Hi everyone, thanks for your help while I was asleep in my timezone haha.
IT’S THE CURLY APOSTROPHE! I’m using Inform 10.1.2. I watched closely and saw that as I typed, my ’ converted into a ’ . I’m using a Mac – maybe it’s a Mac thing?
Here’s a direct copy-paste from the Story window:
rules on
Rules tracing now switched on. Type “rules off” to switch it off again, or “rules all” to include even rules which do not apply.
[Rule “parse command rule” applies.]
touch james’s hand
You can’t see any such thing