Sipping tea with the crone

“Oh my,” he said, dabbing a sponge to my face and looking at my skin as if it were a national disaster. “We have got to find a way to get rid of those fine lines.”

My skin was changing. It was getting drier, so I needed to switch from a powder to a liquid base. I could no longer use my old, stand-by cosmetics and I was getting sick of trying to match my skin tone after I purchased the make-up, so I abandoned the drug store aisle and went to an actual make-up counter in a department store.

I tried to make sense of what he was saying. Fine lines? What is he talking about? He saw my confusion, told me to take off my glasses, and thrust a mirror into my face. It magnified the areas around my eyes about 100 times, and I saw them. Fine lines. Cosmetic code for wrinkles.