The Sterile Woman

She loved nothing as much as a good blazing fire, especially the white-hot kind. She would dream of its almighty cleansing power, how it could tidy a landscape, freeing entire forests of clutter and debris. Fire could boil water, water that could scald and turn the skin red, water that could rid us of impurities, bacterium and the like. She imagined a shining, chromium bath, filled with water below the boil, heated by roaring flame. She imagined dropping all of her possessions into the water. She pictured the flurry of dust, dirt and grease that would explode further and further toward the bath's edge, much like the supernova birth of a white-hot star. A white-hot star could cleanse space and stop time. Rocks and asteroids would catapult away to be vacuumed by a black hole. She considered the universe - clean, clutter free, sterile.