Xerosis

“Zee… row… siss?” I stammered confused at the doctor.
I looked at the sheet again, the word looked so otherworldly. I had come to the doctor due to some dry painful cracking on my skin, the more I looked at it the more terrifying it looked. Xerosis… it almost sounded like some alien mutation, or some weird curse.
was it some fungus. Or maybe some kind of infection. I started to worry.


“dry skin, if that makes it easier for you mr Jacobs.”
I looked at the paper again, “that’s it? Thank god…”
he looked at me and gently reassured. “these things often sound and look worse than they actually are.”
thank goodness I thought, its just dry skin, probably from the cold air. Could’ve sworn it almost looked like scales.
“yes it looks bad but it is far from the worst case I’ve ever seen. Just a quick trip to get a moisturizer, from the pharmacy down the street and you’ll be fine.”


“Looking better already.” I say to myself as I stand in front of the bathroom mirror
Its only been a few months since seeing my physician and my skin feels so smooth and slick now.
and my nails even look better now. All the yellow is gone from them.
the scales are still there, in fact more have grown in the short while since that appointment,
but they feel much better now. I just need to find somewhere where the air is less dry.
maybe the trailer park near the lake has an opening.
“who am I kidding, of course it does”
after seeing all those cases of missing people on the news it only makes sense that there’d be some opening.
and the more I think about it the better it sounds. near the water, plenty of fish, plenty of space, and lots of nice new neighbors
I cant wait to meet them all.


I lean back to brush my teeth, they’ve gotten longer and sharper so I have to lean back pretty far now and brush carefully. But I got to make a good impression. I kind of messed it up with the last few and it didn’t end too well. I guess they were bothered by my condition.
But hey at least it opened up some space and brought in some more fish.

I guess having xerosis might not be so bad.