Well, I’ve been sick before, but I think the strangest thing my body has ever done was a rash all over.
I started itching when I went to bed, and itched all night. It was sheer torture, and I tried not to scratch but I had to.
When I woke the next morning and looked in the mirror I couldn’t believe it. I had these purple spots all over my face. I took off my clothes and looked, and I had purple blotches all over, even on my hands and feet and breasts.
At this point I wasn’t itching, and I didn’t have fever or anything, I was just spotted purple like a strange kind of leopard. There wasn’t any bumps. either – I just looked like I’d been in an x-treme tattoo parlor. I mean, I looked weird.
I was in college at the time and missed an entire day’s classes and didn’t set foot outside my dorm room. Good thing I had a hotpot and soup, or I would have starved.
The next day the spots were still there, and I started to get worried. I dressed in my most body-covering clothes and put on my coat with the deep hood and my huge gloves. I took my scarf (thank goodness it was cold) and wrapped it around my face, and put on my sunglasses too, so not an inch of skin was exposed.
I got to the Death Center (…er, Health Center) and sat in the waiting room sweating until the doctor could see me, and which time I unwrapped myself and presented him with my new leopard body. I’ve never seen a doctor so confused. He couldn’t do anything for me.
The color disappeared after a couple more days. I lived in seculsion like a leper until my face was clear enough that I could go to class without trying to hide behind a barracade of folders.
I’m actually a very pretty woman! This was most embarrassing!
However, I have felt a pretty close kinship with those fantastical turned-into-a-cockroach stories ever since.