Palm Revelations

Last week, I had my palm read for the first time.I was spending the day with scientists who study the microscopic bugs living on our skin. (It’s actually not as creepy or smelly as you might think.) One of the researchers, a young and energetic dermatologist, was giving me the grand tour of the lab when I happened to mention that my sister had eczema — an itchy red rash — when we were growing up. Then, right in the middle of a long, sterile corridor, the doctor suddenly stopped and demanded my hand.Before I knew what was happening, she was pointing to the edge of my palm, underneath the thumb. “Yep, you have hyperlinearity,” she said. Before I could even process the frightening sound of the word, she showed me her palm and said, “See, I have it too.”The Last Word on Nothing, November 2010.