"Hi, Alec!  Howya doing?"  She beams at me, still a little out of breath from running across the road to say hello.

It is only the second time we've met.  Her blue eyes have a glint in them.  "Would you like to, er, sit in the park and have a chat"

"Well, yes - if you have the time."  Is she blushing, or is it the sun amd the sea wind?

"Of course.  I just came out to go down to the front and buy some fresh fish from the..."

She has taken a step back, almost hit by a Post Office van mounting the pavement.  "Fish?  To eat?"

"Well, yes. Are you a vegeterian? "  Her face has gone white, her eyes now look like guided, hostile  weapons.  "Vegan, perhaps?"

"I thought you were kind and compaasionate.  I thought you were different."

"Quite easily,' I say, exaggerating, longing for her smile to return, "I could adapt to a diet consisting entirely of vegetables."

"Vegetables?  Have you no conscience, no feelings at all?"  It's only now I notice how slim she is.  Naked, I might be able to see right through her.  "You're just a typical human.  How can you kill anything that grows?"

"Well," I improvise wildly, trying to come up with some consensus, some alternative foods acceptable to her.  "I suppose there's always - salt?"

"And why, Alec," she responds, voice trembling with righteous triumph  "Why should salt suffer?"