I wake up in the recovery room. People are always a bit out of sorts when they wake up from general anesthesia. I think recovery rooms were created to spare relatives from witnessing this.

I’m awoken by my own babbling. What was I saying? Don’t know. My whole body is shaking. Slowly the gears in my mind begin to turn. What am I doing here? Did something happen to me? I want to smile to try to hide my sense of helplessness even though there’s nobody else in the room. My lips are so dry that the corner of my mouth cracks when I do smile. My asshole! That’s why I’m here. It had cracked, too. My hand fumbles for my bum. I feel a huge bandage stretched across both ass cheeks. Through that I feel a thick knob. Oh man, I hope that knob isn’t part of my body. Hopefully it’s something that will come off with the rest of the bandaging. I’m in one of those embarrassing, apron-like hospital gowns. They love these gowns in hospitals.

It has sleeves and from the front makes you look like a tree-top angel. But it’s completely backless except for a little bow tied back there. Why does this piece of clothing even exist? I mean, sure, if you’re lying down they can put one on you without having to lift you. But I was lying on my stomach for the operation so they could get at my ass. Does that mean I was essentially naked for the duration of the operation? That’s not good. I’m sure they talk about the way you look. And you hear it and remember it subconsciously even though you’re knocked out — maybe someday down the road you’ll go nuts as a result of the comments and nobody will understand why.

This airy feeling on my backside reminds me of a recurring nightmare I had as a child. Elementary school.

Oh man, I hope that knob isn’t part of my body.

I’m waiting at the bus stop. Just as I often forgot to take my pajamas off before putting on my jeans, today I’ve forgotten to put underwear on beneath my skirt. You don’t notice that kind of thing at home as a kid. But you’d rather

die than have people discover in public that you’re bareassed under your skirt. And this was at exactly the age when the boys think it’s funny to lift girls’ skirts.

Robin walks in. He speaks very deliberately, saying everything went smoothly. He pushes my gurney into an elevator and then along hallways, always slamming his fist on the game-show buttons that open the automatic doors. Oh, Robin. The lingering effects of the anesthesia make for a hypnotic ride. I use the time to find out about my asshole. It’s a funny feeling that Robin knows more about it than I do. He’s got a clipboard with every detail about me and my ass on it. I’m feeling talkative and all kinds of jokes about bum surgery occur to me. He says I’m so relaxed and funny because the anesthesia’s still affecting me. He parks my bed back in my room and says he could talk to me for ages but that he has other patients he needs to check on. Too bad.

“If you need pain medication, just press the call button.”

“Where’s the skirt and underwear I had on before the operation?”

He walks to the foot of my bed and lifts the sheet. The skirt is carefully folded there with my underpants on top of it.

This is the situation my mother always feared. The underwear is folded with the crotch facing up. Right side in, not inside out. But I can still see a shiny stain where pussy juice has soaked through and dried. My mom thinks the single most important thing for a woman going to the hospital to do is to wear clean underwear. Her primary justification for her ridiculously obsessive approach to clean undies: If you get run over and end up in the hospital, they take your clothes off. Including your underwear. Oh my God. And if they see any evidence of your pussy’s totally normal discharge — oh my, can you imagine?