Everything Lost Returns
By The Cincinnati Inquisitor
CI: What drew you to Earthshine Soap?
CI: Did you feel misled by those advertisements?
CI: Now you sound like an advertisement.
JANE DOE NO. 2: [Sings] The clean you need. [Laughs.] I miss it. I do.
CI: But then something changed for you, correct?
JANE DOE NO. 2: Yes. I started to notice things—abnormalities, you could say.
Pain. Mood swings. Increased appetite. My periods got longer and longer, but my cycle got shorter and shorter.
And when it was my time of the month, I just felt so …
pent-up. Frustrated. Like I might burst out of my skin.
Like I was angry about something but I didn’t know what.
But then all that stopped, just like that [snaps fingers].
I’m not a young woman anymore, but I’m not old.
I know the body changes. But I believe it was the soap.
I used it for years. I used it on everything.
CI: Why didn’t you come forward sooner?
JANE DOE NO. 2: [Pause.] Because for a long time, I didn’t realize anything was wrong.