Lucy woke up in the middle of the night to feel her stomach gurgling. She rubbed it idly for a few minutes as awareness oozed back into her mind. While rolling over, Lucy discovered that her thighs felt sticky and then - OF COURSE! It was the third Thursday of the month, how could she have forgotten? Grumbling half-heartedly, Lucy grabbed a new pair of underwear and made her tired way into the bathroom. She set the stained pair to soak in the sink, and looked in the cabinet under it for a pad. Ahh...yes...there it was - a pink and green package with a beautiful woman who promised to set her free from the dreaded curse. She reached in her hand. There were only two left, so Lucy made a mental note to buy more, and began the somewhat lengthy process of unfolding the pad, unsticking the wings from one another, sticking them just right to the underwear, and then putting the whole thing on comfortably. Thus swaddled in her cotton and plastic shield, Lucy trundled back to bed.
The next morning, after her shower, Lucy was on her hands and knees on the bathroom floor again, looking for the package she'd found last night, and pulled it out. There were just two left.
Hmmm, thought Lucy, I must have counted wrong yesterday. Oh well. I guess I'll just buy more tomorrow then. And she went about her day.
Lucy was a schoolteacher, so when she got home she was very tired. All she wanted was a bowl of ice cream, a trashy book, and a comfy bed. But she didn't want to stain her new lime-green sheets, so once again, she changed her pad. And there, in the package, were two pads.
...I...I could have sworn I took one out this morning...She thought with rising confusion. Tentatively, she reached her hand into the package and pulled out....two pads. She counted them twice. Then she reached into the bag again and felt around - it was completely empty. Not a pad in sight. So she shrugged her shoulders, and put one back in.
After rolling the soiled pad into a pink and shiny tube, ready for sanitary disposal, Lucy opened the cabinet to throw it away. The pad-bag caught her eye. It looked...fuller? Yes! There were two pads in there! Lucy took out a pad, shut the door, and there were two again! She did this over and over until she was surrounded by pads, pads with wings, pads without wings, overnight, lightweight, extra long, thong-size, panty-liner size. They covered the entire floor and spilled into the hallway. Finally, exhausted, Lucy opened the door one last time, and took a garbage bag out instead. She picked up every single one of the pads, and put it in the bag. Then she put the bag in a corner.
She made her way into her bedroom, where the bowl of ice cream was melting and dripping onto her trashy book and lime-green sheets. Lucy slowly, achingly removed them from her bed and then got in the covers, heedless of the chocolate stains all over her pajamas.
The next morning, on her way to work, she bought a new bag of pads.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}