Paralysis

A woman behind the bar. Her eyelid droops. It is almost closed. I study her while waiting for my turn to order beers. Is it a paralysis or an over-contraction? It could go both ways. I study the rest of her face, her mouth hardly moves on the droopy-eye side. Her cheek seems lifeless. Paralysis.

She hands me my beers and I ask, “is your face paralysed?”

She shakes her head briefly while handing me change.

“No,” she says, “I’m not wearing make-up.”

When all I wanted to say was: I had that too and look at me now.

But she is purposefully helping the next person.