EXPONENTIAL LOG
By Keliadom
3rd of May, 20XX, 18:53, Outskirts of L. town
Today, the air was heavy with humidity, the unbearable sort that made wearing a simple t-shirt an ordeal. I came here walking, to this desolate village, through a serpentine path off a cliff, adorned with old stone stairs, and fortunately only a couple of hours away from L. town. The thick roots constricting the sides of the trail did not help a feeling of claustrophobia brought about by the swampy air. I always imagined that this part of Asia would have been more dry and rocky, but it seems I had assumed wrongly.
It was yesterday, while working at the hospital of L, that I received a call requesting my help for a very peculiar matter: a young woman named R, of a nearby mountain village, seemed to be experiencing extremely rapid growth. Her mother is the one that lodged the call. The initial report was hard to believe. It seemed the daughter had grown around 20 centimeters taller (~8 inches) in the span of a single day, and more every hour. With such a rare case on hand, I had no choice but to find a replacement for me at the hospital, and promptly left as soon as I had prepared my tools and belongings.
The villagers energetically welcomed me upon my arrival. Most seemed to display a sort of relief. As a doctor, I knew this emotion all too well: that I would be the one to finally make things right. I hastily continued to the abode of the concerned family.
When I entered the house, the smell of dirt, typical of mold, assaulted my nostrils. R. was laying on a wooden bench overflowing with comfy looking fabric, propped up against the wall. Her long, frail legs resting down in front of her, seemingly going on forever. She looked to be in her early twenties. Her well maintained silky hair spread down covering her seat and continued to cascade almost all the way to the floor in an imposing mass. The night gown she wore was obviously too small for her, while her legs and feet were kept bare. She seemed excessively skinny, the outline of a ribcage easily noticeable through the soft fabric she wore. This type of chronic undernourishment is usually common in villages such as this one.
I’ve always taken pride in my professionalism and detachment when it came to examining patients, but even I would admit that she awoke emotions deep within me. Her beauty was striking. The angles of her face were well pronounced, her elongated look giving her a sense of elegance, despite her somewhat emaciated form. This emaciation was mostly apparent when looking at the thinness of her legs and the pronounced veins on her feet and forearms, hinting at a very low percentage of body fat. Her fingers, lanky and delicate, gently held a warm cup of tea in a homemade ceramic.
I asked her to get up, so that I could start measurements, and was left puzzled: yesterday’s report claimed she would be around 170 centimeters tall, yet she definitely appeared taller than me. Much more than 180 centimeters. In any case, I proceeded to measure the patient and noted said measurements in this journal.
Noted measurements of patient R. -third of May, 18:14- Height: 196.52 cm ( ~77 ¼ in) Foot Length: 34 cm ( ~13 ½ in) Hand Length: 24.5 cm ( ~9 ½ in) |
R. asked me if she would be alright. I made sure to let her know there was no cause for concern. Late growth spurts is not something that is unheard of, and there are plenty of solutions in the off chance it’s related to any pituitary gland problem. I told her mother and her to let me know if anything else happened, other than the unusual spurt, evidently. I pointed out to them the house I would be staying at for the night, and bid them farewell for the day. I will say though that I did notice a certain longing, not far from a dreamlike state, in R’s eyes when I left the house.
After such a long, demanding day, I would welcome a nice bowl of rice, noodles and egg. Maybe a fresh beer, but I feel it’s going to be hard to get here.