[5.11 / November 2010]

Vallie Lynn Watson

Pocket

Maggie left a trail of panties in bar bathrooms across Chicago. Usually the more expensive, ugly pairs: flesh colored things made of dense polyester, meant to smooth, to flatten, to fool. It was when a hand found the curve of her ass that she knew she could get rid of them, that her job was done. That she had won. She didn’t want the hand to wander up and discover the thick elastic band an inch above her waist, so she’d excuse herself briefly and remove the offending panties in the ladies room and throw them–too bulky to fold into her purse–in the trash can or under the sink.

The prettier, smaller pairs, the fun panties that she wore on good days either stayed on, went into her purse, or sometimes into the man of the evening’s pocket, letting him worry about how to dispose of them before they were discovered by his wife.

Vallie Lynn Watson received her PhD from the Center for Writers and teaches creative writing at Southeast Missouri State University. Lynn's manuscript, A River So Long, was first runner up in the 2009 Miami University Press Novella Contest. Excerpts from the work appear or are forthcoming in over a dozen literary magazines such as Pindeldyboz, Staccato Microfiction, Metazen, Camroc Press Review, Moon Milk Review, and Ghoti.