She counted up to ten, cooling off faster than a strip-teaser in a drafty igloo.
"This is ridiculous," she sputtered. "Why is it I keep blowing my top like this?"
I was beginning to feel sorry for her. After all, it wasn't her fault I was so obnoxious. "Don't let it throw you," I sighed. "You're merely acting normal. Everybody hates me."
She stopped massaging her foot and turned to stare incredulously at me. "Everybody?" she gasped.
I nodded. "Including kindly old ladies and small dogs," I said. I mean, I wasn't boasting or anything. Just trying to paint a clear picture for her.
She thought it over carefully. I could see an idea begin to form in her big brown eyes.
"This is remarkable," she murmured. "This is really remarkable. Mind driving around a bit?"
While I drove around she told me about herself. Her name, she said, was Marsha Carson, though her friends all called her Panda. She worked for the Keevan Research Foundation. Her boss was Dr. Stanley MacCluett, the famous bio-electronicist, who was presently doing some important work on waveform mutuality.
"I have a very good reason for filling you in on all this background material," she went on to explain. "Because of the type of biological electronic research we are carrying on at Keevan I feel I am in an excellent position to offer a logical explanation as to why everybody finds you so detestable."