Starter: A mystery with two solutions

Today we’ll begin with a paragraph starter–the opening to Rebecca Solnit’s nonfiction article, “The Separating Sickness.” First, read the excerpt:

Eddie Bacon was a forklift operator at Trident Seafoods in Akutan, Alaska. In the summer of 1999, he developed mysterious rashes on his hands, arms, and legs. He visited a doctor, who gave him a variety of ointments, but they did nothing. He grew weak, lost weight. He had trouble seeing. No longer able to earn a living, he moved into his parents’ house in central California. There, at a New Year’s Eve party in 2000, he passed out, and his parents took him to the emergency room. He had green blisters on his hands, his weight had dropped to ninety pounds, and he couldn’t stand up by himself. The medical staff at the hospital regarded Eddie with puzzlement and dread, asking his parents to put on gloves, masks, and gowns when visiting him.

          Sounds like something out of a sci-fi action thriller, right? But it was real. So the first solution to the mystery is the one YOU come up with. Take time now to continue the writing and show what the real story is. YOU can make it whatever you want it to be, but if you’re curious about what the reality was, I can tell you that it was a disease that only 173 Americans had last year, of the 250 000 cases worldwide. That’s a drop in the ocean, and likely why it was misdiagnosed. If you want to know the name of this disease, a name you surprisingly ARE familiar with, just follow the dots down the page. What he was suffering from was…

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leprosy.

Coming tomorrow: Another speed bag drill. Better get stretching before this one…!