong in here could rot your nose off.”

Goodwill gave him a weak smile and turned for the stairs, taking them two at a time. He was already scanning the area as he hit the street below, and almost gave a shout of joy when he spotted an elderly lady hovering at the edge of the pavement ten yards away. Wearing his brightest smile he approached and began to maneuver her gentle across the street

The problem was that she didn’t actually want to cross the street and after a short interval of pushing and pulling- in which she proved to be quite strong for someone her age and size- she ended up kicking him in the shin.

The pain was incredible. He slumped against the wall, his eyes watering, rubbing the offending limb.

Meanwhile the old woman wandered off down the road, muttering about muggers and vandals.

It took another thirty minutes before he found his next candidate and by that time he had hobbled nearly halfway around the town.

He had been about to turn out of the High Street, when by pure luck he noticed an old dear exiting the Post Office. Hampered by several bags and a large umbrella, she was struggling with the heavy glass door. As she finally emerged on to the street, her purse slid unnoticed, onto the pavement.

Goodwill was there in a flash. He scooped the purse from the ground and turned to offer it to its rightful owner.

In the same instant the woman turned to investigate he commotion behind her. Her eyes lit upon the purse in Goodwill’s hand.

Thinking about it later he could see how it could be misconstrued, but at that moment, smilingly tucking the purse into one of her bags, the thwack of the umbrella on the side of his head came as a complete surprise.

She followed up with a series of jabs to his arm, his leg, his body, while he made ineffectual moves to protect himself.

People passing by were beginning to stop and watch the one-sided battle.

“I know your sort,” she snarled. Each word was punctuated by a jab from her brolly. “ Going around trying to take advantage of old folk, trying to steal their money.

The small group that had gathered was watching the exchange with amusement, but at her words the mood began to subtly change.

One of the men, a large beefy specimen, took a step towards Goodwill, who backed warily away.

He was saved by the sound of a collision further along the street. The onlooker’s heads turned as one towards the sound metal meeting metal with a jarring crunch.

Goodwill took the chance to move away from the group, making his way towards the commotion.

As he neared the scene it became obvious what had happened. A car was skewed across the street, as though it had stooped in a hurry. The double-decker bus following had obviously had to take evasive action and ended up tangled in the railings that edged part of the High Street.

On the far side, Goodwill caught sight of Freedom, who had obviously been making a dash for it as usual. His arms briefly raised in a gesture of victory before he sped away, oblivious to the havoc he wrought.

Goodwill turned and noticed the beefy man from earlier making his way towards him. Time to follow freedom’s example, he thought.

The Spirit of Man pub was crowded with the lunchtime rush. Goodwill spotted Compassion and Christmas Past in their usual seats at the bar and pushed his way towards them.

“My my, you look like you are having a bad day,” said Compassion compassionately.

“And you look like you are having a good one,” said Goodwill, noticing that the pair had imbibed more than a few drinks.

“Generosity was here,” explained Christmas Past. “He’s been paying round for the last couple of hours, you just missed him.

“About par for the course today,” sighed Goodwill.

“What’s up old chap?” Compassion patted him gentle on the shoulder. “It’s not like you to bee so down.”

“Oh, I don’t know, just fed up with being me I suppose.”

“Well who else would you want to be? Asked Christmas Past. “Not me, that’s for sure. All those ghosts.” He shuddered and turned back to his whisky.

“ Maybe not,” agreed Goodwill. “But what about someone like Party? He always seems to have a great time.”

He nodded across the room towards a disheveled young man who was gyrating wildly to the music from the jukebox, while holding on to the gorgeous blond hung around his neck.

“Ah, but you only see it from the outside, perhaps his life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be either.”

“Well I’d certainly give it a try,” muttered Goodwill.

“It could be arranged,” said Compassion mysteriously.

Before he could pursue the matter further, the conversation was interrupted by a commotion at the door.

Adventure was attempting to negotiate the crowded pub on a skateboard, eliciting shouts of dismay from the people trying to avoid a collision.

Spirit the barman moved out from behind the bar.

“Oy! You! Get out! I told you last week, you’re barred.”

Unperturbed, Adventure performed a neat flip on the board and headed back towards the door, narrowly missing Endeavor, who was endeavoring to negotiate his way to the toilet.

“What did you mean about it could be arranged?” Asked Goodwill when things had calmed down.

“What I said,” replied Compassion. “Job swaps are allowed in this game, as long as both parties agree. Why don’t you go over there and see if he is up for it?”

Party’s flat was an eye opener. Goodwill had never seen anything so untidy in his life, it looked like the third world war had recently been fought here. He himself wasn’t the world’s tidiest man, but this place made his flat look like an ideal home exhibition. But there was no time to even begin to clear a space in the devastation; he had a hot date in exactly fifteen minutes. He made himself a mental promise that he would make time to tidy the flat tomorrow. In the war zone bathroom, he splashed cold water over his face then returned to the living room to pull on an expensive looking shirt he found draped over the sofa He was outside in less than ten minutes, whistling as he made his way to the party venue buzzing with excitement. He couldn’t believe how eagerly Party had accepted his proposal. Goodwill had been prepared to plead, but Party had seemed almost grateful for the offer. They had agreed on seven days and Goodwill was determined to enjoy every second.

It was almost nine next morning before he arrived back and collapsed onto the sofa in utter exhaustion

It seemed as if he had barely closed his eyes before the phone brought him groggily awake and a seductive female voice demanded he meet her at the pub in half an hour.

The clock face revealed that he had slept for three hours.

Ruefully he gazed around at the debris and remembered his promise of the previous night. Tomorrow he thought, definitely.

He was still making the same promise when changeover day rolled around.

Party was already waiting at the bar, when Goodwill arrived, looking and feeling like last night’s leftover pizza.

“Was it really that bad?” Quizzed Party, looking him over.

“No, no,” said Goodwill hastily. “It was great. Well- the first couple of days were,” he admitted. “ How the hell do you manage on so little sleep? By last night I just wanted to crawl away and hibernate, but the bloody phone just never stops ringing. I was tempted to throw it through the window.”

“You get used to it,” laughed Party. “How did you get on with the rest of the crowd?”

“Fine, fine- well – a couple of them were a bit annoying.”

“Togetherness?” chuckled Party. “She can be a bit clingy.”

“Clingy! That must be the understatement of the century. They should rename her Velcro. And High! He was alright for the first hour or so, but after that I could have cheerfully strangled him.”

Party laughed. “Yes he does go a bit over the top sometimes, but I suppose he has to live up to his name.”

“Anyway, how did you get on?” Asked Goodwill. “Suppose you found it a bit tame?”

“Same as you really. For the first couple of days it was great. Catching up on the sleep and not having to rush anywhere, then it started to get boring, I wanted to be on the move. And a couple of your mates didn’t help either. My God! That Holy. Who does he think he is. He’s so---.”

“Holier than thou,” supplied Goodwill. “He can be a bit like that. Best thing is to just ignore it.”

“And Low, now he really got me down,” said Party.” He made suicide look inviting.”

It was Goodwill’s turn to laugh.“He can have that effect, you just have to jolly him along. I usually offload him onto Compassion when he gets too bad.”

“Well, time's passing,” Party looked at his watch. “I expect I will have something on this afternoon. We will have to do it again sometime. A change is as good as a rest and all that jazz. Best get back to the flat and check the diary.”

“About the flat,” said Goodwill. “I really meant to get round to tidying up, I just never seemed to have the time.”

“Don’t worry about it mate. I like it like that, I know where everything is. Tidy would be a shock to the system. Anyway, got to dash, see you around.” Then he was gone

Goodwill settled back to enjoy his pint. He was feeling good. The swap had been fun, but It was nice to be himself again.

We are what we are, he thought. It was just a case of getting into the spirit of the thing.