Undergarments

He finally told her about the underwear. He had always called them the "ugly" underwear. She had never actually seen them. She had just been intrigued by them because he would never let her see him in them. Then he got underwear at Target, purple boxers, with black and grey stripes. After that he would let her see him in his underwear. But not the "ugly" underwear.

They were cleaning out his room, packing things up. He was moving into her apartment. She pulled them out of a drawer. They looked like normal while boxer/briefs, just longer.

"What are these?"

"Underwear."

"Are these the ugly underwear?"

He looked like he'd been caught, the cat was out of the bag, the beans spilled.

"Why wouldn't you show them to me. I mean, they are kind of ugly, but you didn't need to be ashamed."

"I wasn't ashamed. I just didn't want to explain."

"Well now you have to."

"I got them when I went into the temple."

"And you've been wearing the same pair ever since."

"No. I have more pairs. Once you go into the temple you are supposed to wear these underwear. Its an old ritual thing. Its one of those really old things."

"So, you have ritualistic underwear you are supposed to be wearing."

"No. But they have these symbols on them and they protect you, spiritually." He pointed to an embroidered spot on the shorts, just white thread in white boxers. "Its so you remember to kneel when the second coming happens."

"You won't remember in you new boxers."

He smiles at her.

"You're not supposed to let these touch the ground. They're sacred."

"Does your mom wear them?"

"Yes, but hers have ruffles."

"Everyday?"

He nodded and found a pair of scissors.

"You can't just throw them away. You have to cut out the symbol and cut it into small pieces and then you can throw it away."

"You're throwing them away?"

"I don't go to church anymore. I don't wear them anymore. I wouldn't even be allowed in the temple now."

He cut out the symbol, then cut it, with three cuts, into smaller piece then tossed them in the trash, the shorts followed.

"What did they do to you while you were in the temple?"

"They annoited me--"

"Do you know what the original meaning of messiah was?"

"No, what?"

"Annoited one."

"We also had to do a secret handshake that meant we weren't afraid of dying."

"What was it?"

"I don't remember."