The telephone was ringing when Peggy returned from shopping. She dropped her grocery bags on the kitchen counter and hurried to answer it before the voice mail picked up.
A woman's voice told her she was calling from Walter Reed Hospital and she asked to speak to Sgt. Walter R. Ridgeway, Jr. Peggy identified herself as his mother and took a message that Walt's prosthesis was ready and could he be there at 9 o'clock on Monday morning. Walt did not appear to be home so Peggy confirmed the appointment.
She found Martin asleep in his chair but when she woke him, he grumbled and told her he had no idea where Walt had gone. He never noticed her new haircut.
After carrying the groceries in and putting them away, she took the paper bag from the pharmacy into her bathroom, opened it and set a tube of spermicidal gel and a three months supply of birth control pills on the vanity top.
Rather than get an appointment with her gynecologist, she asked a high school friend who worked in his office to help her out and to renew her old prescription. The doctor's birth control prescriptions were pre-printed so the nurse put one in with a stack of others and had him sign it. He never questioned it. The pills couldn't be started until after her next cycle so she tucked them away in her cosmetic case.
The bathroom mirror reflected her nude body and her new hairstyle with bangs and the sides framing her face. The highlights glowed in the bright bathroom light and she shook her head and was pleased with the way her hair flowed around her head.
The bottom drawer of her vanity yielded her diaphragm kit and she placed it on the counter next to the gel. Although it looked fine to her, she filled it with water to check for leaks. She remembered someone telling her that the only real test would be to hold it tightly around her mouth and inflate it while holding her face in water. If bubbles appeared, it had a leak and was no good. She tried it and no bubbles appeared.
A quick feeling of relief passed through her because she had not used her diaphragm in well over a year and she was afraid that it would not be any good.
After hanging her skirt and blouse in her closet, she went back into the bathroom where she dropped her bra and panties into the hamper. Opening the tube of gel, she filled the diaphragm with it and spread it around the edge of the device before inserting it up into her vagina.
She was a little surprised at how easily the procedure came back to her. She had been afraid that she would need to practice, but it slipped into place. With her foot still up on the toilet seat, she checked it with her fingers and it seemed to still fit all right.
The act of inserting the device buoyed her spirits and she stood looking at herself in the mirror.
"I look and feel ten years younger," she said and stuck her tongue out at herself in the mirror. "I wonder what he will think?"
Standing sideways to the mirror, she grabbed her bottoms with both hands and shook them.
"Not bad for an old broad," she smiled at herself.
Cupping her breasts she held them up a little from their normal position and let them go. They drooped some but that was to be expected.
