I was walking down one of the main aisles at Glenbrook Mall in Fort Wayne when a fellow stationed at one of the kiosks reached out for my hand. He was, I don’t believe, a native English-speaker because he took my hand and said, “I can help you with that stain.”

I was confused momentarily until I realized he was talking about the white splotches on the hand he saw. (I also have them on my other hand, ankles, knees and elbow and a couple of other spots.) I first noticed them on my ankles and knees when I was a kid and I never gave it any thought. It didn’t hurt for the most part I think it was triggered by the constant scraping of those areas when I was playing.

Later,  some other patches showed up and maybe about two decades ago, I discovered the loss of pigment occurring on my knuckles and the backs of my hands. People would sometimes ask if I had been burned or if I had cream on my hands. Maybe others stared and wondered but never said a thing; I don’t know – I really never think about it.

Getting back to this young seller of cosmetic creams, he attempted to tug me over, saying that he had something to help it, fix it, whatever. I think I gave him my, “Are you crazy?” look and said I was fine with it. He looked amazed and I kept nodding my head and saying it was okay. Finally, he got a look of surprise on his face and exclaimed, “Really?!” and then gave me a high five. My hand worked fine for doing that. It works fine for most things. It’s not arthritic and I’m happy for that.

Now I’m wondering when I walk past vendors that I they must consider me hopeless because they don’t grab me and say they can fix my height, my weight, my nose, my really big mouth, my eyes which I think I set too close together (but, I really am grateful to be able to see) my clothes, my limp hair, my lack of a bustline and so forth.

I know those spots are likely to eventually show up on my face. Well, to be honest, they will probably look better than I do when I get in a “mood” and frown and scowl and forget how lucky I am to be able to walk quickly around a mall without aching joints or shortness of breath and a lot of other conditions.