Mitchell was looking for the Instant Dry Milk in Ralphs. He had started buying dry milk two months ago. Packaged in a box weighing only 1? pounds, dry milk tastes and costs the same as regular nonfat milk. Plus, it is a lot lighter to carry than liquid milk. He couldn’t find it on the aisle with the unrefrigerated soy milk, so he walked to the next aisle.

Just as Mitchell started up the next aisle, he almost collided with someone pushing a shopping cart toward him. Mitchell’s eyes opened wide, and then he quickly looked away. Was this person starring in a monster movie? She was the ugliest person he had ever seen. He couldn’t even believe that this was a real person—she had to be an actor still in make-up.

She had warts all over her face! Warts—too many to count—covered her forehead, cheeks, nose, and neck. The warts were the same color as her skin, and each one was about the size of a pencil eraser. When Mitchell was a kid, he thought that the Halloween mask of a witch with just one wart on the tip of her nose was ugly. But this woman was hideous--even more repulsive than people with bad acne or with severe facial burns.