Different Circles

“Are you kidding?” Meghan asked. “If I would have bought some, the whole town would’ve been talking about it. Pauline got them to kill that story about me, but I’m still the subject of endless gossip. I can only imagine what they would say about something like this.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” Danielle said. She opened the bag she was carrying and pulled out a tube that resembled a travel size tube of toothpaste, but that was not what it was. The word Miconazole was written in large letters on it.

“You’re sure this will help?” Meghan asked, taking the tube and looking at it.

“Well, you have itching and a rash down there and you haven’t been having sex with anyone, right?”

“Right,” she said. “I told you that when I called last night.”

“It sounds like a yeast infection to me,” Danielle said. “And this is the cure. Want me to look at it to make sure that’s what it is? Believe me, I’ve seen my share of them where I work.”

She shook her head, mortified at the thought of her sister examining her vagina. “No, you don’t need to do that. I’ll take your word for it. But how did I get it? I’ve never had one before. I’m a clean person. I shower every night and wash myself down there. How does this happen?”

“It’s not necessarily being dirty down there that causes it,” Danielle told her. “In fact, sometimes having too good of hygiene can be the cause.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, confused. Being too clean caused yeast to grow on and in your cooter? What kind of bullshit was that?

“Well, this is a little gross maybe, but a woman’s hoo-hoo is supposed to have a fairly good colony of bacteria living on it and in it. That bacteria is a woman’s friend. It keeps the Ph where it should be. And it keeps any yeast from growing there.”

“No kidding?”

“No kidding,” she said. “If you disrupt that bacteria, the yeast can grow unchecked. Are you taking any antibiotics?”

“No,” she said. “Just my birth control pills.”

“Have you been douching or anything like that?” she asked next. “Douching is not really good for you for this very reason.”

“No, I’ve never douched in my life,” she said.

“Hmm,” Danielle said. “Something must have killed those bacteria.”

A thought occurred to her. “What about the hot tub?” she asked. “It has chlorine in it. Could that do it?”

Danielle shook her head. “It shouldn’t unless they’re really flooding that thing with chlorine. That much would probably make it hard to even get in the water though.”

“It seems like the normal amount in there,” Meghan said. “And Laura has never mentioned anything about getting yeast infections—although I’m not certain we have that kind of sharing relationship with each other just yet.”

“It must be something else,” Danielle said. “If you’ve never been prone to them before, there’s got to be a reason why you’re getting a nasty one right now.”

And then, Meghan’s mind went back to the douching suggestion. And suddenly, a horrible idea occurred to her. She flushed visibly. “Uh ... wow...”

“What is it?” Danielle asked.

“Uh ... well ... suppose that that chlorinated water out in the hot tub was ... uh ... was...”

“Was what?”

She took a deep breath. Her face was now an alarming shade of red. Her eyes were unable to meet the eyes of her sister. “Suppose it was ... uh ... you know ... a stream of that water and it was ... uh ... kind of hitting you in that area?”

Danielle’s eyes got wide. She nibbled her lip for a moment. “Uh ... well ... is that something that possibly happened to you?” she asked slowly.

Shamefully, Meghan nodded her head.

“Are you saying that you were letting the hot tub jet ... letting it spray on you ... down there?”

“Yes,” she said meekly.

“Why in the world would you do that?” Danielle asked.

“Because it feels good,” she hissed at her sister. “Don’t judge me. I don’t have a husband to stick his dick in me when I’m horny.”

“Well ... can’t you just ... you know ... do yourself the normal way? With your fingers? Or maybe a toy?”

“It doesn’t feel as good as the water jet,” she said shortly. “Not even close.”

“Really?” she said. “I almost want to try it now. How many times have you done this?”

Meghan looked down at the floor again. “Maybe ... uh ... ten times since I discovered this last month.”

“Ten times?”

“Give or take a few,” Meghan said, as embarrassed as she had ever been in her life.

“Well ... that’s your culprit then,” Danielle said. “You’re shooting high-pressure chlorinated water directly on your hoo-hoo. It’s blasting away the bacteria layer and then sterilizing the mucous membranes in the process. You created a perfect breeding ground for vaginal yeast.”

“What a rip,” she said with a sigh, employing a Jake-ism she had picked up.

“Yep,” Danielle said. “Unfortunately, everything in this world that is fun has consequences. Especially when it comes to hoo-hoos.”

“You’d think I would have learned that by now,” Meghan said, dejected.

Danielle patted her consolingly on the back. “At least you tend to learn from your mistakes, sis.”

“Yeah. I guess there’s that.”