by Amy Marques
~ Ladies Home Journal, 1928
Women who have a quiet and even temperament and have learned self-control in all the circumstances in which they may be placed usually pass the menopause peacefully.
Before leaving the house, Ethel pins two sanitary napkins to her hoosier. She even adds a layer of wool. In her youth, any old rag had been enough, but now that she has grandchildren on the way, her womb insists on not only erratically still bleeding, but doing so with violence.
Modess is a revolutionary product designed by women nurses for women. Door-to-door consumer research conducted by trained nurses proves the pads offer improved protection and added comfort.
Ethel knows of Moddess. Women talk. And she can afford them, of course. Daniel is generous with pin money. But given Grocer Jon’s bad hearing, the thought of walking into the store and yelling out for ladies’ sanitary pads? Unthinkable.
In order that Modess may be obtained in a crowded store without embarrassment or discussion, J&J devised the Silent Purchase Coupon presented below. Simply cut it out and hand it to the sales person. You will receive one box of Modess.
There’s a line at the store. She shouldn’t have come. Ethel feels a trickle and presses her thighs together, slipping a hand inside her pocket to pull in her petticoat to stop the blood from sliding all the way to the floor.
On the other hand, women who are nervous and hysterical, who have little control over their nerves in the ordinary stress of life, can hardly expect to hold them in leash.
Ethel hates histrionics. But lately she is appalled at her urge to curse every time she loses another skirt to copper stains that no amount of scrubbing can remove. Her life has shrunk. Her schedule is clear, but she is wary of commitments. On a wrong day, any attempt to leave the house is laden with the risk of mortification. She finally understands why matrons wear black.
She awaits her turn, back straight, pleasantly nodding in greeting to those that catch her eye, sweaty coupon wrinkling in her palm as moisture weighs down her sanitary belt and she envisions clots falling and breadcrumbing behind her all the way home.
Amy Marques has been known to call books friends and is on a first name basis with many fictional characters. She’s been nominated for multiple awards and has visual art, poetry, and prose published in journals such as Streetcake Magazine, South Florida Poetry Journal, Fictive Dream, Bending Genres, Ghost Parachute, Bright Flash Literary Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, and Gone Lawn. She is the editor and visual artist for the Duets anthology and the erasure poetry book PARTS (with Full Mood Publishing). More at https://amybookwhisperer.wordpress.com.
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