Rosemary

“Sometimes all it takes is a simple word, a mere nothing, a well-intentioned but over-protective gesture, like the gesture made, quite unwittingly, by the Mathematics teacher, for the pacific, docile, submissive person suddenly to vanish and be replaced, to the dismay and incomprehension of those who thought they knew all there was to know about the human soul, by the blind, devastating wrath of the meek. It doesn't usually last very long, but while it does, it inspires real fear.”
― José Saramago, The Double