The woman was born into a family that treated love like rationed kerosene: distributed sparingly, often with smoke. Her father believed affection was best expressed by raising his voice, and her siblings thought emotions were best handled like cricket balls, thrown hard and fast. Her first lover turned out to be a boxer who mistook her ribs for punching bags.
She discovered two machines that never gaslit her: the treadmill and the barbell. Running became her rebellion. Lifting was her therapy. With every deadlift, she buried her old self; with every sprint, she outran her past.
The B2C company was searching for the mythical creature HR called a “resilient communicator.” Translation: someone who could get screamed at daily by customers about delivery delays and still smile like a toothpaste model.
“When people shout at me,” she said calmly, “it feels like home.”
They hired her on the spot.
Soon, she discovered the truth: the office was not an office. It was a battlefield. Phones rang like alarm bells. Every customer was a monster, their voices morphing into grotesque shadows that stomped across the floor. Her coworkers wept, fainted, broke.
But not her.
She answered each call like a queen on her throne. “I understand your frustration,” she would whisper, and the monsters would shiver, crumble, and vanish. With each complaint, she grew stronger. She used keyboards like swords, headset wires like whips, scripts like shields.
The CEO watched in awe. “What is she?” he whispered.
HR replied softly: “She is resilience, weaponized.”
By midnight, the battlefield was silent. The monsters were gone. Her coworkers, wide-eyed, began to call her something under their breath: Call Queen.
But the phone never really stopped ringing. Even in the dead of night, even when the office was empty, the chorus of demands returned. And still, she picked up because chaos was her native tongue, and capitalism had finally crowned her its monarch.
The fluorescent lights flickered. For a fleeting second, her shadow stretched across the office wall, of a warrior queen in armor.
And then, she answered the next call.
Illustration : By Author
