The New Doctor

He knocked like a man who expected doors to obey him. She let him knock. Through the window she watched him take in the bee skeps, the herb ropes, the general evidence of a woman who had arranged her whole existence around not being disturbed, and she watched him decide, visibly, that none of it applied to him. "I am the new doctor," he called. "I think we should be allies." "I think," she told the window, "you should learn to be told no."