She was holding her hand oddly with her chin on the palm but with her wrist facing directly forward and her fingers at her throat. As a teenager, this aroused my curiosity so I kept a eye on her each time I went, until I found out why. The hand was paralyzed with the fingers naturally clenched and the thumb contracted tightly against the side of the palm. The two joints nearest the tips of her fingers were curled in the normal direction but the knuckles were straight or even bent back the other way a bit. She must have rested her chin on her hand a lot to make the shape permanent. Otherwise her arm was normal.

I never saw her pick up an armful of books or do anything else that would emphasize the problem with her hand. But she didn't hide it much either. Eventually she was promoted to the check out desk. There, she would use her left hand to hold the book cover open while she slipped a due date card in the pocket. As well,  the cleft between her thumb and palm proved a convenient place to wedge a few extra cards. In the many years since I have encountered two other librarians with unusual hands. But I saw each of them only once so my teenage encounter was the most memorable.