I Kings by Sally Van Doren

I don't know where the time went. It felt like I had it here in my hand, but when I unfurl my fingers, there is nothing there but air on the veins and lifelines on the palm.

Dr. A told me Friday that I do have prominent capillaries in my fingers which is why perhaps I am recently susceptible to the veins bursting in my two middle fingers. I researched this instantly painful but subsiding and bruising occurrence and it happens most regularly in middle-aged women. The bruises last only a few days.

The bursting happens most commonly when doing the dishes. I think it has to do with moving from cold to hot and that my middle-aged women fingers don't make that transition as easily as they once did. I don't think of myself as aging, but there are bodily signs like this that I am. I will listen.

I will work to follow the time and to precede it. It is called the Achenbach syndrome. Giving it this name makes me less fearful. The next time I feel the vein pop I will raise my hand up so that the blood flows down. I will wave to the air in welcome.