This is for bridgetkeeney, whose “Itchy Nipples Challenge” thread in the Author’s Hangout Forum provided the inspiration. And a good thing, too, as Rhia and Dorothy had languished too long.
I
Dorothy Warner inscribed a large “C-” on the first page of the essay. She held her pen poised, ready to scribble a caustic comment about using a spell-check. Her hand stayed hovering five seconds, ten seconds. Then it came down and changed the minus to a plus. The essay wasn’t that bad, after all, she was just in a bad mood. She added a note about being careful with one’s spelling, much kinder than the one she’d originally thought of. She put the essay with the already graded others and took the next from the ungraded pile. She cursed Professor Sanderson again for making her grade these before leaving for winter break. The man was plain mean. He delighted in piling work on his teaching assistants, as if trying to see how much they could take before collapsing under the weight. Last year hadn’t been so bad when there were two of them to divide the chores, but Bert Fields had taken his degree in the spring and Sanderson hadn’t replaced him. He hadn’t reduced the work load, either.
Five minutes later another “C” joined the graded pile. Dorothy realized she’d just handed out three in a row and had no idea what the last essay had said. Her back ached from sitting at her desk for the last two hours, her eyes were hot and grainy. Worse, her nipples itched something fierce. Itchy palms meant money coming to you, itchy feet a journey or you needed to be wear flip-flops in the health club shower, itchy ears and someone was talking about you. Dorothy was sure there was something about an itchy nose, too. But itchy nipples?
Achy? Sure.
Tingly? Of course.
But itchy? And not just the “rub it once and it’s gone” sort of itch. This was a constant, low level itch that refused to be satisfied with a rub or a scratch. It didn’t have an erogenous component, either. Aches and tingles were usually taken care of with a little play, if you were alone. If you weren’t, you didn’t mind them at all, they were probably caused by someone else’s attentions, anyway.