Lacking Subtlety

I was just at Thriftway, picking up a wedge of Forme d'aumbert and a promiscuous little bottle of red for dinner at a friend's tonight.

In the next line over from me is a woman in her 40s who looked like she'd just had a chemical peel, or a dermabrasion. But like it went a layer deeper than it should have done. It looked like if you just touched her face ever so gently, she might scream out.

There's a guy in line behind me. Salesman 55 year old looking guy in a plaid sport coat (yes, really) and a tag around his neck like he worked someplace where you needed tags. And out of the blue he looks over at this woman and says, loud enough for her to hear him 12 feet away, "Radiation poisoning?"

I froze. He must know her. He must.

"Wh-what?" she said back at him, kind of looking at her groceries but kind of looking scared.

"Radiation?" and he chuckled like it was a pretty good joke. "It just looks like you got too close to the microwave!"

What on earth is wrong with people?

She was quickly moving things about now. Trying to hide in her busy-ness.
"I have sunlight sensitivity."

"Ha! So you actually saw some? It's been pretty rainy lately."

"Yes. Uh... it doesn't take much. Just a little sun. I'm allergic." Paying quickly now. Trying to leave.

"Yeah, my eyes are like that if I stare at the sun. Huh huh - or it's a hangover."

I don't know. I just don't know.