Jab

And then, before Auntie Jessie and Two Hours Max even had a chance to move in from their old place and make their new home on the shelf, a thing came to pass that felt like the end of the world for a day or two. Ursa, the Great Bear, was ill. This had never happened before. Stars are not often unwell.

It was because the Great Bear had been for her injection — the one to protect a person against catching the virus. Ursa very much wanted to have this injection, because it is part of loving. 

When there is a virus like this one that goes all around the world, there are different things we can do to help. Just ordinary soap and water makes viruses give up and go away. And they need to hop from person to person, by a cough or a sneeze or by people touching each other — so when we stay at home or leave a big gap between people it helps. 

But now there is the injection, and that will be a big help. A person who has had the injection is protected against the virus, yes, that's true. But that was not why the Great Bear wanted to have the injection.

She wanted it because it meant that if she couldn't catch the virus, then she wouldn't be part of passing it on round the world. 

Ursa couldn't go to India and help the poor people who have been so ill. She didn't have a job in a hospital to look after people who needed help. She didn't have much money to help people whose lives had gone wrong because of the virus. But this one thing she could do. Having the injection meant she could be part of helping and loving, part of making it stop.

A person has a beautiful thing inside called the Immune System. It has a whole rainbow of loveliness, everything from special blood cells to the power of happiness. It gets strong from all kinds of things that you might not think were connected — sunshine and music, the food you eat and having a peaceful rest, being loved and playing in the garden, stroking animals and praying — all sorts of things make a person's immune system strong. Amazing.

The great work of the Immune System is to create wellbeing and parry the Adversary. It does this — and this might sound surprising — not by inflaming things but by calming them down. It is for generating and establishing serenity and cheerfulness. Its chief weapons are animal fur and vegetables. Who'd a thought it?

When someone has the injection to stop the virus spreading round the world, it makes the Immune System inside sit up, suddenly alert, and say, "Uh-oh!" And then, "On guard!!" It knows something that doesn't normally belong there has come into the body it lives in, so it pays attention with all its might, to protect the body where it lives — because that's its actual job.

And when your Immune System is parrying an adversary inside you, you can feel that struggle in every living cell! It can make you hot and feel sick, it can give you pains and even make you poo. A lot.

Ursa knew that the injection would help stop the virus from travelling around, and help keep her safe from catching that virus herself. But she also knew the injection might make her feel ill. She knew it could happen. She expected it. So she wasn't worried, but nobody enjoys being ill, do they?

The Great Bear went to the Vaccination Centre and had her injection and came home. 

And then in the evening, she began to feel very tired.

She sat down quietly.

She thought she might go to bed early.

Then she started to feel hot and shivery both at the same time.

Her legs were hurting. And her head hurt inside.

So she went to bed, but in the morning she still felt ill.

Ursa stayed in her bed and rested. She wasn't worried or afraid, she just felt ill.

Yūgen came to see her. "Are you okay?"

Ursa said she was okay really, and she was pleased to see Yūgen, but she didn't feel very well. So Yūgen sang her a little song and made her a cup of tea, and then just let her rest.

Danshari came to see her. "Can I get you anything, Ursa?"

He brought her some lemonade with ice in it, which was lovely. Then he stayed to read her a story. And then he just let her rest.

And after a while — not very long, just a day or two — Ursa's Immune System got over itself. It came to terms with the stuff in the injection and declared a truce. The Immune System and the injection stuff understood each other and could stop struggling. Once everything was integrated, and the injection stuff had come into harmony with her body, Ursa began to feel better.

Her headache stopped, and she felt less hot. Her legs stopped hurting and her whole body began to feel like its normal self again. 

"I am so very glad I had that injection," said the Great Bear to herself as she sat up and thought about eating porridge and going for a walk. "If just the injection made me feel ill like that, imagine what it would have felt like to get ill from the virus."

She thought about people all around the world who had been taken to hospital, and been terribly ill, and even died; and she was so, so grateful she'd been given the chance to have her injection and be part of a way to make it stop.