Meet Kimbra Hickey, the model whose hands grace the now-iconic cover of vampire romance Twilight. What's she up to these days? Oh, not much, just hanging out at the Barnes & Noble cash register, telling people who she is.

You know what the cover of Twilight looks like, right? Two ghostly white hands, cupping a bright red apple? It represents budding adolescent sexuality, or the Garden of Eden, or Johnny Appleseed, or something. Well: As it turns out, those hands belong to 40-year-old model Kimbra Hickey. And if you didn't know that, it's probably because you've never met Hickey, or talked to her, or walked within 100 yards of her:

So Hickey now stops anyone she sees reading the book to inform them of her contribution.
"I see people reading it on the subway, and I say, 'Those are my hands! I'm a hand model!' " she explained. "I'm sure they think I'm crazy — a crazy lady on the subway."

Crazy? You? No! Would a crazy person do this?

The good-natured Hickey sometimes hangs out near the cash register at the Barnes & Noble near her Greenwich Village apartment to spread the word. Surprised customers sometimes ask her for her autograph or to trace the outline of her hand on the book jacket.

Or this?

She even carries around a Gala apple in her purse at times so she can recreate the pose for people.

Okay, so, maybe she's a little crazy. (Though, in the world of Twilight, that barely counts as obsessive behavior.) But can you blame her? She's got the most famous hands in the U.S. and all she has to show for it is the industry-standard $300 she was paid at the time.

Don't worry, though—she's not pointing any fingers and she's not looking for a hand-out. In fact, she knuckled down and got a money-making gig:

Lately, she's been going to "Twilight" fan conventions — she's at one this weekend in Portland, Ore. — where she sells apple-scented hand lotion.

[NYP]