JJ and the Black Spot.

You might remember the small matter of my seborrheic keratosis and the fact that I had freezy stuff squirted on it last week. Well, it hasn’t gone yet. In fact, it’s got worse. It’s bigger and darker than it used to be, no doubt because it takes a while for the freezy stuff to take full effect so it drops off. Meanwhile, it’s more conspicuous than ever and fit to attract the attention of the curious for miles around.

And so I walk around the town constantly aware of this thing and constantly wondering whether it’s responsible for the glances I get. Maybe it isn’t, but you never know. I find myself wishing that people would simply approach me and ask: ‘What the hell is that thing on your cheek?’ And then I could tell them and they would go away happy. Instead, I’m prone to imagining that a sizeable body of people out there is wondering whether I have a notifiable condition and they should inform the authorities so I might be quarantined. The more fanciful among them might even be wondering whether I’m under a death sentence prescribed by a consortium of disgruntled pirates.

The one thing that buoys me in all this is that Black Headed Gulls also have a black spot on their cheeks during the winter when the rest of their heads turn white, and there are plenty of those around. I don’t suppose many people know that, but it still helps a little to know that my condition is echoed in the avian world. After all, I am growing closer to the natural world as age takes its toll, and maybe there’s hope that I might learn to fly before long. Then I could swoop down and steal people’s sandwiches instead of having to buy my own.