-Monolith-

Rigid doesn't begin to describe my coworker. Twice divorced, no kids, caretaker of four cats and living in her brother's house, she carries two part-time jobs, and advocates for feminism and islam at the same time.

In my darker fantasies, we debate the role of women in the Quran, and all her nuclei divide and grapple with each other in the form of zillions of angry microscopic soap bubbles.

Actually, debates of any kind are taboo. Last week she held forth for ten uninteruppted minutes on humankind's (no, she used the gender-specific "men's") tendency to destroy, as extrapolated from the body's "battle" at the cellular levels to fight off viruses and hostile bacteria. It made me think of Dr. Yamaguchi in Tom Robbins' 'Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas':

What you mean, 'conquer'? What you mean, 'destroy'? Western Medicine all a time think in terms of destruction. In west, person get virus, he wish kill it. Get tumor, fire magic bullet at it. Not a healing, but a gunfight. O.K. Corral, ne?.. My method not warfare. My method pacify. Make friend with tumor. Friendship with cancer. Change friend's diet, teach friend good manners.

That's what I was thinking until the room became silent. Aloud, I said:
"I'm afraid I can't quite agree with your example, because-"
"Forget it." she hissed, suddenly on the edge of tears.
"Oh, I'm sorry." I said. "I thought you were finished. Please, continue."
"Just forget it." She stalked out of the room.
"No, really," interjected my boss. "You can go on."

No good. Lillith-Fatimah was already gone.